Date: 2003-06-04
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. when the President and the Republican party made a decision that they would not extend the financial benefits of the increase in the child tax credit to all families. they essentially made a decision that they would leave out millions of young children who live in families who earn between $10.000 and $26.000 a year. What they said was somehow those families and those children were not worth as much as the rest of children and families in this country. Thirty years ago we made a decision to have a child tax credit to help families with the cost of raising their children. to ease the burdens of raising their children. educating them. providing health care. and it was extended to all Americans with children. Over time we have increased that child tax credit. and this year a decision was made that we would increase that child tax credit by $400 for each child. and those checks would go out this summer. But. tragically. in a back room. in the late night. in negotiating the bill under the leadership of Vice President CHENEY. the Republicans made a decision that low income working families would not get that child tax credit for their children. They will not get that $400 per child increase this summer. Erin Doyel of Vallejo. California in the district in which I represent and her daughter. Adrienne. will not get. that tax cut. Erin is going to work every day and earning $12.675 as a financial administrative assistant. Erin is doing everything that this Federal Government told her to do: To get off of welfare. to take responsibility for her child and to get a job. And she has been doing it and she is doing it well. But as we can see here. Erin and her daughter Adrienne. Erin is asking the question. What about my kid? Why is not my kid worth the same tax credit as the other children? Because I only make $12.000 a year? She needs this help for her family. She needs this benefit for her family so that she can provide the education. she can provide the wherewithal to hold her family together. She knows how much she needs it. She says they made a big mistake when they left her daughter out of the tax cut. She needs this money to help her pay the rent. to pay for her car. to pay for her job expenses. That is what she would .do with that money. She would immediately put it back into the economy. That is why that tax credit was given to help those families with those expenses in a difficult environment. Some people say that this was a mistake by the Republicans. but the fact is we know now as the facts have come out it was no mistake. The Senate. in fact. put this tax credit in for Erin and her daughter. Adrienne. But the Republicans in the House decided they were not going to accept it. They wanted to use the money that that tax credit would cost to give a greater tax cut to those people making over a million dollars. If they had given a $400 tax credit to Erin and her daughter. Adrienne. and to other similarly situated families and children. those millionaires would have only gotten a tax cut this year of $88.000 as opposed to $93.000. So the Republicans in the House made a choice that they were going to deny Erin and Adrienne the tax credit. They were going to give it to the millionaires. Now. we understand that the Senate is going to change this. The Senate has come to its senses. The Senate now understands what they have done to Erin and her daughter. Adrienne. and the impact that they are having on her ability to hold their family together. But we are also told that the majority leader. the Republican majority leader. the gentleman from Texas has said he is not going to do that. He is not going to pass that tax cut to Erin and her daughter. Adrienne. He is not going to do it. Republicans in the Senate who sponsored it originally. who voted for it. who participated have said we wanted te do this. It is a matter of equity. It ib a matter of fairness. It is a matter of justice to these families who are working hard. as the gentlewoman from California stated. playing by the rules. doing what we asked them. that they should be able to share in this tax cut like other families with children. But the Republicans in the House say no. They say no to 12 million children and families earning between $10.000 and $26.000 a year. However you measure it. it is not very much money to survive in American society today. These are people who work hard. They do not get paid terribly well. but they get up every day and they go to work and they do many of the jobs that many other Americans would prefer not to do. And that is why we created the tax credit. To help them. And somehow. somehow along the way to finalizing that tax bill. somehow the Republicans in the House became mean spirited. Somehow they lost their sense of humanity and somehow they lost their direction in terms of economic justice and decency for all families and all children in America. It is a sad and tragic day when a party loses its direction and becomes that cynical about decent people like Erin and her daughter. Adrienne.