Brady: Democrats Spent $3 Trillion Over the Budget This Session
“The worst thing we can do for the economy is continue this spending spree especially with inflation so high,” Ways and Means Republican Leader Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) said on Julie Mason Mornings on Sirius XM, outlining priorities for the lame duck session.
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Rather than lock in Democrats’ overspending, Congress should end the labor shortage and grow the economy.
“Democrats spent $3 trillion more on top of the budget this session. The worst thing we can do for the economy is continue this spending spree especially with inflation so high.
“What I’m trying to do is find common ground with our Democrats on some end of the year matters that are pretty important. Some tax, trade health care, temporary provisions that expire need attention.”
The SECURE Act made significant improvements to our country’s retirement system, and SECURE 2.0 will do even more.
“We’re working together on a second retirement package. The SECURE Act passed about a year and a half ago, and really focused on helping people save more and longer throughout their lifetime.
“This package is focused on the millions of Americans who will never save a dime in their life. They’ll be dependent on the government, they have very modest incomes, and they work for very small businesses.
“This package is bipartisan and helps small businesses offer plans and match contributions, helping people with modest incomes get in that plan and help match the first $1,000 that they’re putting in there. SECURE 2.0 is a really good bill,and we’re working hard to try to get this done.”
READ: For American Workers, SECURE 2.0 “Feels Like a Tax Cut”
Biden-Flation has families digging into savings, delaying retirement, working second jobs, and adding more debt than at any time in the past 15 years.
“Overall personal debt is the highest it’s been in 15 years over the last few months. We’re seeing people skipping meals, digging into their savings, and delaying retirement, which is really troubling. Can you imagine working 30 or 40 years waiting for that day that you can finally retire and you’ve got to delay it because prices are just so high?”
Democrats’ Child Tax Credit reduces economic growth and disconnects people from work.
“I don’t think Democrats’ Child Tax Credit is likely to make it into an end-of-year deal. Here’s why. At the end of the year, a package that comes together needs to be balanced both in costs and policies.
“Republicans are requesting three bipartisan tax measures. One helps companies take full advantage of the research and development credit so they’re doing the research here in America, another one helps businesses write off the cost of equipment, something really important in this supply chain crisis.
“The Child Tax Credit is almost $120 billion dollars a year–a huge expense. It hasn’t had an impact on child poverty–we’ve been studying it very closely. And during COVID, they did away with the work requirements. So it really discouraged people to reconnect to work. For those reasons, I don’t see that happening.
Republicans are interested in bipartisan year-end provisions.
“We’re continuing negotiations to figure out if there’s other priorities that are important. The same is true on trade issues and then healthcare issues. There are some provisions that are important: Rural hospitals, doctors, ambulances, home health care and clinical labs are all facing some Medicare cuts that we think are important to hold off. Plus, we’ve got telehealth and mental health issues that we’ve worked together on, and are very bipartisan.
“From experience, I know that lame ducks are very unpredictable. Some can be productive in a good way, others can just collapse from their weight and I’m hopeful this doesn’t.”
Ways and Means Republicans have laid the groundwork to hold the Biden Administration accountable for its abuses of power.
“We are focused on rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. And in the COVID funds, just the unemployment funding, which is what Ways and Means has oversight over, some independent estimates are that $400 billion was stolen, and that would be the greatest theft of American tax dollars in history and about the same as what we spend on the Army and the Navy combined each year. It’s a stunning number.”
“The other things our committee will be looking at will be the IRS delay in getting your refunds, the leaking of private taxpayer information, the destruction of 30 million taxpayer returns from last year, as well as this whole bank surveillance scheme. We are going to be focused on issues that matter to people.”
READ: Republicans Will Use Oversight to Protect Working Families from the Biden Admin’s Broken Policies