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

Mr. Speaker. the Presidents spokespeople. the Republicans in Congress and the Republican National Committee. appear to be having some trouble with the truth. that is. because they have suggested that everyone who pays taxes would benefit from the recent tax cut. They have said that those who pay the taxes will get the tax cut. that those who earn the least will benefit the most. It is simply not true. It is simply not true. because they made a decision to leave millions of families. with millions of children. out of the child tax credit. a tax credit that we give families to raise children. But they simply decided that those families earning between $10.000 and $26.000 a year would not be eligible for the child tax credit. Somehow I guess these families have additional money to raise their children that people over $26.000 a year do not have so they get to do this. They made a fundamental decision about unfairness. about inequity. about greed. and they decided that they would rather give this money to 200.000 millionaires so- they could get a tax cut of $93.000 a year because if they gave this tax cut to those families who are going to work every day trying to support their children on low wages. that they would have to give those millionaires only $88.000 a year. So those families. those working American families between $10.000 and $26.000 a year. got nothing in terms of the increase in the child tax credit. The rest of the families in America will get a $400 check this summer. These families will get nothing. Yet the President. the Republicans in Congress. in the House and the Senate. want to suggest that this was an accident and they are going to cure it. It was no accident. It was never in their bill. In either version of their bill. They simply made the decision that they did not think these people were worthy of the child tax credit. a tax credit that passed this Congress on a bipartisan basis because we thought the government ought to do something to help these families with the cost of raising their children. so that those moms who wanted to stay home. maybe this would allow them to stay home. or those fathers who wanted to stay home. maybe this would allow them to stay home. or it would defer the cost of child care or health care or whatever it takes as we raise our children in this country. But the Republicans have now decided for millions ofr American families. they are not going to be treated the same. Of course we find out as we look at this tax bill for almost 50 million Americans. they will not be treated the same because they are not going to get much of a benefit. They just simply decided that they were going to declare class warfare on lowincome working people in this country. There is no other result. But now they want to lie about it. Now they want to pretend like they were not part of it. Now they want to pretend like they are going to fix it. No. the BushCheney class in America just declared warfare on working families. But that is only the beginning. because it is the BushCheney class in America that has denied those same families an increase in the minimum wage because many of these families work at the minimum wage. The minimum wage today is worth $4.75 in real wages. They will not increase it. They will not give those families the child tax credit. This week later on the floor they are going to try to take away their overtime pay. and they are passing regulations so fewer and fewer Americans are eligible for overtime. a pay that many Americans use to hold their families together because that increase in pay for overtime makes a difference in their yearly salary in the support of their families. And. of course. for many of these same children who will not got the child tax credit. they are taking away their health care at the State level. When is it that the Bush administration decided that they were going to declare war on Americas working families. especially lowincome working families? One of my colleagues was here talking about how they fixed the marriage penalty. that they got rid of the marriage penalty. Well. if two people who are earning 10 or $12.000 a year get married. as single people. they would get a $2.500 credit because they are both lowincome working people. If they get married. they lose $1.000 of their credit. They have almost a 50 percent tax assessed on them because they get married. Why is this happening to these people who are struggling to get up and go to work every day? Every day they go to work in hard. difficult jobs. jobs that many Americans would prefer not to do. And at the end of the yearthey end up poor. They end up struggling to take care of their children. They end up struggling to educate them. They end up struggling to provide them health care. They end up struggling to provide them with decent housing. And this government. this administration. the Bush administration. has decided to cut them out of the tax bill. And they want to talk about fairness in America? They want to talk about justice in America? They want to talk about freedom in America? I do not think so. Mr. and Mrs. America. because they made a conscious decision.