[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 85 (Wednesday, June 18, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H3870]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     PROBLEMS WITH THE CHILD CREDIT

  (Mrs. KENNELLY of Connecticut asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. KENNELLY of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, this summer during the 
Presidential election, everyone, Republicans, Democrats, promised the 
American people a child credit. We certainly should keep that promise. 
However, when we look at the bill that has passed out of the Committee 
on Ways and Means, the promise is not kept for many people. Working 
families can lose a child credit if they have day care expenses. What a 
message to send out to the 70 percent of working parents, two-parent 
families, with young children.
  Average families can lose both the child credit and the educational 
credit because they are thrown into the alternate minimum tax, a great 
complication in the tax system, but one that was put in there to make 
sure very well-off families did not zero out, certainly not to get a 
complicated tax form for people with children.
  Here we look at the bill. Poor families cannot get the child credit 
because they do not earn enough money. Hardworking families with 
children will see their credit disappear before their eyes because they 
are using the education credit or the child credit. Then we look at 
wealthy families, and they do not get it because they earn too much 
money. We agreed on a child credit. We should go back and do it right. 
Americans need that $500. Americans need that tax credit.

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