Tom Harkin: “today as I have done for days since we have been in session since we returned from our August break, I have been talking…”

“today as I have done for days since we have been in session since we returned from our August break, I have been talking about the impact of the Ryan budget, which is now the Romney-Ryan budget, on America and what it would mean for our future. I take the floor today as I have in the past to talk about one aspect of it. In the past I have talked about impact on health care, on education, on the social safety net. Today I wish to talk about what the Romney-Ryan budget does to our infrastructure, to job training, to avenues to the middle class for people. The real question the American people face this coming election is: Are we going to restore and rebuild the middle class or are we going to continue to shift even more and more of our wealth to just a few at the top at the expense of the middle class? My Republican friends have made clear where they stand on this. They have done so when nearly every Republican in Congress voted in favor of the Ryan budget plan which Governor Romney embraced as ``marvelous.'' The very centerpiece of the Ryan budget is a dramatic shift of even more wealth to those at the top, huge tax cuts for the richest 2 percent. Those making more than $1 million a year would get an extra $394,000 a year in tax breaks under the Ryan budget. That is on top of the $265,000 they already have. That brings it up to well over $400,000, almost $500,000 a year they would get. We keep hearing a lot of talk about entitlements for the poor.…”