Charlie Rangel

Mr. RANGEL

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. Snyder].

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Vermont [Mr. Sanders].

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from North Carolina [Mr. Price]. (Mr. PRICE of North Carolina asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 10 seconds. Mr. Chairman, we are very pleased about the number of children that get the benefit. That is what the President wants. We are very disturbed that 1.8 million, that is half the kids in Illinois, will not get it. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. Spratt], the Democratic leader of the Committee on the Budget, and publicly thank him for the bipartisan effort that he made on behalf of the President and the country. (Mr. Spratt asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 10 seconds to point out to the gentleman from Arizona that as a result of the Republican bill, working Arizonan families that do not pay the Federal income tax but pay taxes on everything that they eat and drink in Arizona will be denied the benefits under the Clinton bill. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from California [Ms. Waters], chairperson of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 10 seconds. The real myth is that this is a bipartisan bill. The person who reached out to make it bipartisan is the President of the United States. He will evaluate it and he will find out that it has to be vetoed. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Markey], an outstanding Member of this Congress.

Mr. RANGEL. Taxes they can pay, and if it is not Federal income taxes and they are working hard, they do not count.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, they cannot do this to the working people. It is just not fair to do it. If they are going out and paying taxes for clothes, for food, they do not care whether it is the city tax, the State tax, the Federal tax. These are working, proud people who do not want welfare. The President said, the bipartisan committee said, if you are working and you have kids, we want to help you. But now we are saying, we really did not mean you people who do not have the Federal liability; we cannot help you.

Mr. RANGEL. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute and 10 seconds. Mr. Chairman, it is just how we are designating these working people who are working every day, who will not receive the benefit, that is almost half of the families. We keep saying they do not pay taxes.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 15 seconds. Mr. Chairman, I would just point out that we want all of the kids of working families to receive this benefit. Over half of the kids in Oklahoma will not receive it under the Republican plan. Over half of the kids in Alabama will not receive it. Fifty-six percent of the kids in New York will not receive it. Almost half of the kids in Ohio will not receive it. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Lewis], a civil rights leader, a member of the Democratic leadership.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 10 seconds to respond that there is nobody on this side that is saying that, if you do not work, you should get the child credit. Let us not talk about class war. The only class of people that we are talking about benefiting and the President wants benefited by this legislation are hard-working Americans. If you do not work, you do not get it. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon [Mr. Blumenauer].

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds. When the bottom line is there, we will find that over half of the kids from working families in the State of Texas, in the State of Ohio will not benefit under the Republican bill. Mr. Chairman, I yield 10 minutes to the gentleman from California [Mr. Matsui], a senior member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Kleczka].

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 15 seconds to point out that we wish we could afford the luxury of having corporations that make money not to pay taxes, but again it is just not fair because we would rather see whether we can change the Republican bill and maybe we can in conference. In its present form, 58 percent of the children of Louisiana would not be eligible and that is 3 out of 5; two-thirds of the kids in Mississippi will not receive it; 52 percent of the kids in Georgia will not receive it; 41 percent in the State of Washington will not receive it; half of those in Illinois will not receive it. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin [Mr. Kleczka].

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield 10 seconds to the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Mrs. Kennelly].

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Mrs. Kennelly], a senior member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds to tell the gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. Parker] that Democrats apologize to him that the corporations, because we are asking them to pay some minimum tax and they wipe that out, but the reason we do it is because two- thirds of the children in Mississippi will not get the child credit under the Republican bill, and that is over a half million children. That is why we cannot be that generous in excluding corporations from paying taxes.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, we really cannot cut taxes when we have a deficit, can we?

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, the official count of Democratic and Republican votes, how many Republicans voted for the Clinton budget that created the atmosphere so that we can even think about tax cuts?

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman will continue to yield, and for years all we have said is that they have a responsibility to pay something.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman is saying that successful corporations enjoying tax welfare benefits that now are forced by laws of the Congress to pay taxes, that in the Republican bill is just wiped out.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 1 minute. The President said he wanted working families, not welfare families, to get a tax break for their kids. So no matter how we cut it with charts, the bottom line is going to be how many kids are going to be denied because certain people thought they did not make enough money. Almost half of the children in Connecticut, 44 percent, more than 430,000 children, will be denied because these working families are not entitled to the benefits under the Republican bill; and 56 percent in California, that is over 5 million children, will be denied. These are working families. Half of the children in Michigan, 1.3 million children of working families, will be denied under the Republican plan; and 50 percent in the State of Kentucky, children of working families, will be denied the benefit that the President thought he had a promise made on when he went into a dialog with the Republicans. For these reasons the President finds the unfairness, and for these reasons, he would veto. Mr. Chairman, I yield 15 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Bonior], the Democratic whip.

Mr. RANGEL. I yield myself 5 seconds, Mr. Chairman. I would just like to point out that we can get all the statistics we want, but if we ask the Governors of the States, under the Republican bill almost half of the children will not get the credit that the President wants, and that is more than 1.6 million children. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Chairman, I yield 15 minutes to the gentleman from Washington [Mr. McDermott].