Date: 2003-06-19
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. let us talk about this child tax credit. When we began with the child tax credit. we were thinking about families. We were talking about families. We said in this difficult economic time. it is important for us to hold families together. to help those struggling. families which have to educate their children. provide child care. be good parents. sometimes both parents are working. It is important to keep families together and to honor the fact that families want to be together and bring children up in a good environment. But the Republicans proved something -when they got to the child tax credit. It was not about all families and keeping all families together and working with all families. there were some families they did not care much about. those were poor families. They did not care if you were a waitress and you had to provide child care for your child and you had financial constraints. and you had to get them to the soccer game. They did not care if you were a maid or a janitor. They did not care if you were making minimum wage trying to afford an apartment so your children had a roof over their heads. They did not care about you. they cut you out. In the dark of the night. they cut you out. But can Members imagine that they did not care about our men and women overseas in Iraq? They did not care about them either. They did not care about our military families. They said it is great. they are doing a great job. They are so brave. but they did not care about the children. they did not care about those families because they caught cut those families out of the child tax credit also. So let us say. for example. that I am the wife who is staying home with the two kids while my husband is in Iraq. I have no problems. I have no financial constraints. They are over there. the President declared a victory on that aircraft carrier. but my husband is still in Iraq. By the way. every day someone is killed out there. It could be my husband. but I do not have any problems. I do not have any anxieties. The Republicans did not care about those families. I do not have to get my kids to soccer or worry about their education. I do not have to worry about additional child care or taking them over to my mom or something to take care of because my husband is not here. He is serving his country. He is keeping our freedoms safe. But the Republicans did not care about that kind of family. Okay. we would anticipate that they would not care about poor families. but could we anticipate that they would not care about military families? I am sitting there as a wife. and I have got no problems. But somebody who makes $80.000 a year. they got the child tax credit. not me. Not my children. not my husband. And then they said oh. they got caught. People figured it out. So they put it back in. but not all of them. There are still military families cut out because they make too little money. But in order to put some of the families back. they put in more tax cuts for people who make $100.000 a year and $150.000 a year and $3 ntillion a year. but not someone who makes $10.000 a year or someone who makes $14.000. Those families do not count. Those children are not important enough. Mr. Speaker. they have no problems. They have no financial anxiety. Remember why we wanted this child tax credit. to ensure that families could come together and work together and be together. That is why we wanted the child tax credit.