“This isn’t about corporations or the wealthy, it’s about workers. It’s about families and customers, retirees, and communities that our businesses invest in. They bear the burden. They always bear the burden,” warned Republican Leader Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) on said in opening day four of the full Ways and Means Committee hearing examining Democrats’ $3.5 trillion tax hike and spending spree. on the backs of American workers and businesses.

 

Upon introduction of his “Build Back in America, Not China” amendment protecting workers and Main Street businesses against Dems’ crippling tax hike, Rep. Brady said:

 

“We’re going to continue to lift our people out of poverty, not China. 

 

“We’re going to create more opportunity for people of color, low income, low skilled – all those left behind by the Obama-Biden worst economic recovery in our lifetimes.

 

“And no, we’re not going to punish Americans from investing in America. We need that investment in our businesses, in our struggling communities, and our economy.”

 

CLICK HERE to watch Rep. Brady’s remarks.

 

CLICK HERE to watch the full hearing.

 

KEY BACKGROUND:

 

Democrats are leading the U.S. in an economic surrender and sabotaging our recovery.

• According to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), two-thirds of Democrats’ corporate tax hike would fall on lower and middle income taxpayers —which includes the small businesses that file taxes as individuals.
• In addition to having U.S. jobs shipped overseas, the non-partisan JCT found that 25 percent of the burden of Democrats’ tax hikes would be borne by workers in slashed wages.
• President Biden is leading an economic surrender to our foreign competitors by crushing America’s competitiveness and sending U.S. jobs, research, manufacturing, and investment overseas.
• In what The Wall Street Journal labeled as the “The Dumbest Tax Increase”, President Biden’s plan to double the capital gains tax rate is attacking the investment infrastructure here in America, decreasing incentives to invest in communities and in the economy.

 

READ: Never Has Our Government Wasted So Much to Kill So Many American Jobs

 

Tax Reform reversed the Obama-Biden trend of losing jobs overseas.

• In the two years after tax reform, we heard a giant sucking sound of profits, investment, research, and intellectual property coming back into the United States. Republican tax reform also led to record R&D investment.
• President Biden’s corporate tax hike would hit nearly 1.5 million small businesses that employ more than 12.5 million Americans and bring us back to the Obama-Biden days of jobs fleeing overseas.
• Democrats’ proposed corporate tax rate would be the highest in the industrialized world – worse than China and on par with Syria.  

 

READ: Op-Ed: Biden is Waving White Flag of Economic Surrender

 

Rep. Brady’s full remarks as delivered appear below.

My Democrat colleagues are going to frankly love me and this amendment today. I am going to tee you up so you can rail against greedy corporations and the wealthy one percent.

 

And here’s the good news. This is where you can pull those CEOs aside, and the wealthy, and just confide in them. Let them know you are sending them hundreds of billions of dollars in cash and tax breaks.

 

Tell them, look. You know you got that paid medical leave you’re already paying for? Don’t worry. Washington’s going to pick that up.

 

You need healthcare subsidies? Your executives are making a quarter of a million? We can cover that.

 

You want to build a wind farm? Maybe Chinese? We can get you cash up front and subsidies for a decade to operate it.

 

You need a new Mercedes Benz? We got a check for you.

 

And isn’t your kid going to an Ivy League school? We can get them a Tesla truck, and a big tax break for that university.

 

We understand from the New York Times that their endowment in the billions is really doing well after they began hiding those dollars in offshore tax havens.

 

You can also tell your friends to ignore the names you’re called today. Because next week we are going to provide you a huge tax break for the wealthy by repealing SALT.

 

Are we serious about this? Just let them know last night, almost unanimously, you voted to insist on a 300-billion-dollar tax break – only for millionaires and billionaires. 

 

300-billion-dollar tax break for millionaires and billionaires that would have gone to the working poor to make sure they didn’t pay taxes. 

 

So – you’ve got their back in a serious way.

 

I want to make clear what this amendment does. After that humiliating surrender to the Taliban and Afghanistan, we are not going to surrender economically to China, to Russia, to Europe, or Japan. We are not sending jobs, manufacturing, research, and investment overseas. It’s all staying here in America where it belongs.

 

We are going to continue to be the most competitive economy in the world. We are not going to have the worst tax rates in the world. No one has yet told us what’s wrong with 21 percent, because that gave us the opportunity to grow our economy, grow paychecks, grow jobs, and grew household income more in one year than in all eight years Joe Biden was in the White House last time.

 

We’re going to continue to lift our people out of poverty, not China. We’re going to create more opportunity for people of color, low income, low skilled – all those left behind by the Obama-Biden worst economic recovery in our lifetimes.

 

And no, we’re not going to punish Americans from investing in America. We need that investment in our businesses, in our struggling communities, and our economy.

 

So no, capital gains will not go higher than China’s.

 

This isn’t about corporations or the wealthy, it’s about workers. It’s about families and customers, and retirees, and communities that our businesses invest in. They bear the burden. They always bear the burden. 

 

We saw this last time Joe Biden was in the White House. Slow growth, stagnant paychecks, jobs moving overseas. It was so bad, that after eight years in office most Americans thought they were still in a recession.

 

Workers, customers, retirees whose retirement depend upon the success of the business, the communities that were hurt so bad when every week it seemed like we read about a new U.S. company moving overseas picking up and leaving communities devastated. 

 

That’s not going to happen again under this amendment. We’re not going to repeat that mistake. We’re going to build back in America, not China, and that Mr. Chairman is the title of this amendment. Build back in America, not China. I yield back.