[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 13536]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              MILLIONAIRE TAX BREAK LEAVES CHILDREN BEHIND

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, in this business you can tend to talk in 
big numbers, and you can talk about big issues and a lot of other 
things; but very often some of the most poignant and powerful things 
come to you in the mail or in e-mail.
  All the Members of the House walk around with these Blackberrys on 
their waist, and I got an e-mail today from a woman in my district. I 
really do not know how she got my e-mail. I am sort of surprised by 
that, but she is pretty creative. But she says: ``Our government should 
stand for basic fairness and justice. That is why I do not understand 
why families earning between $10,000 and $26,000 per year would be 
excluded from receiving the $400 per child tax refund that the 
wealthier families will receive this summer just so millionaires can 
have bigger tax cuts.''
  She gets it. She understands that we have taken money away from the 
people at the bottom and said we are going to give it to the people at 
the top. The American people understand.
  She went on to say: ``As a constituent I ask you to please amend 
President Bush's unfair tax cut plan to include these poor families and 
their 12 million kids.''
  She even has the numbers right.
  To leave the tax cut as it is brings too much shame upon this great 
Nation. Then she adds: ``I know this firsthand. I have a son trying to 
support a wife and two children on $11 an hour.''
  I sat down and figured out what that amounts to. That is $22,000 a 
year in Seattle, which is a very high-cost area to live in, and they 
are trying to live on less than $2,000 a month. They pay taxes. They 
pay the FICA taxes. They pay for their Social Security, and they pay 
for their Medicare. They pay 7 percent of that $22,000. So that means 
every year they pay $1,400 in taxes. I do not know how much they pay 
because I could not get to them. I called them. I could not find out if 
they paid any income tax or not, but they are paying taxes.
  And the President and the group who put this bill together, I cannot 
understand how you could look at somebody in the eye who is working 
full time, has a wife and two children, the wife is staying home taking 
care of the kids, how you could look at them and say, We are not going 
to give you one thin dime. I mean, that takes a real heart of steel or 
rock. But we are going to give you who have a million dollars, we are 
going to give you $93,000.
  Now, think about the unfairness of that. People want to talk that 
this is class warfare; that that is warfare on working people who are 
trying hard to get there. Now, the President says we are not going to 
leave any child behind. He stood right in here and I was moved by that. 
I thought, as a child psychiatrist, I thought how wonderful to have a 
President who is not going to leave any child behind. And then I saw 
his budget. He puts the bill out here, and he told us how much it was 
going to cost to do this education program, Leave No Child Behind; but 
they gave $9 billion less than was necessary.
  Now, I do not know how he figures that we could have a program where 
we are not going to leave anybody behind, but we do not put out the 
money that we say we need.

                              {time}  1930

  That is this family, this family. These kids need an education.
  Tell me, how are their parents going to put any money aside so that 
they can go to college? They are making $22,800. What is the likelihood 
that they are putting money away for those kids to go to college? One 
does not have to be a rocket scientist to know that they are spending 
every dime on rent and food, or maybe they are buying their house.
  I hope they have got a house, although it is pretty hard to get a 
loan when a person only has that kind of income. But let us hope they 
are buying their house and they have got food for their kids and 
clothes and some gasoline for the automobile, maybe the car payment, 
and what is left after a person has $22,800?
  People came in here and rammed this bill through. It did not have a 
hearing in the Committee on Ways and Means. They were not going to let 
us do that. We had 2 hours of debate and out she goes, and then they 
send us home and the President signs it and hopes nobody figures out 
what is in the bill.
  This lady figured it out. She is not stupid. Her kids are not stupid, 
but the Republicans think they are, and they are not going to get away 
with that. The American people are not going to stand up for this.

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