Political Quotes

“I come to the floor at this point to counteract and add substance to something the majority leader said today in regard to taxes. Recently, the Congressional Budget Office released an update to its report on average effective tax rates. Several of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have pounced on this report claiming that tax rates are at historic lows. In a floor speech just this morning the majority leader said the lowest tax rates in 30 years was ``thanks to President Obama, who has consistently fought to lower taxes for the middle-class families over the last 3\1/2\ years.'' However, the majority leader and others of his political party are only telling half the story. The report also shows that incomes of households in all income groups have declined by an average of 12 percent since 2007. This means, then, that Americans are 12 percent poorer than they were in 2007. Now, should we also thank President Obama for this reduction in income? Essentially, this is what the majority leader is doing when he thanks President Obama for lower tax rates because when individuals have less income, they pay less in taxes. Now, isn't that common sense? Millions of Americans are out of work and have very little or no income. You would have better luck getting blood out of a turnip than collecting income taxes from someone who has no income. Over the past weeks and months we have heard a lot about income inequality.…”