Senate Democrats Just Voted To Raise Americans’ Taxes During A Recession, Put The IRS On Steroids, And Raise Energy Prices

BIDEN’S RESPONSE TO THE RECESSION HE CREATED: RAISE TAXES

• This past weekend, Democrats rammed their Bidenflation Scam through the Senate – a bill which will shrink the economy, kill thousands of jobs, impose crushing taxes on families and businesses, and worsen – not reduce – inflation.
  • By voting for this bill, every single Senate Democrat voted to raise Americans’ taxes during a recession.
• Biden’s tax hikes – which increase the tax burden by “more than half a trillion dollars” – come at a time workers are struggling to make ends meet in Biden’s failing economy.
  • Biden turned a recovery into a recession – the U.S. economy has now shrank for two consecutive quarters, meeting the definition of a recession that Democrats and Biden’s own economic advisors have previously touted.
• Biden’s tax hikes on working-class Americans break his promise to not raise taxes on those making less than $400,000 a year – a commitment he made at least 60 times on the campaign trail.
  • According to Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), if Democrats’ bill becomes law, average tax rates will increase for nearly every income group in 2023.
• Democrats themselves – including Sen. Joe Manchin, Sen. Chuck Schumer, and President Barack Obama– have admitted increasing taxes during a recession is bad policy.

DEMOCRATS’ BILL WILL NOT REDUCE INFLATION

• The so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” neither reduces inflation nor the deficit.
  • The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded Biden’s plan would have a “negligible effect” on inflation in 2022 and could slightly increase inflation in 2023.
  • The Penn Wharton Budget Model found that Biden’s plan would have a “statistically indistinguishable from zero” impact on inflation and would actually slightly increase inflation until 2024.
  • The Tax Foundation concluded that the bill actually “worsens inflation” in the first two years, while in the long-run its impact on inflation will likely be “close to zero.”
  • Moody’s Analytics estimated that the bill would have virtually no impact on inflation for years, and only reduce inflation by 0.33 percent over a decade.
  • Minneapolis Fed CEO Neel Kashkari, Bernie Sanders, and even Biden White House staffers have all said the bill would have basically no impact on inflation.
• The Tax Foundation estimates that if the bill’s energy tax credits and Obamacare subsidies were made permanent, the bill would actually increase the deficit by $75 billion in the first decade.
  • The National Tax Union Foundation found that net deficits could actually “increase by billions of dollars” over the next four years.

BIDEN AND DEMOCRATS’ PLAN: RAISE YOUR TAXES

• Under Biden and Democrats’ bill, Americans making less than $400,000 a year will shoulder the brunt of the tax burden according to the JCT.
  • Democrats’ tax hikes would raise taxes on those making as little as $20,000 a year.
  • Americans earning less than $200,000 will see taxes rise by $16.7 billion in 2023, and taxpayers making between $200,000 and $500,000 will pay an extra $14.1 billion.
  • The JCT projects Americans making less than $400,000 will bear as much as two-thirds of the tax burden by 2031.
• Over 56 percent of the tax burden under Biden’s plan – roughly $288 billion – would fall on Americans earning less than $200,000 a year according to a Heritage Foundation analysis.
  • 26.5 percent of the tax burden – about $136 billion – would fall on Americans making less than $75,000 a year.

DEMOCRATS’ DREAM: A SUPERSIZED IRS

• While Americans get crushed with higher taxes, Biden wants to give $80 billion to the IRS for additional audits and an army of 87,000 new IRS agents.
  • This would “roughly double” the size of the IRS, meaning the agency would have more employees than “the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol combined.”
  • This $80 billion would lead to nearly one million additional audits per year on Americans making less than $200,000.
  • The bill would spend 14 times as much money on enforcement as it does on taxpayer services.
• By supersizing the IRS, “taxpayers across the income spectrum” would be subjected “to more scrutiny and greater audit risk.”
  • The CBO found that increased funding for IRS enforcement leads to “higher audit rates” for all taxpayers, including those who ultimately do “not…owe any additional taxes.”
• This army of new IRS agents would disproportionately target poorer Americans.
  • Last year, the IRS audited Americans earning $25,000 a year at five times the rate of other groups and directed “more than half” of its audits at those making less than $75,000.
  • A 2019 study found that the five counties with the highest audit rates are all predominantly Black.

