mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman from michigan for yielding me this time .  mr. speaker , i rise today in strong support of h.r. 4297 , the tax relief extension reconciliation act of 2005 , and in opposition to the democrat substitute .  mr. speaker , the ways and means bill before us today addresses a number of important priorities that are broadly supported by members on both sides of the aisle .  these include tax savings for higher education expenses , small business tax relief , tax incentives for research and development by u.s. companies that create good jobs .  the bill also includes an extension of the lower rates for capital gains and dividends , an important priority for the ever-growing investor class that will keep our economy strong and our domestic job base growing .  mr. speaker , as a lead sponsor of the stealth tax relief act of 2005 , the legislation designed to prevent massive increases in the alternative minimum tax , or amt , from sneaking up on millions of unsuspecting taxpayers next year , i want to take just a moment to comment on the democrat substitute .  just 24 hours ago , the house passed my bill by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 414-4 .  together we sent a strong , unmistakable signal to our colleagues across the capitol that extending the temporary amt relief that is scheduled to expire in just a matter of weeks is an important priority that must be addressed .  but what does today 's democratic substitute do ?  yes , it provides relief from amt .  to pay for it , the democratic substitute increases taxes on families and on small businesses that create so many jobs in our community .  mr. speaker , just yesterday all but four members of the democratic party supported amt relief in the house for our hardworking middle class without increasing taxes .  but today , just 24 hours later , our friends on the other side of the aisle are back singing a familiar tax-raising tune , one that always leaves families with less money in their wallets on april 15 , and small businesses with less money on their balance sheets .  the democratic substitute should be defeated .  mr. speaker , earlier in this debate , a colleague on the other side of the aisle claimed that the republican majority has done little to fight the amt since winning the house in 1994 .  to the contrary .  our republican majority has repeatedly provided temporary amt relief since we took control , an effort which we continued yesterday with the passage of the stealth tax relief act .  i would further remind my friends on the other side of the aisle that in 1999 the republican congress sent a bill to the president 's desk that would have repealed the amt entirely .  unfortunately , no democrats in the house supported that bill , and president clinton vetoed it .  finally , i would remind members that in 1993 , as an era of the democratic control was coming to an end , one of the last things that our friends on the other side of the aisle did was to provide a retroactive increase for the amt without indexing the exemption levels .  mr. speaker , i urge passage of our bill and defeat of the democratic substitute .  