[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 11]
[House]
[Page 14321]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                TAX CUT STEALING FROM FUTURE GENERATIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Solis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SOLIS. Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise to speak on behalf of future 
generations of Americans. The needs of these children, and their 
children, are clear. They need a strong economy, quality education, 
health care and a clean environment.
  The $350 billion tax cut passed by House Republicans provides none of 
this. In fact, the tax cut steals from the future to feed the greedy of 
today.
  Last-minute changes made by Republicans will prevent families, like 
this one, with incomes of less than $26,000, who have 11.9 million 
children, from receiving the child tax credit. In fact, 1 out of every 
4 families in my district in California will get no child tax credit.
  Working families, like the one pictured here, who told me how hard 
they are working just to provide basic needs for their children, will 
get nothing. House Republicans claim they could not fit these families 
into their tax cut. Somehow they found plenty of room, however, to 
allow corporations such as Enron to continue to hide $50 billion in 
offshore tax shelters.
  How can I go back to my district and tell families such as this one 
that their children will get no tax relief because Republicans chose to 
protect corporate tax shelters instead?
  In the Republican plan to rob the future, millionaires get $90,000 in 
tax cuts, while working families like this one, who build and 
invigorate our economy, will get next to nothing.
  For example, 47 percent of the people in my State of California will 
get a total tax cut of less than $100. One hundred dollars does not go 
too far in California, which has some of the highest costs of living in 
the country; 140,000 of those families in my district will get no child 
tax credit, and many of these families saw their sons and daughters and 
fathers and mothers go off to the war. Across the country, there are 
250,000 children of active duty military families, such as these, that 
will receive no child tax credit.
  These families all sacrifice when we ask them to protect future 
generations of Americans. How can I go home and tell these families 
that their own and future generations will get nothing because 
Republicans would not even sacrifice a few thousand dollars of the 
millionaire's $93,000 tax cut?
  Families in my district and across the country suffer from rapidly 
increasing rates of asthma and respiratory disease. How can I tell them 
the pollution that compromises their health will only get worse because 
Republicans made room for $100,000 tax breaks for the largest, most 
polluting SUVs?
  These same families, along with families of 9.2 million children 
across the country, already cannot get relief for their children 
because they have no health insurance. How can I tell them that we 
could have provided this coverage, but instead Republicans chose to 
create a $350 billion tax cut that goes mostly to the wealthy?
  Everywhere we look we see future generations in peril. We have 
schools that need $300 billion in maintenance and repair, a No Child 
Left Behind Act that is short $9.7 billion, 44 million people with no 
health care, basic water infrastructure in critical decline, and 9 
million people unemployed.
  With a $400 billion deficit and 100,000 jobs lost from the economy 
each month, we have few resources and little time to deal with this 
problem. Yet Republicans spend our time forcing through a tax plan that 
primarily helps millionaires, offshore tax haven, and large SUVs.
  This is nothing short of a crime. The future has been stolen from 
future generations, like this family.

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