In their final push to pass the Manchin-Biden Build Back Better bill, Democrats are misleading the American people about what their bill would do. 

Now, the public is scrambling to understand what’s in this 700+ page bill and worried about higher prices, audits, fewer cures, more expensive health care.

Myth #1: This bill lowers inflation.

Fact: Despite its misleading title, the Schumer-Manchin tax hike and spending spree bill will worsen inflation over the next two years and do nothing to bring inflation down in years after, according to Penn-Wharton analysis.

Myth #2: This bill provides a tax cut for most Americans.

Fact: Working families will be worse off. New analysis from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation shows that the average working family is more likely to be worse-off than better-off under Democrats’ plan.

• For median income families ($50,000-$75,000), households are 33 percent more likely to have a tax hike than a tax cut.
• And it gets worse for every dollar you earn – families earning $75,000-$100,000 are four times more likely to have a tax hike than a tax cut, and families earning $100,000-$200,000 are more than ten times more likely to have a tax hike than a tax cut.
• Overall, the bill does nothing—or worse—for regular working families. At least 92 percent of households with incomes under $200,000 get no benefit—or a tax hike—under Democrats’ bill.

Myth #3: The IRS will not target low- and middle-income earners.

Fact: As part of the Biden Administration “Tax Compliance Agenda” the IRS, supercharged with $80 billion in new funding, will hire 87,000 new IRS agents, and middle-income earning Americans will be among their targets.

• Democrats voted against legislative guardrails protecting middle-income Americans from audits.
• A Ways and Means analysis of audit data from this period against recent tax return data finds that over 700,000 new audits would fall on Walmart shoppers earning $75,000 a year or less.
• Leaders for both Treasury and the IRS have been careful in their statements about new audits, using the specific phrase “the rate of audits will not increase relative to recent years.” Those “recent years” include 2010, when an out-of-control IRS audited middle-income earning Americans at historically high rates.
• A Ways and Means analysis of audit data from this period against recent tax return data finds that over 700,000 new audits would fall on Walmart shoppers earning $75,000 a year or less.

Myth #4: The IRS funding will improve customer service and the backlog – and won’t go towards audits.

Fact: Only 4 percent of the $80 billion in new funding will go towards customer service. The other 96 percent ($76.billion) of funding does not.

• The Biden Treasury and congressional Democrats have told CBO that they expect to hire 87,000 new employees to assist in tax enforcement and compliance – and will fill entirely new positions.
• There is nothing in the bill text that requires the IRS to address the backlog.

Myth #5: President Biden is upholding his pledge not to raise taxes on small businesses.

Fact: The Manchin-Biden bill increases taxes on 4.7 million Main Street businesses responsible for nearly half of all jobs in the United States, just as we head into a recession.

• Democrats opted to raise taxes on Main Street businesses rather than limit the SALT deduction for millionaires and billionaires, literally putting billionaires over bartenders.
• The tax increase – called “loss limitation for pass-through businesses” – limits the ability of small businesses to deduct losses up to a specific threshold, just as they may need it to survive the recession.
• Democrats say this tax increase has origins in Republican tax reform, but ignore that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut business tax rates, created the small business deduction, and broadened the tax base – while Democrats simply look to increase audits to squeeze these businesses.

Myth #6: Taxing stock buybacks goes after rich corporations.

Fact: Democrats’ unvetted stock buybacks tax reduces retirement security for American seniors.

• This tax would harm the 58 percent of Americans who own stock and more than 60 million workers invested in a 401K. 
• A tax on stock buybacks harms all shareholders and employees with an individual retirement account or 401k–including union pensions. Yet AARP, which claims to support seniors’ interests and helping more people save for retirement has even supported the bill (despite the negative impact it would have on seniors.)

Myth #7: This bill lowers the cost of drugs and gives patients more cures.

Fact: Democrats’ price-fixing scheme will kill up to 342 cures over the next two decades, according to a study done by the University of Chicago.

• If the Democrats’ price control system had been in place last decade, only six of 110 currently approved therapies would have made it to patients.
• Although the Biden Administration has asserted that working towards ending cancer is a priority, Democrats’ proposal surrenders in the fight against cancer and will lead to more cancer deaths by killing investment into development of lower-cost cancer treatments.