[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16138]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            CHILD TAX CREDIT

  (Ms. SCHAKOWSKY asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. It is obvious that the Republicans cannot do two 
important things at one time. Remember the 12 million children whose 
tax credit was dumped from the tax bill to make room for millionaires, 
including 1 million children of families in the military?
  Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Republican leader announced that they were 
just too busy. He said, We have a problem with simple logistics. That 
is why we cannot take care of the 12 million children.
  He was referring to how busy the Republicans are steamrolling through 
a bill that turns Medicare into a voucher program, throws money at 
HMOs, lets drug companies continue to gouge, and leaves seniors with 
thousands of dollars in drug bills. The majority leader, the President, 
and everybody in this body knows that we could resolve the child tax 
credit issue in a matter of hours. All that has to happen is for the 
Republican leadership to stop holding these children hostage, demanding 
a ransom of $82 billion unpaid-for tax package. All it takes is for the 
House to accept the Senate bill, as a majority of the House voted to 
do. All it would take would be for President Bush to interrupt his 
whirlwind fund-raising tour long enough to demand immediate enactment 
of the Senate bill. Surely we can find a couple of hours here so that 
12 million children are not left behind.

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