John W. Olver: “Mr. Speaker, we are told that this is the week that the main business is going to be, for this Congress, is the final…”

“Mr. Speaker, we are told that this is the week that the main business is going to be, for this Congress, is the final passage of an $800 billion tax cut. The Republican leadership says that their tax cut, at least that one which passed the House of Representatives, is for the middle class. But I would like to raise that question. The bill which passed the House of Representatives about 2 weeks ago had the following features: the 1.25 million taxpayers representing the 1 percent wealthiest, richest portion of the population each, on average, got $54,000 of tax reduction. Those are the 1 percent whose incomes is more than $300,000 per year. At the other end of the scale, starting from the bottom, from the lowest income person in this society issuing a tax return, if we took all 95 percent, starting from the lowest income and coming up to an income of $125,000 a year, all 95 percent of that population, all 120 million would have received 39 percent of the total tax cut; whereas, the 1.25 million, the wealthiest 1.25 million, or 1 percent, would have received 45 percent of that total tax reduction. The 1 percent richest of Americans got more than all 95 percent of our population whose income is beneath 125,000.”