This means that a mother of two who earns $65,000 a year will soon find an extra $800 in her mailbox, and rightfully so.  Meanwhile, a mother of two who earns up to $26,625 will find an empty mailbox.  That’s simply not fair. 

We had to explain that this past week to a single mother from our district who earns $16,000 a year.  She was under the impression that she would be getting the child tax credit, and wanted our office to settle an argument with a friend who insisted she didn’t qualify.  We had to tell her that indeed, she lost that argument, and because House Republicans did not act on the Senate-passed version, she will not be included in this benefit. 

It is simply wrong to enact a tax cut in the name of economic relief and not give that relief to those who are trying to do the right thing and stay off welfare, work jobs with few or no benefits, struggling to make ends meet and provide for their children.     

For those who argue that a tax cut shouldn’t be provided for those who “don’t pay taxes”, I’m sorry, but that’s incorrect.   

We are not talking about a tax cut for welfare recipients; we are talking about a tax cut for working families.  Working individuals who pay a significant part of their income in taxes, including Social Security and Medicare taxes, gas taxes, sales taxes and property taxes – taxes which are never cut – should be entitled to share in the benefits of a tax cut, particularly since it is their Social Security Trust Fund that is being tapped into to pay for this tax cut for the wealthy. 

It is only fair that tax cuts benefit all working Americans who contribute – the 76,000 working families in Arkansas, and the 6.5 million working families across our country  - the families of our firefighters, our policemen, our teachers, and even families with loved ones fighting in Iraq – all contribute, and all deserve economic relief.