Expressing Support for Tax Policies That Support Working Families
Floor Speech
Mr. Speaker, I understand why my Republican colleagues are trying to rename this bill the working families tax act because, while this bill may be big--to the tune of $4.2 trillion that it adds to our national debt--it is certainly not beautiful and certainly not for working families.
In fact, on this tax day, this tells the real story. This is nothing more than a betrayal of the American people. Families were promised relief. Instead, they have been left to foot the bill.
No matter how my Republican friends try to spin it, Americans are hurting. Costs are up across the board. At the pump, gas prices surged over 21 percent in just 1 month, the largest increase in nearly 60 years.
At the grocery store, families are paying more for the basics. Healthcare costs are rising, and this bill guts nearly $1 trillion from our healthcare system, putting hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and clinics at risk, and threatening the coverage for millions of Americans. When those cuts are finally realized, families will lose their healthcare, and communities will lose their hospitals, their clinics, and their skilled nursing facilities.
What did working families get in return? Yes, as the chairman pointed out, some taxpayers got larger refunds this year. As a matter of fact, the numbers are that, notwithstanding the fact that the President and the Republicans promised the Americans that they would get a $1,000 additional tax return, it is $346 more than last year. They were promised bigger refunds. Instead, those refunds fell 65 percent short of what was advertised, and they failed to cover the high costs that most families are facing.
To put it in simple terms, given that this is my friend Mr. Kelly's bill, a prominent auto dealer in Pennsylvania, taxpayers were promised an Escalade, but they instead got a go-kart. The gas for that go-kart is going to be a heck of a lot more expensive this year than it was last year. That is not relief. That is a broken promise anyway you cut it.
Let's be clear about who this bill actually helps. It is not workers. It is the ultrawealthy, the corporations, the venture capitalists, all the people who didn't need a tax cut in this environment. Millionaires are getting tax cuts tens of thousands of dollars larger than what working families receive. Meanwhile, families making under $50,000 have been left with the scraps.
Democrats have a different vision. We believe in using the tax code to actually help the middle- and working-class families of our great country.
We want to provide tax relief for home buyers, for renters, and affordable housing developers so families can finally afford a place to live.
We want to expand the child tax credit and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit so parents can afford to raise a family. We did that in the last Congress with our child tax credit measure, which cut childhood poverty in half. Our Republican friends allowed that to expire.
We want to support family caregivers who sacrifice so much for their loved ones, and we want to restore the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits to lower healthcare costs for working families.
We want to allow union workers to deduct their dues, and we want to lower energy bills and strengthen our grid by investing in clean energy, which is affordable energy.
That is what it looks like to put working families first, not rebranding, not gimmicks--real relief.
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I just want to point out that in my friend Mr. Kelly's district, 27,000 of his constituents will face nutrition cuts, 24,000 will lose their health insurance, and 795 jobs will be lost due to canceling clean energy tax credits that were in that big, ugly H.R. 1.
Sewell), who is the ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Mr. Speaker, I will point out that my friend from Iowa is facing a situation in his district where 12,000 of his constituents will face nutrition cuts. Mr. Speaker, 24,000 will lose health insurance, and 494 jobs will be lost due to canceling clean energy tax credits. All of this is because of H.R. 1.
I find it hard to believe that farmers are jumping for joy. Because of this legislation, tariffs, and an unauthorized war in the Middle East, fertilizer prices for farmers are going through the roof. Fuel prices for farmers are going through the roof, and farmers who are trying to ship their products to other ports are being absolutely devastated because the Strait of Hormuz has been closed. This bill also added $4.2 trillion to the national debt.
Chu), a great and distinguished member of the Ways and Means Committee.
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Moore), a distinguished member of the Ways and Means Committee and a strong voice for working people and struggling families.
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I just want to point out to the gentleman from Nebraska that 9,000 of his constituents will face nutrition cuts because of this bill. Mr. Speaker, 19,000 will lose their health insurance, and 3,098 jobs will be lost due to the cancellation of the clean energy tax credits. His constituents will share in the money that has been added to the national debt, $4.2 trillion added to the national debt by this bill so billionaires, multimillionaires, and corporations can get huge tax cuts.
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I just want to point out to the gentleman from Arizona that 10,000 of his constituents will face nutrition cuts and 26,000 will lose their healthcare. According to the Joint Committee on Taxation, $4.2 trillion will be added to the national debt in part because of his vote.
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I just want to point out for the gentleman from Pennsylvania that 15,000 people in his district will face nutrition cuts because of this bill, 18,000 will lose their healthcare, and his constituents are going to be on the hook for part of that $4.2 trillion that this bill added to the national debt.
