The Economy

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, the biggest tax hikes in 50 years; the biggest peacetime tax hikes ever recorded in American history--that is what Washington Democrats are cooking up. Our Democratic colleagues and President Biden are behind closed doors, dreaming up creative new ways to grab literally historic amounts of the American people's money.

Remember, the same socialist spending plans that Democrats claim cost zero dollars somehow also need staggering new tax hikes to pay for them. So, even with significant inflation, runaway gas prices, and runaway energy costs already hitting American families in their pocketbooks, Washington Democrats have spent months dreaming up new cash grabs for the IRS.

Democrats have talked about massively hiking business taxes, to a level that would leave industries paying more than their competitors in communist China. They have talked about jacking up marginal income tax rates in ways that would hammer small businesses and family businesses that file as passthroughs. They have talked about adding a second death tax to give the IRS an even bigger bite out of family farms. They have even promised something that our country has never seen before: a new IRS surveillance dragnet where the IRS would get to track ordinary citizens' inflows and outflows. Banks and credit unions would be forced to hand over Americans' private information to the IRS. The Democrats are so desperate to shake down the American people for money that they are proposing to essentially treat everybody--everybody--like they are under audit.

For months now, our Democratic colleagues have been toying with one staggering tax increase after another. We have seen one disappointing jobs report after another, one historic inflation report after another, but Democrats are still convinced that the biggest peacetime tax hikes on record in American history are just what the doctor ordered.

As one news report explained, ``the scramble has opened the door to potential tax proposals [that] progressives could only have dreamed of''--just dreamed of--``just a few months ago.''

The far left is officially calling the shots, and that is where the latest new craziness comes into the picture. If public reporting has it right, the Democrats are so desperate to raise taxes that they are now proposing to tax money the American people haven't even made yet. Let me say that again. They are now proposing to tax money the American people haven't even made yet. Yes, you heard me right. So much for the quaint idea that you had to actually make money first before the IRS could tax it. Now Democrats want to tax money you haven't made yet.

There are already capital gains taxes that Americans pay when they cash out an investment, when they sell what they have been holding and realize actual gains. Now Democrats want to go much further and tax certain citizens just because their holdings have gone up in value, regardless of whether they have actually sold them and made any money.

Get this: In parallel with taxing people on hypothetical gains they haven't realized, they apparently also want to hand out tax breaks for hypothetical losses--losses--that people haven't realized. So they want to tax gains they haven't realized and hand out tax breaks for losses people haven't realized.

This harebrained scheme would have the IRS penalizing people who have invested wisely and compensating people who have invested poorly, all independent of whether they have actually made or lost any money. Let's just think of the unintended consequences, like the fact that, in the event of a market crash or financial crisis, the government would be on the hook for massive automatic tax cuts for billionaires or the fact that some experts suggest this new scheme would drive the wealthiest Americans away from stocks and bonds, push them into other tax shelters, and thereby reduce the growth in ordinary Americans' investments that households rely on for college funds and 401(k)s.

Or the fact that new, innovative entrepreneurs whose startups begin to grow in value could now get hit with a crushing tax bill long before their company is actually cash-flow positive. The next visionary startup founder could have to sell away ownership prematurely just to pay Uncle Sam.

Our Democratic colleagues have become so tax hike happy that they are throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. Now they are talking about rewiring the entire economy after a couple of days' discussions on the back of an envelope. It is a massive and untested change that has not received any--any--meaningful study or scrutiny.

Even the Democratic chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is complaining:

It hasn't been marked up, and there's been no vetting of it.

Our Democratic colleague, the senior Senator from Montana, says:

Anytime you get into stuff that's not proven in the tax code, it becomes a bit dangerous.

The senior Senator from Virginia says:

My fear is that we're going to try some innovative new ideas and if we don't have time to develop them . . . we could mess some of this up.

No kidding, Madam President.

This is just the latest saga in this long parade of Democratic tax hikes. Nonpartisan analysts have shown that various aspects of the Democrats' plans would shatter President Biden's promise to leave the middle class alone. I guarantee you, the middle class will get hit.

When Republicans had power, we prioritized giving Americans a big tax cut. We wanted families to keep more of their own money and make American businesses more competitive all around the world.

Democrats want the opposite--historic tax hikes. So families keep less, Washington gets more, and our competitors, like China, can pop the champagne.

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