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BRADY: We’re Facing an Economic Crisis of the Democrats’ Own Making

September 27, 2021 — Blog    — Press Releases   

Ways and Means Republican Leader Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), appearing on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, discussed Democrats using a debt ceiling crisis to pass their job-killing tax hikes. Rep. Brady also warned against Democrats’ plot to give wealthy Americans a tax break while increasing IRS surveillance of working Americans’  bank accounts.

 

CLICK HERE to watch the full interview.

 

KEY QUOTES:

On Democrats’ Debt Ceiling Crisis:

  • “This is an economic and political crisis of the Democrats’ own making.”
  • “Right now, they’re more interested in playing political games with the debt ceiling – which is wrong – than actually passing it and raising it.” 

 

On Job-Killing Tax Hikes: 

  • “I’ve never seen Washington spend so much to kill so many American jobs, to raise prices even higher and to expand the welfare state – the greatest expansion in our lifetime.”
  • “This is an economic surrender to China, Russia, and Europe, with saddling American businesses with some of the highest tax rates in the world which will drive and kill about 3 million jobs overseas and make it easier to be a foreign company than a U.S. company or worker.” 

 

On President Biden’s IRS Invasion of Privacy: 

  • “This bank surveillance, [Democrats] believe… will cover the money for the tax break for the wealthy with SALT, but who pays the real price here?”
  • “Our working families, small businesses, farmers, who will have both their personal and their business bank accounts surveyed by the IRS. Local banks don’t want to do this, they know this is a horrible intrusion on the privacy of everyday Americans, and they think, as I do, that the real target here is not big business or the wealthy.”  

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS: 

 

President Biden is breaking his pledge not to raise taxes on low- and middle- income families.

 

  • The non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) found that workers will shoulder the burden of the tax hikes and that within 10 years of a corporate tax increase, two thirds of the corporate tax burden would be borne by lower- and middle-income taxpayers.
  • In addition to shipping U.S. jobs overseas, the JCT found that 25 percent of the burden of Democrats’ tax hikes would be borne by working Americans in slashed wages. 

 

READ: Top 10 Reasons to Oppose Democrats’ Ways & Means Reconciliation Bill

 

The burden of President Biden’s IRS expansion falls on families, small businesses, and local banks.

 

  • Under Biden’s plan, audits will increase for taxpayers at all income levels – the nonpartisan CBO analysis assumes that, under the President’s proposal, audit rates would “rise for all taxpayers”–including EITC audits and those of other lower and middle-income workers.
  • Republicans have introduced the Tax Gap Reform and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Enforcement Act, which allows for a better understanding of the tax gap, provides smarter enforcement, ensures the IRS uses all of the resources at its disposal, and addresses the expertise gap at the IRS.  

 

READ: Fact Check: Biden’s Supercharged IRS Includes Bank Reporting, Hardships for Taxpayers