GOP Plan: Protect Millionaires, Raise Taxes on 160 Million Working Americans

Last night, every single Republican senator except Susan Collins (ME) voted to protect the top 0.2 percent of taxpayers — just 345,532 millionaires– from paying a small surtax on their income over $ 1 MILLION in order to extend and expand the payroll tax cut for 160 MILLION working Americans.

This is, in a word, outrageous. And it just goes to show how much harm the Republicans are willing to do to our economy and the 99 Percent in order to protect the top 1 Percent from paying one red cent more in taxes.

Who Does Your Senator Stand With: The 1 Percent or the 99 Percent?

With the 1 Percent:

Florida: Sen. Marco Rubio (R) sided with 15,846 millionaires making an average income of $4.5 MILLION instead of 9 MILLION hardworking Floridians.

Maine: Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) sided with just 375 millionaires making an average income of $3.6 MILLION instead of 800,000 hardworking Mainers.

Massachusetts: Sen. Scott Brown (R) sided with 17,807 millionaires making an average income of $2.2 MILLION instead of 3.5 MILLION hardworking Bay Staters.

Nevada: Sen. Dean Heller (R) sided with 2,672 millionaires making an average income of $4.5 MILLION instead of 1.2 MILLION hardworking Nevadans.

Pennsylvania: Sen. Pat Toomey (R) sided with 7,353 millionaires making an average income of $4 MILLION instead of 6.7 MILLION hardworking Pennsylvanians.

With the 99 Percent:

Colorado: Sens. Udall (D) and Bennet (D) sided with 2.5 MILLION hardworking Coloradans by voting to make 8,745 millionaires with an average income of $2.2 MILLION to pay their fair share.

Iowa: Sen. Tom Harkin (D) sided with 1.7 MILLION hardworking Iowans by voting to make 3,448 millionaires with an average income of $1.7 MILLION to pay their fair share.

Missouri: Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) sided with 3.1 MILLION hardworking Missourians by voting to make 3,992 millionaires with an average income of $2.9 MILLION to pay their fair share.

New Hampshire: Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D) sided with 800,000 hardworking Granite Staters by voting to make 1,045 millionaires with an average income of $3.5 MILLION to pay their fair share.

Pennsylvania: Sen. Bob Casey (D) sided with 6.7 MILLION hardworking Pennsylvanians by voting to make 7,353 millionaires with an average income of $4 MILLION to pay their fair share.

Don’t see your senator on this list? Check out this handy document for all of the details about your state. And here’s how each senator voted.

Majority of Republican Senators Vote Against ANY Extension of Tax Cut for Working Americans

After voting down the president’s plan to extend and expand the payroll tax cut because they’ll do anything to protect the wealthiest 1 Percent, Republicans then surprised nearly everyone and voted down their own plan to extend the payroll tax cut. That GOP plan — paid for not by asking millionaires to pay even a dime more, but instead by laying off more than 200,000 federal workers and freezing the pay of the rest — went down overwhelmingly on 20-78 vote.

Earlier this week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said this:

There’s a lot of sentiment in our conference, clearly a majority sentiment, for continuing the payroll tax relief that we enacted a year ago in these tough times.

But now after the votes have been counted — with a majority of Republican senators voting against any plan to extend the tax cut for working Americans — it appears that McConnell wasn’t telling the truth.

The real truth appears to be that Republicans only care about cutting taxes for the wealthy and they’ll do nearly anything — including raising taxes on 160 MILLION working Americans — if that’s what it takes to keep taxes on the wealthiest Americans low.