John Garamendi: “I see my colleagues from the great South are here, and they should be listening very carefully as we discuss…”

“I see my colleagues from the great South are here, and they should be listening very carefully as we discuss infrastructure. I might like to draw the attention of the House to this, if I might, a fellow that we know etched in marble at the FDR Memorial: ``The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much''--keep in mind the tax bill that passed here and was signed by the President in January. ``The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.'' These are words to legislate by, wouldn't you say? So I ask my colleagues to please keep this in mind and not leave right in the middle of a good discussion. If we are to pay attention to what is important here, keep in mind those who have little. It turns out that the great tax cut was probably best described by the President. Shortly after he signed the bill, he went down to his Mar-a-Lago club and told his friends who had gathered there, all of whom were the great beneficiaries of that tax cut: I have made you so much more wealthy. Indeed, that is exactly what the tax cut did. It made the wealthy in America even more wealthy to the tune of several hundred billion dollars. The American corporations saw their tax rate fall from 35 to 20 percent, and the top income earners in America saw their tax rate go down by 2\1/2\ percent.…”