Reid: Republicans aiming to ‘devastate’ Americans working in public sector

“Under their plan … many more middle-class families around the country would lose their jobs,” Reid said. “That includes Americans dedicated to public service, hardworking people committed to keeping our streets safe, FBI agents, drug enforcement officers, food-safety workers, highway construction workers.

“[Republicans] want to devastate those folks — that’s how they want to pay for these tax credits.” 

Republicans’ proposal, presented Wednesday, would meet Democratic demands to extend the payroll-tax cut but pay for it by extending a two-year freeze on pay for federal workers and by reducing the federal workforce by 10 percent.

Republicans have rejected Democrats’ pay-for mechanism for the payroll-tax cut because it would impose a 3.25 percent tax on modified adjusted gross income higher than $1 million, or $500,000 for a married individual filing separately. 

Reid concluded by accusing Senate Republicans of protecting the rich. 

“The Republicans seem uninterested in going after those high income earners,” he said. “As usual, the only real target of the Republican meat ax is the American middle class. And that’s just wrong.”