mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me time .  mark twain is probably the most famous constituent from my district and i think it was his quote that said , `` there are lies , there are damn lies , and there are statistics. '' i would say probably folks that are back in my district are home from school today because we had snow .  maybe people are taking a break from christmas shopping and tuning into the debate , and i suspect folks are a little perplexed and a little confused .  i do not know what the middle class is in los angeles or cleveland or new york city or baltimore or seattle ; but i think that at least in my congressional district , if a family is making about $ 50 , 000 a year , they probably think themselves to be middle class .  the democratic substitute for that sector of folks making $ 50 , 000 or less , the democratic substitute helps less than 200 , 000 taxpayers .  less than 200 , 000 taxpayers are helped by the democratic substitute that are trying to sit around the kitchen table and pay their bills , wondering how they are going to pay for christmas presents for their kids .  if we extend the capital gains and dividend tax rate , almost 8 million american taxpayers making $ 50 , 000 or less , the underlying bill , nearly 8 million taxpayers will be benefited , and i think the choice is clear .  now , let me say to my friend , and he is my friend from maryland , he talked about failed economic policies .  well , over the last 2 years , since capital gains and dividends reductions were put into law , we have averaged a 4 percent growth to our gdp .  4 , 400 , 000 jobs have been added to our economy .  homeownership is up at an all-time high .  government revenues have increased 10 percent a year since the reduction in the cost of capital .  the gentleman from maryland talks about priorities .  earlier we heard from the chairman of the democratic congressional campaign committee , and in his usual acerbic way , brought up the specter of politics .  the chairman of the dccc talked about politics with his usual acerbic , and yet what i find interesting as we get close to the conclusion of this debate , there has been a very concerted effort by my friend from maryland to reach out to the business community in an effort to make some political gains in the 2006 election .  after the cafta vote , when only 14 of our colleagues on the other side voted for increasing our opportunities for trade .  there has been somewhat of a , reported at least , concerted effort to reach out to the business community .  this will be an interesting vote because we have with the democratic substitute a tax increase of $ 40 billion on businesses .  and the underlying bill which , in fact , continues to reduce the cost of capital , so are we going to deny enhanced expensing for farmers and manufacturers ?  are we going to tell those laborers and manufacturing companies not to purchase , not to invest , not to expand their plants .  that is the choice .  and for those again that at least talk to the business community , i think the choice is clear .  reject the substitute and vote for the underlying bill .  