I thank him for reminding us that this bill is regressive. I don't think anybody on our side has mentioned that, so I thank him very much for the reminder that this is, in fact, a regressive bill.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to just take a second to talk a little bit about the horrific cuts to healthcare that are in this big, beautiful, big, ugly, H.R. 1, whatever you want to call it. This bill cut $1 trillion from the Medicaid budget. You can't take a trillion dollars out of healthcare without seeing that ripple across, in a negative way, every community across our country, every congressional district across our great country.
Hospitals will close. Clinics will close. Skilled nursing facilities will close. The ones that are able to stay open are going to have to make big cuts. They are going to have to lay people off. They are going to have to forgo everything from remodeling and improvements in equipment to seismic retrofits.
All of this is truncating people's access to quality healthcare in their district. It is going to be for everybody, not just people who are on Medicaid. If you have all the money in the world, or if you have the best insurance policy in the world, if you become ill or injured and go to the hospital to get help, to get your life saved, and that hospital is still open or that clinic is still open, it means they made drastic cuts to keep it open. You better hope that the person you need to save your life isn't the person they fired to keep the doors open.
Rural America, districts such as mine, is really going to be hurt. We were told that we did a $50 billion rural slush fund to help those areas, but they cut $136 billion from rural healthcare funding. I may be from a rural area, but they taught math good enough that I know that $50 billion doesn't make up for a $136 billion loss.
Yes, every Democrat voted against it. How could they not? This devastates healthcare in all of our districts and all of your districts. I want to remind you that it also adds $4.2 trillion to the national debt. Future generations will be saddled with this debt, saddled with a debt that right now I think is $37 trillion, saddled with a debt that was grown by $4.2 trillion just to be able to give a tax cut to the richest people and corporations across this country, people who did not need a tax cut in this fiscal environment.
Mr. Speaker, I will point out that in the gentlewoman's district in New York 30,000 of her constituents will face nutrition cuts. Mr. Speaker, 40,000 will lose their healthcare. Mr. Speaker, 123 jobs will be lost due to canceling clean energy tax cuts, and, again, $4.2 trillion will be added to the national debt because of that vote.
Mr. Speaker, some of my colleagues say this Republican tax law has winners and losers, and they are right. The winners are millionaires taking home over $90,000 a year in tax breaks. That must be nice. However, for everyone else, working families, seniors, the so-called nongilded class, this bill is a loss. Any meager tax relief they might see is wiped out by the reality of this economy: $4.2 trillion added to our national debt, $1,700 a year in tariff tax hitting every American household, rising grocery prices that families feel every single week, skyrocketing healthcare premiums, hundreds of billions spent on a cruel immigration crackdown, and another endless war in the Middle East.
Mr. Speaker, let's be clear: This isn't a tax cut for working families. It is a windfall for the wealthy paid for by everyone else.
Mr. Speaker, I will point out that in that New York congressional district we just heard about, 19,000 of her constituents will face nutrition cuts. Mr. Speaker, 27,000 will lose health insurance. Mr. Speaker, 4,263 jobs will be lost due to the canceling of the clean energy tax credits, and her constituents will share in that liability-- $4.2 trillion added to our national debt.
I will just circle back to the child tax credit issue that the chairman, my friend, referenced. I think it is important to point out that in 2021 in the Democrats' American Rescue Plan, we provided greater child tax credit benefits to folks across the country than was pointed out in this bill: $3,000 for kids aged 6 to 17 and $3,600 for children under the age of 6. It was fully refundable.
I think it is also important to point out that the beauty of writing tax law, and that is what we do in the Ways and Means Committee, the most significant committee in the United States Congress established by the Constitution of the United States of America, it is that important, the beauty of our responsibility for writing tax law is that we can actually target communities, populations that need it the most. We can do a child tax credit without having to do a huge windfall for the richest people in the country, and that is what we should be doing.
Mr. Speaker, talk about driving off of the cliff. That Florida district where my friend represents is going to drive off of the cliff.
Mr. Speaker, 22,000 people in his district will face nutrition cuts, 91,000 people will lose their health coverage, and 486 jobs are going to be lost due to canceling clean energy credits.
If that is not a steep enough cliff to drive off of, try this one: $4.2 trillion added to our national debt. Those constituents in Florida have some responsibility for that debt, just like the rest of our constituents do.
As far as the tax credit for the children that my friend talked about, it is permanent. It is permanent for rich kids. Poor kids won't get the whole credit because it isn't fully refundable.
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
Mr. Speaker, at the end of the day, this debate comes down to a simple question: Who is this resolution really for? It is not for the families in my district and not for the workingmen and -women who are paying more at the pump, more at the grocery store, and more for healthcare. It is not for the workers who were promised relief and got far less than what was advertised. It is not for the folks across all of our districts who are going to pay $1,700 more in tariff taxes this year.
It is for those at the very top, and it adds $4.2 trillion to our national debt. That is $4.2 trillion to our national debt.
Democrats believe that the tax code should work for working people, not just the wealthy or the well-connected. This resolution fails that test.
Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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