Democrats Want to Tax Working Americans into Recession

Statement

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the economy:

""People have literally become poorer, by any concept, over the last year… It should not be a mystery why people are worried.'

"That was top liberal economist, Jason Furman, last month. And he was right on both counts.

"Democrats' reckless inflationary spending has already slapped what amounts to a gigantic tax hike on working American families.

"One recent poll found more than 90% of Americans say they are concerned about inflation. 70% said they're very concerned. Consumer confidence was at a near decade low.

"And less than one in three Americans approve of what President Biden's doing about it.

"But apparently, when Washington Democrats survey this dismal scene, they see a mandate for yet another massive trillion-dollar tax hike.

"I'm not making this up.

"Democrats created a runaway inflation tax hike with their reckless spending in 2021, and now they want to come after the American people a second time with huge new tax hikes.

"In other words: Democrats have already picked the American people's pockets once… and now their solution is to pick your pockets a second time. First with inflation… and now with tax hikes.

"The policies that are being floated are ruinous. The worst possible mix to thrust onto a country that's already teetering on the brink of recession.

"We're hearing proposals for a gigantic tax hike on small businesses -- so-called "pass-throughs.' Madam President, one think-tank has found that about 95 percent of all American businesses are pass-throughs. About three quarters of all the small-scale employers in the nation are categorized this way.

"This would hammer all kinds of states. For example, according to one estimate, nearly half of all the employment in the entire state of West Virginia is at pass-though firms. Half of all the jobs in West Virginia. And these are the firms that Democrats want to hammer with gigantic tax hikes.

"The bad ideas don't stop there. Exactly as the war in Europe is re-teaching America and our allies about energy independence, Democrats are floating a giant new tax specifically on natural gas which they call a "methane fee.'

"One analysis has found this one policy would bleed between $40 and $66 billion out of our country every year. And you better believe these artificially higher energy costs will get passed right along to consumers.

"This is what Democrats want to do to states like West Virginia? Giant tax hikes on small businesses and fossil fuels? It's like they aren't content watching the recessionary warning signs and are trying to make absolutely sure that we get a recession on their watch.

"Now, it's not as though there's any shortage of real, important work Congress could and should be tackling on a bipartisan basis instead of these awful ideas. But this party-line scheming is going to crowd that out.

"For example, Democrats moving ahead and trying to jam the Senate and the country with a party-line tax hike through reconciliation will certainly crowd out our ability to process the bipartisan USICA bill aimed at competing with China.

"Our side cannot agree to frantically steamroll through delicate bipartisan talks in order to meet an artificial timeline so our Democratic colleagues can clear the decks to ram through a party-line tax hike.

"A business owner couldn't bargain in good faith with a customer who'd already announced he plans to rob the store. We can't negotiate the finer points of nuanced economic policies in a bipartisan way… only for Democrats to immediately turn around and redesign the entire economy along pure party lines. Of course that can't work.

"And what about the other governing priorities that Democrats are neglecting?

"What about the National Defense Authorization Act? The House is advancing their version of this important legislation this week. Will Senate Democrats neglect the NDAA like they did last year? That would say a lot about their actual resolve to compete with China.

"Madam President, our country has real problems.

"Now is a terrible time for Democrats to paralyze the Senate by trying to tax us into recession on a partisan basis."

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