Paul Ryan says his tax plan will be great for the poorest and most vulnerable people in America, and he tweeted a hypothetical to help you understand how that works: “Meet Cindy: a single mom, making $30,000 per year, who hopes to one day get beyond living paycheck to paycheck. With a $700 increase in her tax refund each year under our tax bill, Cindy can start saving for her future.”
If Cindy is a single mom in Ryan’s home state of Wisconsin, where cruel austerity and attacks on trade unions and workers’ rights have caused a massive collapse in the state’s prosperity (while neighboring Minnesota is booming, thanks to redistributive policies), then she’s entitled to a $7.50 minimum wage. But as a single mother, she’d need to earn $23.62/h and get 40 hours’ a week worth of work to make a bare living wage.
But assume that Cindy decides to bank Paul Ryan’s $700 a year, instead of using it to avoid having to visit food pantries and turn off the furnace on cold nights (and never touch a cent for medical emergencies, childcare or debt repayment). In ten years, Cindy has amassed $7000.
Paul Ryan, who is worth $6.4 million, thinks that $58/month for starving Cindy and her malnourished child will make more of a difference than a living wage, or universal health care, or a state pension so that Cindy can have a few minutes to look for a better job, rather than tending to her aging mother’s bedsores.
