By Jason Smith
Last week, the Department of Labor’s inflation report confirmed what American families already know all too well: inflation remains at a 40-year high. Over the last 19 months of one-party Democrat rule in Washington, hardworking American families have been crushed by President Biden’s policies. Over that time, real wages have gone down by 4.5%, interest rates continue to climb, our economy is in a recession, and sky-high inflation – up 13.7% since President Biden took office - is costing Missouri families an extra $8,800 annually to pay for things like food, fuel, and housing.
There is widespread agreement among economists that Washington Democrats’ $2 trillion American Rescue Plan ignited the inflation fire. So what do Washington Democrats think the solution is for addressing the worst economic crisis in decades? They are trying to spend their way out of inflation and tax their way out of a recession.
On Friday, the Democrat-controlled Congress passed their crowning achievement - a 700+ page bill that spends hundreds of billions more, raises taxes on small businesses and hardworking families, and adds close to $150 billion to the debt. Only in Washington could Democrats pass a bill that increases spending and call it a reduction.
Democrats are trying to fool the American public that this bill will reduce inflation. Radical socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (Vt.), over 230 economists, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office have said this bill will do nothing to address inflation, and could in fact make it even worse.
Over half of the spending in this bill – more than $400 billion – goes to all sorts of Green New Deal programs and policies that prioritize the wishes of wealthy, radical environmentalists over the needs of working-class Americans. Can you believe it? They’re using the worst inflation crisis in 40 years that they created as an opportunity to pass a bill that may increase inflation and prioritizes a bunch of liberal wish list items that help hardworking Americans exactly zero.
The Inflation Act spends billions of dollars to reward the wealthy and corporations. It shovels taxpayer dollars toward ridiculous things like $1.5 billion for tree planting, $27 billion for an Environmental Protection Agency slush fund, and $7.5 billion to help wealthy families making upwards of $300,000 purchase a new $80,000 luxury electric vehicle. Washington Democrats’ legislation also includes $12 billion in new taxes on American energy, which will make it more expensive to heat our homes, cook and grow our food, and manufacture goods at a time when energy costs are already through the roof.
At least half of the new tax burden from the Inflation Act will be footed by middle-class Americans making less than $400,000 - with billions worth of new taxes falling on those earning less than $200,000, a direct violation of President Biden’s pledge.
To ensure Americans pay up, this bill supercharges the Internal Revenue Service with $80 billion to hire 87,000 new agents – that’s enough to fill Arrowhead Stadium - to harass middle-class Americans, farmers, and small businesses. Analysis shows the folks most likely to be targeted by the IRS are middle-income families. Hardworking Americans will have to live in fear of the IRS checking under the couch cushions of every living room in America. In fact, this bill would directly lead to an additional IRS audit of 18,000 families in Missouri making less than $200,000. On top of that, the IRS will conduct an additional 700,000 audits for people making less than $75,000 a year.
Washington Democrats’ $745 billion bill can simply be described as welfare for the wealthy and big corporations – paid for by increased taxes and audits on middle- and low-income taxpayers. Those hardworking Americans are the ones that have been forgotten under this one-party Democrat rule. That’s absolutely unacceptable, and I will never back down in the fight to protect Missouri families, workers, and farmers from Washington Democrats’ crushing tax increases, reckless spending, and radical policies.
