Date: 2003-06-02
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. politics in the making of public policy Is about choices. Every day we are called upon to make a choice. but a horrible choice was made by the Republican majority when they wrote the most recent tax bill. a horrible choice that works against millions of families and the children in those families as the Republicans decided that they would not allow those families. families making between $10.500 a year and $26.000 a year. they would not allow them to have the Increase in the child tax credit. A $400 a year increase to offset the cost of raising children. that this Congress made a decision about over many years. was proper to do with families to help hold families together. to allow some people to stay home with their children if they chose to do so. the purpose of that credit. Rather than spend the $3 billion on those individuals. they chose to spend it on people making over. $1 million a year. People making over $I million a year will now get $93.000 a year in a tax cut. If we had chosen to take care of those 12 million children who will not get the tax cut because their families earn less than $26.000 a year. those same millionaires would have gotten a tax cut of $88.000. The Republicans made a choice. They chose Americas millionaires over Americas children. Somehow they decided that the children in upperincome families and middleclass families are more important than those families who are working their tails off going to work every day. all year long and still coming home earning between $10.000 and $26.000. They made a decision that they were going to support the BushCheney class in America over the working class in America. They made a decision that they were going to support millionaires over the children of America. They said when they were caught at these shenanigans over the last few days. when the press discovered what was in the legislation. they said. well. we designed it only for those people who are paying income tax. they are the only ones who should benefit from that. It is rather interesting because they decided they were also going to give the tax benefits of this bill to a number of corporations who pay no income taxes. corporations that have fled America. changed their corporate citizenship for the sole purposes of not paying taxes. and yet we would give them additional tax breaks under this bill. They wanted to say that they wanted to end the double taxation on dividends and that corporations that paid taxes could get a deduction for dividends. By the time the bill wasdone. corporations that have paid no taxes will get a deduction for dividends. but if someone were a poor family. if they were a poor family and they are working every day and they are making between $10.000 and $26.000 a year and they have children. they are not going to get the increase in that deduction. But these people do pay taxes. The Republicans have it all wrong. They have it all wrong in fairness. They have it all wrong in greed. They have it all wrong in the value of our children and our families in this Nation. This is an incredibly harmful policy to those families who are struggling in and around these wages. The Republicans will not increuse the minimum wage to help them support their families. They will not give them the child tax credit to help them support their families. They will not increase the Earned Income Tax credit to help them support their families. Poor people just are not entitled to this. What they get to make is they get to make an Increased sacrifice on behalf of the rich. Somebody once said. one would think the Republicans think that the rich have too little money and the poor have too much. It is an incredible policy. The Republicans rail against class warfare. and they declared war on the very survival of these families who are working at the margins. We see them every day. These are people who work hard in difficult jobs. in Jobs that most people do not want. They get up and they ride transit. and they go to work and they work and they work and they come home. and at the end of the year they continue to be poor. Past Congresses gave them the child tax credit. and this year when we decided we would give an increase in the child tax credit. we did not decide. The Republicans decided in the back rooms. they decided they would declare their own private war. their own private class warfare on these individuals. They decided to do it on the last night. in the back room. with the lights turned out and with Vice President CHENEY casting the deciding vote. who now declares he is ignorant on this. Then how did he vote for it? How did.he vote for it? Class warfare. the most meanspirited. the most greedy action of class warfare we have seen was just committed by the Republican Party in the tax bill against struggling. working. lowerincome families in this country.