Speaker Nancy Pelosi: Democrats reduced taxes to historic low

Congressional Democats are responsible for the lowest U.S. tax bills in a half-century, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Tuesday.

Pelosi was responding to a USA Today report that said Americans' tax bills in 2009 were at their lowest point since the Truman presidency.

"Democratic leaders in Congress and President Obama have produced the lowest tax bills for the American people in more than half a century," Pelosi said in a statement. "Because of changes Democrats have made in tax policy, more than 100 million Americans have more money to support their families, consumers have more to spend at local businesses and our middle class is reaping the rewards."

The report showed that tax levels fell by 23 percent in 2009 while personal income levels fell by 2 percent. People on average had 9.2 percent of their personal income taken by the government in taxes as opposed to the 12 percent average over the last 50 years. 

USA Today credited the Democrats' stimulus bill for lowering taxes, but also tax breaks put in place by Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Lower consumer spending also resulted in lower sales tax receipts. 

Democrats have spent the day plugging the report, and Pelosi took a jab at Republicans for not backing the stimulus plan, which included tax credits.

“Despite all their rhetoric, when the time came to support lower taxes for 98 percent of Americans, Republicans in Congress voted no," she said. "Not a single Republican voted for tax relief, even in the midst of the greatest recession since Herbert Hoover that they created through the policies of the Bush administration."

Critics of the study have said that high government spending is catapulting the country toward unsustainable debt.

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