mr. speaker , i appreciate my namesake 's courtesy in permitting me to speak on his substitute . 
i appreciate his hard work and clarity in dealing with this issue and a step forward to stop a cynical game that i have watched be played here in this congress since i was first elected 9 years ago . 
there is today , and there has been throughout these 9 years , a consensus to make adjustments to the inheritance tax , to make it less steeply graduated , to raise the exemptions , to be able to do fine-tuning , to deal with the legitimate problems of small , closely held businesses and farms . 
and if the republican majority would have permitted a fair and honest debate on this floor of the inheritance tax , we would have enacted significant permanent adjustments that would have solved the vast majority of the problems for 99.9 percent , i dare say . 
but that is not to be . 
instead , we have been involved with a cynical process that we are seeing played out here today . 
nobody expects over the long haul that we are , in fact , going to eliminate in its entirety the inheritance tax . 
our republican friends have been involved with a roller coaster of a 10-year phase-out , and then insanely reinstating it in its entirety . 
as a result nobody has been able to plan thoughtfully for the last 5 years . 
my friend from missouri says , well , on the one hand , it is only 1.5 percent of federal revenues ; but that is half of the problem of social security that has driven some people into a frenzy . 
it is not an insignificant number , in the neighborhood of $ 1.5 to $ 2 trillion over the period of time we are talking about . 
but my republican friends do not want to allow the legislative process to work , and have a permanent solution that will stop the ambiguity and that will solve the problem for closely held businesses and yet , not allow vast amounts of wealth , wealth that is so significant that bill gates 's own father does not think that it should eliminate the inheritance tax and has even written a book about it . 
the gentleman from north dakota has proposed not that we game the system . 
the gentleman from missouri ( mr. hulshof ) xz4001900 found out that his parents , like 99 percent of the people , are not subjected to the inheritance tax . 
the pomeroy amendment would immediately raise that threshold to $ 6 million , with further adjustments to $ 7 million in 4 or 5 years from now , i forget the exact period of time ; he will correct me , i am sure . 
this brings it up so that 99.7 percent of the american public are exempt , and it does it today . 
not with games , not with promises but by solving the problem . 
i think this is so important as i think of the millions of americans today that are struggling with the 1040 form , the 2.9 million americans subjected to the alternative minimum tax , soon to be 16 million families next year . 
not enough money , not enough time to solve that yet we are going to be involved with this cynical game of the inheritance tax . 
i strongly urge the adoption of the pomeroy substitute , which will solve the problem once and for all for the vast majority of the family farms , the small businesses , and , in fact , a number of people of significant wealth ; and it will provide resources so that we can solve problems like social security and the alternative minimum tax and be about our business . 
