mr. speaker , i yield myself the balance of my time .  mr. speaker , we have now come to the conclusion of this debate , and i want my colleagues to know that if you are looking for some of the things that are worthwhile that are in the majority 's bill , we have an opportunity in the substitute to take care of it .  but if you really believe this is the time for america to give a $ 20 billion tax cut to these people who will not be affected until 2009 , why would they want to give this incentive to less than 5 percent , 1 percent of the richest people that we have in our country , and do it in this christmas season ?  so you have an alternative .  you can take care of the wealthy in years ahead , since this does not expire this year , or you can do what they have not done and that is to take care of those people who find themselves subjected to an alternative minimum tax only because the majority has not seen fit to give them relief in a decade .  and so as this number has increased , instead of taking care of them in the bill that is before us , they have decided to just send a message over there to tell the senate if you would like , by unanimous consent , and if no one objects , then you can take care of the amt problem .  we do not do this as democrats .  we take care of it up front .  we take care of the military , we take care of those people from hurricane katrina , and we take care of the job credits that are important .  we take care of those things that are important in our substitute .  in this holiday season , we really do not believe that you ought to take $ 10 billion out of health care for the poorest people in this country .  we do not believe that you should , in order to pay for this bill , that you should cut food stamps .  we do not believe that students that have been getting help from this great government of ours should be adversely affected to pay for this tax cut .  so we ask you to really consider in this holiday season these families that have kids in foster care , these families that are having their benefits not being received because we are letting them down .  you just weigh this and ask , is there any equity involved in this ?  if you want to give these tax cuts , why do you not wait until the thing expires ?  perhaps we will have a new congress .  perhaps there will be new equity .  perhaps it can be discussed .  perhaps the committee members , democrats and republicans , would come together and find out not what is just good for the wealthy , but what is good for the strength of this great nation of ours .  one of the greatest threats to our national security is poverty .  one of the greatest threats to our national security is the inability to get an education .  the people who died in hurricane katrina did not die because of their color .  the hurricane was color blind .  but they died because they were poor .  why can we not invest and make certain that all americans , black and white , republicans and democrats , can this holiday season say congress did the right thing and not the political thing ?  