Date: 2003-06-03
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. the billion dollar tax cut that President Bush signed into law last week was supposed to give everyone who pays taxes a tax cut. In fact. President Bush said. "My jobs and growth plan would reduce taxes for everyone who pays income taxes." The President declared that several weeks ago. Well. now as it turns out. that is not exactly the truth. and the devil is in the details. Because what the President did not tell the American public and what he did not tell Americas families waiting for their tax cut was that a backroom deal he struck with the leadership in the House and the Senate. a bill that was sent for his signature. excluded 2.5 million taxpayers and 12 million children from the benefits of this bill. These are mostly singleparent households. with a child 16 years or older. that earn between $10.000 and $26.000 a year. It was not a mistake. It was not an oversight. The Republican tax writers who crafted the final compromise all by themselves. with no Democrats in the room. under the supervision of Vice President CHENEY. made a conscious decision to roll back the benefits of the child tax credit for 12 million children to save $3.5 billion. And they did not take that savings and put it into the Treasury against the massive deficit they created. They took that $3.5 billion. and they gave it to corporations who run overseas to avoid taxes. they refused to close the Enron loopholes that destroyed corporations and many peoples retirement. They took that money from those 12 million children. and they gave it away so that they would not have to close corporate tax loopholes. Now. what does this mean. andwhy are we here late into the evening to discuss this matter? Why have so many Democrats lined up to speak on this matter? Because this is an issue of basic fundamental values about our families in this country. about equity. and about fairness. And the Republican tax bill violated all of those values. They made a conscious choice to take families. a husband and a wife earning $15.000 to $20.000. a little bit more. raising a couple of kids. a single parent raising a couple of kids. who are struggling to get by in a tough economy. and they decided that they were simply going to exclude them from the benefits of this tax bill. They were not going to give them the child credit. Now. Congress had made a decision over the past many years. from Ronald Reagan on. that we should have a child credit. that we should try to help offset the cost of raising children for middleincome families and lowerincome families and that has been the policy in this country on a bipartisan basis. But this extreme Republican leadership in the House. along with Vice President CHENEY and now the Republican leadership in the Senate. decided that these children had less value than other children in the Nation. What kind of person makes that decision about these children that they do not even know. about these parents struggling to raise their children and to pay their health care. to educate them. to provide them the necessities and maybe a little extra on .salaries that do not exceed $26.000 a year? What kind of mind. what kind of person was in that room that night when. they made a decision to deny these children. to deny these parents this increase of $400 in a tax cut to come this summer. that these children and these families would not get to participate in? It is a corruption and a corrosion of any sense of the public interest. It is a corruption of the process of this Congress that they would do this in the middle of the night in a secret deal and tell no one. It was only after the President signed the bill did they have to admit that this was what was done. First they tried to say it was not true. First they tried to say that this did not affect these families. They were playing a little fast and loose with the truth down at the White House that day. through the Presidents spokespersons. Well. the truth came out. Twelve million children denied the benefits of the child tax credit. This is extremism at its far point. This is a denial of the value of Americas families at the extreme. This act must be overturned. It must be overturned soon so that these families too can get that $400 check that they are entitled to under the laws of this land and a decent system of fairness and equity.