Roscoe Bartlett: “Before our tax cut, the top 50 percent of taxpayers paid 96 percent of all the taxes paid in the country. After this tax…”

“Before our tax cut, the top 50 percent of taxpayers paid 96 percent of all the taxes paid in the country. After this tax cut, the top 50 percent of taxpayers pay 97 percent of all the taxes paid in this country. Let us say it another way, Mr. Speaker. Before the tax cut, the lower 50 percent of taxpayers paid 4 percent of all the taxes in the country. After the tax cut, they pay only 3 percent of all the taxes in the country. Help me understand, Mr. Speaker, how this tax cut was a tax break for the rich. It seems to me it was a tax break for the poor, because the lower 50 percent of taxpayers now pay only 3 percent of the total taxes, rather than 4 percent. Mr. Speaker, that is a 25 percent decrease in the taxes paid by the lower 50 percent.”