i appreciate my colleague from michigan , his leadership in helping boost our economy , extend this tax relief .  i strongly support the original bill over the substitute .  the substitute takes a step backward in how we treat our soldiers and how we treat our families , small businesses that are affected by the alternative minimum tax , compared to legislation that this house passed just yesterday , we treated soldiers better , by providing them immediate cash refunds on their tax treatment .  i do not want to step back from that today in the substitute .  we help 2 1/2 million more families and small businesses with their alternative minimum tax yesterday , again , almost nearly unanimously .  i do not want to step back from that with this substitute .  and the original bill provides three provisions that are really helpful for a lot of families in this country .  it extends for 1 year the sales tax deduction , which provides every family in the country a choice to deduct either their state and local income taxes or their state and local sales taxes .  what it means is sales taxes , as you know , add up a great deal , add up fast for families .  this tax relief just stretches the family paycheck a little farther and prevents hundreds of millions of dollars of tax increases on families that would start right after this christmas holiday .  that would be unfair .  the original bill extends this .  this also provides help to universities that receive dollars , higher education from the public higher education utility fund that extends a provision that helps 