WASHINGTON, DC – As the Ways and Means Committee takes up the American Families and Jobs Act today to provide families and small businesses relief from Democrats’ inflation crisis, new data from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows prices have increased 15.5 percent since President Biden took his Oath of Office and Democrats began their massive spending spree. The need for tax policy that keeps more money in the pockets of the American people to provide for their families or grow their small businesses could not be more clear.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) released the following statement after the May 2023 CPI report showed prices continuing to increase at a rate of 4.0 percent year over year:

“House Republicans are stepping up to deliver relief for families and workers who have lost more than two months’ worth of pay as a result of President Biden’s cost of living crisis. When they were in the majority, Democrats handed out hundreds of billions of dollars in green special interest tax breaks to the wealthy and well-connected. In our majority, Ways and Means Republicans are repealing the worst of these handouts and putting that money back into the pockets of families, farmers, workers, and small businesses. Under the American Families and Jobs Act, working families and small businesses would have a fighting chance against inflation, high interest rates, IRS overreach, and the supply chain crisis caused by one-party Democrat rule in Congress.”

Key Background:

• Prices have increased 15.5 percent since President Biden took office.
• Real wages have decreased 3.2 percent since President Biden took office.
• The average monthly mortgage payment is $1,101 dollars and 94 percent higher than one year ago.
• Interest rates in the last year have increased more than in the previous 15 years combined.
• Inflation has become so deeply ingrained in the economy that when removing food and energy this month’s core inflation number of 5.3 percent is even higher than the topline figure.

Background on the legislation before the Ways and Means Committee today that provides relief for families and small businesses:

Tax Cuts for Working Families Act

Working families need more money to replace the income stolen by inflation.

• This bill provides a new $4,000 Guaranteed Deduction Bonus for the next two years, which will result in annual tax savings and more money in the household budgets of middle-class families who have been hit hard by the cost-of-living crisis.
• Eliminates headaches and unnecessary costs for small businesses by fixing an IRS reporting rule that has not been inflation-adjusted in almost 70 years.

Small Business Jobs Act

After battling inflation, high interest rates, supply chain crisis, labor shortage, small businesses need pro-growth policies to expand and create new jobs.

• Stops the attack on the gig economy and Americans by repealing Democrats’ new rule that has the IRS targeting gig workers and those who use Venmo or PayPal to sell items like a used couch, guitar, or concert tickets.
• Increases U.S. innovation and jobs by enhancing small business access to funding; extending a current tax incentive to investors in startups organized as S Corporations.
• Encourages investment in new equipment and production capacity by increasing immediate expensing for small businesses to $2.5 million.
• Delivers greater economic development and opportunity with a new Rural Opportunity Zone program that will revitalize struggling communities.

Build It In America Act

Encourage more products to be made with Made in America labels and remove America’s supply chain from the control of the Chinese Communist Party

• Restores American competitiveness and innovation by extending the ability for companies to immediately deduct research and development (R&D) costs.
• Ensures that mid-sized businesses can deduct borrowing costs during this time of rising interest rates by extending interest deductibility.
• Promotes American jobs and manufacturing by extending 100 percent expensing.
• Lowers the price at the pump by repealing Democrats’ superfund tax on petroleum.
• Encourages supply chains to get out of China by protecting American companies from the Biden Administration’s misguided tax regulations that discourage near-shoring to Western Hemisphere countries.
• Stops agricultural land purchases by foreign adversaries with a tax rule blocking the purchases of American farm and ranch land by buyers from “Countries of Concern,” including China, Russia, and Iran, and preventing undisclosed purchases of such land.
• Replaces Democrats’ bad tax policy – which includes hundreds of billions of dollars in special interest tax breaks for big business and the wealthy – with good tax policy that returns money to American taxpayers and provides real assistance to our small businesses and job creators.

Click here for more information about the American Families and Jobs Act.