BIDEN’S BILL WOULD RAISE TAXES ON U.S. BUSINESSES, HITTING MANUFACTURERS HARD

• Democrats’ bill creates a 15 percent “book” tax on businesses, which experts say will result in “higher prices, fewer jobs, and lower wages” while hitting the manufacturing and real estate industries the hardest.
  • Biden’s business tax hike would shrink the U.S. economy by over $68 billion and eliminate more than 218,000 jobs according to the National Association of Manufacturers.
  • Nearly half of Biden’s tax burden would fall on manufactures, having a “swift and devastating” impact on the industry.
  • The Tax Foundation found that the real estate and rental industry would incur a tax increase of 11.5 percent of its pre-tax book income, the highest of any other industry.
• Biden’s “book” tax has been previously branded the “most economically damaging provision” in his agenda, with Biden’s own Treasury officials saying it would make the “tax code less efficient.”

BIDEN’S PLAN MEANS HIGHER ENERGY PRICES AND SUBSIDIES FOR THE WEALTHY

• Biden’s plan is full of tax breaks for the wealthy and $386 billion in green energy subsidies and spending, the type of policies that are already making “the electric grid less reliable and energy more expensive.”
• At a time of near-record high gas prices, Democrats actually want to make oil and gas more expensive.
  • Democrats’ bill would impose a new $6.5 billion natural gas tax, which based on a previous version of the tax could jeopardize 100,000 jobs and lead to a 17 percent increase in monthly natural gas bills, costing the average American family roughly $100 per year.
  • Democrats’ bill includes a $12 billion tax on “crude oil and imported petroleum,” which ultimately consumers pay in the form of “higher gas and energy costs.”
  • Democrats’ bill would make it more expensive to produce oil and gas on federal lands, hiking the royalty rate on American energy producers by 33 to 50 percent.
• As working-class families face higher energy costs, the Bidenflation Scam would give wealthy Americans a $7,500 handout to purchase electric vehicles (EVs).
  • With a price tag of nearly $67,000, the average electric vehicle costs nearly as much as the median American household makes in an entire year.
  • This EV tax credit benefits the wealthy by using low-income Americans’ money to encourage “affluent Americans to buy EVs.”
  • Nearly 80 percent of EV tax credits are claimed by Americans making over $100,000 a year.
• The Bidenflation Scam bill would also extend Obamacare subsidies for the wealthy – a policy which would “raise inflation and increase the deficit” and “line the pockets of insurance companies.”
  • Under Biden’s proposal, affluent families would continue to receive the “biggest benefits,” with a family of four earning 800 percent above the poverty line receiving “several times the subsidy” of families 200 percent above the poverty line.

BIDEN’S PLAN WASTES BILLIONS OF TAXPAYER DOLLARS

• The Bidenflation Scam bill also includes billions in wasteful spending for Democrats’ pet projects.
  • $1.9 billion for a grant program which would “identify, monitor, or assess… gaps in tree canopy coverage.”
  • $1 billion for “clean heavy-duty vehicles” including electric garbage trucks and $3 billion in funding for the United States Postal Service to buy electric mail trucks.
  • $6 billion for the Department of Energy to issue grants based on race.
  • A $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles, allowing wealthy households that make up to $300,000 a year to profit from government subsidies.
  • $25 million to combat cow burps and manure.

SENATE DEMOCRATS VOTED AGAINST PROTECTING TAXPAYERS, SAFER COMMUNITIES, AND LOWER ENERGY COSTS

• Every Democrat voted against amendments to protect middle-class taxpayers from the IRS and provide tax relief for American families.
  • All 50 Democrats voted against protecting Americans making less than $400,000 a year from more audits under this bill.
  • All 50 Democrats voted against an amendment that would have increased the Child Tax Credit, the Dependent Care Credit, education-related tax breaks and deductions, and the Student Loan Interest Deduction.
• Every Democrat voted against amendments to secure the border and make our communities safer.
  • All 50 Democrats opposed an amendment to combat rising crime across the country and ensure progressive prosecutors are actually cracking down on criminals.
  • All 50 Democrats voted against more funding for Title 42 – a policy which would help secure the border.
• Every Democrat voted against amendments to bring down energy prices and unleash American energy production.
  • All 50 Democrats voted against expanding American energy production here at home.
  • All 50 Democrats opposed an amendment that would have eliminated the bill’s new crude oil tax, a cost that will be paid by drivers and Americans making less than $400,000.
  • All 50 Democrats voted against making the Biden administration hold supplemental oil and gas lease sales as required by law.
  • All 50 Democrats voted to protect a $45 million EPA slush fund in the bill, money that would be used by the agency to impose expensive new regulations on American energy.
  • 46 Democrats voted against stopping oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve from being sent to China.