Date: 2003-06-09
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. 3 weeks ago. when the Republicans in the House and the Senate were getting together to decide the final version of the tax bill. under the direction of Vice President CHENEY. they made a very bad decision. They made a decision that families with children who earn between $10.000 and $26.000. a year who currently get a portion of the child tax credit. would not get the increase that this bill provides for families with children. a $400 increase for many. many Americans per child that they will get checks this July. For whatever reasons. and we think we know why. because they used that money to provide additional tax cuts to the wealthiest people in this country. had they given this tax cut to these families between $10.000 and $26.000 a year. to those 12 million children. people like Mr. CHENEY. instead of getting $93.000. would have gotten $88.000. But they chose instead to take $93.000 ad these children did not get the tax credit. This tax credit is terribly important to these families. What the Republicans fail to understand is that many of these families are people who the Republicans accused of being on welfare. they have accused them of not participating. but these families get up and go to work every day. and they work in difficult jobs. and they work in jobs that not a lot of people want to have. And at the end of the year. they end up basically poor. So one of the things this government did a number years ago was create the child tax credit. And a number of things we did in the last administration was to make it refundable so that we can make sure that those people would continue to have an incentive to stay in the work force. Now. if the Republicans do not like the child tax credit. one of the things they could do is they could increase the minimum wage. They could make it easier for these families to earn more money. They would get less tax credit. But the Republicans do not want to increase the minimum wage. They do not want to provide those qhildren health care. They do not want to provide them a tax credit. and yet. somehow. these people. they are not deserving of this effort. It was a horrible decision they made. But now we see as that decision has come to light. as the bright light of public awareness is focused on that. last week we saw the Senate. when they realized how upset the country was. how unfair people felt this was. the sense of economic injustice that reigned in the country. that these people would not be taken care of in a tax bill that is going to spend $350 billion. they could not take care of these people for $3 billion. The Senate. on a bipartisan basis. voted overwhelmingly to correct this injustice. They passed a bill In the last days of last week to send over to the House to correct this and to give these individuals the tax credit that they should have for their children. for these families who are working very hard. and even to extend it to some individuals in higher incomes. But yet. what do we see the reaction of the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives. is- that they are not going to do this bill. They want to hold these children. they want to hold these families hostage for some other tax cut that they can give to people who may be far less deserving than these children and these families. But they want to hold it hostage so that they can unite it withsomething they were talking about last week in terms of a $100 billion bill or more. These children and these families are entitled to get those checks in July just like every other family in AmerIca. It is important to our economy. it is important to the recovery of our economy. and it is important to the wherewithal of these families as they struggle to hold themselves together at low wages. So the Republicans in the House and their leader. the gentleman from Texas