WASHINGTON, D.C. – “Never has our government wasted so much to kill so many American jobs, drive prices even higher, and hook a whole new generation of the poor on government dependency,” top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) said while opening the third day of the full committee hearing on Democrats’ job killing tax hikes and wasteful spending.
“Coming out of a pandemic, the last thing Americans need are higher prices, fewer jobs, and the largest expansion of our welfare state in our lifetimes,” Rep. Brady warned.
CLICK HERE to watch Day Three of the hearing.
CLICK HERE to watch Rep. Brady’s opening remarks.
KEY BACKGROUND:
Democrats are targeting main street businesses and multi-generational farms.
- Democrats are expanding the death tax to hit more small businesses and family farms. This trojan horse for a supercharged second death tax will force family-owned businesses to sell off assets to pay a massive tax bill to the IRS, and will cost 1 million jobs over the long term.
Democrats are pushing job killing tax hikes and a dangerous expansion of the welfare state.
- According to the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation, two-thirds of the Democrats’ corporate tax hike would fall on lower- and middle-income taxpayers — which includes the small businesses that file taxes as individuals.
- Eighty percent of Americans oppose these tax hikes right now, as they struggle to keep up with higher prices and lower wages due to rising inflation – a result of Democrats’ dangerous expansion of the welfare state.
Rep. Brady’s full remarks as prepared for delivery appear below.
Thank you, Chairman Neal.
This is truly a historic day.
Never has our government wasted so much to kill so many American jobs, drive prices even higher, and hook a whole new generation of the poor on government dependency.
This is an economic surrender. China, Russia, Europe, and Japan are cheering.
This is trillions of wasteful government spending to fuel inflation even further.
This will raise taxes on the middle class and small businesses.
This is easily the biggest economic blunder of our lifetimes.
Don’t look for much common sense here.
When prices are growing faster than paychecks each and every month President Biden has been in office, how does it make sense to heap on another $3.5 trillion in government spending that will drive prices up higher and last longer?
When businesses are fighting to recover from the Covid pandemic, how will raising their taxes help them get back on their feet and get Americans back to work?
After the U.S. leapfrogged to the most competitive economy in the world following the Republican tax reform, what are we thinking saddling America’s businesses with higher tax rates than Communist China and most of the world?
Especially when it guarantees U.S. jobs, research, manufacturing and investment are driven overseas.
You remember — it happened all the time during the Obama-Biden White House.
And who gets hurt most? Workers and communities pay the price when jobs move overseas, and when businesses are forced to send their money to Washington to be wasted rather than invested in their workers and their local communities.
How does it make any sense to take more of what small businesses work so hard to earn, leaving them even less to spend on growing their business and hiring more?
Why in heaven’s name are Democrats exposing even more family-owned farms and businesses to the horrible Death Tax, forcing them to sell their land or business to pay the IRS rather than hand down their lifetime of work to the next generation?
This hurts multi-generational farms, and women- and minority-owned businesses.
Who thinks it makes sense to give up America’s sovereignty of our tax code so we look more like foreign countries, favoring foreign companies and workers over American ones?
And make no mistake, the Biden tax bill raises taxes on the middle class.
Just ask the liberal Tax Policy Center who states nearly three-fourths of middle-class workers will see higher taxes starting next year… and up to 90 percent in the future.
The Joint Committee on Taxation also agrees that lower and middle class families bear a real burden of the corporate tax hike.
It’s disheartening — with so many families struggling with devastating diseases like cancer, ALS, Alzheimer’s, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson’s, how does it make any sense for Congress to risk stopping up to 100 lifesaving cures for these diseases — just so Democrats can pay for huge green welfare subsidies for the wealthy and big business?
In this bill, Democrats dole out five times more in green welfare subsidies than America spends on basic medical research at the National Institutes of Health each year.
Where in the world are their priorities?
Speaking of outrageous green welfare, this bill allows a near-millionaire family to buy a $75,000 Beemer, Jaguar, or Benz luxury electric vehicle — and their maid is forced to send them a $12,500 subsidy from her taxes.
This bill hands out $1,000 checks to buy an electric bike likely charged by coal and fossil fuel, rather than simply a normal bike that’s powered by say, calories?
Why are blue-collar workers, nurses, teachers, and firefighters subsidizing the wealthy and big business with a quarter of a trillion dollars in green welfare checks?
Aren’t there more important priorities – like curing cancer, more affordable health care, or safer neighborhoods?
And since China dominates the manufacturing of wind turbines, solar panels, and rare earth minerals for batteries – well, “You’re welcome, China.”
Speaking of workers, when Main Street businesses are desperate for workers to stay afloat and stop rising prices, how does it make sense for Congress to expand child tax credit checks no longer tied to work?
This turns an important incentive created by congressional Republicans into merely a welfare program that discourages Americans from reconnecting with their job – that hurts everyone.
Finally, make no mistake, while it’s not in here yet, Democrats are planning to repeal the $10,000 SALT cap to give a huge break to millionaires and give them a tax shelter against tax hikes.
Today 80 percent of Americans oppose these tax hikes on businesses coming out of Covid. And when they learn the Green New Deal really means just a lot of new green subsidies for the wealthy, they’ll oppose that as well.
Let’s use some common sense.
Coming out of a pandemic, the last thing Americans need are higher prices, fewer jobs, and the largest expansion of our welfare state in our lifetimes.