[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14252-14253]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   IN SUPPORT OF THE CHILD TAX CREDIT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. EMANUEL. Mr. Speaker, yesterday's New York Times story ran a 
headline: ``Iraqis Are Out of Jobs, But Pay Day Still Comes.'' With the 
administration's blessing, 200,000 Iraqis are receiving $20 a day for 
no-show jobs. They do not work. They do not show up for work. They do 
not do any work. Twenty bucks a day. I come from Chicago, from Cook 
County. We like no-show jobs. We think that is a good thing. We built 
an entire political party on no-show jobs, not at 20 bucks a day; but 
for everybody's appreciation, in the last 2 months we have given Iraqi 
families nearly $900. That is equal to the amount that we would pay for 
the child credit. So we are paying Iraqis and Iraqi families 900 bucks 
over the last 2 months, which is equal to what we are fighting over 
here, which I do not believe we need to fight here in the House since 
the Senate agreed 94 to 6 for the same amount of money. Yet somehow we 
said in Iraq if they do not work, if they do not show up for work, we 
will give them 20 bucks a day. It is a no-show job. It looks pretty 
good to me. But here if they work full time, trying to help their 
families, trying to raise their kids with the right values, trying to 
provide them clothes for school, food for the summer, a camp, a 
program, YMCA, they are not part of the American family.
  I want to tell the Members something. Here is an American official, a 
government official who said nobody is going to quibble about paying a 
few dollars into this economy.
  I am going to quibble. I do not know whom he talks to. I do not know 
who is paying him except for all Americans, and he says nobody is going 
to quibble? But what we are quibbling about is whether the children of 
America, 12 million children, 6.5 million families, are going to get 
the same sense of value here in America that we are saying in Iraq that 
for 20 bucks a day they do not have to show up for work and we will pay 
them. But here if they show up for work, work hard and pay their taxes, 
they do not deserve a tax cut, that they are unappreciative.
  Who are these children? They are America's children, and they have 
done right. Parents are trying to raise them with good values, trying 
to teach them right from wrong. And what do we do in Congress? We turn 
those values on their head. We turn those values upside down and say if 
they work full time trying to do right by their kids, they do not 
deserve a tax cut. We are going to treat Iraqis with a different sense 
of values, a different sense of appreciation.
  Let us be clear about what this says about who we are. America's 
children. Enron in the last 4 out of 5 years had record profits, did 
not pay taxes 4 out of 5 years. They got breaks. WorldCom, $12.5 
billion in profits, 2 out of 3 years did not pay any taxes. They were 
big recipients of government contracts, yet did not pay taxes. We are 
paying their taxes. Tyco decided to move their address down to Bermuda, 
got a new ZIP code, new area code. $600 million dollars in government 
taxes were not paid; yet they got benefits in government contracts. 
That is a form of corporate welfare. If they do not pay, if they do not 
work and they are a corporation, we take care of them. America's 
children, 12 million of them, we are not going to give them a tax cut.
  Recently on a Friday, the unemployment rate hit 6.1 percent. When 
this President came to office, the unemployment rate was 4 percent. 
Nearly 3 million Americans have lost their jobs, and we have added $3 
trillion to the Nation's debt. What a deal, as we would say back in 
Chicago. $3 trillion dollars added to the Nation's debt, and Americans 
are paying with their jobs.
  I believe the Senate did right. They did right by our values as 
Americans; and I know people on the other side of the aisle. They are 
good people with good values, but those values that left the 12 million 
children on the floor while corporate interests were circling the 
conference room are not the values we came here to vote for. We all 
came not just to be a vote, but we came to be a voice for our values 
and the values that say WorldCom is going to get protected; Iraq, 20 
bucks, no-show jobs, they are going to get protected; 6.5 million 
American families work full time, making somewhere around $20,000, and 
I am talking about a rookie cop, first-year teacher, first-year 
emergency worker, those types of people, they are not getting a tax 
cut. They are not worthy of it.
  What does that say about who we are? So that tax bill is not just 
dollars and cents. It is a reflection of our values as Americans. And 
this person, this body, is going to quibble with an American official 
who thinks that somehow paying 20 bucks a day not to show up for work 
is valuable; but if one shows up every day trying to provide for their 
children, that is not valuable and it is not worthy of a tax cut. It is 
worthy of a tax cut. Those children are America's children. That mother 
and father earning $20,000 are as valuable as if that mother and father 
were earning $200,000.

[[Page 14253]]

  So I would say that this House, this body, we did not come here to 
just be a vote. We came here to give voice to our values and the values 
that we all represent regardless of what part of the country we come 
from. Regardless of what party we are from says that those 12 million 
children, they too deserve to go to school, they too deserve to go to 
the YMCA, they too deserve to go to the summer camp, and they too 
deserve for their parents to put funds away for their higher education; 
and we in this body need to take up the Senate bill, take up the 
DeLauro bill and vote on it immediately so the President can sign it so 
that on July 1 their tax cut gets sent too so that when they show up 
for school like the Iraqis who do not show up for work, they get a tax 
cut too.

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