Twitter Is Dragging Paul Ryan Over A Tax Cut Tweet That You Need To See
President Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act into law in December 2017. You'll remember much of the conversation surrounding the bill was about large tax cuts for corporations in comparison to the more meager cuts for a majority of Americans. Apparently, the current Speaker of the House did not keep that sentiment in mind when he tweeted out his latest thoughts regarding the new tax plan. It did not end well for him, and Paul Ryan's tax cuts tweet was dragged so hard that he was forced to take it down.
In the now-deleted tweet, Speaker Ryan attempted to praise the results of the newest tax cuts by sharing his recent exchange with a public high school secretary in Pennsylvania, according to Teen Vogue. Prepare yourself, because the resulting tweet it the very definition of cringeworthy. Presumably, Ryan wanted to illustrate the positive effect of the tax cuts when he wrote about the extra $1.50 a week this woman would earn:
A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week ... she said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for the year.
The response to the tweet on Feb. 3 was not the celebratory reaction Ryan was looking for, and he deleted it shortly after the criticisms came rolling in. Fortunately, screenshots were taken, and Gavin Newsom, current Lieutenant Governor of California, shared his screenshot of the tweet once Ryan's original tweet disappeared.
It's likely that this tweet flew under the radar at first because Ryan shared it on his personal Twitter account (@PRyan) with just under 850,000 followers rather than on his official Speaker of the House Twitter account (@SpeakerRyan) boasting 3.4 million followers. Once the screenshots made their way to Twitter, though, the tone deaf tweet was ripped apart some more.
The oversight concerning middle class tax cuts was pointed out.
"Paul Ryan to billionaires: Here are billions in tax cuts. Paul Ryan to working people: Here's a $1.50."
Deleting the tweet didn't seem to make the situation any better.
"Deleting the tweet doesn't make Ryan any less of a schmuck."
The out-of-touch nature of the tweet really highlighted a problem with the working class tax cuts.
"I don't know what's more depressing, the fact that Paul Ryan thought the Costco tweet was good, or the fact that the working class is so beaten down they would be grateful for the dollar and change."
When it comes to the odd claim about the Costco membership, some people were dubious. Ryan tweeted that the extra $1.50 a week would "more than cover" a one-year Costco membership. With the help of simple math, you can figure out that $1.50 a week adds up to $78 extra dollars a year. According to CNN, a basic Costco membership costs $60 a year. So, presumably after covering the membership, she'd have $18 left over.
That math still didn't sit well with many people.
People pointed out that Paul Ryan's reported benefit from the tax plan far surpasses $1.50 a week.
"As a thank you for passing a $1 trillion corporate tax cut, Paul Ryan received $500,000 in campaign contributions from the Koch brothers, which would probably cover the cost of buying a Costco."
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi didn't let the $500,000 go unmentioned either.
"He also doesn’t want you to know he got $500,000 from the Koch family."
Seemingly not helping his cause, Ryan left this tweet mentioning "bread crumbs" on his page.
Ryan quoted Wayne Love, an individual in an AP report about the tax cut who said, "I have heard time and again that the middle class is getting bread crumbs, but I'll take it."
With the backlash over praising an extra $1.50 a week in comparison to the tax cuts the highest earning Americans receive, it is puzzling why this "bread crumbs" tweet would remain on the Speaker's Twitter page.
As seen with the $1.50-a-week tweet, though, the right amount of criticism might just see it disappear, so take your screenshots now, Twitter detectives.
