Jay Rockefeller: “I am going to vote for the Daschle alternative. It is a more difficult decision if you have been on the Finance…”

“I am going to vote for the Daschle alternative. It is a more difficult decision if you have been on the Finance Committee, because of what the others who have spoken of which has been referred to as the oath that we took, to support the bill. I view my oath as being upheld, and I say so for the following reasons. This is a moral issue with me as well as a political philosophy issue. The piece of paper that we bound ourselves to, I will stick by. I was not satisfied, for example, with the earned income tax credit/ child tax credit relationship that came back. I read it to be a certain thing. It did not turn out to be that way. On the other hand, for those eight pieces on that piece of paper--Finance Committee members will know what I am talking about--I did say that I would uphold those on the floor. And I will continue to uphold those. If, for example, a Democrat offers an amendment which would bring the EITC, child care credit, or child tax credit--bring it more in my direction, the way I would like it to be, then I will oppose that even though it is in the best interests of the country, and, I think, the right policy in our country.”