WASHINGTON, DC – House Republicans today passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act to address the debt ceiling and implement commonsense spending reforms to limit wasteful spending, save taxpayer dollars, and grow the economy. This bill delivers on Republicans’ commitment to America by tackling the chronic labor shortage hurting small businesses while reining in President Biden’s wasteful spending that has fueled the inflation crisis and sparked the fastest interest rate hike in decades.

During debate on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) highlighted how this bill will help working class families afford groceries and end the labor shortage killing Main Street businesses, while rolling back Democrat handouts for the wealthy, billion-dollar corporations, and the Chinese Communist Party:

“Unlike the Inflation Reduction Act, the Limit, Save, Grow Act…actually does what it says it does. It puts real limits on future spending so that we begin to turn the ship back in a more fiscally sound direction. It saves taxpayer dollars by clawing back unobligated pandemic spending…by ending welfare for the wealthy and loopholes for big corporations in the Inflation Reduction Act. Ninety percent of these special interest green tax breaks go to companies with over $1 billion in sales; financial institutions alone pocket three times as much as any other industry; and these tax dollars are being funneled to China, enriching the Chinese Communist Party and allowing it to dominate critical mineral supply chains…In this bill we propose pro-worker, pro-small business policies like work requirements in our welfare programs that will not only support a more vibrant economy but also help more Americans realize the dignity of work. This plan will also take the target off the backs of low- and middle-income taxpayers under threat from a supercharged army of 87,000 at the IRS.“

Contrary to Democrat fearmongering, attaching spending restraints and reforms to an increase in the debt ceiling has been done numerous times in the past. President Biden voted for such agreements when he was a senator and negotiated them when he was Vice President. The longer President Biden refuses to join Republicans at the negotiating table, the closer he is pushing America’s economy toward default and disaster.

Background on the Limit, Save, Grow Act

Ends Green Handouts to China, The Wealthy, and Billion-Dollar Corporations

Limit, Save, Grow Act protects taxpayers by cutting hundreds of billions of dollars in special interest green energy handouts that are flowing into the pockets of the wealthy, the Chinese Communist Party, and billion-dollar corporations:

• Cost of Green Subsidies Three Times Original Projection: These special interest tax breaks will cost up to three times more than what Democrats claimed they would be when they sold the Inflation Reduction Act to the American people. The Joint Committee on Taxation – which initially estimated the IRA’s green subsidies would cost $271 billion – now project the costs will more than double to $570 billion, before including the additional costs of electric vehicle subsidies. Other independent analysis tags the price of the IRA’s special interest tax breaks at over $1 trillion.
• Corporate Tax Breaks Flow to Billion-Dollar Corporations: Over 90 percent of the green electricity tax breaks flow to companies making $1 billion every year in sales. Financial institutions receive three times more benefit than any other industry. These tax breaks are a massive transfer of wealth from working-class families to Wall Street and big business.
• China Cashing in On Green Energy Handouts: Chinese companies tied to the Chinese Communist Party are using tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act to enrich themselves. A Ford battery plant in Michigan, an electric vehicle (EV) plant in Ohio, and a solar assembly plant in Arizona are all being built with the assistance of Chinese companies, including some accused of using forced labor.
• EV Tax Break is Handout to the Wealthy: Families making $300,000 can receive a $7,500 tax break to buy a luxury electric car.

ONE-PAGER: As Cost of Democrats’ Green Corporate Welfare Skyrockets, Big Business and China Profit

READ: JCT Confirms Green New Deal Tax Breaks Flowing to Big Banks and Other Billion-Dollar Corporations

READ: Using American Taxpayer Dollars, American Automaker Partners With Chinese Company Tied to the Chinese Communist Party

Adds Work Requirements that Help Break Cycle of Poverty and End Chronic Labor Shortage

Democrats created a chronic labor shortage by paying workers more to stay at home. The Limit, Save, Grow Act adds common-sense work requirements to help lift families out of poverty and revitalize the American workforce:

• Bipartisan 1996 Welfare Reform Worked: After the 1996 bipartisan welfare reform bill that added work requirements to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other public benefit programs, welfare caseloads dropped, families moved into the workforce and left the cycle of dependency.
• Work Requirements Don’t Exist for Most Welfare Recipients: In 2021, the vast majority of states had a 0 percent work participation rate requirement for TANF, and 57 percent of work-eligible individuals reported zero hours of work. Even before COVID, only about 3 million of the roughly 48.5 million able-bodied adults who received Medicaid, TANF, food stamps, public housing, or child care benefits were subject to any work requirement.
• Historically Low Labor Force Participation Rate: The labor force participation rate still remains below pre-pandemic levels.
• Democrats’ Labor Shortage Hurts Small Businesses: At Ways & Means field hearings in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Georgia, small business owners told members of Congress that the labor shortage has made it difficult to hire employees to fill job openings.

ONE-PAGER: Restoring Work Requirements in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)