John Kerry: “we just heard a debate about the $500 tax credit. We heard a number of Senators state what a critical component of the…”

“we just heard a debate about the $500 tax credit. We heard a number of Senators state what a critical component of the effort to restore families this is and how important it was to the early efforts of the contract. The fact is that the committee bill will deny 38 percent of the children in the United States with the lowest incomes access to a tax credit. In Massachusetts, as a matter of fact, 46 percent of all children would be excluded from receiving this important tax credit. That means about 850,000 children, plus, in my State, will not receive a tax credit. Now, I ask my colleagues what kind of profamily policy takes $81 billion over the next 5 years but completely denies this help to the 9.5 percent of all children in families with the lowest 20 percent of incomes, and denies the tax credit to 86.6 percent of all the families in the second 20 percent of income. I direct my colleagues' attention to this chart. These are the percentage of children ineligible for the child tax credit, the way it has been structured by the Finance Committee. Fully 99.5 percent of the lowest 20 percent, and 86.6 percent of the children in the second fifth will not get the benefit of this credit. I propose, therefore, a very simple amendment so that working families could have access to this credit.”