Richard Gephardt: “first I rise today to congratulate all who were involved in this negotiation. I especially want to congratulate my…”

“first I rise today to congratulate all who were involved in this negotiation. I especially want to congratulate my President and my party for standing for very important principles in how this tax cut bill was put together. I am very proud, Mr. Speaker, of what my party stands for and, because of it, this bill has been improved. The child credit will go to hard-working families who desperately need this help. The education credit and deductions will go to help more young people go to school. There will be in this bill help for children in health care. So I am very, very proud of what my party stands for and what we have achieved. I believe that the bill that came out of the House gave about 55 percent of its benefits to families who earn over $110,000 a year. I think that has been brought down to about 44 percent. In my view, it is not where it should be, but it is clearly better. So this agreement is better because we stood on principle. I respect the motives of everyone who is here today to argue about this bill, Mr. Speaker. Everyone is voting for what in their heart and mind is the best thing for their constituents and the best thing for the country. So it is in that spirit of humility about my own decisions and my own votes and respect for the views of others that I say my decision today is to not vote for this bill, because I think it could be better and I think it should be better.”