Harkin blasts tax cut proposal

The U.S. Senate is debating the provisions of the tax cut bill today. Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, a democrat, doesn’t have many good things to say about the bill. Harkin does however speak in favor of amendments he and fellow Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley have introduced to deal with the inequities of Medicare payments to the state of Iowa. He says the amendments are similar and he expects one to be adopted. He says if Grassley’s comes up first and passes, he’ll withdraw his amendment. Harkin says he doesn’t believe the claims that the tax cut will create new jobs. He says if the bill goes through, we’ll continue on a flat line, that we won’t see any job creation. He in fact predicts that things will get worse and we’ll have a stagnant economy for “quite a long time.” Harkin says the administration is bent on pushing the bill through. He says the bill is filled with gimmicks and games, and says it’s a joke, a total charade. He says the bill will cut taxes on the wealthy and not create jobs. Harkin says it looks like republicans have enough votes to get the bill passed.