Madam President, I come to the floor today to oppose Democrats' reckless tax-and-spending spree. If Democrats pass the bill, every American will end up paying more, and clearly pay more in taxes,…
Madam President, I come to the floor today to oppose Democrats' reckless tax-and-spending spree.
If Democrats pass the bill, every American will end up paying more, and clearly pay more in taxes, also pay more for the costs that people are seeing today at home--goods, gas, groceries. These prices all continue to go up.
First, let's talk about taxes. This bill would be the largest tax increase in the history of the United States--actually, in the last half century.
The bill raises taxes on small businesses, and that means higher prices on everyone and also fewer jobs.
The bill raises taxes on farmers and ranchers, who will have a harder time in terms of passing down the family farm or ranch to their kids or grandkids.
The bill raises taxes on savings and investments. So seniors will either have to work longer or retire with less.
It includes trillions of dollars in tax increases, yet Democrats seem to be pandering to their elite donors. They made sure to include special exemptions for rich people in blue States and for the owners of electric vehicles.
Now a study from the University of California Berkeley--clearly not a conservative university--they say that 9 out of 10 electric vehicle subsidies go to the rich--go to the rich. Nine out of ten, according to Berkeley, go to the rich.
Democrats also would give tax breaks for people making up to $400,000 a year for all sorts of things, including sending their kids to summer camp.
Is that what the Democrats want to vote for: Tax breaks for people making up to $400,000 a year to send their kids to summer camp?
Well, the contrast with Republicans could not be clearer. Where Democrats
are making more handouts for their friends, Republicans actually simplified the Tax Code. Where Democrats' increases are going to eliminate jobs, our tax cuts increased job growth, increased employment, lowered unemployment, raised wages.
The 2017 tax cut was an across-the-board tax cut. It helped businesses and working families, and the result was the best economy in my lifetime.
In the months after the tax cuts, nearly 200 companies--200 companies--announced raises for their employees.
Six million American workers received either a bonus or a raise or an increased retirement contribution--6 million Americans after we passed that law.
Now, before the pandemic, unemployment was at a 50-year low. Wages were growing at the fastest pace in a decade, and the biggest wage gains were for people at the bottom of the economic ladder.
On average, American household income rose by more than $4,000 a year. Well, this is more than the increase over the entire 8 years of the Obama-Biden administration.
We had the lowest poverty rate in a half a century. Child poverty was down; income inequality went down. The top 1 percent's share of taxes went up, so the richer folks were actually paying more in taxes.
After Republicans cut taxes, we saw the lowest unemployment rates ever recorded for African Americans, for Hispanic Americans, and for Asian Americans.
When we began to reopen the economy last year, it was the fastest recovery in American history. That was because we had such a strong economy before the pandemic.
What a contrast to what we have with the Democrats over the last 6 months. Since Democrats took control of Washington, we have seen the fastest rise in core inflation in 40 years--the fastest rise in core inflation in 40 years.
And we have also seen the most unfilled jobs in Americans history. The American people are already paying more at the grocery store, paying more at the gas station; now the American people are bracing for the fact that they are going to pay a lot more on tax day as well
Yet just as bad as the Democrats' tax increases, on top of that, we see reckless spending. Democrats tell us the bill costs $3.5 trillion. This is nearly the cost of what America spent in World War II. Yet the bill is actually much more expensive than $3.5 trillion, because Democrats continue to use accounting gimmicks to hide the real cost of the legislation.
Last week, a nonpartisan group released a study showing the real cost is likely $5.5 trillion. This is on top of the $6 trillion we have already spent on coronavirus relief. Five and a half trillion dollars is larger than the entire economy of Japan, which is the third largest economy in the world.
This is clearly a recipe for inflation. So now Democrats are waving around a report from a single discredited economist who says: Oh, don't worry about inflation.
Well, the people in my home State of Wyoming are worried about inflation because they are living it.
Now, this same economist has been wrong over and over and over again in his career. He predicted a recession under President Trump. Instead, we saw the best economy of our lifetime. He wasn't even close. His work was an influence on President Obama's stimulus plan, which gave us the slowest recovery in 70 years.
So hard to know why the Democrats would want to even turn to this person other than he is saying what they want him to say.
Who are you going to believe? Him or your own two eyes?
And the people of Wyoming believe their own two eyes when they go and fill up with gas or they go to the grocery store or other stores and see their paycheck being eaten away.
Now, Democrats now tell us they can spend their way out of inflation. Spend their way out of inflation?
This isn't just wishful thinking. This is radical. It is extreme. It is dangerous. It is scary. Our economy doesn't need a dime of stimulus. We don't even need stimulus. We didn't need it 4 months ago, when Democrats borrowed and spent an additional $2 trillion.
Prices are going up because Democrats spent too much already. The money supply hasn't gone up this fast since World War II.
One Democrat Senator, this weekend, said inflation is happening because of money we have already spent.
Well, if this is true, then why would we want to add fuel to the fire and spend more? Why would we want to do that?
Democrats are printing more money without creating more goods and services. So if you print more money without creating more goods and services, this is almost a textbook definition of inflation.
The two bills coming to the floor now would bring Democrats' total for the year to $8 trillion in additional government spending.
According to an estimate from the Manhattan Institute, this is enough to give every American household $60,000; or it is enough to cut income taxes by one-third.
Instead, Democrats are preparing more payoffs for their friends and donors. This bill is a full giveaway to union bosses, trial lawyers, leftwing professors. It includes taxpayer funding for full-time professional climate activists. It includes corporate welfare for connected companies.
This tax-and-spending spree is utterly reckless. Not one Republican will vote for this bill. This means all it takes is one Democrat in the Senate or a handful in the House to stop this freight train to socialism. All it takes is one Democrat concerned about our future, willing to say: We shouldn't weigh down our children with debt or our economy with massive tax increases.
President Biden and the Democrat party are in charge of this runaway train. Each and every Democrat is going to be held responsible for the consequences. This includes more inflation, more worker shortages, more debt, and more dependency.
Look, Democrats did enough damage with their last spending spree. This new spending spree is much worse.
Unlike their last spending spree, this bill includes massive tax increases. It is one more reason why the American people are already speaking out against this reckless tax-and-spending spree.
People across the country and certainly home in Wyoming are fed up, and the poll numbers are showing it. Seventy-four percent of Americans--we are talking Republicans, Democrats, Independents--74 percent of Americans are concerned this spending spree will accelerate inflation; 78 percent are rightly concerned about their own wages going up at a time when--with their own taxes going up at a time when their wages have been getting eaten into by inflation.
The people are going to remember how you vote on this bill. They are going to remember it. They remember it every time they go to the gas station, every time they go to the grocery store, and they are clearly going to remember it when they go to vote.
So election day will come, people will make their votes as citizens, and they will realize what the Democrats have done with this reckless tax-and-spending spree and how it has impacted them as they are paying more in taxes, having a greater national debt, and inflation eating away at their paycheck.
I yield the floor.
