Ryan slammed for celebrating woman’s tiny raise in tweet

Speaker called out of touch for touting $1.50/week

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) took a drubbing on social media Saturday after touting a Pennsylvania secretary’s $1.50-a-week raise as proof that the GOP tax bill is helping middle-class workers.

Ryan tweeted a link to an Associated Press story on salaries following passage of the $1.5 trillion tax cut plan, adding: “A Secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, PA, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week... she said [that] will cover her Costco membership for the year.”

The tweet was removed, but not before it set off a firestorm of criticism against Ryan, whose fundraising committee, “Team Ryan,” received $500,000 from billionaire businessman Charles Koch and his wife, Elizabeth, following passage of the bill in December.

It took no time for Ryan’s Democratic challenger, Randy Bryce, to jump in. He tweeted that Ryan was out of touch and urged supporters to send him $1.50 “to help us repeal and replace Ryan permanently this November.”

Spokespersons for Ryan and Bryce did not immediately respond to telephone calls and emails from the Journal Sentinel.

Others joined the fray, with many referencing the Koch payments and reiterating critics’ assertion that the bill was a massive transfer of wealth to corporations and the rich.

“It’s not just that folks on the bottom didn’t get their fair share, it’s that many people barely got anything,” Hawaii Congressman Brian Schatz, a Democrat, tweeted. “They spent/borrowed 1.5 trillion dollars and regular people get free twinkies or a couple of bucks. This is a huge wealth transfer up, and people know it.”

The liberal organization One Wisconsin Now tweeted, “It will only take four and a half years for her raise to cover a single one of @PRyan’s $350 bottles of wine.”

Other tweets said Ryan would “use this as justification to cut her Medicare and Social Security” and “@paulryan smiles ... because a secretary got $1.50 and @atpaulryan got $500,000.”

The Ryan flap came days after his Democratic counterpart, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, was criticized for likening companies’ $1,000 employee bonuses to “crumbs.”

Critics of the tax cut plan, signed by President Donald Trump in December, characterize it as a massive giveaway to corporations and the wealthy built on the backs of the poor and middle class.

The bill includes a permanent 40% tax cut for corporations, a change Republicans say is long overdue and needed to make America more competitive in the global economy.

The bill also lowers tax rates for individuals and families temporarily, while increasing the standard deduction and the child tax credit. But because the bill also kills or limits key tax deductions — most notably reducing the amount of state and local taxes that individuals can deduct on their federal tax returns — the impact on individuals will vary.

USA Today contributed to this report.