Christopher Shays: “Incomes under $200,000. It may be that ultimately that number comes down, but 75 percent of all families make $75,000 or…”

“Incomes under $200,000. It may be that ultimately that number comes down, but 75 percent of all families make $75,000 or less, so 75 percent of the people who get this benefit make $75,000 or less than $75,000. Why would we want a $500 tax credit? It is quite simple. My parents, and I am one of four boys, in the 1940's and 1950's took the equivalent deduction off their taxes of today of $8,000. In other words, they had the benefit of being able to deduct for every child in today's dollars $8,000 off their total income. That is $32,000 that they could deduct from their total income. It meant they did not have to pay taxes on $32,000. What are families allowed today? They are allowed $2,500. Families when we were growing up only paid 20 percent in taxes, Federal, State and local. They pay 40 percent today, so our first effort is to help young families cope with what is a very difficult environment. That is part of our tax cut. The thing I want to weigh in on is that we paid for it. We made cuts to this budget, and I know, because you and I were on the budget, and my colleagues, we have all had to vote to cut spending to pay for it. It has nothing to do with Medicare. Medicare is a separate challenge. Medicare is going bankrupt, Medicare part A. We have to save that trust fund, totally separate. So, wrong, first, that this is a tax cut for the wealthy; wrong that it somehow, that the tax cut, is related to Medicare.”