Tom Harkin: “last Thursday the New York Times of May 29 had a front-page picture, a big, color picture on the front page, of the…”

“last Thursday the New York Times of May 29 had a front-page picture, a big, color picture on the front page, of the President signing the tax cut bill in the East Room of the White House. As I looked at this picture, I thought: This really is appropriate. Pictures say a thousand words. Here is a picture of the President signing the tax bill, and he is in the East Room, with all the big crystal chandeliers, all the trappings of power, and an audience. I was looking at this audience. I thought: Who are these people? I am looking at them all. Do you know what? This looks like the rich and the powerful of America sitting there with all these chandeliers and getting all these big tax cuts. There is not one person of color sitting in that audience, not one. Now, there may be. I cannot see back behind where the picture was taken. Maybe there was one. Maybe one of the ushers back there was an African American. But it just kind of leaps out at you that these are the people who really benefit from that tax cut. Why didn't the President take that tax cut signing down to middle America someplace? Why didn't he take it down to a small community of middle-income taxpayers?”