Murphy Slams Republican Tax Plan That Will Benefit Top 1% At The Expense Of Poor Kids And Seniors

WASHINGTON-U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) on Wednesday spoke on the U.S. Senate floor to call out Republicans' proposed tax plan, which would disproportionately benefit the top 1% at the expense of working-class American families. Murphy warned that the plan would be financed by deep cuts to essential services like Medicare and Medicaid, with 80% of the benefits going to corporations and the wealthiest taxpayers.

"The tax cut we're talking about extending gives a tax cut for the top 1% of earners in this country. That isn't ten times bigger than working families at the bottom of the income scale. It's not 100 times bigger. It's not 500 times bigger. Taxpayers in the top 1% will get a tax cut 852 times larger than working families at the bottom of the income thresholds. Eight hundred fifty-two times bigger," said Murphy.

Murphy continued: "What we have seen coming out of the pandemic is that while the broad middle of the country has been struggling, the wealthy have gotten richer and richer and richer. We have more billionaires than ever before in this country. The folks that don't rely on salaries, that can just plow their income and their earnings into the capital markets, have reaped huge, huge rewards. The very, very wealthy in this country right now, at this moment in time, don't need any more help. And yet the average family that is in that top 1% bracket is going to get a tax cut, on average, of $70,000. Well, if you make $30,000 in this country, you're going to get about $100 back in your pocket."

Murphy emphasized that to pay for their tax bill, Republicans will make devastating cuts to essential programs: "At the end of last year, as a means of passing the continuing resolution, there was a deal apparently cut-this was reported in the press-in which there was a promise made to finance the tax cut with $2 trillion of cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. Medicaid: poor kids, poor families. Medicare: seniors in this country. Two trillion dollars is a hard number to get your head wrapped around. But there's no way to enact $2 trillion, $2 trillion, a "T," worth of cuts in Medicare and Medicaid without hundreds of thousands of people, senior citizens and poor kids, losing access to care. Two trillion dollars in cuts means the nursing homes are shut down. People are put out on the streets. It means that poor kids don't get access to mental health services. And so, what happened eight years ago was cruel. A tax cut put on the American public's credit card. 80% of the benefits going to the very, very richest, none of it trickling down."

Murphy concluded: "This version that Republicans are talking about passing in a matter of weeks is even more cruel. Because it is the same balance, the benefit going to the very, very wealthy - President-elect Trump's friends who pay to get in and out of Mar-A-Lago - but financed immediately by cuts that are going to be devastating for the people in this country who get up every day relying on programs like Medicare and Medicaid. So, I agree with my friend from Hawaii: we've got to be down on the floor talking about this every single day. Folks thought it was an inevitability eight years ago when Republicans made it a priority to steal health insurance from 20 million Americans, and by the skin of our teeth, we were able to save health insurance for 20 million Americans. Maybe, if we raise enough of a fuss about this massive transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the very, very wealthy, we can stop this egregious policy as well."

A full transcript of his remarks can be found below:

MURPHY: "Thank you very much, Senator. I just can't believe we're talking about something that nobody wants. That's what this comes down to. The number one priority for Republicans is extending, and likely expanding, a tax cut that benefits the wealthiest 1%, 0.1%, in this country at a rate that dwarfs - dwarfs - the help for anyone else.

"The tax cut we're talking about extending gives a tax cut for the top 1% of earners in this country. That isn't ten times bigger than working families at the bottom of the income scale. It's not 100 times bigger. It's not 500 times bigger. Taxpayers in the top 1% will get a tax cut 852 times larger than working families at the bottom of the income thresholds. Eight hundred fifty-two times bigger.

"And what we have seen coming out of the pandemic is that while the broad middle of the country has been struggling, the wealthy have gotten richer and richer and richer. We have more billionaires than ever before in this country. The folks that don't rely on salaries, that can just plow their income and their earnings into the capital markets, have reaped huge, huge rewards.

"And so, the very, very wealthy in this country right now, at this moment in time, don't need any more help. And yet the average family that is in that top 1% bracket is going to get a tax cut, on average, of $70,000. Well, if you make $30,000 in this country, you're going to get about $100 back in your pocket.

"And of course the theory is that if you just layer on tax cuts for corporations and for billionaires and millionaires, that money will eventually trickle down to everybody else. That's a lie. That's not true. That's a fraud. It's never been true. It's been perpetuated on the American public because it's a great way to rationalize giving the bulk of tax cuts to the very, very wealthy. The idea is that somehow that will make it down to the rest of us.

"Go on to any main street of this country, go into any subdivision in your state, you won't find many of your constituents who make $50,000 or $100,000 or even $200,000 that have had much of that trickle down to them.

"And to Senator Schatz' point, eight years ago when the tax cut was first put into place, it was egregious not because of the balance only, but also because the whole thing was borrowed. All that money was just put on the American credit card, a credit card that comes due and ends up getting paid by middle-class families one way or the other.

"This time around, I guess the good news is they're talking about paying for it, not borrowing to give a huge tax cut to corporations and to billionaires and millionaires. Instead, they're talking about immediately taking money out of the pockets of working families and seniors and poor people. Instead of borrowing money and have the bill come due for middle-class families later, this new tax cut for billionaires and corporations is going to be financed by an immediate cut to services and benefits to some of the most vulnerable people in this country.

"At the end of last year, as a means of passing the continuing resolution, there was a deal apparently cut-this was reported in the press-in which there was a promise made to finance the tax cut with $2 trillion of cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. Medicaid: poor kids, poor families. Medicare: seniors in this country. Two trillion dollars is a hard number to get your head wrapped around. But there's no way to enact $2 trillion, $2 trillion, a "T," worth of cuts in Medicare and Medicaid without hundreds of thousands of people, senior citizens and poor kids, losing access to care.

"Two trillion dollars in cuts means the nursing homes are shut down. People are put out on the streets. It means that poor kids don't get access to mental health services. And so, what happened eight years ago was cruel. A tax cut put on the American public's credit card, 80% of the benefits going to the very, very richest, none of it trickling down.

"This version that Republicans are talking about passing in a matter of weeks is even more cruel. Because it is the same balance, the benefit going to the very, very wealthy - President-elect Trump's friends who pay to get in and out of Mar-A-Lago - but financed immediately by cuts that are going to be devastating for the people in this country who get up every day relying on programs like Medicare and Medicaid. So, I agree with my friend from Hawaii: we've got to be down on the floor talking about this every single day. Folks thought it was an inevitability eight years ago when Republicans made it a priority to steal health insurance from 20 million Americans, and by the skin of our teeth, we were able to save health insurance for 20 million Americans. Maybe, if we raise enough of a fuss about this massive transfer of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the very, very wealthy, we can stop this egregious policy as well."

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