Cloture Motion
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, over the last year, America's economy has faltered and the American people are struggling. Families have been confronted with rising inflation, which is essentially a tax on their paycheck every time they go to the grocery store, every time they fill up the gas tank, and every time they go out and buy clothing or essentials for their family. America's small businesses, after suffering from the COVID shutdowns last year, are facing supply chain issues and labor shortages.
It is no surprise that the majority of Americans believe our economy is in poor health and they fear things are getting worse.
And the Democrats' answer to the growing economic anxiety?
Double down on Big Government policies.
President Biden and Democratic leaders are pursuing a $2 trillion tax-and-spending spree that offers Americans more debt, more government, more taxes, and more inflation. They think that government is the answer to all our problems. This $2 trillion bill is an attempt to fundamentally transform from an opportunity-driven society built on the American dream to a dependency-driven society powered by the Federal Government.
The Biden administration put a lot of work into trying to market their plan--their tax-and-spending spree. They claim it will bring down costs and help the middle class.
But what are their top priorities?
Tax cuts for their wealthy donors in New York and California and other blue States that have State and local taxes, giving them a deduction on those taxes imposed by State legislatures and Democratic Governors. They want to raise the SALT tax from $10,000 to $72,000, a move that mainly benefits wealthy Americans.
Ninety-seven percent of the tax cuts would go to Americans making more than $100,000 a year. Millionaires would get a $23,000 tax cut. And, as Democrats' rich donors get richer, middle-class families get poorer.
Although Democrats are touting their childcare cost entitlement program, the devil really is in the details. While a single parent stands to receive thousands of dollars in childcare payments, married parents at the same income level would receive no assistance at all.
Once the regulations in the bill are factored in, the cost of unsubsidized childcare will skyrocket. Millions of middle-class families won't get subsidies because they make more than $67,000 a year, and they will be on the hook for the rising costs of healthcare that their proposal will create. According to one analysis, parents making more than $67,000 a year can see their childcare costs skyrocket by more than $13,000 in the first year of the program.
How many middle-class families can afford that?
Democrats also want to meddle with our Nation's economy under the guise of promising that they just want to combat climate change.
The Democrats are proposing a new electric vehicle tax credit, which would subsidize high-cost electric vehicles for affluent Americans who can already afford them. To make matters worse, Democrats are offering a second tax credit only if you purchase an electric vehicle constructed by their Big Labor union allies. That's right, a car built in a non-union shop doesn't get the tax subsidy; a car built in a union shop does.
Look, I support clean energy, and I have got a record of supporting it here in the Senate and back in my time at the House of Representatives in North Carolina, but I don't support having the Federal Government unfairly pick winners and losers in the private markets.
Democrats also hope to create a Civilian Climate Corps to give young liberal activists paid jobs--jobs paid by the American taxpayer. That is an outrageous concept, considering that we already have a record number of jobs that private employers can't fill. The government is going to create jobs to compete with these businesses that are desperately looking for labor.
But this isn't about jobs. It is about the socialist wing of the Democratic Party having their own army of government-funded social justice warriors. It is no surprise that the Civilian Climate Corps is championed by the radical and anti-Semitic Sunrise Movement. Their activists have protested climate policy in the past by blocking traffic during rush hour and chaining themselves to boats. They also frequently go to homes of elected officials--including me, just back in August--to trespass on property and to harass and intimidate us into supporting their extreme socialist demands. These activists would be at the top of the list to get taxpayer-funded jobs in the Civilian Climate Corps. And by their own admission, progressives see it expanding well beyond the scope of climate change to anything the left considers social justice.
These are just some of the provisions in the Democrats' Big Government spending spree.
The next logical question is, how do they intend to pay for it?
They will do it by raising taxes, shaking down the middle class, and adding more to our debt.
They have proposed doubling the size of the IRS. The IRS already has 83- to 85,000 people. They are proposing hiring another 80,000 people, doubling the size of the IRS. Democrats want to expand the size of the IRS in order to monitor bank accounts of hard-working Americans in the hopes of squeezing more money out of them.
While millionaires and billionaires have tax lawyers and accountants to handle an IRS inquiry, hard-working, middle-class Americans don't. And there is nothing more chilling than getting a call from the IRS or a letter saying that you are about to be audited or ``We just have a few questions for you.'' They are going to have to take on the IRS themselves when they get accused of not paying enough.
My friend, the Senator from West Virginia, has spoken out against the plan to double the size and scope of the IRS, and I agree with him. He has also warned Democrats on the dangers of creating massive new spending programs at the same time that Social Security and Medicare are on the verge of bankruptcy.
Focus group-approved slogans and new promises the government can't keep might be good politics for Democrats, but it is horrible policy for Americans. Americans can't afford more inflation, more taxes, more childcare costs, and more government. The Democrats' tax-and-spending spree won't Build Back Better; it will only make life harder for Americans already struggling to get by.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source