mr. speaker , i rise to express my opposition to the irresponsible tax reconciliation bill the house passed earlier today .  i strongly support tax relief , but i oppose this bill because it does not target tax relief to middle class families , because it is paid for by slashing health care and education programs and because it will needlessly increase our national debt .  mr. speaker , this tax bill is the second half of a misguided budget reconciliation package that raids the wallets of my western new york constituents and gives their money to those making over a million dollars .  the first half of the budget reconciliation occurred last month , when the majority passed a series of devastating spending cuts to health and education programs in order to free up funding for these tax cuts .  that means that these tax cuts are paid for by cutting $ 11 billion from medicaid at a time when over 45 million americans are without health insurance .  they are paid for by throwing 300 , 000 people off food stamps when hunger in this country is on the rise .  they are paid for by slashing $ 14 billion from student loan programs when the cost of college tuition is skyrocketing .  and they are paid for by cutting child support enforcement and foster care programs .  mr. speaker , the tax reconciliation bill is paid for out of the pockets of the middle class , yet working families receive little of its benefits .  if this bill were a serious attempt to provide real tax relief to the middle class it would include an extension of the alternative minimum tax ( amt ) fix .  the amt fix is set to expire at the end of the year , and without an extension taxes will increase on the 17 million middle class families who will be snared by the amt .  yet this legislation does not include amt relief .  instead , the centerpiece of this bill is a reduction of tax rates for capital gains and corporate dividends .  mr. speaker , taxing investment income at a lower rate than earned income is rewarding wealth , not work .  a fairer bill would have reduced taxes on the paychecks of the middle class working families who most need and deserve it .  mr. speaker , not only does this reconciliation package slash programs for working families and fail to target tax relief at the middle class , but it does nothing at all to reduce the federal budget deficit or the national debt .  in fact , this package increases the deficit because it reduces spending by $ 50 billion and cuts taxes by $ 56 billion .  in other words , this so-called `` deficit reduction '' package actually increases the deficit to the tune of $ 6 billion !  maybe this fiscal approach explains why the chairman of the president 's own commission on tax reform said recently that he was not worried by tax policies that increase the national debt because we can always borrow some more from china .  but i refuse to pass this bill and saddle the elementary school children in jamestown and buffalo with that debt .  mr. speaker , i support tax cuts .  i supported the amt stand-alone bill because the bulk of that relief goes to middle class families , and i will continue to support tax cuts for working americans .  i am not philosophically opposed to tax cuts for upper income americans .  but there is a proper time for everything , and at this juncture -- when we are running record budget deficits , when we are funding our troops in iraq , and when we are incurring huge costs to recover from hurricane katrina -- at this juncture , we can not cut taxes to the rich and increase the burden on the middle class .  buffalo wo n't hear it and neither will i . 