David Obey: “I would say that the issue of equity in a democracy is not "chicken manure," it is fundamental to our ability to govern…”

“I would say that the issue of equity in a democracy is not "chicken manure," it is fundamental to our ability to govern in a democracy with a very large mistrust of government and public officials. I can understand why someone who thinks that a tax bill that gives $53,000 in tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 percent of people in this society while it denies any tax cut whatsoever to 25 percent of the people who make less than $26,000 a year thinks that kind of a tax bill is equitable would think that an amendment such as this, which tries to address the issue of equal treatment, is somehow "chicken manure." I think it is simply revealing of the mindset which allows people to call a tax bill like that equitable, and I am not at all surprised by it. But I would simply say that what is at issue here is not as we have said on countless occasions, it is not what we think of the existing occupant of the Vice Presidential office. The issue is whether the second most powerful person in the land should be exempted from the same inflationary costs which are applied to every other citizen in this country.”