Orrin Hatch: “I have listened to the comments of my friends on the other side for several hours. Frankly, it has tried my patience. If…”

“I have listened to the comments of my friends on the other side for several hours. Frankly, it has tried my patience. If you boil down the inaccurate assertions, you come up with two basic points. One, that the bill before us cuts taxes for wealthy taxpayers proportionately more than it does for middle-income taxpayers. Two, this bill raises taxes on middle-income taxpayers. Nothing like some old-fashioned nonpartisan light to cut through the partisan fog created by my friends on the other side. I refer to a set of tables developed by the nonpartisan official congressional tax scorekeeper, the Joint Committee on Taxation, which I will ask consent to have printed in the Record. The tables show significant tax cut for middle-income taxpayers. Let's take a look at taxpayers in which the median U.S. income reside. I am talking about taxpayers at income levels between $50,000 and $75,000. In 2019, two-thirds of taxpayers receive a tax cut of greater than $500. In 2021, 61.7 percent receive a tax cut of greater than $500. In 2023, 54.8 percent of taxpayers will receive a tax cut of greater than $500. In 2021, 53 percent of taxpayers receive a tax cut of greater than $500. The individual income tax cuts sunset in 2026. Let's take a look at another middle-income group, those in the $75,000 to $100,000 cohort. In 2019, 77.8 percent of those taxpayers receive a tax cut of greater than $500. In 2021, that figure is 72.2 percent. In 2023, that figure is 63.1 percent.…”