mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman from north dakota for yielding me this time and perhaps for mentioning what i see as the only good part of this bill . 
you see , i am a cpa and tax lawyer by training , and this bill is the full employment act for both my cpa friends and my tax lawyer friends . 
republican after republican has come to that microphone and talked about the electrical tax , the sales tax , the telephone tax , the payroll tax , the income tax , the marriage tax , the cable tax and the fuel tax . 
and what is their solution ? 
to eliminate a tax that applies to only 1/4 of 1 percent of america 's families . 
yes , that is right . 
they want to keep the electrical tax , the sales tax , telephone tax , payroll tax , the income tax , marriage tax , cable tax and the fuel tax . 
they want to vote for a bill that takes $ 290 billion out of the treasury in its first 4 plus years and about $ 70 billion a year thereafter and make it impossible for the federal government to ever give any relief for those other taxes . 
it is a bill to shaft 99 and 3/4 percent of all american families . 
but that does not stop there . 
republican after republican has come up here and boasted how the passage of this bill will slash charitable giving . 
so it is not just a loss to the federal treasury , it is a loss to our hospitals and a loss to our universities , who are strangely silent on this bill because they are afraid of angering 1/4 of 1 percent of the families in the united states who happen to be a huge chunk of their donors . 
let us look at the substitute . 
it is more fiscally responsible , costs about 1/4 as much , but it provides more tax relief for middle-class families . 
let us look at this from the standpoint of a widow , a surviving spouse . 
under current law and under the pomeroy substitute , no estate tax , no capital gains tax and little or no compliance work . 
under their bill , more compliance work and sharp restrictions on the step up in basis . 
so this bill is an attack on working families , an attack on the middle class , and an attack on widows . 
they have lost their spouse , and now you want them to lose their step up in basis as well . 
these are people who pay zero estate tax and get zero benefit from this bill . 
they have lost a spouse , and that is the folks you go after . 
$ 290 billion in the first 4 plus years . 
it is part of an overall republican tax package . 
i am on the international relations committee . 
we are waging a war on terrorism . 
we turn to our men and women in uniform and say , stand ready to make the ultimate sacrifice ; and we turn to the richest families in america and say , you should make a zero sacrifice . 
now these republican tax policies have caused the president of the united states to call into question our intent and ability to pay u.s. government bonds . 
it calls into question our ability to pay our bonds . 
now , the president will not warn the chinese investors . 
he wants them to buy the bonds , but he has warned every social security recipient that we may dishonor the u.s. government bonds held by the social security trustees . 
this bill is part of an overall plan that keeps in effect the electrical tax , the sales tax , the telephone tax , the income tax , the payroll tax , the marriage tax , the cable tax , and the fuel tax . 
and it is part of an overall plan that , well , i ought to write a commercial because there is a lot of public policy commercials out there , and i ought to write them for them . 
allowing corporations to avoid american taxes just by renting a hotel room in the bahamas , $ 8 billion . 
allowing millionaires to pay virtually nothing on dividend income , $ 80 billion . 
eliminating the estate tax even on the richest estates , $ 290 billion . 
telling our soldiers in the field that it is the billionaire families who are the ones who have sacrificed too much for america , priceless . 
and the republi-card , accepted everywhere . 
the very wealthy want their taxes released . 
and do not forget the deficit express card , now with a new $ 12 trillion credit limit . 
