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M. Speaker, I rise in support of the rule but in reluctant opposition to the underlying legislation.

Let me begin by saying that I know there are a lot of good things in this bill.

The bill extends tax relief for middle class families. It extends unemployment insurance for Americans who - through no fault of their own - find themselves out of work in this difficult economy.

The bill also extends several important tax relief measures that were included in last year's recovery package, including the parity for transit benefits - which is a measure that I have worked on here in the House.

I understand and appreciate the situation in which President Obama found himself. He was faced with a United States Senate that demands a super-majority of 60 votes to order pizza, let alone enact significant legislation.

Over the past two years, our Republican colleagues in the Senate have blown by the previous record for filibusters. They have made it clear that their overriding political strategy is to say ‘no' to whatever President Obama proposes, no matter how worthy or popular.

That's unfortunate, but that's the reality that we face.

But I believe that the provisions in this bill that give away billions and billions of dollars to the wealthiest Americans are unnecessary, unproductive and irresponsible.

Unnecessary because over the past few years, while millions of middle class families struggled to pay their mortgages and put food on the table, the wealthiest few in America have done very well. The fat cats on Wall Street are riding high once again, with multi-million dollar bonuses and golden parachutes.

Unproductive because study after study have shown that one of the LEAST effective ways to stimulate the economy is to put more money into the pockets of the rich. The wealthiest few are more likely to save that money rather than invest it in the economy. CBO has found that of all the things we could do to stimulate the economy, tax breaks for rich people have the worst record of encouraging economic growth.

And irresponsible because this bill will add billions and billions of dollars on to our nation's debt. We just came through a campaign in which everybody talked about the need for deficit reduction. The bipartisan Bowles-Simpson commission made it clear that we are on an unsustainable course. When they presented their report, everybody in this town nodded gravely and talked about how important their work was. Yet here we are, less than a month later, making the problem worse.

So on balance, M. Speaker, I cannot support the underlying bill as it is written. I know that we will have an opportunity to improve the legislation by supporting an amendment to pare back some of the estate tax cuts for the wealthiest estates in America. I urge my colleagues to support that amendment.

M. Speaker, we can do better than this. We must do better than this. Future generations are counting on us.

I reserve the balance of my time.