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Biden-Harris Record Speaks for Itself: Job Losses for Main Street and Tax Breaks for the Wealthy 

October 04, 2024

Chairman Smith: “The Biden-Harris Administration has had the last 1,353 days to be the champion of small businesses and workers, and they have instead chosen to make life harder for families and Main Street.”

WASHINGTON, DC – Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) issued the following statement after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the September 2024 jobs report:

“The Biden-Harris Administration has had the last 1,353 days to be the champion of small businesses and workers, and they have instead chosen to make life harder for families and Main Street. Vice President Harris cast the deciding vote for trillions of dollars in new spending that sparked high prices, high interest rates, and created a labor shortage. Billion-dollar companies, big banks, the wealthy, and China received hundreds of billions of tax subsidies under the Biden-Harris economic agenda while small businesses and workers got the short end of the stick. Is it any wonder that small Mom-and-Pop businesses had to cut 8,000 jobs last month and blue-collar pink slips at manufacturers are mounting? The Biden-Harris record works for the wealthy and well-connected, not working families struggling to make ends meet.

“Vice President Harris has routinely called for a repeal of the 2017 tax cuts that helped increase wages, bring 6 million people out of poverty, and resulted in the lowest unemployment in 50 years. Under the Biden-Harris tax plan, every single American would see their taxes increase on top of today’s 20 percent price increase. More small businesses would have to cut workers or even shutter because of the Democrat plan to make small businesses pay taxes more than 20 points higher than those in Communist China. Republicans are fighting back against this disastrous policy agenda. Ways and Means Tax Teams have traveled to 19 states and held over 100 listening sessions, roundtables, and site visits with Americans concerned about the looming 2025 tax hike. Folks in communities all across this country are telling us a tax increase would devastate their ability to hire new workers, raise wages, and invest in America. Republicans stand on the side of the working class whose paychecks and security have been wrecked by the failed Biden-Harris agenda.”

Biden-Harris Jobs Record:

  • Small Business Job Loss: Small businesses with 1-19 employees cut 8,000 jobs in September. (ADP)
  • No “Manufacturing Boom”: In September, manufacturers cut another 7,000 jobs and the United States has shed 37,000 manufacturing jobs in the last year.
  • More Second and Third Jobs: Since the start of the Biden-Harris Administration in January 2021, more than 2 million Americans have had to take multiple jobs, including 121,000 more people in September. 
  • Record High Number of Bureaucrats: In September, government workers hit a new high of 23.4 million. Since the Biden-Harris Administration began, 1.5 million new jobs have come from hiring for government salaries, including 31,000 new bureaucrats last month alone.  

READ: Averting the Harris Tax Hike
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RECAP: Over August, Ways and Means Tax Teams Continue to Hit the Road
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RECAP: Photos From the Field: 3 Moments from the Ways & Means Community Development Tax Team
RECAP: 2025 Super Bowl of Tax is Pro-Growth, Pro-America Tax Policy vs. Tax Hikes for Every American

Key Background:

  • Everything Costs More: Prices have increased 20.3 percent since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration. 
  • Americans Making Less: Real wages and benefits have fallen 3.4 percent since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration.
  • Inflation Above Fed’s Target: For 42 straight months, inflation has been above the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target.
  • Inflation Higher Than Wages: Inflation outpaced wages for 26 straight months under the Biden-Harris Administration. 
  • Historic Interest Rates: Under the Biden-Harris Administration, interest rates hit their highest levels in 23 years.
  • Mortgage Costs 80 Percent Higher: The monthly mortgage payment for a median priced new home has increased $909 and is 80 percent higher than when President Biden and Vice President Harris took office in January 2021.
  • $1 Trillion+ Credit Card Debt: Credit card interest rates are at their highest levels in more than three decades, while consumer credit debt has exceeded $1 trillion for five calendar quarters. The number of Americans struggling to pay credit card bills has increased to the highest level since March 2012. Nearly 11 percent of credit card balances are more than 90 days past due.
  • Shrinking Savings: Thanks to higher prices, families have spent the entirety of their pandemic savings by 2024, and they are able to save less of their income. The average personal savings rate since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office is 2.6 percent lower than the pre-Biden-Harris average and it remains comparatively low at 4.8 percent today.
  • Families Falling Behind on Bills: Over one-third of families (37 percent) paid a late fee in the past year.