David Obey: “I wanted to vote for this bill, as I indicated earlier. There is much in it that I would like to support. I was one of…”

“I wanted to vote for this bill, as I indicated earlier. There is much in it that I would like to support. I was one of the original sponsors of the child tax credit, for instance, with Vice President Gore some 5 years ago. I certainly supported the education tax credits. I support what we are trying to do for health care for kids. But there are a number of fundamental tests which this bill fails. The most important test to me is whether or not it provides most of the tax relief to middle-income families. The fact is it does not. As this chart will show, the wealthiest 5 percent of people in this country, those who make over $112,000 a year, will get six times as much tax relief as the 60 percent of all Americans who make less than $36,000 a year. I do not describe that as being fair. In fact, the wealthiest 1 percent, who make more than $250,000 a year, will get more in tax relief than the 80 percent of American people who make less than $60,000. That is simply not fair. Secondly, if we take a look at what happens with the wealthiest 1 percent, the wealthiest 1 percent will get $16,000 on average for a tax cut. The poorest 20 percent who make on average $8,000 will actually have a tax increase of $39. That does not shrink the gap between the wealthy and the poor in this country. It makes it worse. I do not think this Congress should do that. I think it can do better.”