People's Weekly World Newspaper, 06/05/03 09:42

CHICAGO – With eyes as big as headlights, Tatiana Graves is the center of the world to her doting family. It’s hard to imagine anyone leaving this chubby-cheeked cherub behind. But the 5-year-old is one of 16 million American children of low-wage families who will not be receiving the highly-touted child tax credit to be issued this summer. Last-minute negotiations led by Vice President Dick Cheney cut out the low-income kids in order to leave in place tax cuts on stock dividends and capital gains for the rich.

Presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer said the bill, which Bush signed May 28, was, “in the president’s judgment … fair to all Americans.”

Tatiana’s mom, Jennifer Graves, 24, sees it another way. “He’s trying to keep people in the poorhouse,” she says bluntly. Graves is on her feet 36 hours a week at the drive-through window at McDonald’s, earning $5.35 an hour.

The complex and convoluted tax bill came under sharp attack as tax policy experts’ calculations put the lie to the president’s repeated claim that “the lowest-income workers in America … benefit the most from it.” Fifty-three percent of all households will receive no cut, or less than $100, while 184,000 of the nation’s super-rich, with incomes over $1 million annually, will rake in nearly $100,000 extra each, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The image of millions of American children being sacrificed to the raw greed of millionaires proved to be too outrageous – or perhaps just embarrassing – for even some Republicans to stomach. So a bipartisan coalition of senators led by Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) introduced a bill this week that would allow families like Tatiana’s, in the $10,500 to $26,625 income range, to join the 25 million families now slated to receive a check for $400 per child this summer. Weeks ago, Sen. Lincoln had gained Senate approval for an amendment to the tax bill assuring the inclusion of low-income families, but at a secret late-night, Republicans-only House and Senate leadership conference, the amendment was removed from the final bill.

Even if Lincoln’s measure passes and the credit is restored, other built-in injustices in the tax bill will wreak havoc on working-class and poor communities.

In Gary, Ind., public libraries have just announced a cut in hours, and a citizen’s group is scrambling to hold a fund-raiser, reports Gary Teachers Union Local 4 President Sandra Irons. “It seems like all public services are standing on a street corner with a hat,” Irons told the World.

“The worst is the cuts to our schools,” says Dorice Cusic, a 22-year food service worker in Gary’s West Side High School. Cusic works with ten other women preparing and serving breakfast and lunch to hundreds of hungry teenagers. She loves her job, “serving kids, seeing people happy with the things I fix,” but at just $18,000 a year, “it’s hard to keep the rent going.”

Sitting around the dining room table of her neatly furnished apartment with her children Alexis, 18, and Andrew, 17, Cusic decries the shortage of funds for school arts programs. Andrew looks like he could be a football player, but his passion is drawing, notes his mother proudly, and he is rarely without his sketchpad. Cusic is a savvy union activist, a member of SEIU Local 73, and doesn’t expect any benefits for families like hers from the likes of Bush. “Usually my income tax comes in February and I use it to catch up my NIPSCO (gas) bill,” she says.

Low income working families depend on tax returns, according to tax preparer Bob Balanoff, whose office on Chicago’s East Side is just a stone’s throw from the tidy bungalow where fast food worker Jennifer Graves grew up. It’s in the heart of a community devastated by decades of steel mill closings.

“Working at jobs that pay below a livable wage, they can’t afford to save money on their income,” says Balanoff of his working-class clients. “Their income tax return is the only way to get a lump sum. People plan for it all year to use for tuition, insurance and most often to get a family car.”

The latter was just what she had in mind, said Graves, speaking on her break in the McDonald’s parking lot. She’s holding out hope for the tax credit. Citing her husband Arley’s horrendous daily commute by bus and train two hours each way to his $8.50-an-hour telemarketing job in the far-west suburb of Des Plaines, she stated matter-of-factly, “We could put it toward a little car.”

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) is refusing to consider new legislation expanding the child tax credit unless it is attached to further tax cuts for the super-rich. Annoyed by charges that the tax bill was unfair to children of low-income families, DeLay told a news conference, “There are a lot of things that are more important than that.”

Roberta Wood can be reached at rwood@pww.org

This article almost seems like it must be some sort of satire, it is so misguided.

