[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17164]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                               ESTATE TAX

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from San Diego, 
California (Mr. Filner).
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.
  Mr. Speaker, I just briefly want to respond to the gentleman from 
Orange County, California (Mr. Rohrabacher). I invite him to visit San 
Diego.
  It is misplaced to blame the San Diego crisis on environmental 
regulations. Yes, we need more capacity as the environment grows. Yes, 
we need environmentally sensitive generating capacity. And, yes, we 
need alternative sources of energy. There is plenty of sun in San 
Diego. But this crisis is not one of supply and demand.
  This crisis had to do with monopoly pricing and manipulation of the 
market. The price had nothing to do with when the load was at peak or 
when supply was needed. It had to do with the people who controlled it 
and what price they could get.
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I want to add my voice 
to that of the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher) in calling 
for human rights in Myanma, also known as Burma.
  Mr. Speaker, with Senator Lieberman's recent notoriety, the country 
has learned a few words of Yiddish. And one of the more interesting 
words is the world chutzpah, best defined as the kind of extreme 
galling nerve as when someone who has killed their parents asks for 
mercy because, after all, they are an orphan.
  Mr. Speaker, there is something that calls for even more chutzpah 
than the Menendez brothers asking for a commutation of their sentence 
because of their status as orphans, and that is when our Republican 
colleagues come to this floor and accuse the Democrats of waging class 
warfare when they will bring before this House tomorrow an override of 
the President's wise veto of the estate tax repeal.
  They will try to ram through this House a bill that provides $50 
billion in tax cuts once it is fully effective. Not one penny, not one 
penny, for the home health care worker. Not one penny for the fast-food 
employee. Not one penny for the janitor. Fifty billion dollars and not 
one penny for those struggling to get by. All of it for the richest 
1\1/2\ percent of Americans, most of it for the 3,000 richest families 
in America.
  And they will have the chutzpah to come here and say that they want 
to imperil this economic expansion for the benefits of those lucky few 
and accuse us of waging class warfare.
  Mr. Speaker, I represent a district that is not envious. I do not 
represent class envy. Malibu is the second richest city in my district. 
My constituents, more than most others, do pay the estate tax. But they 
have sent me here to Washington to fight for fiscal responsibility, for 
Social Security, for Medicare with prescription drug coverage, and for 
Federal aid to education and to the environment.
  They did not send me here to ask for $50 billion, all of it, all of 
it for the wealthiest 1\1/2\ percent of Americans.

                              {time}  1945

  This estate tax does not affect any family or will not affect any 
family with $2 million or less to leave to their children. But it will 
affect the as of yet unborn Bill Gates, Jr.
  Mr. Speaker, I think that it is important that our children and 
grandchildren inherit a government that is debt free rather than a few 
families are able to inherit millions or even billions of dollars that 
are tax free.
  Mr. Speaker, this $50 billion of tax relief aimed at those with the 
most will imperil Social Security, Medicare, and prescription drug 
coverage; imperil our ability to pay off the national debt, maintain 
fiscal responsibility and continue our unprecedented economic growth.
  There are two other bad aspects of this bill that have not been 
discussed on this floor. First, in order to keep the cost down to only 
$50 billion, the authors of this bill, which should have been vetoed, 
actually increase the tax of many widows, increase the income tax of 
widows by denying them a step up in basis for their income tax returns. 
And, second, this estate tax repeal will cost America's hospitals, 
universities, and charities billions of dollars. They will come here 
asking for our help, but with $50 billion a year less in Federal 
revenue, we will not be able to help them. This is the unspoken secret. 
The universities and their development officers will not tell us about 
it because they do not want to bite the hand that feeds them. But


major charitable gifts to universities will bite the dust if we uphold 
this veto.
  Do not vote to override the veto.

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