Schumer: ‘Not True’ GOP Tax Plan Helps the Middle Class

Sunday on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” Senate Minority Leader Schumer (D-NY) said House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) was not telling the truth about the Republican tax reform plan helping the middle class.

Partial transcript as follows:

CHUCK SCHUMER: Well, look. We Democrats sent a letter to the Republican leadership and the president, said that here were three things that we thought tax reform ought to have. One, tax breaks ought not to go to the top 1 percent but ought to be focused on the middle class. Two, it ought not blow a hole in the deficit. And three, it ought to be done in a bipartisan way, not through reconciliation.

Unfortunately the Republican plan doesn’t agree with any of those. First, it’s completely focused on the wealthy and the powerful. Not on the middle class. Second, it blows a huge hole in the deficit. And third, they said they’re going to do it through reconciliation. That’s a partisan process. It excludes Democrats. It’s the same process that led to the demise on health care. And let me just address one thing, . Speaker Ryan keeps saying it helps the middle class. That’s not true. What he’s saying and what the plan is are totally different.

Let me go over three quick points. 1) They get rid of the estate tax. The only people who benefit are the very wealthy, estates over $11 million. 5,000 estates will get over $3 million each. Second, they lower the top rate from 39 to 35. That affects the wealthy. They raise the lowest rate from 10 to 12. That affects working people.

JOHN DICKERSON: But that also knocks a lot of–

SCHUMER: And finally–

DICKERSON: –people off the roll, senator. And people no–

SCHUMER: Well–

DICKERSON: –longer have to pay taxes, which means that’s good for them.

SCHUMER: Well, no. They already don’t have to pay taxes. But to lower the top rate and raise the bottom rate does not make any sense at all. And third, here’s what the tax policy center. Eighty percent of the tax breaks in their plan are aimed at the top 1 percent. And the top .1 percent, the people who make over $5 million, who are one in 1,000, get a tax break of over a million dollars.

DICKERSON: Is your–

SCHUMER: The middle class at the same time is hurt. Just one more point here. The Achilles heel of this, the first one, there are many, is state and local deductibility. In suburban, fairly well-off districts, Republican, throughout the states like New York, California, Illinois, New Jersey, those people even with the standard deduction will pay a lot more.

DICKERSON: But why should–

SCHUMER: It’ll be a real test of their Congress–

DICKERSON: Why should people in Alabama–

SCHUMER:–people. It should be a real test of their Congress people whether they vote with their constituents or they vote with the hard right ideology against state and local deductibility.

DICKERSON: Well, the argument on state and local is, “Why should Alabama subsidize New York?” But it sounds like you’re basically out now to stop this bill, not to shape it.

SCHUMER: Well, we’d like them to change. We would like them to really say it’ll be deficit neutral instead of using these fake numbers that say, “There’ll be huge growth.” You know, they tried that in Kansas. That’s Charles Koch’s state. And this was the great experiment.

They dramatically cut taxes and said, “There’s going to be growth and an increase in the surplus.” Well, after they did it, they predicted the surplus would go up 300 million. It went down. The deficit went down 700 million. They had to cut money for schools and infrastructure. And then they had to put in a tax increase.

DICKERSON: Let me–

SCHUMER: And did Kansas grow? No. Last year its growth was .2% versus U.S. growth at 1.6. So this idea that cutting taxes on the wealthy, this trickle-down economics which the Republican Party loves, does not create growth. It never has. Does not reduce the deficit. It never has. George Bush, his tax cuts, 2001, 2003, they said after 10 years the deficit will go down. It went up by C.B.O.’s 1.6 trillion. So this is fake numbers helping the very, very wealthy, ignoring the middle class. And what Ryan said and what his proposal are are totally different.

DICKERSON: All right. Well, we’re out of time, senator. Thanks. We’ll be–

SCHUMER: Sorry.

DICKERSON: We’ll be back–

SCHUMER: I feel strongly about this.

DICKERSON: Indeed.

SCHUMER: But we want to work with them if they will change. We do. They have to–

DICKERSON: They might not–

SCHUMER: –consult us. You know, they have to consult us. They can’t just put down a plan and say, “Bipartisanship is you guys come over and do what we want,” when it’s against our principles.

DICKERSON: All right. Well, you’ve been talking to the president. I bet you’ll give him that message. Thanks, senator.

SCHUMER: I will.

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