Mark Dayton: “Mr. President, this tax bill is one of the most dangerous, destructive, and dishonorable acts of Government that I have…”

“Mr. President, this tax bill is one of the most dangerous, destructive, and dishonorable acts of Government that I have ever seen. It is a shameful looting of the Federal Treasury by the rich and powerful in America--compliments of their friends in Congress. It uses every trick in the budget book to line the pockets of the upper class. It cuts the top tax rates immediately, retroactively, and permanently. It lowers the top rate by almost twice as much as the next three. That gives the most rate reduction to people who are making over $370,000 a year, only half of that rate reduction to people making over $150,000 a year, and no rate reduction at all to people in the bottom two brackets--the 10 and 15 percent rates. There is just a tweaking of the bottom 10-percent bracket, which provides $100 a year to couples and $50 a year to individuals. That is also the only change to a tax bracket which is temporary. The top rate cuts are all permanent. So let me repeat. An individual with an annual income of less than $35,000 gets a tax cut of $50 a year. A married couple, without dependents, with an annual income of less than $50,000 gets a tax cut of $100. A person with an annual income of over $1 million receives a tax cut averaging over $93,000 in the first year alone.”