Political Quotes

“this has to do with the child tax credit. We had a debate about it last week. I want to explain to everybody why it is so important that we continue to focus on it. Irrespective of whether we agree with the final outcome and whether the numbers were high enough in the Senate bill--and I continue to believe they were not--they are significantly better than the House position on this matter. I want to explain why. The loss of the personal exemption hits middle-income families to the tune of about $600. That has to be made up for. If you add to that the fact that over the last 15 years because of inflation, the value of the child tax credit has declined by over $300, that leads you to the conclusion that the break-even point for a child tax credit that deals with the middle-income family hit and the erosion of the value of the credit due to inflation brings you to $1,900. As a result, if you wanted to actually help families be better off than they are today, which is the goal of tax reform, the $2,000 amount in the Senate bill is basically the break-even point, plus $100. The House, unfortunately, in their bill only calls for $1,600. The first part of this motion to instruct is to ensure that the increase in the child tax credit, to our conferees instructing, be no less. Maybe it is more, but it can be no less than the $2,000 that is in the Senate bill.…”