US House Speaker Paul Ryan was widely ridiculed for a tweet in which he cited a secretary saving $1.50 a week as evidence of the benefits of recent tax cuts.
President Donald Trump recently approved a drastic overhaul of the US tax system, which Democrats say will mainly benefit the country's wealthiest people.
On Saturday (local time), Mr Ryan tweeted a link to an article by the Associated Press about how the tax cuts affected working class Americans.
He quoted a secretary at a Pennsylvania high school who said she saved US$1.50 (NZ$2) per week after the tax cuts were implemented.
"She said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for the year," Mr Ryan wrote.
The tweet was met with an instant backlash, with many accusing the Speaker of being patronising and clueless about who the tax cuts really benefit. Within hours he deleted it.
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi posted a screenshot of the since-deleted tweet, calling it "embarrassing".
She claimed the tax overhaul was a "scam" and a "gift to corporate America" at the expense of the middle and working classes.
Fellow Democrat Randy Bryce said the Speaker was "out of touch" and urged Americans to vote him out in the mid-term elections in November.
Twitter users began using the hashtag #WithABuckFiftyAWeek to illustrate how little money the average American would save under the Republican tax cuts.
Newshub.
