Paul Ryan tweets about woman's $1.50 pay increase in tax overhaul, then deletes it
House Speaker Paul Ryan sent a tweet Saturday morning calling out a teacher's comments in an Associated Press article saying she has already seen a $1.50 increase per pay period since the tax overhaul. But the tweet was quickly mocked and Wisconsin Republican deleted his tweet within hours.
In a tweet sent at 11:51 a.m., Ryan linked to an Associated Press article about workers starting to see increase in their paychecks from the GOP's tax bill. He wrote "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 more than cover her Costco membership for the year."
The article also quoted other workers who noticed changes of hundreds of dollars in their paychecks. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has said that 90 percent of American workers will see an increase in their take-home pay.
CBS News' David Begnaud spoke to Julia Ketchum, the secretary, on Saturday after Ryan's tweet. She said she was "really surprised" that Ryan highlighted her comment.
"The paragraph above me, and the paragraph below my quote -- those people got hundreds more and I got a $1.50 per paycheck more," Ketchum said. "So it shows me he may not have read the whole article."
Ketchum, who was on a field trip, said she did notice the extra money.
"$1.50 is $1.50 -- I noticed it, I watch my finances and I noticed it -- so it didn't go down, so that was good," Ketchum said.
Democrats were quick to mock Ryan's tweet. Rep. Keith Ellison, Democrat-Minnesota, linked to Ryan's tweet and wrote "Wells Fargo, fresh off of defrauding millions of Americans, gets $3.4 billion."
Sen. Brian Schatz, Democrat-Hawaii, tweeted it was "not a PR mistake. That's what they really think."
Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau also linked to Ryan's tweet, writing "As a thank you for passing a $1 trillion corporate tax cut, Paul Ryan received $500,000 in campaign contributions from the Koch brothers, which would probably cover the cost of buying a Costco."
Within hours, Ryan deleted the tweet without explanation.
But even after he deleted it, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi chimed in, writing that Ryan "deleted his embarrassing tweet of a blatant admission because he and Republicans don't want you to know the truth: the #GOPTaxScam is a gift to corporate America and the top 1% at your expense."
Ryan's challenger, Randy Bryce, tweeted a fundraising pledge off of Ryan's tweet.
It wasn't just politicians -- other Twitter users posted pictures of $1.50 and wrote "thank you."
It wasn't just politicians -- other Twitter users posted pictures of $1.50 and wrote "thank you."
