[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 93 (Monday, June 23, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE CHILD TAX CREDIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Garrett). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, nearly a month ago, this body passed a $350 
billion tax cut that benefited primarily the top 1 percent in the 
country. Warren Buffett and others, who although would benefit from it, 
spoke against that tax cut. Prior to that evening, the day before, 
Republicans out of the House and the Senate, with the Vice President, 
got together to work out an agreement. And we later found out, 2 days 
afterwards, nobody had known that 12 million children, 6.5 million 
working families, had been left out of that tax cut. It actually was in 
the Senate bill. Somehow, when the Vice President got in the room with 
the Republican House leadership here, the 12 million children of 
working families were left on the editing floor, because there was 
nobody outside of that conference room where the leadership met to 
represent the voice of 12 million children of working families.
  Now, in about a week from now a good portion of the wealthiest 1 
percent will begin to receive what people on average think is close to 
$100,000 worth of tax cuts. Now, we have passed in the other body and 
in the House a tax cut to ameliorate and address this shortcoming that 
both the President says he wants done, the other body leadership say 
they want done and leadership in this Chamber say they want done.
  Now, we need to address this problem, because in one week we have a 
tax cut that is going into place that has left out 12 million children 
of working parents, 6.5 million families. These are the families that 
are rookie cops, first-year firefighters, first-year teachers, nurses, 
single mothers. We can provide a tax cut for these children.
  Now, this is in contrast to in May, this body provided a $25 billion 
tax credit to the energy companies to do what? To drill for oil. Now, 
the last time I checked that is supposed to be in their business plan. 
They are supposed to be doing that as a purpose of their business. That 
is what they exist for. In the very week that we passed a $25 billion 
tax credit for the energy industry to do what, to drill, Exxon Mobil 
reported, and I want to read this absolutely correctly so nobody can 
get this wrong; Exxon reported that their net quarterly income had 
tripled and that it had $12.3 billion in cash on hand. Mr. Speaker, 
$12.3 billion cash on hand. Their net quarterly profits had tripled. We 
had passed them a $25 billion tax cut, so they could do what? Drill for 
oil. That is the main mission of what that energy company does.
  Enron, in the 4 out of the last 5 years, had never paid any corporate 
income taxes, yet received subsidies to the tune of $200 million in tax 
subsidies, in grants through the Export-Import Bank, to do what? 
Provide an energy project in India. WorldCom, in 2 out of 3 years, paid 
no corporate income taxes and yet they reported $12.5 billion in 
corporate profits. In fact, last week in our Committee on Budget in a 
hearing on waste, fraud, and abuse, Robert McIntyre, as well as the 
comptroller of the country, spoke about many tax credits and tax 
incentives that are used for corporations to do what they are supposed 
to do, and a great deal of mismanagement of our dollars are spent for 
these corporate welfare programs. Yet 12 million children could be 
provided a tax cut as they go into summer camp, as their parents start 
planning for the next year to buy shoes and new clothes for the school 
year.
  So myself and other Members are going to start marking off the day as 
we get closer and closer, as the wealthy in this country start to get 
their tax cut, we are going to mark off the days as we begin to forget 
our children. Today is June 23, and now we count down to the day in 
which the checks start to go out. Yet the conference has not met, there 
has been no leadership out of the White House; no leadership shown to 
bring together both parties around a common set of values.
  Now, we can disagree about whether the first $350 billion tax cut 
should have been paid; we can disagree about whether corporate welfare 
should exist in the form of Enron not paying any corporate taxes; 
whether Exxon Mobil having $12.5 billion cash on hand deserved another 
$25 billion in tax credits to drill for oil. We can disagree on all of 
that, but surely we can come together around a common set of values, 
that if you work hard, if you are trying to do right by your children, 
raise them with the right set of values, that these families who make 
$12,000, $13,000, $14,000 a year, what a Congressman makes in a month, 
that they deserve a full $1,000 child tax credit.
  We are going to count down the days every day to remind this body 
that until that day comes, that these families deserve a tax cut. They 
deserve to be rewarded for making the right choice of work over 
welfare. They deserve to get a tax cut like the wealthiest 1 percent in 
this country. Everybody seems to agree, yet nobody can come together 
into the same room to work out not only our economic interests, but our 
values and commonality.
  So I would hope that as we mark this day that we would find the same 
interests that drove us so fast to give Exxon a tax credit to drill for 
oil, that we worked so fast and furious to give the wealthiest 1 
percent in this country $100,000 in tax cuts, that we find the same 
moral courage, the same discipline, the same foresight to give the 12 
million children, 6.5 million families who work every day, get up in 
the morning, do not come home until late at night, try to do right by 
their children, have chosen the voyage of work and raised their 
children with a common set of values that we all espouse to represent 
and to want to reward; that we should not put another speed bump in 
their way as they try to raise their family. We should give them the 
tax cut that says you have done right, your children deserve it, you 
deserve it, because this is their money, too.
  So today we mark off that day as we count down to July 1, when the 
first set of checks go out to the wealthiest 1 percent, and yet we here 
in Washington representing these people have not found the time to come 
together to come to an agreement to give a voice to their values, to 
give a choice to our common sense of purpose here.

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