Political Quotes

“It was a compromise. It was not what I wanted. I wanted a fully refundable tax credit, but I was looking at our current work requirements for this tax credit and I said to myself--even though a work requirement really defies the whole purpose of a child supplement--if we were to compromise and had a work requirement, why would someone, who through no-fault of their own, finds themselves working for $7.25 an hour; they are subject to rules under our welfare reform protocols, under our TANF legislation, to work 20 hours a week when they have young children. I had the Joint Committee on Taxation do an analysis and if a woman with two kids worked 20 hours a week, did everything that was expected of her, she still would not qualify for this tax credit. And if she wanted to get a fully refundable tax credit, she would have to neglect her children in order to do it. She would have to work more than 40 hours, Mr. Speaker, in order to qualify. That is slavery, you all. I mean, why are we continuing to cling to these old models of financing our economy and deciding that women, who by definition are typically single parents struggling to raise their kids, must work more than 40 hours in order to receive a benefit from their government? Why is that? What do they have against these poor children? Ms. DeLAURO. You ask a very relevant question. We have seen Congressman Casar, Congressman Scott, yourself, we have seen it on this floor, the denigration of working families in this country.…”