mr. speaker , i favor cutting unnecessary , ineffective or unfair taxes , but in balanced and fiscally responsible ways .  i have been one of the few democrats in congress who has been willing to cross party lines to vote for tax cuts .  i have voted to eliminate the estate tax in the past .  i have been willing to vote for eliminating the marriage penalty , to vote for cutting taxes for small businesses , to vote for cutting taxes to help people pay for education and retirement , and to vote for cutting taxes for senior citizens and to give business tax credit for research work .  with a war in iraq and looming postwar costs , increased expenses for domestic security and a ballooning budget deficit , congress must exercise restraint on both revenues and spending to prevent fiscal policy from spiraling out of control .  the consensus in favor of balancing the budget over the long term must be re-established .  there are a wide range of pressing national challenges that need action , from rapidly increasing health care costs , to our increasing dependence on ever-more-expensive foreign oil , to a broken and increasingly corrupt political system , and yet today we are passing a bill that will only help a few of the already wealthy .  today we are debating total elimination of the federal inheritance tax .  permanently repealing the estate tax would further balloon the federal budget deficit by an estimated $ 290 billion through 2015 ; and by $ 745 billion through 2021 .  add in the interest costs of borrowing the funds to pay for this measure , and the true 10-year cost is nearly $ 1.3 trillion .  i support the substitute offered by representative earl pomeroy which will protect families and small business from the estate tax .  the substitute increases the estate tax credit to $ 3 million , $ 6 million for married couples , beginning in 2006 .  under the substitute , the credit would be increased to $ 3.5 million , $ 7 million for couples , in 2009 .  the pomeroy substitute would eliminate tax reporting compliance burdens and carryover taxes for over 71 , 000 estates each year which effects small business and families .  according to representative pomeroy 's calculation , his package would exempt 99.68 percent of all estates from the estate tax , yet it would save the treasury $ 217 billion compared to total repeal .  it is worth noting that the saving of $ 217 billion is equal to 40 percent of the shortfall of social security of the next 75 years .  mr. speaker , today the national debt is the largest in history .  americans now collectively owe about $ 7.8 trillion .  here we have another tax cut that is not being paid for , even as the bush administration and the leadership of this congress spend more than the american government has ever spent on homeland security and on all the other expenses of running the government -- especially the huge costs of the war in , and occupation of , iraq .  government borrowing of this scale places the burden of repaying our debts on our children .  governing is about making choices .  our constituents all across america sent us to congress to make the tough decisions .  they did not send us here so we can pass those decisions on to our children , and they certainly did not send us here to pass the cost of our decisions on to our children .  i want the people of this country to realize that , right now , we owe collectively , about $ 4.5 trillion to foreign countries .  japan holds $ 702 billion of our debt ; china , including hong kong , $ 246 billion ; the u.k .  $ 163 billion ; taiwan , $ 59 billion ; germany , $ 57 billion ; opec countries , $ 65 billion ; switzerland , $ 50 billion ; korea , $ 68 billion ; mexico , $ 41 billion ; luxembourg , $ 29 billion ; canada , $ 43 billion -- the list goes on and on .  more tax cuts of this size will not only jeopardize critical public services now , but they will also hurt americans well into the future .  massive deficits now create large debt and will create high interest payments that will crowd out spending on public investments for future generations .  moreover , these deep deficits threaten to increase interest rates in the future -- making it harder for americans to buy homes and afford higher education and making it harder for businesses to raise capital .  i urge my colleagues to join me in supporting permanent reform of the estate tax , but not irresponsibly repealing it .  government should follow the principle of helping the present generation and helping future generation as well -- not leaving future generations to pay our bill .  