WASHINGTON — Speaker Paul D. Ryan faced a backlash on Saturday after he pointed to a secretary’s $1.50 weekly increase in take-home pay as a sign of the Republican tax plan’s success.
“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,” Mr. Ryan posted on Twitter, sharing an Associated Press report about paycheck increases under the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul.
The article describes a high school secretary, Julia Ketchum, as “pleasantly surprised” that her pay went up $1.50 a week, or $78 a year, more than enough to cover an annual Costco membership. Mr. Ryan deleted the Twitter post in hours, however, after lawmakers and social media users criticized him for appearing out of touch.
“That tweet about the $1.50 a week is not a PR mistake,” Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, wrote on Twitter. “It is really what they think.”
....Critics also pointed to the $500,000 in campaign donations that the conservative billionaire Koch family gave to Mr. Ryan shortly after the House passed a version of the tax overhaul in November. NYTimes 2/4/18
