[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 86 (Thursday, June 19, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H4079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             WOMEN'S CAUCUS HOLDS HILARIOUS NEWS CONFERENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Kentucky [Mrs. Northup] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. NORTHUP. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to address 
the House tonight about the tax cut and about a rather humorous, if you 
have a broad sense of humor, news conference that was held today 
earlier by the Democratic Members of the Women's Caucus here in the 
House.
  You know it must be very terrible if you have to find reasons every 
day to be against a tax cut considering their popularity, and today 
this group of Members said that this tax cut would hurt the women of 
our country. That is especially hilarious when you think that most 
women are growing up and sharing homes and lives with men. They either 
have a father, they have a son, they have a brother or they have a 
spouse, and these women share their economic opportunities, their 
lives, their incomes, their taxes with men. You do not have tax cuts 
for very many people that help the men or help the women. You have tax 
cuts that help homes, they help families.
  And so most women get up every morning, and their lives are 
intertwined with the men, with their sons who they are raising, with 
their fathers who raise them, with their spouse with whom they are 
making a life, and they all are in the financial challenges together.
  And so as families work out their economic challenges, as middle 
class families get up every morning, they take kids to day care, they 
go to work, they pay for a car payment, they pay for their rent, and 
they wonder if there is going to be any chance that there is going to 
be money left over this summer so that they can go on that camping trip 
and go to the State park that they have read about and know would be 
such a good opportunity for them to share with their family.
  It is not the men, it is not the women, it is the families, and I 
think it is so bad in this country if we try to divide all of us who 
are in this country together on to teams, whether we have the teams 
that are the women, the other team that are the men, the team, the 
racial teams of the minority and the majority. If we, however we divide 
on teams, what we do is we deny the common goals, the common threads, 
the fact that we are all working together for common purposes. But we 
especially do that in tax cuts when we say that certain tax cuts, tax 
packages would be bad for women because we then begin to try to divide 
people against their own homes, against their own families, against 
their own relatives.
  So I want to take this opportunity to say with pride how proud I am 
to be part of a group of people who have listened so carefully to the 
American people who all of ourselves care so much about our families 
and our struggles.
  I have 6 children. Two of them are now completely on their own, and 
two in the next 2 years will be on their own. They struggle every day 
with their finances. Every time they need a new tire, they feel so 
frustrated and they feel set back, and to have the privilege to have 
been able to fashion a tax cut that will give their generation and 
their friends' generation and our friends the opportunity to have a 
better opportunity to spend their own money, to have government spend 
less, has been something that I am very proud of.
  And it is not a women's issue, it is not a man's issue; it is a 
family issue, it is an American issue, and the American people are very 
clear about where they are on this issue.
  Mr. FOX of Pennsylvania. If the gentlewoman will yield, your comments 
are eloquent and certainly timely for this discussion in the House of 
tax reform. It is so important that we work together because the 
American people will win together when we reduced by $500, we have the 
$500 per child tax credit, we reduce inheritance taxes, we reduce the 
capital gains tax, we provide tax relief for students to go to college, 
and we are winning also because we have had an agreement with the White 
House. This is a bipartisan agreement. We have the Republican 
leadership working with the White House. President Clinton has seen the 
wisdom of working with us, and we are going to make positive changes, 
as you have described.
  So your leadership here in the House and helping still accomplish 
real true tax relief for the American people is certainly a great 
testimony of why you were elected.
  Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, if the gentlewoman would yield, I want to 
point out for those who do not know you are a mother of 6 children; 
correct?
  Mrs. NORTHUP. That is right.
  Mr. KINGSTON. So when you say this is a family issue, you know 
firsthand what a family issue is about.

  Mrs. NORTHUP. Mr. Speaker, I certainly understand too, as my children 
have started on their own, each one of them, they feel so poor, they 
feel so vulnerable. They go to work every day, and there is never 
enough money. My husband and I have depended on them to be completely 
financially independent. We think that is how they grow up. But we 
certainly hear from them about the cost of insuring their car, about a 
car repair, about the challenges they face, and we remember those days 
ourselves.
  It is like 2 steps forward and 1\1/2\ steps backwards, and you 
wonder, everybody that goes to work wonders every week if they are 
making any progress financially. In fact very seldom could my husband 
and I ever see progress as we looked ahead. It is only after years of 
work that you can begin to see the progress.

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