WASHINGTON, DC – Green welfare for the wealthy and well-connected is exploding under Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), as hundreds of billions of tax dollars are flowing to big banks, corporations, and the Chinese Communist Party, witnesses revealed during a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
- “A Low Emission Fire Sale Only Washington and Wall Street Could Love”
House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) slammed Democrats over special interest green subsidies tucked into their IRA law, which funnel hundreds of billions of tax dollars to big banks and corporations at the expense of working families. Smith cited newly released analysis from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) showing that companies with over $1 billion in sales receive more than 90 percent of special interest green energy tax subsidies, while banks and insurers alone receive over half of green energy tax breaks – far more than any other industry or sector.
Chairman Smith: “This is a low emission tax subsidy fire sale that only Washington and Wall Street would love. These special political tax breaks flow to big companies and big banks, with congressional scorekeepers estimating that large corporations today receive over 90 percent of them. These are companies with sales in excess of $1 billion. Financial institutions receive three times as much as any industry. That’s correct.
“When it comes to the 15% minimum tax on corporations that Democrats touted last year, to look tough on big business, and to make sure everyone pays their fair share, that’s what they say. Guess what? They exempted their special interest tax breaks from that rule, creating a loophole for their friends, their donors, their buddies, and politically favored corporations.”
- Rep. LaHood: Inflation Reduction Act Demonstrates How Easy it is to Let the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “Through the Front Door”
Rep. LaHood: “The Inflation Reduction Act demonstrates how easy it is for us to literally let [the CCP] in through the front door…Mr. Horn, can you talk about the China 2025 Initiative and how aspects of the IRA play right into CCP’s efforts to gain advantage over the United States as it relates to our allies.”
Mr. Drew Horn: “They’re planning to use our government funding, our universities, our infrastructure – anything that’s exploitable against us in any means possible… In the rare Earth industry, there are several U.S. alternatives that are not as far from coming online as people realize. However, they stand a threat to the global hegemony and monopoly the Chinese Communist Party has on the industry. And they will do everything possible to keep those products from coming online. …So when the resources that are designed to go to U.S. companies to allow them to compete on a fair stage with the CCP are diverted it allows the Chinese Communist Party not only to take those funds but to suppress any legitimate competition.“
- Billion-Dollar Companies and China Benefit More Than Working Class Americans From IRA Special Interest Tax Breaks
Billion dollar companies, China, and big banks will benefit the most from Democrats’ Green New Deal tax handouts. China is exploiting loopholes in the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” to make money off American taxpayers. Rep. Michelle Fischbach (MN-07) pointed out these tax handouts do nothing to help her working constituents.
Rep. Fischbach: “In fact, a JCT report in 2016 found that among individual taxpayers, 78% of the EV tax credits claimed were by filers with an adjusted gross income of $100,000 or more. We already know that the wealthiest earners would benefit the most from this tax credit. Now, because of the way the Biden Treasury Department is implementing this bill, we are learning that China will be a significant beneficiary… I represent a very rural district in Minnesota and the median household income of my district is less than $65,000 a year.
“If Chinese companies are allowed to access these tax credits, who will benefit more from the inflation Reduction Act – Chinese companies or my constituents?”
Mr. Ginn: “I believe it’s the Chinese. But also a lot of big businesses here and financial companies are also getting a lot of these from the equity that’s built into the tax credits. Very little of it will trickle down to the rural areas to benefit them.”
- Communism “too gentle a term” to describe Democrats’ Green Agenda
Daniel Turner, Executive Director of Power the Future, exposed how American energy workers and rural communities are being ignored by the Biden Administration while their jobs are driven oversees as a result of Democrats’ green agenda:
Mr. Turner: “I have stood in small towns in West Virginia that used to be thriving – that had communities with Little Leagues and schools that were well funded that are all closed because we have sent their jobs overseas. There are billionaires who fund green groups in this country that invest in foreign coal. And they will tell you that they will be damned if a man in West Virginia works on a coal mine, but a nine year old girl in Malaysia or Indonesia or China, they have absolutely no problem with.
“When I call the green movement communist in its nature, maybe that has been too gentle a term. What it is doing to rural America, oil jobs, coal jobs, fracking jobs, no one is asking them how they are paying for gas, how they are paying for 30% price increases in food, 15% prices in consumer goods, they are absolutely and categorically denied…Rural Americans and rural American energy workers are struggling tremendously, and they are being ignored.”