Class War Advocate, the Ultra Right Wing Orrin Hatch Wants The Poor To Shoulder More Responsibility For Deficit Reduction

From Think Progress: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/07/262890/hatch-poor-people-contribute-taxes/

By Travis Waldron

Jul 7, 2011

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) dusted off one of his favorite talking points on the Senate floor today, calling on the poor and the middle class to shoulder more of the pain of deficit reduction because they don’t pay enough in taxes. After the Senate considered a Sense of the Senate stating that “any agreement to reduce the budget deficit should require that those earning $1,000,000 or more per year make a more meaningful contribution to the deficit reduction effort,” Hatch took to the floor to defend rich taxpayers, whose tax rates are at modern lows thanks to the Bush tax cuts.

Hatch complained that 51 percent of Americans don’t pay income taxes and hinted that what the poor and middle class pay in payroll taxes doesn’t count as a contribution since it goes toward Social Security:

HATCH: I hear how they’re [Democrats] so caring for the poor and so forth. The poor need jobs! And they also need to share some of the responsibility. Now we don’t want the really poor people who are in poverty to pay income taxes. But 51 percent of all households? And that’s going up by the way because of our friend down in the White House and his allies.

Watch it:

Complete article at: http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/07/07/262890/hatch-poor-people-contribute-taxes/