mr. speaker , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
again , i am having trouble following this debate here . 
the gentlewoman from tennessee talked about the thousands of people in her district that had to pay the estate tax last year . 
i am reading from a report here that said there were roughly 440 taxable estates , or about 2 percent of all taxable estates were made up of farm and business assets in the year 2004 . 
what we are talking about here , and again , if we agree to the pomeroy substitute , is three-tenths of 1 percent of the wealthiest people in this country . 
that is what we are talking about . 
we are not talking about family farms . 
i mean , that is a red herring . 
we are not talking about small businesses . 
we are talking about the campbell soup fortunes , the mars candy fortunes . 
we are talking about the richest of the rich . 
that is what this is about . 
what is unconscionable is that we are moving forward on this at a time when the majority of this house is proposing budgets that slash medicaid , that cut community development block grants , that cut veterans health benefits , that cut education , that cut things that people rely on every single day . 
this is absurd that we are having this debate here today . 
again , i would urge my colleagues to look at the facts . 
please do not exaggerate the impact of the difference between what the gentleman from north dakota ( mr. pomeroy ) xz4003230 has suggested and what you are proposing here . 
what you are doing here is trying to extend this to protect the richest of the rich , and that is just wrong . 
mr. speaker , i reserve the balance of my time . 
