mr. speaker , my colleague from florida , i wish he would stay , because we are here today because the republican majority would like to repeal the estate tax , but they have forgotten history .  i am sure my colleague was not here , but i would like to remind him that it was a republican , president roosevelt , teddy roosevelt , who strongly supported an estate tax in the first place .  here is what he said .  there is no argument for this .  `` the man of great wealth , '' teddy said , `` owes a particular obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government. '' wow , nicely said , and a republican , too .  that proves two things , that republicans can sometimes speak eloquently , and sometimes they can even do something that is right .  though republicans want to undo all the good for the sake of greed , please , america , do not be phonied up by this rhetoric that we hear on this bill .  they will pitch some gibberish about how they are helping americans .  that is nonsense .  we just came from the committee on ways and means .  the reason this place was in recess is because we were over there giving out $ 8 billion to oil companies .  those poor people , whose profits have quadrupled in the last 2 years , that is what we did a little while ago .  now we come over here , and we are going to give more money away .  does that seem like it benefits real people ?  this is not about real people .  this is about very , very , very rich people , and that is about as plainspoken as teddy roosevelt would have said it .  only 2 percent , at the most , pay any estate tax whatsoever .  three-quarters of the money that comes in comes from people with estates over $ 2.5 million .  if we repeal this , the rich get richer and america 's deficit gets deeper and redder .  we create an oligarchic class in this country from whom the money can never be taxed .  if they can manipulate it around while they are alive , they can never have to pay a penny .  the real losers in this are not only the american people .  it is the american universities , the american churches , all those people who get money contributed by rich people because they do not want to pay the inheritance tax .  now my colleagues have taken away the encouragement .  why should they give anything away ?  oh , well , because they have big hearts .  they have big hearts we are told .  really ?  then why are we out here with a bill like this which gives them the ability to keep every single dime ?  now if you can give your kid $ 2 million and say , now , johnny , here is two million bucks , i think that ought to kind of get you a start in the world .  does that not seem like enough ?  well , to the republicans , there is never enough ; take as much as you can from everybody and keep it .  ronald reagan put the sign of the cross on it .  he said , are you better off today than you were 4 years ago ?  never does anyone say on my colleagues ' side , are we better off .  we are in debt to the world .  we borrowed from the japanese last year our entire deficit , more than $ 400 billion , and the president wanders around the country saying , well , that is just paper .  those things in the social security trust fund , that is just paper .  do not pay any attention to that .  if the japanese stop buying dollars and they start buying euros , and the chinese start buying euros and the middle east buys euros , where do my colleagues think we are going to borrow money and what kind of interest rate are we going to pay ?  this is a bad bill , it is bad policy , and it is bad ethics .  