GOP senator touts six-figure earners as average Americans

Ohio Sen. Rob Portman described middle class as “about $150 grand for a family.” And the official GOP talking points describe $450,000 a year as “low- and middle-income.” (The median household income is actually $59,039.)

And then there’s Texas Sen. John Cornyn.

In pushing the GOP’s deeply unpopular tax scam, Cornyn defined families earning between $20,000 and $100,000 a year as “middle-income households.” That’s quite a range. The lower end is below the poverty rate in the United States — not that Cornyn would know that, since he’s also bragging about the enormous tax savings for families who own multiple small business and earn six figures.

Under #TaxCutsandJobsAct a married couple earning $100,000 per year ($60,000 from wages, $25,000 from their non-corporate business, and $15,000 in business income) will receive a tax cut of $2,603.50, a reduction of nearly 24 percent.

— Senator John Cornyn (@JohnCornyn) December 19, 2017

Most Americans don’t earn anywhere near that kind of money, and will not see that kind of tax cut. But then, Republicans have been willfully ignorant about what most Americans do earn and how they spend their money.

Sen. Chuck Grassley recently scoffed at the idea that the middle class should get tax cuts at all, because he thinks those average American earners will just spend “every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies.”

That’s why, according to the Republican talking points, tax cuts should go to multi-millionaires — like Donald Trump, his children, and members of his Cabinet — and major corporations. The baseless theory is that corporations will spend their government handouts on creating jobs and increasing wages.

But CEOs of those corporations have made clear they’ll do no such thing.

The GOP tax scam is exactly that: a scam. It’s a huge giveaway to the richest Americans at the expense of middle-class families. And while Republicans have been obsessively and singularly focused on this enormous heist, they’ve allowed funding for critical programs — like the Children’s Health Insurance Program — to expire.

And the White House isn’t even talking about it and the 9 million kids who are about to lose their health care.

It is painfully obvious that the GOP knows nothing about average American families: how much money they make, the government programs they rely on, or what they need to survive. But they’re awfully proud that six-figure earners who make money from their small businesses in addition to higher-paying jobs will pocket a couple thousand extra dollars a year.

And the ones who won’t? Well, they don’t deserve to anyway.