Phil Bredesen, a Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate, echoed House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's (D., Calif.) and Sen. Cory Booker's (D., N.J.) talking points during a recent interview by saying the Republican tax reform law is providing "crumbs" to the middle class.
Bredesen, who previously served as Nashville's mayor and later the governor of Tennessee, told the New York Times he couldn't have "swallowed morally" the Republican tax reform law that was signed by President Donald Trump back in December.
"I think they did something which was clever politically, but I couldn’t have swallowed morally, which is I think they threw a few crumbs to the middle class to give these huge breaks to wealthier people and corporations and so on," Bredesen said. "And I think I would have called that out as strongly as I possibly could have."
Bredesen's position on the tax cuts contrasts with the position of Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.), who is running for the Republican nomination for the open U.S. Senate seat.
"What we need in the U.S. Senate is a senator who is going to stand with President Donald Trump," Blackburn said earlier in the month at a county Republican Party dinner in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
As of March 30, Bredesen's disclosures show he has between $88.9 million and $358 million in total investment assets between January 2017 and February, according to the Tennessean:
During that same time period, the Nashville Democrat also had between $3.3 million and $20.1 million in income.
The disclosure, which is required of all Senate candidates, is the first such reporting Bredesen has had to file since entering the race late last year and gives an inside view of his finances since his departure from the governor's office in 2011.
But the disclosure does not encompass the entirety of Bredesen's personal wealth. Federal disclosures do not require candidates to disclose the value of their personal residence or its contents, and vehicles, including cars and planes.
Like Bredesen, Pelosi is worth tens of millions of dollars and has been one of the most vocal critics of tax reform, calling the wage increases and $1,000 bonuses resulting from tax reform "crumbs" and "so pathetic." Booker echoed Pelosi last week during a town hall by calling employee benefits from tax reform "crumbs."