number of people not just holding economic power but significant political power.
It is ironic that, right now, as a result of the disastrous Citizens United decision, what Roosevelt foretold, predicted, is exactly what is happening. You have a handful of billionaires now sitting around deciding how much of their fortune they are going to invest in political campaigns all over this country to defeat people like me who are opposed to their agenda and support other people who are in agreement with it. That is what Roosevelt talked about. That is exactly what is happening.
So what we are looking at in this proposal is a situation where the estate tax rate, which was 55 percent under President Clinton, will decline to 35 percent, with an exemption on the first $5 million of an individual's estate, $10 million per couple. Here is the important point that has to be made. I think a lot of people don't understand this. Certainly, our Republican friends have done a very good job in distorting reality on this one. There are millions of Americans who believe that when they die, their children will have to pay an estate tax. That is absolutely and categorically incorrect. As this chart shows, only a tiny fraction of estates from deaths in 2009 owed any estate tax. That number is about .24 percent. Less than three-tenths of 1 percent of American families paid any tax on the estates they were left. So 99.7 percent of American families did not pay one cent in estate taxes. That is the simple truth. The so-called death tax our Republican friends talk about a whole lot is the estate tax, and 99.7 percent of families don't pay a nickel on it. The people who do pay are not the rich; they are the very, very rich.
Let me give you one example of the absurdity of lowering the tax rate or, even worse, ending the estate tax, as some of our Republican colleagues would like to do. Here is this chart. One example of what—well, this agreement doesn't do that; it lowers the rates. If they were to wipe it out completely, as Republicans want to do, Walmart owners, Sam Walton's family, the heirs to the Walmart fortune, which is worth—well, it may be more or less now, but it is about $86 billion. One family is worth $86 billion. They are doing pretty good. If we abolish the estate tax, as our Republican friends would have us do, the Walton family alone would receive an estimated $32.7 billion tax break, if the estate tax was completely repealed—one family, $32.7 billion. This is patently insane. This is insane. Insane.
We have the highest rate of childhood poverty in the industrialized world. We have massive unemployment. I am trying to get seniors—50-plus million people—a $250 check, by the way, because we have not seen a COLA for the last 2 years for seniors and disabled vets. That would cost, in 1 year, about $14 billion. The Walton family itself would get more than double in a tax break what some of us are fighting for for over 50 million seniors and disabled vets. We can't afford to give $14 billion to help some of the people in this country who are struggling the hardest. We cannot do that, but somehow we can afford to give $32.7 billion in tax breaks to one of the richest families in this country. If that makes sense to anybody, please call my office. It doesn't make sense to me, and I don't think it makes sense to the vast majority of the American people.
Under this agreement, the estate tax rate, which was 55 percent under President Clinton, will decline to 35 percent, with an exemption on the first $5 million of an individual's estate, $10 million for couples. Let's remember again that this tax applies only to the top three-tenths of 1 percent of the families in this country. This is not just a tax break for the rich; it is a tax break for the very, very rich.
Again, this agreement says we are only going to extend this for 2 years. Well, frankly, I doubt that very much. I suspect that 2 years from now the same argument will be made. They will be extending it. Frankly, our Republican colleagues, representing the richest people in the world, are hell-bent on abolishing the estate tax completely.
Those are some of the reasons I think we should be voting against this agreement.
Third—and this is an issue I have been talking about, and I am happy to hear there is more discussion about this in the last few days—is the so-called payroll tax holiday. What that is about is that this would cut $120 billion in Social Security payroll tax for workers. On the surface, this sounds like a very good idea because the worker, instead of paying 6.2 percent into Social Security, pays 4.2 percent. If you think about it for 2 seconds, you really understand that it is not a good idea because this is money being diverted from the Social Security trust fund.
Social Security, in my view, has been the most successful Federal program in perhaps the history of our country. In the last 75 years, whether in good or bad times, Social Security has paid out every nickel owed to every eligible American. Today, Social Security has a $2.6 trillion surplus. Today, Social Security can pay out benefits for the next 29 years. Our goal, and what we must do, is make sure we extend it beyond 29 years, for the next 75 years. Well, if we divert $120 billion from the Social Security trust fund and give it to workers today, what you are doing is cutting back the viability—the long-term viability—of Social Security.
That is not just Bernie Sanders raising this issue. There are many people representing millions of senior citizens who are deeply concerned about this proposal—this provision in the agreement between the President and the Republican leadership.
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare is one of the very largest senior groups in America. They do a very good job. We have many seniors in Vermont who are members of this organization. Their job is to do what the title of the organization suggests, which is to preserve Social Security and Medicare. Just the other day, they sent out a news release, and the title of the news release was "Cutting Contributions to Social Security Signals the Beginning of the End; Payroll Tax Holiday is Anything But."
Let me quote from Barbara Kennelly, a former member of Congress, who is the president and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
Even though Social Security contributed nothing to the current economic crisis, it has been bartered in a deal that provides deficit-busting tax cuts for the wealthy. Diverting $120 billion in Social Security contributions for a so-called tax holiday may sound like a good deal for workers now, but it is bad business for the program that a majority of middle-class seniors will rely upon in the future.
That, again, is a quote from Barbara Kennelly, President and CEO of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.
Mr. President, I think many of us should understand where this concept originated. This is not a progressive idea. This is an idea that came from Republicans and conservatives who want to end Social Security. I want to read an interesting quote from a gentleman named Bruce Bartlett. Mr. Bartlett was a former top adviser to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. This is what he wrote in opposition to this payroll tax cut.
What are the odds that Republicans will ever allow this 1-year tax holiday to expire? They wrote the Bush tax cuts with explicit expiration dates. Then, when it came time for the law they wrote to take effect, exactly as they wrote it, they said any failure to extend them permanently would constitute the biggest tax increase in history.
So what Mr. Bartlett is saying—and I will go back to his quote in a second— is what we all know to be true; that around here, in Congress, if you provide a tax break for 1 year—in this case a payroll tax holiday—a year from now, if you restore the old rates— which are 6.2 percent—our Republican friends are going to say Democrats are raising your taxes. It "ain't" gonna happen.
This 1-year extension could well become a permanent extension, and if it becomes a permanent extension, you are diverting a huge amount of money from Social Security and you are weakening the entire financial structure of Social Security in this country, which I expect is exactly what some would like to do.
President Obama says: Well, not to worry. It is only 1 year. Don't worry, that 1 year is going to be covered by the Federal Government.
So for the very first time, out of the Treasury Department, money is going
