Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., echoed the talking points of the Occupy Wall Street protesters in a floor speech today attacking Republicans and “the one percent” for opposing tax increases to pay for stimulus spending.
“[The rich] take home more than half the money made each year in this country. That means this one percent now makes more than the other 99 percent combined,” Reid said. “And they’re not going to allow us to proceed to create hundreds of thousands of jobs for a tax increase of seven-tenths of one percent [on] the richest of the rich?”
To deflect charges on class warfare, apparently, Reid added that the income of the wealthiest Americans “hasn’t been all inherited money,” but he declared that “their tremendous fortune, including their tremendous fortunes, means they can afford to contribute a key, tiny fraction more to shore up the economic future of our nation.”
Reid cast higher tax payments as a civic duty for the rich to fulfill. He said that “every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity an obligation, every possession a duty,” quoting John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
He also claimed broad support for Obama’s jobs proposals, even among the Tea Party. “The Tea Party even favors this,” he said, claiming that “they all believe in the initiatives that we’ve proposed to jump-start our economy, but they know the money will have to come from somewhere, they know tough choices must be made.” Republicans have opposed Obama’s latest round of stimulus spending, noting that the similar measures failed to rescue the economy over the last three years.
Reid said that asking a millionaire “to contribute a few dollars more every year shouldn’t be one of our tough choices,” adding that “It should be a no-brainer.”
In his conclusion, Reid once again seemed to echo the Occupy Wall Streeters, saying “it seems Republicans will fight for the one percent of Americans who have every resource to fight for themselves.”
Reid did not address Democratic opposition to the president’s plan from legislators such as Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., or criticisms of tax hikes levelled by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va.
You can see some of Reid’s remarks below.
