Brad Miller: “when the House passed an $82 billion child tax credit bill a few weeks ago, I was a problem child among the Democrats. I…”

“when the House passed an $82 billion child tax credit bill a few weeks ago, I was a problem child among the Democrats. I wanted to vote for the bill. I wanted to give the tax credit to the working families who were left out by the House before. And to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley), I wanted to extend it. I wanted to make it permanent for all the families who got that child tax credit. I knew we could not afford it, but we cannot afford any of tax cuts we have passed this year. And of all the tax cuts passed by this House, only the child tax credit really helped the middle class. I want to give the middle class some tax relief; and if we are going to dig a deeper and deeper deficit hole, why not let a couple of the shovelfuls help the middle class? I ultimately voted against the bill because I knew that what the middle class, what working families would have to do without would hurt middle class and working families far more than the tax credit would help them, like funding for education, the health care reform we so desperately need, a solvent Medicare and Social Security system and on and on.”