[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13527]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      TAX FAIRNESS FOR EVERYONE, EXCEPT LOW-WAGE WORKING FAMILIES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the Republicans passed a bill last 
week which will provide a $90,000 tax cut to the Nation's millionaires, 
but let us look at what else it does.
  The independent Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center estimates that 
making the earned income tax credit marriage penalty relief effective 
this year would have offered an average tax cut of $340 to 4 million 
working American families. But the President decided to make them wait 
until 2008 for the marriage penalty relief he offered their more 
affluent neighbors. House Republican leadership had several 
opportunities to correct the President's mistake and restore fairness 
to the tax bill, but they decided to cut working families loose. So 
that is $90,000 for millionaires, not a cent for working lower-income 
families.
  The gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), the chairman of the 
Committee on Ways and Means, said, ``If you are not going to 
incentivize marriage, at the very least make sure you don't punish 
it.'' The gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), the House majority leader, 
said, ``A country founded on freedom should not maintain a tax code 
that arbitrarily places an extra burden on husbands and wives.'' 
Speaker of the House, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hastert), said, 
``We need a tax code that doesn't punish married couples. They don't 
need the Federal Government picking their pocket.''
  $90,000 for a millionaire, but nothing for married, poor, or working 
families.
  Any one of those powerful officials could have taken a stand, could 
have spoken up for low-wage working families, could have ensured that 
no legislation would pass this House that valued the marriages of 
families of wealthy Americans above those of their less affluent 
neighbors. But none of those Republican leaders said a thing. None of 
them raised a voice of concern or lifted a finger to stop the advance 
of a bill that says loud and clear to millions of Americans, your 
marriage is worth less than your neighbor's marriage or your boss's 
marriage.
  $90,000 of tax cuts for a millionaire, but not a cent for low-income 
working couples.
  Given that track record, it was disappointing, but not surprising, to 
learn the White House and the congressional Republican majority used 
their last-minute back-room deal in the tax bill to take another cheap 
shot at low-wage working families. The final conference bill brokered 
by Vice President Cheney included a last-minute change that freezes 12 
million low-wage families out of the bill's child tax credit increase.
  $90,000 for millionaires, nothing for working families, lower-income 
working families.
  At the signing ceremony for this bill, the President said, ``We are 
helping workers who need more take-home pay.'' But 7 million American 
families who pay income tax will get no benefit at all from this bill.
  $90,000 for millionaires, nothing for low-income families.
  Now that the word is out, some of our Republican colleagues are 
saying they did not know about these changes. They are looking for 
someone to blame for the decision to cut low-wage working families 
loose on the child tax credit. But the deal was cut by the Vice 
President and his party's leadership, so the ``I did not know it'' 
excuse just simply does not wash.
  If the White House had wanted to correct the injustices in the tax 
bill, if Republican leadership had been serious about fairness for 
married couples and children, there were plenty of opportunities. They 
could have dropped the average tax cut for millionaires, like the 
President's friend, Enron's CEO Chair Ken Lay, from $93,000 to $88,000, 
and that would have left enough money to give that tax break to working 
families.
  They could have dropped the dividend tax cut that the President and 
Vice President worked so hard for, just over 2 percent, and the capital 
gains provision cost just 2 percent; and that would have paid for those 
lower-income working families who do pay taxes.
  So they could have offset the cost by including some responsible 
corporate tax loophole reforms. We all know corporate expatriates like 
Tyco and Stanley use loopholes in the law to abandon their U.S. 
headquarters and reincorporate overseas. So they give tax breaks to 
them, they give tax breaks to millionaires, but not a cent for so many 
low-income working families in this country.
  The simple truth is this was not a mistake. Any Republican Member of 
the House who thinks it was should listen carefully to today's 
statement by their elected majority leader. Asked about the prospects 
for legislative proposals to restore just some fairness, just a bit of 
fairness to the child tax credit, the majority leader, DeLay, said, 
``There is a lot of other things that are more important than that.''

                              {time}  1815

  Mr. Speaker, $90 million for millionaires, not a cent for working, 
lower-income families. It is shameful.

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