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February 04, 2018 08:29 AM UTC

Out Of Touch And A Bag Of Chips!

  • 21 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Sen. Cory Gardner and House Speaker Paul Ryan. The money they are holding is not for you.

CNN reports on what may be the dumbest, most self-immolating Tweet in the history of Tweets:

House Speaker Paul Ryan deleted a tweet Saturday touting the GOP tax overhaul after critics called him out for appearing out of touch with the reality of low-income individuals’ financial situations.

The tweet shared the story of a secretary who, according to a report by the Associated Press, was “pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week.”

“A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, PA, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week … she said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for the year,” Ryan tweeted with a link to the full article.

So, just in case there was anyone on the planet not already aware of this, the knock on the Republican tax cut bill passed last month is that the overwhelming majority of the benefits go to the richest people in the country. President Donald Trump stands to personally reap millions. Members of Congress voted for significant cuts to their own taxes. Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post replied to Paul Ryan that the annual benefit of the tax cut to this public school secretary was less than Ryan makes in one hour as Speaker of the House.

People, including several prominent Democrats, noted on social media that $1.50 per week is not a significant pay bump.

It’s not just that $1.50 a week is a pitifully small amount of money in today’s economy, which of course it is. The issue is that Ryan chose to promote this pitiful amount of money as a success story. It’s as if Democrats came up with the absolute worst parody of a pitch for this bill, and somehow persuaded Ryan to repeat it like he means it. The PR damage from this gaffe is frankly incalculable, validating every trope about out-of-touch wealthy Republicans there ever was.

And yes, deleting a Tweet only ensures it will live on in infamy! If somebody on Paul Ryan’s staff gets fired over this episode, Democrats should give them a medal.

Comments

21 thoughts on “Out Of Touch And A Bag Of Chips!

  1. Anyone with time and a sense of adventure should consider spending a month or two in Janesville, WI next summer. Or Racine.

    Both are beautiful in the summer. Aside from Lake Michigan, there are dozens of smaller lakes. Rent can be affordable.  Not to worry about missing the big things – this is Cubs tv market and you can register and vote there if that kind of thing matters to you.

     

  2. BTW, has anyone asked the teacher if she was being ironic with her comment?

    I presume it was an unsolicited testimonial posted to Ryan's email or web site that some dim, Moldy-esque staffer turned into a tweet for his boss.

    Kinda hard to think she was truly overjoyed at that pittance.

  3. I posted a few weeks ago that a family of four making $60,000 with two kids under age 16, taking the standard deduction will save a net of ($1,570) in Federal and CO income taxes.  (Another h/t to OldTimeDem who helped me with this.)

    Specifically, the Fed taxes go down by ($1,797), but CO income taxes actually increase by $227 (because the increase in the standard deduction of $11,300 is offset by the lost exemptions of $16,200 yielding an increase in taxable income of $4,900).  Caldera has a column today in the Denver Post complaining about this increase in CO income taxes.

    So, the GOP should be boasting about this real decrease in taxes to a typical middle class family.  Too bad the Dems didn't propose a middle class tax break first. 

    The Dems should point out that Americans were robbed blind by this tax bill that gave 83% of the tax breaks to the top 1% and will create deficits in excess of $1.5 Trillion.  To restore fiscal sanity, Dems should agree to rescind the tax breaks to millionaires when they take over Congress.

    1. "…restore fiscal sanity, Dems should agree to rescind the tax breaks to millionaires when they take over Congress."

      After the election.
      If they promise now – the tv ads write themselves:  See- we cut your taxes, they just wanna take it all back…. so they can spend it on illegal immigrants and poor people.. they think you know how to spend it better than you do

      1. Can't we run ads featuring Thurston Howell III?  (The real Thurston, not Zap's.)

        "Oh, Lovey, we've been saved by the Republicans! Now we can afford that car elevator garage!”

        1. The people you need to get to vote in midterm elections – the people who are less likely to vote, generally – are the people who tune out politics most of the time, the lucky souls. What did “Russia” do to me? Nothing. What are the Dems going to do for me?

          And it doesn’t help that Dems keep trying to appeal to non-existent “reasonable Republicans” instead of tying Trump around their necks about everything, including Russia.

    2. No, it is NOT "too bad the Dems didn't propose a middle class tax break first."

      What this tax scam did was allow for FURTHER debt to be paid off at some point, either by explicit tax payments (and I'd bet that at best, any increase will be skewed to NOT recapture rates or amounts given to the top 1%) or by inflation (which will hit the poor the most). "Rescind the tax break to millionaires" sounds great, but it will be messaged as "Democrats are raising taxes."

    1. Margaret Bennan coaxed an extremely poignant explanation for his decision to leave congress out of Trey Gowdy this morning on Face the Nation. While he did not mention them by name, t

      he cold-hearted, win at all costs attitude exemplified by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell is the reason he gave for hanging it up. Even "Mr. Benghazi" himself has a shred of dignity.

      As an aside, Ms. Brennan did an excellent job as the new host of "Face the Nation", replacing the recently promoted John Dickerson. The Columbia Broadcastng System (CBS) seems to be taking the news seriously nowadays….

      Of course Fox News has all the real journalists..😜

    2. I thought Ryan was leaving Congress.  Bryce is running in this district but I didn't think the Money Changers have a nominee yet other than Kelpto the Clown.

  4. With no sense of irony that he mentions Costco, whose company founder believed Obama would be better for business than Mitt Romney?

    That new-found $1.50 in the secretary's paycheck?  Costco employees get that every hour on the hour (long before the current Administration)  (Note to Nutlid: this was written during the Obama years)

    Which prompts Costco to be contrasted with Walmart, the U.S.’s largest employer, which has a history of being stingy with compensation in order to keep its prices low. (Walmart employees have found their company to be extremely resistant to unionization efforts.) Costco’s average hourly wage (about $21 an hour) is $8 higher than Walmart’s, and that probably has something to do with the company’s low turnover rate

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