House Speaker Paul Ryan on Sunday insisted repeatedly the purpose of Republican-led tax reform was to help boost the middle class, as both Republicans and Democrats sent representatives to the Sunday shows to debate tax reform now that the White House has made it its top priority.
“The entire purpose of this is to lower middle class taxes, so yes, people are going to get tax cuts,” Ryan said to CBS host John Dickerson on “Face the Nation.”
“How big are those tax cuts? That depends on the individual. Do you have kids? Because there’s going to be a bigger child tax credit. Are you married? You’re going to have zero marriage penalty … Those are the kinds of things that will determine, based on how low people’s taxes go, because we want pro-family tax code to make it easy for people to get married, to raise kids, to work.”
Ryan also said the Republican efforts would be more coordinated than the numerous attempts at healthcare reform that failed.
“So, within the framework of this bill are many other decisions that have to be made because the framework of this, and the reason we did it this way, is, unlike healthcare, we wanted to make sure that everyone was on the same page with respect to the House and the Senate and the White House,” Ryan said.
“Now working within that framework, we’re going to be targeting these things so that we can make sure that middle-class taxpayers get a break.
Ryan gently defended President Trump with regards to race relations in America, amid the heavy criticisms that the administration has been failing in their response to the crisis in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, saying the president’s “heart’s in the right place.”
“I think what matters is that we have to show people that we are an inclusive society, that we want everyone to succeed,” Ryan said.
“And I think there’s more that all of us as leaders have got to do to be inclusive with people and make people feel like they’re included in society. … I think we’ve got … a long ways to go, just as a society and a country for that.”
Earlier Sunday, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said that people “have a right to be suspect,” about whether race has played a motivating factor in how the administration has responded to the Puerto Rico crisis when compared to the previous responses in Texas and Florida.
