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




                            CHILD TAX CREDIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I applaud American enterprise. 
I applaud those successful individuals who even in the backdrop of a 
horrible economy are making millions and millions of dollars and seeing 
the money roll in as they count the dollars one by one by one by one. I 
applaud it. America is a capitalistic society. We encourage people to 
pull themselves up by their boot straps, be creative, found businesses 
and roll on to success.
  We have looked at a world of corporate success over the last year, 
the WorldComs of the world, the Enrons of the world, and the list goes 
on and on and on. In spite of the great successes and failures that 
these great corporations have had, the tax bill that we have just 
passed has decided to reward them and their many other friends. Why? 
Because my good friends on the other side of the aisle say that they 
pay taxes and we do not want to reward those deadbeat, hardworking 
Americans who make between $10,500 to $26,625, working every day, 
leaving at 4 and 5 and 6 a.m. in the morning, arriving home on the 
local mode of transportation at 6, 7, 8 or 9 p.m., working every day, 
preparing dinner for their family minimally and rising again the next 
day, because they do not pay taxes, Mr. Speaker.
  Let me correct the record. They do pay taxes. They pay payroll taxes, 
property taxes, sales taxes. They pay taxes.
  I am a little offended, Mr. Speaker, when someone can suggest that we 
are trying to change the IRS system into a welfare system. The one 
thing that we have said in this country is that all of us deserve the 
dignity and respect that comes from being simply a human being. All of 
us may come upon hard times. In fact, we have been so generous over the 
years that we have been willing to bail out large corporations, wealthy 
in their own right, but we have said we need to bail out these 
corporations. Many of us have said that maybe that should be called 
corporate welfare, but we believe that because the engine of this 
Nation is business that we need to provide assistance so that these 
corporations can survive, but yet Republicans want to denigrate 
hardworking Americans making $10,500 a year and deny them a child tax 
credit.
  Even more so, they do not want to come to this floor of the House for 
a lousy $3.5 billion and correct the travesty that they created just 2 
weeks ago. And do my colleagues know that, Mr. Speaker, even the child 
tax credit that is in the bill, do my colleagues know the real secret? 
It expires in 2004. Why? Because they did not want us to know that they 
were actually imploding the budget, building the deficit and they did 
not want us to know that really this is a meager pittance that they are 
giving on the child tax credit because it really expires in 2004 
because they wanted to give us the mirage of a $350 billion tax cut 
that ultimately may be $1.6 trillion, and the way to do that is to have 
these little expiration dates.
  Not only are we playing games with hardworking Americans, denigrating 
them and suggesting that they are only welfare recipients and the only 
way that they should be able to get a child tax credit is we make the 
IRS system or the tax system a welfare system, but let me tell my 
colleagues again the secret, that this actually does not give Americans 
much of a break because in the Republican plan it expires in 2004.
  Mr. Speaker, I am here to stand here tonight to applaud the 
hardworking Americans who get up every morning and do the things that 
make this country run. I am proud of standing with them. I am proud of 
the Americans that work overtime and deserve overtime compensation, and 
I will stand against any legislation that desires to eliminate overtime 
compensation for comp time that may be given or may not, just as I am 
willing to stand for all the teachers' aides, nurses' aides, all of the 
hardworking bus drivers, all the hardworking sanitation workers and 
anybody else that works hard every day helping this country run.
  I want people to have a child tax credit, 6.5 million families, 12 
million children. Any day of this year, any day of my career, I will 
stand with the hardworking Americans over those folks who are fat and 
happy talking about they pay taxes. Americans who work hard pay taxes, 
too.

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