mr. speaker , this has been an interesting debate , as it always seems like it is these days in this house .  in 2003 , i actually thought we did some very good things with the tax cuts we implemented , and i thought we did them for families back home in all of our districts .  so on august 2 , 2005 , i joined with a colleague of mine from colorado , congresswoman musgrave , a member of the small business committee , and we explored the effect of at least one of those tax cuts that we are talking about extending today , section 17 , which increases the allowable expensing limits from $ 25 , 000 on depreciable assets to $ 100 , 000 .  now , i think linda jones , the owner of area rentals back in westminster , colorado , will be delighted to understand that she is a member of a special interest and must surely be rich , by definition , because she got a tax break .  what she did with that was , in 2003 , she used $ 57 , 000 of the allowable expensing limits to purchase some additional equipment that she rents in her store .  and because she saved a little over $ 7 , 300 in tax expense , and that came the same year she got a 30 percent increase in her employees ' health care costs , she was able to maintain coverage for health care for her employees .  the very next year she used an additional $ 64 , 000 of the expensing allowance to purchase even more equipment to expand her store , keep jobs , and , in fact , increase jobs .  ron lautzenheiser must be among the rich and the special interests , too , except he runs a big old tire center back in fort collins .  when he did his calculations , wanting to expand , the increase in expensing limits contained in section 179 allowed him to figure out how to do that .  he added two new stores and went from one big old tire center employing but a handful of people to now employing 50 people in three stores .  this is commonsense legislation for the real people back home , and i urge its adoption .  