Elizabeth Furse: “plain and simple, the answer on this bill is we cannot afford it. We cannot afford to give tax breaks to people who do…”

“plain and simple, the answer on this bill is we cannot afford it. We cannot afford to give tax breaks to people who do not need them, even if they are our friends, and we cannot afford to cut school loans, housing assistance, school lunches, nutrition for the elderly because that will hurt our future. Now we can afford to cut some other programs, but if we cut programs, we need to put that saving to the deficit, not to tax cuts for corporations. We hear a lot today about this $500 child credit, but I would like to tell you who gets the credit. One-third of the children of America will not get any credit, and yet they will be the ones who most need it because they will be the children, the one-third who are in the lower tax bracket. They will not get the break, but, Mr. Chairman, they will get the debt. You have to have enough money to file an income tax return to get this $500, but those one-third of American children will not have that money. Now what about this tax break? OK. If your income is between $30,000 and $75,000, where most of us are, you will get $760 in return, but you will also get higher interest rates. But if your income is over $200,000, you will get $11,000 in a tax break. That is a great deal. Except that 41 million households are in that first category getting $760, and only 2.8 million will get the $11,000. Same old story, once again the rich are getting richer. Now, some of our biggest corporations under this bill will not pay any taxes.”