Jack Reed: “The pain is palpable to working families throughout this country. These are all of our citizens. These are the people we…”

“The pain is palpable to working families throughout this country. These are all of our citizens. These are the people we all say we are here to help. And we are not helping them--not this Congress, not this administration. Not only are we not helping these individuals but it turns out the very policies of this administration and this Congress are rewarding those people who are doing the best, not those who need the assistance. That is evident in the tax policy being pursued by this administration and supported by this Republican Congress. This is the average amount of capital gains and dividend tax cuts by household incomes in 2005. If you make under $50,000--that is an awful lot of Americans--you get $6 in benefits. If a person is making between $50,000 and $100,000--most Americans within that range are considered to be pretty prosperous folks--they get $55 in benefits. If a person makes over $1 million, they get $37,000 in benefits.”