mr. speaker , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
let me just make a couple of points here . 
this is not about protecting small businesses or family farms . 
i mean , i think that is clear to everybody here . 
this is about protecting the three-tenths of the 1 percent wealthiest people in this country . 
i enter into the record an article that appeared in today 's washington post that really kind of explains what this debate is all about , about how mars candy , gallo wine , and campbell soup fortunes have been lobbying for the complete repeal of the estate tax for some time so they can end all taxation on their inheritance . 
that is what this is about . 
this is not about working families . 
this is not small family farms or small businesses . 
this is about protecting the richest of the rich . 
erosion of estate tax is a session in politics in 1992 , when heirs to the mars inc . 
fortune joined a few other wealthy families to hire the law firm patton boggs llp to lobby for estate tax repeal , the joke on k street was that few washington sightseers had paid so much for a fruitless tour of the capitol . 
today , the house is expected to vote to permanently repeal the estate tax , moving the mars candy , gallo wine and campbell soup fortunes one step closer to a goal that once seemed quixotic at best : ending all taxation on inheritances . 
`` i think this train has an awful lot of momentum , '' said yale university law professor michael j. graetz , a former senior official in the treasury department of president george h.w . 
bush . 
last month , graetz and yale political scientist ian shapiro published `` death by a thousand cuts , '' chronicling the estate tax repeal movement as `` a mystery about politics and persuasion. '' `` for almost a century , the estate tax affected only the richest 1 or 2 percent of citizens , encouraged charity , and placed no burden on the vast majority of americans , '' they wrote . 
`` a law that constituted the blandest kind of common sense for most of the twentieth century was transformed , in the space of little more than a decade , into the supposed enemy of hardworking citizens all over this country. '' the secret of the repeal movement 's success has been its appeal to principle over economics . 
while repeal opponents bellowed that only the richest of the rich would ever pay the estate tax , proponents appealed to americans ' sense of fairness , that individuals have the natural right to pass on their wealth to their children . 
the most recent internal revenue service data back opponents ' claims . 
in 2001 , out of 2 , 363 , 100 total adult deaths , only 49 , 911 -- 2.1 percent -- had estates large enough to be hit by the estate tax . 
that was down from 2.3 percent in 1999 . 
the value of the taxed estates in 2001 averaged nearly $ 2.7 million . 
congressional action since 2001 will likely bring down the number of taxable estates still further . 
president bush 's 10-year , $ 1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001 began a decade-long phase-out of the estate tax . 
the portion of an estate exempted from taxation was raised from $ 675 , 000 in 2001 to $ 1.5 million in 2004 . 
next year , the exemption will rise to $ 2 million for individuals and $ 4 million for couples . 
the impact has been clear , tax policy analysts say . 
the number of estates filing tax return is falling sharply , from 123 , 600 in 2000 to an expected 63 , 800 this year . 
and only a small fraction of those will actually be taxed . 
under the 2001 legislation , however , all of the tax cuts , including the estate tax 's repeal , would be rescinded in 2011 . 
the vote today is the first to address the sunset provisions . 
house democrats , led by rep . 
earl pomeroy ( d-n.d. ) , today will propose permanently raising the exclusion to $ 3.5 million -- $ 7 million for couples . 
that would be enough to exempt 99.7 percent of all estates . 
the pomeroy bill would cost the treasury $ 72 billion over 10 years , compared with the $ 290 billion price tag of a full repeal through 2015 , according to the joint committee on taxation . 
`` the ideological fervor that is admittedly still pretty strong in some quarters is now being tempered by the runaway debt that is weighing down this country , '' said pomeroy , who thinks voters are ready for a compromise . 
indeed , senate majority leader bill frist ( r-tenn. ) has asked sen . 
jon kyl ( r-ariz. ) , a repeal proponent , to find a compromise that could win a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the senate this year , even if it falls short of full repeal . 
a compromise that includes any estate tax , no matter how small , may fail if the fervent repeal coalition holds firm , graetz said . 
repeal opponents have been unable to whip up big support , he said , because they never made the emotional case that the american belief in equal opportunity runs counter to the existence of an aristocracy born to inherited riches . 
paris hilton , who inherited her wealth . 
and now famously enjoys spending it , could have been their counter to the small-business owners and family farmers whom repeal proponents held up as the victims of the tax . 
`` the public does n't believe people should be taxed at the time of death , whether they are paupers or billionaires , '' said frank luntz , a republican pollster who has been working on estate tax repeal for a decade . 
`` compromise is very difficult because the public does n't want it to exist. '' it is that sentiment that the fledgling repeal forces tapped into when they mobilized more than a decade ago . 
a little-known southern california estate planner named patricia soldano launched her repeal effort with the backing of about 50 wealthy clients , with the gallo and mars families leading the way . 
other contributors included the heirs of the campbell soup and krystal hamburger fortunes . 
frank blethen , whose family controls the seattle times co. , was also pivotal . 
the effort caught fire when small-business groups such as the national federation of independent business and agriculture groups led by the national cattlemen 's beef association joined in . 
by 1994 , newt gingrich 's republican insurgents had latched onto the estate tax issue , but the contract with america called for an estate tax reduction , not repeal . 
in 1995 , luntz poll-tested the term `` death tax '' and advised the new gop majority to never use the terms `` inheritance '' or `` estate tax '' again . 
by then , soldano 's policy and taxation group was spending more than $ 250 , 000 a year on lobbying . 
a parade of small-business owners and family farmers appealed to their congressmen , worried that they could not pass on their enterprises to their children , even though most of them would not be affected by the tax . 
`` there 's been a sustained , determined campaign of misinformation that in the end has left the american people with a very different notion of what the estate tax is and does than actually exists , '' pomeroy said . 
but ultimately , whether people believe the estate tax will affect them has little bearing on support for repeal . 
early this year , with soldano 's money , luntz again began polling , this time in the face of record budget deficits and lingering economic unease . 
more than 80 percent called the taxation of inheritances `` extreme. '' about 64 percent said they favored `` death tax '' repeal . 
support fell to a still-strong 56 percent when asked whether they favored repeal , even if it temporarily boosted the budget deficit . 
democrats `` still do n't get it , '' graetz said . 
`` the politics are still very powerful. '' mr. speaker , i reserve the balance of my time . 
