mr. speaker , i rise to register my opposition to the total repeal of the estate tax . 
if we want to talk about values , as so many people did in the last couple of months leading up to this , let us talk about the value of supporting one 's family and supporting one 's community . 
let us talk about the values of responsibility and fairness . 
they dictate that everybody pay his or her or its corporate fair share . 
millionaires and multinational corporations benefit the most from our taxes . 
we talk about what our taxes go for . 
there are dues that belong to society . 
eighty percent of court cases are commercial in nature . 
businesses , mostly large ones . 
air traffic controllers , paid for by our taxes , they mostly support business travel back and forth . 
our coast guard , our navy protecting our shipping lanes , bridges and highways , making products safe to go back and forth as well as people . 
the securities and exchange commission is our tax money trying to make large corporations behave and treat each other well instead of cheating each other . 
sometimes it actually works . 
the fact of the matter is that this bill absolves the top three-tenths of 1 percent from their responsibility to pay their fair share . 
and i say the top three-tenths of 1 percent because the democratic alternative would exclude the first $ 3.5 million , or $ 7 million for a couple . 
so much for the argument of small farms and small businesses . 
they would not pay a dime on the first $ 7 million and only pay a portion of anything above that . 
the fact of the matter is that most of the money that is going to be taxed on that top three-tenths of 1 percent was not earned money . 
that is money they got from tax-free investments . 
it is money they got by appreciation , just the value of that property increasing over time . 
they did not earn it . 
to compensate for what these members of our society will not be paying as their fair share , small businesses , the people that go out and create payrolls , will have to pay more . 
the families that go out and work every day for a living , they will have to pay more than their fair share . 
and all the while this is going on , we are not even paying america 's bills . 
this tax is going to be $ 290 billion off the top at a time when our debt is larger than it has ever been . 
we are running annual deficits that are at historic proportions . 
no family and no small business would ever operate this way . 
mr. speaker , let me just close by saying they are robbing us of opportunity and prosperity and community by attacking our education and our health , our clean water , and our clean air . 
all of this because they want to give america 's princes and princesses a little break at the top three-tenths of 1 percent . 
let us let everybody pay their fair share . 