The facts remain as thus.

The hard working families that the article references DO NOT PAY ANY FEDERAL INCOME TAX AT ALL. The simply don't. They are under the income limit.

Furthermore, they recieve an earned income tax credit which, in effect, pays them back each year for any money they pay into FICA.

In addition to this they all recieve (yes, even after the tax cuts) more than $600 per child a year.

And NOW, as of yesterday, they will recieve an additional $400 per child.

So spare us the lies.

No one is getting left behind. In fact, they are being pushed further ahead.

"Tatiana’s mom, Jennifer Graves, 24, sees it another way. “He’s trying to keep people in the poorhouse,” she says bluntly. Graves is on her feet 36 hours a week at the drive-through window at McDonald’s, earning $5.35 an hour. "



Um, I fail to see why Ms Graves is complaining about her predicament, since, for whatever reason, she ended up working at a McDonalds at age 24. Also conspicuous by its absence is the rest of the story: Where is her daughter's husband? How much education does Ms Graves have, and if she didnt finish High School, why? If she DID finish High School, why didnt she take advantage of the plethora of college tuition programs offered to low-income families in the nineties from the Clinton administration?

I find it hard to sympathize with her and others like her. They go out and have children fathered by irresponsible men. They sit around, hoping for the cyclic arrival of the welfare-state minded President who will tax the shit out of the wealthy to give to the poor. What IS it with that mentality? The wealthy have become that way because they found a way, or one was made for them to get that way.

I belong to an ethnic minority group, but I didnt use that to get into college, or graduate school. I didnt fall back on some slave mentality in order to make excuses for not working hard. Today, I live very well, because I EARNED it. I see no reason to give my hard earned money away to the likes of Jennifer Graves and her children. She should have made better choices in life.

“He’s trying to keep people in the poorhouse,” she says bluntly. " REALLY? Im afraid you moved into the poorhouse all by yourself, bitch.

This is kinda true in a sick way:

"The wealthy have

become that way because they found a way, or one was made for them to get

that way."

Yes and the most likely way was inherited or stolen.

Bitch.

"Inherited or stolen"? Millionaires are a dome a dozen these days. You will find them among doctors, architects, IT professionals (me), Real Estate brokers, Entrepreneurs, even some personal assistances are making over 100K a year. I dont consider myself rich at all.

Your obvious disdain for the well-heeled comes from an equally obvious lack of success in America, right? You must be much like our heroine, Ms Graves. Perhaps you and she could hook up and create more unwanted children, rape the Children's Tax Benefit (like the welfare queens did in the 1980s), by having as many as possible. Then, when those children grow up, they can learn the rewards of dissent, just like their parents, huh?......................BITCH?

KOBE SBM makes several excellent points. And all his detractors can come up with are ad hominem attacks on the wealthy. How sad.

The truth is that America is the land of plenty, and opportunities abound. There really are no excuses in America.

That said, there will always be those that whine and whimper and say, "I can't."

Well, like my second grade Art teacher, Mrs. Fletcher, would always say to that, "CAN'T NEVER COULD!!"

While the left loves to yell "No Tax Cuts For The Rich", what they don't want to accept is that the income limit for what is "rich" is steadily falling. A person or even family making more than $90,000 is considered "rich" according to the left's definition.

I'm here to tell you all that $90,000 is hardly rich.

The other thing the left forgets is that those cute little tax bills they vote for impacts them when they start really making some money. All of a sudden one has to pay much higher taxes in order to support programs designed to GIVE YOUR MONEY AWAY to the undeserving.

Buy a house worth more than $500K? Forget it, because property taxes will not let you live there for long. How about the "luxury taxes" we pay for driving Mercedes or premium SUVs? All of that goes in the pockets of losers who grow up to be anarchists, socialists, or left-wing professional whiners holding up protest signs.

Thing is, the dichotomy between rich and poor must be maintained in order for capitalism to work. Once you recognize that, you can decide which side to join. There will be people in every resort I visit, every country I travel to, and every restaurant I eat at. They will be low-income people who are there to serve those who are there for recreation. Who put them there? THEY PUT THEMSELVES THERE.

Ill have the Prime Rib, and Iced Green Tea with a mint leaf please.....

