John W. Olver: “Now, the Republican leadership says that their tax cut is for the middle class, but that is clearly not true. The…”

“Now, the Republican leadership says that their tax cut is for the middle class, but that is clearly not true. The House-passed version of the bill passed here, passed this branch 2 weeks ago, and in that version the 6 million highest income taxpayers, which represent about 5 percent of all taxpayers in this country, with incomes of over $125,000 a year, would get 61 percent, more than three-fifths of the total tax reduction, while the other 120 million taxpayers in this country, 95 percent of all the taxpayers, they would get only 39 percent of the total tax reduction that is involved. Now, I do not think that many people would consider that a middle class tax cut. In fact, it is designed to make the already rich a very great deal richer, while the broad middle class of people in this country, the families that are living on an income of between $20,000 to, say, $80,000 a year, are only going to see a tax cut that is worth one or two cups of coffee a day for those families.”