Support the President's Tax Plan

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. KHANNA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to talk about President Biden's tax plan with some basic facts.

President Biden proposes no tax increases on 99 percent of Americans. This chart illustrates that, with 154 million Americans, not a single American in the 99 percent is going to pay a dime more.

In fact, they are getting a tax cut. We are giving them a tax cut with the child tax credit. We are giving them a tax cut with the earned income tax credit.

So the obfuscation on the other side to convince 99 percent of Americans that somehow their taxes are going to go up when President Biden is delivering a tax cut for them is just factually false.

What does this mean? If you work in manufacturing, if you are a nurse, if you are a teacher, if you are a doctor, if you are a lawyer, most likely, your taxes aren't going up. For the 99 percent--not just in the working class, but in the middle class, in the upper middle class--your taxes are not going up. They are going down.

In fact, the President has extended Trump's tax cut for those who are making under $75,000.

It is important we get those facts, and I want the American people to look at this chart. If you really fall in that sliver of the top 1 percent, your taxes are going up. If you are everyone else in the 99 percent, your taxes aren't going up. They are going down, in most cases.

So, people wonder how, in a democracy, we wouldn't want this. How wouldn't we want those who are going to make the most in the tiny 1 percent, why wouldn't the 99 percent want them to pay a little bit more? It turns out that the top 1 percent--and let's just be clear, if you make over $538,000, you are in that top 1 percent. I personally don't know a lot of doctors or lawyers or others who are making more than $538,000 a year.

But if you are in that 1 percent, you have made $4.8 trillion over this pandemic--$4.8 trillion. And the over 600 billionaires, they have made $1.6 trillion over the pandemic.

I know that because a lot of them are in my district. We have had the digitization of the economy. They are making a lot of money. Some of them are brilliant. Guess what they told me? They can afford to pay a little more.

Do you know what the market cap of companies in my district is? It is $10 trillion in Silicon Valley. That is more than the GDP of Russia. It is more than the GDP of most countries.

I laugh when people say this tag of socialism. My district is producing the most wealth in the world. The people there who say we want to pay a little bit more aren't socialists. They are wealth generators.

But here is what they know: They fall into this 1 percent, and they are saying we have made trillions of dollars. We have made billions of dollars. We would like to pay a little bit more so everyone can have healthcare, education, and nutrition in this country, and we are fine with other people in the working and middle class getting a tax cut.

That is the President's policy. It is a policy of helping working- class Americans, middle-class Americans, upper-middle-class Americans, and asking those who have done well to do a little bit more for our country.

It is a policy against inherited wealth because we are Americans. We don't believe in feudal estates. We don't believe what the law is right now, that if you buy $1 million of Facebook stock and that becomes $10 million and if you want to give it to your kids, that your kids don't have to pay tax on the appreciation of $9 million. We don't think that is right. We don't think you should be able to transfer wealth without paying any tax.

That is not the American way. That is what they used to do in old Europe's feudal estates, passing wealth generation to generation. That is the party of aristocracy, and that is what the Republicans would have you believe.

We are the party of free markets, free enterprise, and new entrepreneurs. We are the party of economic growth for everyone. We are not the party of dynastic wealth.

If you believe that everyone should have a shot in the free market economy, that you should have economic growth for everyone and opportunity for everyone, if you are against dynastic wealth, if you believe those who have made $4.8 trillion can pay a little bit more and you can have tax cuts for the working class and middle class, you should support President Biden's tax plan.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source