Don't be fooled by the illusion that these are different individuals dialoging. They are one and the same.

What is a Freeper?

...folk enjoy prime rib & trimmings, at times. Poor as in economic status, as opposed to other measures like well-being and happiness is hard, by me, to define.

I go by visual references....imo the lower-middle does best or at least better than other groups

usually presenting a warped view of a 'me first' reality in

which the young poor and old are superfluous.

I still don't know what a Freeper is...but I'm curious as to why none of you lefties have respobded to the fact that instead of "cutting 60 million children out" the Bush administration has actually increased benefits.

A Freeper is slang for the name attributed to contributors to the most patriotic American website on the internet:

www.FreeRepublic.com

These lefties hate that forum, because it gets more daily participation and hits than practically any political forum on the internet.

These marginalized moonies here at IMC can barely stay afloat, while Free Republic flourishes.

So, to him, these posts are just clever responses from the SAME person using different names. You and I know what the reality is, but he is totally out of touch with it. Its best to ignore those comments which imply the ridiculous, and just pick out those from normal people. You will be able to tell very easily.

Spit it out, KOBE SBM. You think that everyone that opposes you is the evil and omnipresent devoy, don't you? Tell the truth now, we all want to know.

devoy is behind e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g, SBM, trust me...

He's behind those telephone messages you didn't get.

He's behind that strange glance you received from a homeless person as you grabbed your crotch.

He's behind those fingerprints on you car windshield. What, you didn't notice them? Just take a look. I guarentee you that they are there.

Yes, SBM, we're all devoy. Everyone posting on IndyMedia is devoy. You know that Bush guy? He's devoy too. We put him up to this whole president thing just to trip you up.

Bwahahahahah!

Personally, I do not believe anyone could be THAT stupid to not be able to tell the differences between all of our various and distinct personas. Although I will concede that if in fact, someone that stupid did exist, he or she would be a leftist.

I personally believe it's just a clever ploy to attempt to discredit our various, similar political postions by grouping us together as one insignificant entity.

While we know that nothing could be further from the truth, such thoughts assist these fifth columnists in getting through the day.

beer piss, popular tv, politcorrect, freerepublic yes boys, $$$$$$$$$$, corp-welfare/excess/swindling/ripoffs, hatepolitics, middlegroundhuggers, non-enviro, endless stripmalls, suv jerks, burgerkingers, me makes rite for all, g.w. forever, patacts 3,4,5...., MIC for techjobs, nuclear mountains, genagri, oiloiloil an'nuttin'esle, corpcorpcorp.......................feedme, fuckme,forgetme types

Senator Tom Daschle.

We knew that already

...with writers of this persuasion is that the operate from a set of absurd assumptions.

One is that all people, regardless of what they do provide equal value from their labors simply due to the fact that they are working and deserve to be paid a "living wage". Excuse me - since when has working the drive through at Mickey D's been a "Career". Since when has "would you like Fries with that" been a high skill job? It is something you do if you lack the skills and iniative to do anything else. And don't give me any crap about "she did not get enough education" - bullshit. There are so many Education Aid Programs available that not getting enough education to do better than "would you like Fries with that" is the result of that persons CHOICES. Whenever someone gives me this line I recall a gentleman I met a few years ago, who lives in the L.A. area, who had a THIRD GRADE education, had self educated himself, and owns and run 3 Businesses - with a net income in 7 figures - well into 7 figures. In envy his income but not his working hours - 12 hours a day and more. That is how you get ahead, you make sound choices, and work like the devil.

Logically you can only give a tax cut to people who actually Pay Taxes. If you give a tax cut to people who don't pay taxes what you are doing is giving them money taken from someone else. There is no escaping it.

I get really tired of people who play the Politics of Envy. Johnny's got more than me - wah. Boo, just fucking boo.

I almost can't believe that the above is really Diogenes.

But hell, I'll bite.

I could not agree more.

"There are so many Education Aid Programs available that not getting enough education to do better than "would you like Fries with that" is the result of that persons CHOICES."

Care to NAME these "so many Educational Aid Programs?"

Anyone else care to name them?

I'd join up but they already threw me out on a section 8 discharge.

We have his records here. Christ!