On the recordDecember 2, 2010
I rise to speak on the upcoming amendments and debate we will have on the tax issue. Let me say a few things. First, we are in a very tough economic situation. We have a large number of unemployed people, and even people who have been employed over the last decade, for the middle class, their incomes have not gone up. Their buying power has not gone up. This is the first decade that middle-class incomes have not increased. Second, the economy, if we look at statistics from 2000 to 2010, even with the recession, has done pretty well. But almost all the income and all the wealth has agglomerated to the top 1 percent and top 10 percent. That means the people at the highest end did very well, while everybody else did not. I have nothing against them. In fact, I think they are great. They are part of the American dream. To say they have gotten most of the wealth, some of my colleagues bring up the false issue of class warfare. It is not class warfare. It is a fact we have to deal with, just like saying middle-class incomes have not gone up enough. That is not class warfare either. Those are just facts.
