Mike Levin: “make no mistake. The hand the chairman has reached out is one of the hands that has strangled democracy in this…”

“make no mistake. The hand the chairman has reached out is one of the hands that has strangled democracy in this institution. It is no longer a deliberative body. It is the rule of one, the Republican majority. The gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) says zero taxation for low-income people. Why? Because in most cases they have no dividends or capital gains to tax. Under his original proposal, and it remains essentially the same, a millionaire gets 90,000 bucks more in tax cuts. The average taxpayer gets a couple hundred bucks. Mr. Thomas, whom are you warring on? Middle-income and low-income families in this country. The President came here today to declare victory. Time will declare this a defeat for the Nation because the Republican party has turned red, red ink, red ink. The gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) says he is opposed to structural deficits, but they have built in more and more debt into this structure. The only way it is not a structural debt is the hole is so deep the way they built it they cannot build anything on it. Now you say you favor creative destruction? Two and a half million jobs lost. That is very creative under this President and under the leadership of the House majority here. This is a fiscally irresponsible bill for the Nation. It is unfair to individual taxpayers. It will not stimulate economic growth, as the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Stenholm) and others have said.…”