[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 113 (Thursday, September 21, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1555]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    CHILDHOOD CANCER AWARENESS MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                             HON. RON PAUL

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 21, 2000

  Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, because September is Childhood Cancer 
Awareness Month this is an excellent time to reflect on the problems 
faced by working parents struggling to meet the needs of a child 
stricken with cancer. I am sure that all would agree that there are few 
Americans more in need of tax relief than families forced to devote 
every available resource to caring for a child with a terminal illness 
such as cancer. This is why I have introduced the Family Health Tax Cut 
Act (H.R. 4799). This legislation provides a $3,000 tax credit to 
parents caring for a child with cancer, another terminal disease, or 
any other serious health condition requiring long-term care. H.R. 4799 
also helps all working parents provide routine health care for their 
children by providing them with a $500 per child tax credit.
  The bill will be particularly helpful to those parents whose 
employers cannot afford to provide their employees' health insurance. 
Often-times those employees work in low-income jobs and thus must 
struggle to provide adequate health care for their children. This 
burden is magnified when the child needs special care to cope with 
cancer or a physical disability. Yet, thanks to Congress' refusal to 
grant individuals the same tax breaks for health-care expenses it 
grants businesses, these hard-working parents receive little or no tax 
relief to help them cope with the tremendous expenses of caring for a 
child requiring for a child requiring long-term or specialized care.
  According to research on the effects of this bill done by my staff 
and legislative counsel, the benefit of these tax credits would begin 
to be felt by joint filers with incomes slightly above 18,000 dollars a 
year or single income filers with incomes slightly above 15,000 dollars 
per year. Clearly this bill will be of the most benefit to working 
families balancing the demands of taxation with the needs of their 
children.
  Under the Family Health Tax Cut Act, a struggling single mother with 
an asthmatic child would at last be able to provide for her child's 
needs; while a working-class family will have less worry about how they 
will pay the bills if one of their children requires lengthy 
hospitalization or some other form of specialized care.
  Mr. Speaker, it is tough enough for working families to cope with a 
child with a serious illness without having to sacrifice resources that 
should be used for the care of that child to the federal government. It 
is hard to think of a more compassionate action this Congress can take 
than to reduce taxes on America's parents in order to allow them to 
help provide quality health care to their children. I therefore call on 
my colleagues to join me in helping working parents provide health care 
to their children by cosponsoring H.R. 4799, the Family Health Tax Cut 
Act.

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