Frank Pallone: “as you note this evening, some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, some of my Republican colleagues, made…”

“as you note this evening, some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, some of my Republican colleagues, made reference to Treasury Secretary Rubin's report which was released over last weekend that illustrated very clearly how the Republican proposals primarily benefit wealthy individuals. In addition, Secretary Rubin expressed serious concern regarding the potential for the Republican tax cuts to explode the deficit, and I just wanted to mention this report again because I think it is significant. It says that only 38 percent of the tax cuts would be for middle-class families under the Republican House proposal while 55 percent of the tax cuts would go to the affluent. Now President Clinton's tax cuts are more targeted to the middle class. Eighty-three percent of the tax cuts under his proposal would be targeted to the middle class, and only 10 percent would be targeted to the wealthy. Now we are hearing all these statements from the Republicans about how these Treasury numbers are inaccurate, the Republican plan does give more money to the middle class. Unfortunately, these Republican arguments are without basis and they basically ring hollow. It is the Treasury numbers that examine the full 10 years of this balanced-budget agreement in their calculations.…”