William H. Frist: “in closing, I will be very brief. In a few moments, we will be voting on the motion to proceed to this very important…”

“in closing, I will be very brief. In a few moments, we will be voting on the motion to proceed to this very important bill called the Family Prosperity Act. It is called that very specifically for the reasons we have outlined. There are three very important components: The extension of tax relief--we spoke about it on the floor, key provisions such as the State and local tax deduction affecting the many States, in my State alone, 670,000 Tennessee families; college tuition deduction affecting millions of families; research and development tax credit which stimulates growth, innovation, creativity, and jobs; teachers' classroom expenses deduction, affecting 55,000 teachers. Secondly, the permanent solution to the death tax challenge that we have today is a compromise. It is not only a compromise that prevents the death rate from escalating to 55 percent and dropping to $1 million in 2011, it is a $5 million exemption per spouse indexed for inflation, and a 15-percent tax rate from $5 million to $25 million. Thirdly, a minimum wage increase, 40 percent over the next 3 years-- 40 percent. In summary, an ``aye'' vote is a vote for that permanent death tax relief. An ``aye'' vote is for that extension of tax relief. And an ``aye'' vote is for that 40 percent minimum wage increase. We have a lot of challenges before us. We have addressed many others in the last 4 weeks.…”