NAN A. S. HAYWORTH: “Is this $500 per child tax credit helping almost 90 percent of our population earning under $75,000? That is something…”

“Is this $500 per child tax credit helping almost 90 percent of our population earning under $75,000? That is something that we absolutely have to herald and have to remind the American people of, and, further, I think it is just vital to understand that our current policy and indeed as I have heard some people put it, working families are those earning under $75,000 a year. Indeed, 2 years ago, in the first State of the Union Message, the gentleman from Pennsylvania and I were personally in attendance here for having been newly elected to the Congress; President Clinton called working families those families making under $75,000 a year, which begs the question: Should families making in excess of that somehow be punished? Should there be an arbitrary line where we designate Americans as working but those Americans, ofttimes two-income families who work hard, who cross that magic $75,000 line, is it being implied that are not working families, that they are not worth of tax relief? Mr. Speaker and my colleagues, it is obvious, relief must come because we are penalizing people who are succeeding.”