I intend to pass one of the biggest middle class tax cuts ever — paid for by making those at the top pay their fair share.

[O]ur tax system now levies the poor, the middle class and even the upper middle class to subsidize the rich...

I decided to run for Congress to get and keep people in the middle class.

Building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency. We fight for a future with affordable housing, affordable health care, affordable child care, paid leave.

Now compare that to Donald Trump, because I think everyone here knows he doesn’t actually fight for the middle class. Not — he doesn’t actually fight for the middle class. Instead, he fights for himself and his billionaire friends. And he will give them another round of tax breaks that will add up to $5 trillion to the national debt. And all the while, he intends to enact what in effect is a national sales tax — call it a “Trump tax” — that would raise prices on middle-class families by almost $4,000 a year. Well, instead of a Trump tax hike, we will pass a middle-class tax cut that will benefit more than 100 million Americans.

We shall increase income tax on the better off so that we can help the hundreds of thousands of families now tangled helplessly in the poverty trap by raising the tax threshold and introducing reduced rates of tax for those at the bottom of the ladder. I warn you, there are going to be howls of anguish from the rich. But before you cheer too loudly let me warn you that a lot of you will pay extra taxes too.

If Karl Rove is watching today, Karl, I want you to hear me loud and clear: I am going to provide tax cuts to ease the burdens for 31 million American families — and lift hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty — by raising the taxes on 0.1 percent of families — those who make more than $1,000,000 a year. You don't have to read my lips, I'm saying it. And if that makes me an 'old-style' Democrat, then I accept that label with pride and I dare you to come after me for it.

I will cut taxes - cut taxes - for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.

But, I’m going to make those at the top start to pay their share in taxes

With Americans worried about losing their jobs, their savings, their homes and their chance at the American Dream, the New Direction Congress will work in a bipartisan way to lift our economy and help America's middle class.

[T]he economy works best when it's fair and focuses on the middle class.

We have to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top. ... How are we going to do it? We're going to do it by having the wealthy pay their fair share and close the corporate loopholes.

We are charting a new way forward — forward to a future with a strong and growing middle class, because we know a strong middle class has always been critical to America’s success. And building that middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency. And I’ll tell you, this is personal for me. The middle class is where I come from. My mother kept a strict budget. We lived within our means, yet we wanted for little. And she expected us to make the most of the opportunities that were available to us and to be grateful for them, because, as she taught us, opportunity is not available to everyone. That’s why we will create what I call an opportunity economy — an opportunity economy where everyone has the chance to compete and a chance to succeed — whether you live in a rural area, small town, or big city.

We have to raise our expectations for the centers of power in society if we want to have a fairer society.