Peter Welch: “One of the ongoing challenges of democracy is to maintain an economy that creates opportunity for everybody, at the low…”

“One of the ongoing challenges of democracy is to maintain an economy that creates opportunity for everybody, at the low end of the ladder, as well as at the top. What our Ways and Means Committee has done, in two areas, is recognize that we have seen our economy start skirting so that the wealthy are doing very well, the middle class are falling behind, and the poor are barely hanging on. And in two areas, trade and taxes, the Ways and Means Committee has brought legislation that basically says we're all in it together. On trade they want to have a policy that shares the benefits. They aren't just concentrated at the top, and that shares the pain. And on taxes, they're asking the question and giving us the opportunity to present a tax policy that respects work as well as capital, that reduces rather than increases our debt, and accepts the reality that one taxpayer's tax preference is often another taxpayer's tax burden. What is a fact is that the gap between the wealthy and everyone else is widening. We can ignore that or we can acknowledge it. This legislation is middle-class tax relief. It acknowledges that the middle class has been working harder, paying more in taxes, getting less in government services and falling farther behind.”