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 .  