[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13813-13814]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           VETERANS BENEFITS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, I think the folks watching C-SPAN may 
sometimes get confused because they hear us stand here and give 
confusing or contradictory arguments. They do not know perhaps who to 
believe, but I want to speak about two things that we have done in the 
House recently, and I would challenge my colleagues on the other side 
of the aisle or the leadership within this administration to contradict 
what I am saying.
  This House passed a budget not many weeks ago that cut veterans 
benefits over the next 10 years by $6.2 billion. That is a fact. It is 
an absolute fact, and tonight, in the United States of America, while 
we have young men and women defending our Nation in Iraq, we are 
rationing health care to our Nation's veterans, rationing health care.
  This administration has decided to say to a whole host of veterans, 
which they call priority eight veterans, you are high income and, 
consequently, you are out of here, you cannot participate in the VA 
health care system.
  What do they mean by high income? In my District, they can be making 
as little as $22,000 a year and be considered high income. Think of 
that. Not only are they wanting to simply deny care for many veterans, 
but for others they want to impose additional financial burdens. They 
want to increase the cost of a prescription drug from $7 to $15 a 
prescription. They want to add a new annual enrollment fee of $250. 
They want to increase the cost of a clinic visit from $15 to $20.
  Mr. Speaker, when is it going to stop? When are we going to stop 
requiring more out of our veterans so that we can give larger tax cuts 
to the richest people in this country, many of whom have never served 
in the military?

                              {time}  2215

  But we did something else in this House a few days ago. We passed a 
tax cut bill. And in that tax cut bill we took care of the 
millionaires. In fact, in that bill, if you have an annual income of $1 
million, you get a tax cut of about $93,000. But we did something else 
that is shameful. We actually excluded children of poor working 
families from receiving the child tax credit benefit. It was not a 
mistake. It was done purposefully. We excluded about 12 million of 
America's children from that benefit. Think of that.
  CNN reported that ``Mr. DeLay, the conservative Texan, brushed aside 
criticism that the last bill didn't make an expanded child tax credit 
available to millions of poor families. But he said the House 
Republicans might support doing so if it prodded seniors to vote for a 
broader tax relief package.''

[[Page 13814]]

  In other words, the majority leader is going to hold poor children 
hostage in an attempt to get a larger tax break for his wealthy 
friends. I think that is shameful. I know of no other word that 
accurately describes that policy.
  But do not take my word for it, Mr. Speaker. I hope those watching on 
C-SPAN do not just assume that because I am a Democrat that I am 
standing up here and taking an unfair shot at the Republicans. Senator 
John McCain is quoted in this same CNN story as saying, in regard to 
this leaving out 12 million children in the Republican tax plan, ``My 
God, what kind of message are we sending when we leave out low-income 
families?''
  And exactly in that category are the enlisted men and women who are 
fighting in Iraq. At this moment, in Iraq, are moms and dads who have 
children waiting here in this country. And the Republican tax plan 
excludes those children from this tax credit benefit.
  Senator McCain concludes his remarks by saying, ``it's beyond 
belief.'' That is not a Democrat talking, that is Republican Senator 
John McCain.
  Mr. Speaker, this issue gets to the heart of who we are as a people. 
We are willing to give huge tax cuts to the richest among us and 
exclude 12 million of America's children who live in poor families.

                          ____________________