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Janesville, Wis. – Monday, the Patriotic Millionaires revealed the first of a series of billboards taking aim at Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and the GOP tax bill he rammed through the House last week. It’s the opening shot in a new campaign to highlight how Speaker Ryan has failed both his constituents and middle-class Americans.
“Ryan’s agenda is economic suicide for the middle class,” said Patriotic Millionaire Chair Morris Pearl, a former Blackrock Managing Director. “The idea that this tax plan will help working Americans is patently absurd.”
The first billboard bearing the message: “When millionaires get a tax break, the middle class pays. Does Paul Ryan not know or not care??,” is located in the heart of Ryan’s district in his hometown of Janesville, Wisc. An image of the billboard is below. Other billboards will be popping up all across the district.
“Paul Ryan was elected to represent the people of Wisconsin’s first district, not the millionaires and billionaires filling his campaign coffers,” said Leonard Sobczak, a Wisconsin-based member of the Patriotic Millionaires. “Under Ryan, this district has seen too many factories shut down and jobs shipped away. But instead of focusing on bringing good jobs back to his district, Ryan’s single-mindedly focused on cutting taxes for people like me, who don’t need it. These billboards will remind voters of how the Speaker’s blind adherence to a disproved economic philosophy has failed his district and working Americans across the country.
Ryan, elected to Congress in 1998, represents Southeastern Wisconsin which has seen major manufactures like General Motors, Chrysler, and Case shutter operations in Janesville, Kenosha, and Racine respectively. Under Ryan’s watch the state has shed over 125,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000.
Meanwhile, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Tax Cut and Jobs Act will hand large cuts to the wealthiest while raising taxes on those earning between $10,000 and $75,000 over the next decade.
Louis Fortis, an economist, former Wisconsin Assembly member and current member of the national economic justice organization, Patriotic Millionaires said, “The simple fact is that whenever politicians cut taxes for the wealthy and corporations, it’s the middle-class that ends up paying for it every time. The country can’t take another round of this nonsense.”
In addition to the billboard campaign, Ryan will face a drumbeat of opposition and criticism, with the Patriotic Millionaires planning in-district events and media from now until election day in 2018.
About the Patriotic Millionaires:
Proud “traitors to their class,” members of the Patriotic Millionaires are high-net worth Americans, business leaders, and investors who are united in their concern about the destabilizing concentration of wealth and power in America. The mission of The Patriotic Millionaires organization is to build a more stable, prosperous, and inclusive nation by promoting public policies based on the “first principles” of equal political representation, a guaranteed living wage for all working citizens, and a fair tax system. You can find out more at http://patrioticmillionaires.org/about/
The Patriotic Millionaires have appeared on hundreds of media outlets here and abroad, including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, the PBS NewsHour, The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and many others. You can find more coverage at http://patrioticmillionaires.org/media
