low_delta

The tax cut gave a $400 per child tax credit to families making over a certain amount.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson, R-Texas, said Republicans did not "intend" to exclude the lower-income families but were forced to by constraints on the size of the original tax bill.

"I think that because we had that $350 billion cap, something happened in the conference that caused some of the people who were intended to be covered by the child tax credit for refundability were not. I don't think anyone intended for that to be the case and now I think we need to come in and correct that," she said.

Big oops, I guess, huh? "Sorry folks. We wanted to but we ran out of money." Since when has running out of money stopped them? I wonder why they didn't extend it to all families, at a lower level? Like make it $300? Oh, here's why:

Initially, House Republican leaders resisted making a fix to the first tax bill passed last month.

"You understand these people don't pay taxes," a GOP aide explained.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, chief sponsor of the Senate measure along with Democrat Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, took great exception to this sentiment, which was expressed by a number of her Republican colleagues.

"They do pay taxes," she said. "They pay payroll taxes that are an enormous burden."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/06/05/child.tax/index.html