WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Democrats’ reckless tax and spending spree:
“I described yesterday how inflation is hurting families across the country.
“Since then, yet another key economic indicator has set an unfortunate record: In the last year, wholesale prices grew at their fastest pace on record.
“Anyone with a shred of sense knows this is the absolute wrong time to unleash a multi-trillion-dollar taxing and spending spree. Every single day brings new evidence our Democratic colleagues should give the country a break.
“But the cost of Washington Democrats’ latest obsession isn’t the only problem. The content of what they want to pass is just as bad.
“We’ve known since the start of the COVID pandemic that Democrats saw it as an opportunity to transform American society. They’ve said so in public.
“And the reckless taxing and spending spree they’re writing behind closed doors is a Trojan horse to let the radical left dictate intimate details to American families.
“There’s a long list of policies inspired by the authors of the Green New Deal. A whole slew of new programs and mandates aimed at fitting the entire country’s systems for producing and consuming energy into a California-shaped box.
“Special subsidies for expensive lifestyle choices like electric vehicles and electric bicycles.
“New red tape to strangle the most reliable and affordable sources of American energy.
“Subsidies for supply chains that China dominates, so America borrows in order to Build Back Beijing.
“And don’t forget the so-called ‘Civilian Climate Corps.’ Just what we need at a time of inflation and labor shortages — a Potemkin make-work program for liberal activists.
“Of course, Washington Democrats intend to grab greater control over the development of America’s young people long before they’re eligible for made-up green jobs.
“Their spree contains a massive ‘Toddler Takeover’ that insults the diversity of American families and their aspirations. It only throws money at a subset of secular childcare centers that woke bureaucrats favor.
“Forget faith-based options. Forget flexible, part-time arrangements. Forget being remotely fair to families with a parent at home. Democrats want to bring their inflation into childcare and make daycare more expensive, more inflexible, and more unfair.
“And then there’s the latest offensive in a long campaign to restrict more of Americans’ healthcare choices. Democrats’ plan would mean more one-size-fits-all programs, more government control, a wet blanket over the world-leading innovation pipeline that creates new cures, and a further gamble with seniors’ Medicare when the trust fund is already in danger of insolvency.
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“Then there are the massive tax hikes our colleagues want to use to cover the bill.
“All those radical changes, all those Big Government intrusions into family life, come paired with crushing tax hikes that would hit our country like a ton of bricks.
“There are new surcharges on individual taxpayers. There are tax hikes for pass-through businesses. There’s a brand-new radical scheme to make American industries less competitive that Senate Democrats scribbled down with no hearings or committee process.
“President Biden promised he wouldn’t raise taxes one penny on anybody making less than $400,000. But experts agree that Democrats’ tax hikes would break that promise. People with far less income would be affected.
“For goodness’ sake, in 2022, their bill would give a bigger percentage tax cut to people making more than $1 million every year than to families that pull in between $75,000 and $100,000.
“That’s according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. The average person who makes upwards of a million dollars gets a bigger tax break from Democrats’ bill than the average household that makes just under six figures.
“In large part, that’s because of an absurdly expensive tax giveaway that Democrats want to hand out to benefit high income earners in blue states. Their ‘SALT’ policy would make the federal government subsidize the property tax bills of people with mansions who choose to live in high-tax states.
“It’s an insane proposition, and it’s struggling to even earn support from Democrats’ rank-and-file. But their leaders from New York and California are obsessed with it. Go figure.
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“But SALT is only just the beginning of the gravy train this bill steers toward Democrats’ pet projects and causes.
“There’s also a tax-code tweak that would create a special deduction for union dues while letting one for charitable contributions expire.
“Another special incentive – to the tune of $10 billion – would help liberal colleges and universities indoctrinate students in new ‘environmental justice’ programs.
“Still others would pour $29 billion into funding a ‘National Green Bank’… $2.5 billion into increasing ‘tree equity’… $1.67 billion to bail out news outlets…and an extra billion on top for ‘improving climate resilience’ of Pacific salmon.
“And then, of course, there are the extra special ways Democrats want to use this bill to fulfill more personal, hometown priorities.
“Speaker Pelosi didn’t end up getting to earmark millions of federal dollars for redeveloping a park in her district.
“But she did secure one Congressman’s vote by upping the funding for a defunct regional commission that largely benefits his district by 13,000%.
“That’s old-school vote buying, Mr. President. A slap in the face to taxpayers.
“Our own colleague, the Democratic Leader, has pledged to ‘use all of [his] power’ to personally steer tens of billions of dollars toward a hometown New York City housing authority with a long and storied reputation of corruption, mismanagement, and scandal.
“It’s hard to wrap your head around, Mr. President. That is, unless you subscribe to Washington Democrats’ apparent core principle: when the American people are footing the bill, the menu is all-you-can-spend.”