Sides trade barbs on eve of Senate tax-cut vote
Source: Washington Post
Vice President Biden seized the stage Tuesday in an ongoing election-year drama over taxes, arguing that Republicans would rather raise rates for 114 million middle-class families than give up massive tax breaks for the wealthy few.
On the eve of a test vote in the Senate, Biden held a conference call with reporters to make the case that an array of tax cuts scheduled to expire in January should be extended for the middle class but permitted to lapse on income over $250,000 a year.
Republicans want to preserve the cuts for taxpayers at all income levels, a position that Biden said would boost budget deficits by more than $1 trillion over the next decade in order to protect tax breaks worth $160,000 a year to the average millionaire.
“The other side claims this is the best way to grow the economy: If you take care of the very wealthy, everything will, as that old phrase goes, trickle down,” Biden said. “The problem is we’ve seen that movie before and we know how it ends.?.?. . What happened was the rich got richer .?.?. but most Americans got nailed.”
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sides-trade-barbs-on-eve-of-senate-tax-cut-vote/2012/07/24/gJQA8D8b7W_story.html
