Yesterday I appeared at a press conference in front of Pete Sessions' office calling on him to support the Buffett Rules and tax fairness.
This is the text of my prepared statement:
Good Afternoon, Everyone.
As we all know, today is “tax” day.
Today, under our current tax system, millions of middle-class Americans will pay a higher share of their income in taxes than some millionaires and billionaires. This is wrong. As Americans, we believe that everyone should do their part -- everyone should pay their fair share. Americans who work for their money should not pay more than those that invest for their money.
That’s why I’m here today – to call on Congressman Sessions to support the Buffett Rule.
It’s a simple idea. If you make more than $1 million dollars a year, you should pay at least the same share of your income in taxes as middle-class families do.
In fact, most Americans support this idea. A CNN survey yesterday found that more that 72% of Americans do so. One survey found that two-thirds of millionaires do, too. So do nearly one-half of all Republicans.
So, it’s time for Congressman Sessions to stop protecting the top 1 percent and get on board with where the rest of the country is.
They will tell you that the Democrats just want to raise your taxes — that asking the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share will hinder job growth and hurt the economy. We’ve heard all this before — time and time again.
But, for most of us, including the wealthiest, tax rates are at their lowest point in 50 years.
In 2001 and 2003, the wealthiest Americans received two huge, new tax cuts. Congressman Sessions told us that these tax cuts would “trickle down” from the wealthy and lead to faster job growth.
Instead, we got the slowest job growth in half a century.
And, during the 1990s, when the wealthiest paid a little more in taxes, Congressman Sessions told us that this would kill jobs.
Instead, tens of millions of jobs were created and we had a balanced budget.
We know that “trickle down” economics doesn’t work.
Time and again, Congressman Sessions has proven that he is working for the wealthiest 1 percent – at the expense of the rest of us.
Congressman Sessions would rather end Medicare as we know it, reduce Social Security benefits, and slash programs that create opportunity and benefit hard-working Americans to give more harmful and unnecessary tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans.
When it comes to paying down the deficit and investing in our future, we cannot tell middle-class Americans to sacrifice even more when the millionaires and billionaires are not paying their fair share.
We can’t stop investing in the things that will help grow our economy and create jobs – things like education, infrastructure, and research – just so the wealthiest Americans can get another tax cut.
America prospers when ALL Americans prosper, not just the wealthy few. We accomplish this by working together through government to enhance the opportunity for everyone to work hard, play by the rules, and succeed, even if their father isn’t a federal judge or governor.
I’ll be happy to take your questions.