U.S. Senator Mark Dayton today delivered the following remarks regarding the Estate Tax Bill, which is currently being considered by the Senate.

“Today, we are witnessing another display of Republican anguish for America’s oppressed minority: the rich and the super-rich.

“They suffer a terrible injustice: They have to pay taxes on their millions and multimillions and even billions of dollars of accumulated wealth.

“Thanks to my Republican colleagues, the rich and the super-rich pay far less taxes than they did five years ago.

“But their sympathy knows no bounds. So, today, we are debating eliminating taxes – not just lowering them, but eliminating them – on only the wealthiest one half of one percent of all Americans.

“Taxes they don’t even pay themselves, but their estates pay after they die.

“This debate is not about saving family farms or small businesses, although I, personally, favor exempting them from all estate taxes. This proposal is about eliminating a tax that falls only on the rich and the super-rich.

“And when it comes to tax cuts for them, the Republicans just can’t do enough. And they have done so much already. They lowered the top personal income tax rates by more than any other categories. They reduced the tax rate for capital gains to 15 percent. President Bush wanted to eliminate taxes on dividends, but Congress settled on a 15 percent rate for their income, as well.

“Republicans – and a few Democrats – but mainly Republicans – have created a federal Tax Code where a working person with taxable income above $28,400; or a head of household with taxable income above $38,400 – pays much higher tax rates than rich people pay on millions of dollars of income from dividends and capital gains. Let me say that again: A working American pays a tax rate of 25 percent or higher on every dollar of earned taxable income above $28,400, or $38,400 for a head of household.

“A multimillionaire or a billionaire pays a tax rate of only 15 percent on any amount of unearned taxable income.

“Now there is a tax injustice – for middle-class, working Americans – that we should be doing something about. But no – What are my Republican colleagues proposing today? “More tax cuts for only the wealthiest people in America. And they don’t seem to care that they are sacrificing the financial strength and stability of our federal government to continue these tax giveaways.

“They are addicted to what the nonpartisan Concord Coalition has called "The most reckless fiscal policy" in our nation’s history.

“When George Bush became President, the federal government’s operating budget had just been balanced for the first time in nearly 40 years. Now, it’s running deficits of $500 billion per year. And the entire Social Security Trust Fund surpluses are being spent to cover part of those deficits. The rest is being borrowed.

“President Bush’s own budget projects that in fiscal year 2011, the year this proposed estate tax repeal would become permanent, the "on-budget" deficit will be $415 billion, and total federal debt will have grown to $11.5 trillion. Over $3 trillion of that debt will be owed to the Social Security Trust Fund. That is the amount of Trust Fund surpluses the Republican tax giveaways will have squandered to pay for them.

“And the federal financial situation only gets worse during the following years.

“According to the Social Security Trust Fund’s Trustees, that Fund will stand to run annual deficits in 2016, as more and more baby boomers retire. Those $180 billion to $190 billion annual surpluses – gone. Those previous surpluses – that President Bush and most Members of Congress once promised would be saved in a lock box for when they were needed to pay Social Security benefits – they’re gone, too. Gone to pay for part of the tax cuts for the rich and the super-rich.

“So, then, the federal government’s operating budget will be running huge deficits. The Social Security Trust Fund will start running big deficits. The operating fund will owe the Trust Fund over $3 trillion – and this Senate is talking about eliminating a tax on the richest one half of one percent of Americans. This is beyond fiscal irresponsibility. This is fiscal insanity.

“These projections are right from the President’s own Budget Office and the Social Security Trust Fund Trustees. The revenue shortfalls are catastrophic. Catastrophic!

“We’re standing on the lookout tower of the Titanic, and all we have to do is open our eyes and look at the financial iceberg, dead ahead.

“But my Republican colleagues not only want to keep going full speed ahead, they also want to pour more coal on the fire. And the people in the first-class cabins get to enjoy their extra Champagne and caviar a short while longer.

“No one likes to pay taxes. This country was founded by anti-tax rebels. But once it became our country and our government of "We the People" – most Americans willingly paid our fair share of the taxes necessary for the public services we collectively want. National defense, education, highways, and all the rest.

“There used to be an ethic in this country that, if you made more money – as an individual or as a corporation – you paid more taxes. That was your fair share. That was a reasonable price to pay for living in the greatest country in the world and for being successful in it.

“Now, that ethic has been lost. Now, too many people and companies want to make more money but pay less taxes, or pay no taxes, or get rebates.

“And politicians pander to those desires by offering more and more tax cuts – because they are popular and help them get re-elected. While still increasing government spending – because that’s popular, too.

“But the result of that lost ethic and the insatiable desire for more and more tax cuts is that last year – setting aside Social Security – total federal tax revenues amounted to only three-fourths of expenditures. And under existing tax policies, it won’t get much better.

“Under this estate tax proposal – it would get worse. So, the question before us is: Who cares about the future of this country? Who will say no to the demands for more money by the most privileged people in this country, who apparently don’t understand or don’t care what they are doing to the financial future of this country?

“But we do know. We, the 100 elected representatives of all the people of this great and still-strong nation – we, the stewards of its financial treasures and the trustees of the public trust. We do know – it is our job to know – it is our responsibility to know – what eliminating the estate tax would do to our nation’s financial solvency.

“There is no possible way to responsibly adopt this proposal. There is no way to justify placing the financial interests of a few Americans ahead of the financial interests of all the rest of America.

“If you eliminate this tax – you might as well eliminate all federal taxes starting in 2011 and just start over again, because the federal tax system will have been irretrievably broken. And it will be just a matter of time before everyone finds out and discovers that this country’s financial future has been squandered by a few in here to benefit a few out there. And then, there will be hell to pay.”

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