Paul Tonko: “In the years following the Great Recession (2009-2012), 91 percent of all new wealth created accrued to the top one…”

“In the years following the Great Recession (2009-2012), 91 percent of all new wealth created accrued to the top one percent of earners. From 1980 through 2014, incomes for the wealthiest one percent of Americans rose by 204 percent while incomes for the bottom 50 percent rose by just 1 percent. During that period, the size and productivity of the U.S. economy have essentially doubled. President Trump likes to tout a booming stock market, but the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans own 92% of the stocks. The other 80 percent, four out of five Americans, own just 8 percent of that wealth and are being largely left behind. And things are about to get much worse, because the Trump tax scam does exactly the same thing that has failed us for decades: trickle- down economics. It failed under Reagan, it failed again under Bush. Every time Republicans ram it through, it adds billions, in Trump's case trillions of dollars to our debt, and the wealthy walk away with the benefits. The rich get richer and the rest of us just have to work harder for less. Meanwhile just in the past six weeks, Sam's Club laid off some 11,000 employees. Carrier cut another 1,500. AT&T laid off some 4,000. Kimberly Clark, the company that makes Kleenex and Huggies, just announced that it would use Trump's tax scam as an opportunity to lay off 5,000 or more workers and close 10 manufacturing facilities. Janus v.…”