[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13470]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            BAIT AND SWITCH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Udall) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. UDALL of New Mexico. Mr. Speaker, what the gentleman from Texas 
(Mr. DeLay) does not say is that what this piece of legislation on the 
floor today does is take away a woman's right to choose, take away a 
woman's right to reproductive freedom, and it is part of a concerted 
effort on behalf of the Republican Party to pack the courts with judges 
who would repeal Roe v. Wade. That is what the real issue is when it 
comes to this piece of legislation the gentleman from Texas just talked 
about.
  Mr. Speaker, last month, President Bush visited my home State of New 
Mexico. He came to sell his tax cut. The President said, and what many 
of his minions have been saying over the last couple of months, is that 
every taxpayer was going to be helped by this tax cut. He emphasized 
how the child tax credit would help all taxpayers. Well, now the bill 
has been signed and we have read the fine print, and guess what? New 
Mexico, in fact, is going to get very little in the way of a tax cut 
for working families. Virtually nothing. Zero. Nada.
  When I was Attorney General and we used to work on cases called 
consumer scams, we used to call this tactic bait and switch: tell them 
one thing to sell them the idea and complete the sale, and give them 
something completely different and hope they will never find out. Bait 
and switch. One of the oldest consumer scams. That is what this tax cut 
was all about.
  The Republican National Committee is also in on this scam. The 
committee, on its Web site, asks the question: Who benefits under the 
President's plan? And I read from the Web site: ``Everyone who pays 
taxes, especially middle income Americans.''
  Why bait and switch? Because they do not want you to know who gets 
the lion's share of benefits from this tax cut: millionaires. In 2005, 
200,000 taxpayers making $1 million or more will get 44 percent of the 
benefits. Eight million, mostly low- and middle-income taxpayers will 
not receive any benefit, not a penny from the law. Forty times as many 
taxpayers who get no benefit from the cuts as there are millionaires 
who get 44 percent of the law's benefits. Let me repeat: 40 times as 
many taxpayers who get no benefit from the cuts as there are 
millionaires who get 44 percent of the law's benefits.
  What can we say about a tax cut and a fiscal policy which rewards the 
rich at the expense of the middle income? What can we say about a tax 
cut which will force us to cut health care, education, and homeland 
security? What can we say about a tax cut and fiscal policy which 
deprives the government of revenue it needs to make the United States a 
strong and vital Nation?
  The normally staid Financial Times of Britain answered the question 
this way: the lunatics are now in charge of the asylum. The lunatics 
are now in charge of the asylum.

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