Political Quotes

“OK. Then I will speak for a few minutes. Mr. President, this debate is very simple. Everybody here believes in all good faith that we ought to permanently extend tax breaks for the middle class. The question on the floor is, Do we want to extend those tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires at a time of huge deficit? I would argue vociferously no. I would argue most economists agree that shouldn't happen. I would argue the American people, by 26 percent to 74 percent, are against giving tax breaks to millionaires. Why? It is very simple. It is not that we are against millionaires. God bless them. Most of them made their money the hard way. They worked hard. They made the American dream. Every one of us would like to have done that--or most of us. So this is not aimed at being critical of them. But, rather, it says we have two economic realities. We have an economy that under the Bush tax cuts right now--my colleague mentioned unemployment went up to 9.8 percent. That is under these tax cuts. When the rates were a little higher under President Clinton, we never had unemployment that high. But we would argue: So the middle class needs to continue that break for two reasons. One, it stimulates the economy and, No. 2, middle-class incomes have declined over the last decade. In the first decade under the Bush tax cuts, middle-class incomes declined for the first decade since World War II. Under the Clinton rates, middle-class incomes increased rather significantly.…”