RICE: "If You Rely on the Government to Take Care of You, You Will Always Be in Poverty"

Congressman Tom Rice (R - S.C.), the 8th ranking Republican member on the House Ways and Means Committee, completed a four-day markup of Democrats' $3.5 trillion dollar reconciliation package on Wednesday. The committee is responsible for raising the revenue for this proposal.

While House Democrats defended the tax hikes and spending package, Congressman Rice showed how this package, if passed, would crush America's innovation economy, increase taxes while sending jobs and businesses overseas, and expand our country's welfare state to unprecedented levels.

House Democrats voted down every single Republican amendment that was proposed in order to improve the package, including 5 of Congressman Rice's amendments.

A selection of the Congressman's remarks during the sessions are below.

A Plethora of Tax Increases & Bigger Government Programs: "My District, based on tourism and hospitality, was crushed by the coronavirus. Unemployment hit 15% nationally. But because of the pro-growth policies we put in place under the Trump Administration, within 1 year, we recovered more on the unemployment rate than 8 years under the Obama-Biden Administration. We dropped from 15% unemployment to 7% in less than one year - and it keeps dropping from there. Only because the Democrats have not yet reversed the pro-growth policies of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. But they never learn. This package that we are beginning to discuss is a plethora of tax increases and bigger government programs. If you rely on the government to take care of you, you will always be in poverty." View here.

Shifting Millions of American Jobs Overseas: "You're hurting the very people that you say you are trying to help. It's like a fireman who goes and sets a fire to a house and puts it out and calls himself a hero. You need this trade adjustment authority. You know, you're doubling it from $450 million to a billion and I don't know where you came up with that number. It looks to me like you pulled it out of a hat. If you adopt these policies, you're going to need a whole lot more than a billion because there will be millions of American jobs that are predictably shifted overseas because of your policies that you're ramming through with no debate. Shame." View here.

Making America Less Competitive: "You guys come with this bill - You guys know raising the corporate tax rate, you know adding all these regulations and giveaway programs make it harder to hire people, you know it will make us less competitive, and you know it will cost millions of American jobs. You know it will! You proceed with this in the face of it. Knowing we had record low unemployment, record low poverty, wages rising, and you're going to kill it. And you say you represent the little guy." View here.

Undoing Wage Growth: "The average annual wage increase in 2019 was over 3%. And it hadn't been that way in 30 years! Wages were going up. You say that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act caused income inequality - in fact, wages for the first time in decades were up 3.3% and it would have kept going if it hadn't been for the coronavirus. Poverty hit a record low in the United States in 2019, just over a year after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. I don't know what facts you're citing, but this is the truth. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lifted people from the bottom to the top." View here.

Congressman Rice continues to hear from many business leaders and constituents in the 7thCongressional District regarding their opposition to the $3.5 trillion dollar package.

"Laudisi Enterprises is a small, family-owned business with about 150 employees, a hundred of which are in Horry County, SC. The proposal out of the Ways and Means Committee on excise for pipe tobacco has the rate going from $2.8311 to $49.56 per pound, a 2,000% increase. It would be catastrophic for Laudisi, which operates one of the two remaining pipe tobacco factories in the United States. We can assume that it would cut output by 30% for our manufacturing and distribution businesses, which would in turn lead to 30-40 jobs lost. It would disproportionately hurt the blue-collar part of our workforce, since our value-add in the pipe tobacco business is primarily in manufacturing and warehouse," said Sykes Wilford, CEO, Laudisi Enterprises in Longs, SC.

"Absolutely none of these proposals will have a positive impact on small business. It seems during these uncertain times, there would be support for struggling small businesses. We are not in growth mode anymore; we are in survival mode. More taxes and regulations will only hurt and destroy many businesses, which will erode the tax base further. Please consider helping small business instead of helping destroy it," said Hewitt H., Small Business Owner in Little River, SC.

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