The U.S. Senate voted today 83 to 15 to pass the the tax cut and spending package agreed to between President Obama and Congressional Republicans. New York's senators split on the bill, with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, formerly of Hudson, voting against the plan, saying keeping low taxes for the wealthy will add too much to the national debt. Sen. Charles Schumer, took a different tact, voting for the bill but complaining as he did. “It is unfortunate that Republicans have dictated an ultimatum that we either provide tax breaks for millionaires or else jeopardize our fragile economic recovery,” Schumer said in a statement quoted in The Wall Street Journal. “These millionaire tax breaks have exploded the deficit without creating jobs. We cannot allow them to become permanent.” Though voting differently, their statements were similar. "Right now, we need to focus on the middle class, who are always left behind, not the people at the very top, who are doing just fine in this economy,” Gillibrand explained in a statement reported in The New York Times. Turns out, they may both be wrong. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has created this helpful graph to explain where the savings and spending in the plan are going.
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="337" caption="From Center on Budget and Policy Priorities."][/caption]
Earlier: Murphy favors tax cut and increased spending plan.