[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12805-12806]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            INHERITANCE TAX

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, let me begin by making a few points about 
which there is not a whole lot of disagreement.
  First, the United States today is in the midst of the worst economic 
downturn since the 1930s. Over 16 percent of working age Americans are 
unemployed or underemployed, working 20 hours a week when they want to 
be working 40 hours. Long-term unemployment is the highest on record. 
In other words, when people are losing their jobs now, it is not a 
question of weeks to gain a new job but, in some cases, 6 or 8 months 
or perhaps not at all. In the midst of this economic crisis, millions 
of Americans have lost their homes, savings, and pensions.
  Second point: The United States today has a $13 trillion national 
debt

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and a record-breaking $1.6 trillion deficit. Last year alone, the 
Federal Government spent over $186 billion paying interest on that 
debt. We are leaving our children and grandchildren a huge financial 
obligation which not only will impact them personally but will affect 
the well-being of the entire country in the midst of a strong and 
competitive global economy.
  Third point: The United States today has the most unequal 
distribution of wealth and income of any major country. Today, as this 
chart indicates, the top 1 percent earns more income than the bottom 50 
percent. Let me repeat that. The top 1 percent earns more income than 
the bottom 50 percent. And the top 1 percent owns more wealth than the 
bottom 90 percent. The top, 1 percent; bottom, 90 percent. What we have 
is a nation in which in many ways we are moving toward an oligarchic 
form of society, with a small number of people on the top seeing a huge 
increase in their wealth and income while the middle class lapses and 
poverty increases.
  During the Bush years, when the middle class saw a $2,200 decline in 
median family income, the 400 wealthiest families saw their income more 
than double. Meanwhile, while the very rich became much richer, their 
effective income tax rates were slashed almost in half over the past 15 
years. The rich get richer. Their effective income tax rate goes down. 
The wealthiest 400 Americans have now accumulated $1.27 trillion in 
wealth, while the highest paid 400 Americans had an average income of 
$345 million in 2007 alone. As a result of Bush's tax policy, these 
very high-income people pay an effective tax rate of 16.6 percent, the 
lowest on record. The rich get richer. Their effective tax rates go 
down--lowest on record.
  Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest people on the planet, has often 
made the point that he, a multibillionaire, pays a lower effective tax 
rate than his secretary.
  Last point I wish to make: Last month a gentleman named Dan Duncan, 
who happened to be the wealthiest person in Houston, TX, passed away. 
He left his family some $9 billion. For the first time since 1916, 
almost 100 years, somebody in the top echelon bracket like a Mr. Duncan 
will have a situation where his heirs will pay zero inheritance tax, 
not a nickel. That is the first time that a multimillionaire or 
billionaire has died in 100 years and their family has not paid one 
penny in inheritance taxes. This occurred as a result of President 
Bush's $1.35 trillion tax break enacted into law in 2001. In other 
words, at a time when this country has a devastatingly high rate of 
unemployment, at a time when the Senate refused to extend unemployment 
benefits to desperate people who, through no fault of their own, have 
lost their jobs and have no income, at a time when we have a huge 
national debt, at a time when we have massive unmet needs, including a 
crumbling infrastructure and the need to transform our energy system, 
at a time when we have a growing gap between the very rich and everyone 
else, we have a situation now where the very wealthiest people are 
seeing, when one in their family dies, their estate tax is zero.
  A century ago, President Teddy Roosevelt, a good Republican, called 
for a graduated inheritance tax on wealthy estates. In 1916, Congress 
passed that law. Interestingly enough, here is what Republican Teddy 
Roosevelt said in 1910:

       The absence of effective state, and, especially, national, 
     restraint upon unfair money-getting has tended to create a 
     small class of enormously wealthy and economically powerful 
     men, whose chief object is to hold and increase their power. 
     The prime need is to change the conditions which enable these 
     men to accumulate power which is not for the general welfare 
     that they should hold or exercise . . . No man should receive 
     a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned.

  Let me repeat: No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has 
been fairly earned.

       Every dollar received should represent a dollar's worth of 
     service rendered, not gambling in stocks but service 
     rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the 
     mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate 
     it in kind as well as in degree from what is passed by men of 
     relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated 
     income tax on big fortunes and in another tax which is far 
     more easily collected and far more effective--a graduated 
     inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against 
     evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the 
     estate.

  Teddy Roosevelt, 1910.
  There are not many Republicans I agree with today, but I do agree 
with what Teddy Roosevelt said 100 years ago. That is exactly what the 
responsible estate tax act I have introduced, along with Senators 
Harkin, Whitehouse, Franken, and Sherrod Brown, will do. Specifically, 
this legislation exempts the first $3.5 million of an inheritance from 
paying any Federal estate tax whatsoever. Doing this means that 99.7 
percent of Americans who receive an inheritance will not pay one penny 
in Federal estate taxes. This legislation would impact only the very 
wealthy, the top three-tenths of 1 percent.
  Under my legislation, the value of estates above $3.5 million and 
below $10 million would be taxed at 45 percent; the value of estates 
above $10 million and below $50 million would be taxed at 50 percent; 
and the value of estates above $50 million would be taxed at 55 
percent, the same as the 2001 level before the Bush tax cuts. Further, 
this legislation includes a 10-percent surtax on the value of estates 
above $500 million or $1 billion for couples.
  According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, this legislation, over 
a 10-year period, would bring in $315 billion--a significant step 
forward in addressing our national debt. But this legislation would do 
something even more important. In the midst of these enormously 
difficult times, this legislation makes clear we are one country and 
all Americans must accept shared responsibility. In my view, it is 
immoral, it is unfair that while the middle class struggles to survive, 
millionaires and billionaires get tax breaks.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. HUTCHISON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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