Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Republican Leaders in House Sending to Floor Child Tax Credit Bill

Aired June 12, 2003 - 08:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: To Washington, where Republican leaders in the House are sending to the floor a child tax credit bill that would extend the benefits to low income families, a bill that many lawmakers say is flawed, but it is expected to pass and that perhaps may please the White House, which is pushing now for this in the House, much like the Senate passed it last week.
Kate Snow on Capitol Hill takes us through it -- Kate, good morning.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill.

Well, here's the big difference. The House is going to do this today, but a lot bigger than what the Senate did last week. House Republican leaders have basically decided that, OK, if Democrats want to fix this, essentially, and cover all those lower income families, give them a refund for the child tax credit, then Republicans say let's go all the way, let's have everyone who gets the child tax credit get it through the year 2010.

Democrats don't like the size of the package in the House, but ultimately they're probably going to end up going for this, too. Meantime, the White House is saying, according to members I've talked to, senators and House members, we don't care how you do it, just get this off the radar screen. And here is why.

Look at the pictures from yesterday. We talked about this yesterday morning, about 100 moms and dads and strollers with their babies. They came to town yesterday. They are hurting the Republicans' image. You had them marching past the capital, past the Supreme Court to the office of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The march organized by the Children's Defense Fund, a liberal leaning group.

Organizers said they wanted to tell Tom DeLay to fix the child tax credit for lower income families without heaping on other tax breaks.

Now, most of the people, including these three women right here, said they didn't really understand this whole issue. They just knew they were here to march to help kids. Republicans say that's exactly the problem. It's more about image that the Democrats have capitalized on. Republicans say they failed to get their message out, they're being misunderstood. They say this isn't something that was left out of the tax bill, but something Democrats never pushed for in the first place. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ROB PORTMAN (R), OHIO: First of all, this provision was not dropped out of any legislation. It was not part of the president's proposal, as he submitted it to us in the House. It was not in the House bill. It was not debated. The Democrats didn't debate it in committee or on the floor. It was not even raised. It was raised at the eleventh hour in the United States Senate in the committee to get the votes of one additional senator. When that senator determined that she was not going to vote for the final package, it was obvious that it wouldn't be part of the package.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Republicans philosophically say people who don't pay income taxes shouldn't be getting an extra tax break. But they say they're willing to go ahead and make this change, Bill, today so that the issue will be off the table. One senior leadership aide in the Senate says to us, look, this isn't what we wanted to be focused on this month. This is a distraction, this fight. We wanted to be talking about prescription drugs for seniors -- Bill.

HEMMER: Kate Snow on Capitol Hill.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Credit Bill>


Aired June 12, 2003 - 08:09   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: To Washington, where Republican leaders in the House are sending to the floor a child tax credit bill that would extend the benefits to low income families, a bill that many lawmakers say is flawed, but it is expected to pass and that perhaps may please the White House, which is pushing now for this in the House, much like the Senate passed it last week.
Kate Snow on Capitol Hill takes us through it -- Kate, good morning.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Bill.

Well, here's the big difference. The House is going to do this today, but a lot bigger than what the Senate did last week. House Republican leaders have basically decided that, OK, if Democrats want to fix this, essentially, and cover all those lower income families, give them a refund for the child tax credit, then Republicans say let's go all the way, let's have everyone who gets the child tax credit get it through the year 2010.

Democrats don't like the size of the package in the House, but ultimately they're probably going to end up going for this, too. Meantime, the White House is saying, according to members I've talked to, senators and House members, we don't care how you do it, just get this off the radar screen. And here is why.

Look at the pictures from yesterday. We talked about this yesterday morning, about 100 moms and dads and strollers with their babies. They came to town yesterday. They are hurting the Republicans' image. You had them marching past the capital, past the Supreme Court to the office of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The march organized by the Children's Defense Fund, a liberal leaning group.

Organizers said they wanted to tell Tom DeLay to fix the child tax credit for lower income families without heaping on other tax breaks.

Now, most of the people, including these three women right here, said they didn't really understand this whole issue. They just knew they were here to march to help kids. Republicans say that's exactly the problem. It's more about image that the Democrats have capitalized on. Republicans say they failed to get their message out, they're being misunderstood. They say this isn't something that was left out of the tax bill, but something Democrats never pushed for in the first place. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ROB PORTMAN (R), OHIO: First of all, this provision was not dropped out of any legislation. It was not part of the president's proposal, as he submitted it to us in the House. It was not in the House bill. It was not debated. The Democrats didn't debate it in committee or on the floor. It was not even raised. It was raised at the eleventh hour in the United States Senate in the committee to get the votes of one additional senator. When that senator determined that she was not going to vote for the final package, it was obvious that it wouldn't be part of the package.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Republicans philosophically say people who don't pay income taxes shouldn't be getting an extra tax break. But they say they're willing to go ahead and make this change, Bill, today so that the issue will be off the table. One senior leadership aide in the Senate says to us, look, this isn't what we wanted to be focused on this month. This is a distraction, this fight. We wanted to be talking about prescription drugs for seniors -- Bill.

HEMMER: Kate Snow on Capitol Hill.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




Credit Bill>