WASHINGTON – Democrats’ top-down socialist agenda for families would lead to lower paychecks, fewer jobs, and greater hardships for Americans. Ways and Means Committee Republican leader Kevin Brady (R-TX) issued the following statement about President Biden’s “Crush American Families Plan”:

“Good jobs and rising paychecks help working families far more than government checks and higher taxes. Republicans are eager to work with Democrats to improve the lives of working families, but we know that trillions of dollars spent in more entitlement programs rife with Washington mandates and fraud will result in permanently smaller paychecks for workers.” 

Despite common ground where Republicans and Democrats can work together to help families, as they have in the past, Democrats are so far pushing a purely partisan bill including…

• A permanent “Welfare Without Work” program that could cost 451,000 jobs and more in waste and fraud—even as they have yet to implement, or test, an earlier version of this program they jammed through Congress just one month ago.
• Putting the IRS in charge of families’ paid leave, at a cost of nearly $120,000 to a working family in permanently smaller paychecks –whether they use it or not –without having even distributed $50 billion to restore child care access for families.

“Welfare Without Work” harms families, leads to fraud and waste, and kills our economy.

• Democrats are upending the Child Tax Credit to turn it into a Welfare Without Work tax credit that will harm families, lose billions of taxpayer dollars in waste and fraud, and cost American jobs.
• According to a study conducted by experts at the American Enterprise Institute, the Democrats’ remaking of the refundable Child Tax Credit will destroy up to 451,000 American jobs.
• Upending the program will cost as much as $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, not counting the inevitable fraud.

• In 2019, the IRS made $17.4 billion (25.3% of all payments) in improper EITC payments. A concerning pattern also exists for Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC).
• A new, monthly cash payment system of $3,600 in the Child Tax Credit refund will serve as a powerful fraud magnet.

A Costly IRS Takeover of Paid Leave

• On top of managing the harmful “welfare without work” program, Democrats want Americans to go to the IRS for family leave benefits that could cost up to $120,000 to a working family in permanently smaller paychecks whether they use it or not.
• Democrats have sold such policies to Americans as either “free” or only “costing a cup of coffee a day.”
• Americans still haven’t seen any the $50 billion to “restore child care access” passed in just March.
• This is a top-down solution that treats every worker’s family and work situation the same, and would leave frontline workers scrambling to cover for disappearing coworkers.

Democrats’ war on work will devastate our economic recovery.

• Democrats’ entire proposal is already up to $2 trillion in unfunded commitments to the American people.
• Main Street businesses and job creators are eager to hire back their workers, but Democrats’ partisan unemployment benefits are crushing their hiring efforts. Democrats rejected amendments that would help those businesses reopen.

Republican-led family-first tax policies were built on years of bipartisan agreement that prioritized helping families and encouraged work. A bipartisan approach will do more for American families.

• Republicans and Democrats worked together to achieve over $328 billion in tax cuts for families and local businesses, with $20,800 in tax relief for the average American family with two kids and one jobless parent.
• At the beginning of the pandemic, Republicans and Democrats achieved paid sick and family leave with a refundable payroll tax credit that extended through March 2021 so employers could continue to offer paid sick and family leave to their employees. President Biden liked it so much he announced it in mid-April as though it were new.

Republicans have a proven record of supporting working families and those in need.

• While millions of families with children received needed benefits, they also enjoyed the lowest unemployment in 50 years and the strongest wage growth in over a decade.
• The Child Tax Credit works best when it provides support while encouraging work for families.
• In Republican tax reform, a generous Child Tax Credit helped strengthen families and their financial security, encouraging work and promoting a path out of poverty.

For more on Democrats’ job-killing tax hikes, please click here.