mr. speaker , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
i have all the respect for the majority leader , and it is true that he knows some of these people that have gone from upper middle income to become higher-income people , and there are other people in this country that have seen middle-income people slip into the rolls of poverty . 
so in order to have a more well-balanced bill , we concentrated on the middle class by putting the alternative minimum tax into this bill to make certain that when it gets to the body , it is protected and we do not have to depend on just one of those people over there rejecting it for this higher tax cut , which , of course , does not adversely affect anybody , as the majority leader said , until 2009 . 
mr. speaker , i yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from california ( mr. becerra ) xz4000210 , a hardworking member of the ways and means committee . 
