As Inflation Hammers Small Businesses, Democrats Float Huge Small Business Tax Hike
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding the economy:
“We all know inflation and the economy are the biggest problems facing Americans today.
“The New York Times released a poll yesterday showing a full 93% of working-age Americans are dissatisfied with the state of our economy.
“We are a big and diverse country. 93% of Americans hardly ever agree on anything. But Democrats are unifying the country in unhappiness at the dark path down which they’ve taken our economy.
“Monmouth University released some data explaining why Americans are feeling so sour.
“42% of Americans are struggling to stay afloat financially. That’s the highest rate ever in this poll’s history, even higher than the darkest days of the COVID pandemic.
“63% of Americans name economic issues as their chief concern. And they know who to blame for their misfortune: President Biden and congressional Democrats, who plowed $2 trillion into our economy last year and created the highest inflation in four decades.
“I’m sure many of my colleagues heard heart-wrenching stories from constituents struggling with inflation during the past two weeks’ state work period.
“I certainly did in Kentucky, where the average household now spends more than $500 more a month than they did before President Biden took office.
“At a meeting with homebuilders in Northern Kentucky, local employers told me their business is poised to slow down dramatically.
“For two years, they struggled as Washington Democrats exacerbated supply chain hiccups and worker shortages with freewheeling spending policies.
“Now, as the Fed tries to rein in inflation by hiking interest rates, homebuyers have to contend with the most expensive borrowing environment in over a decade. Home builders foresee their industry stalling out.
“In Paducah, I sat down with some of Western Kentucky’s barge operators. Like the home builders, they are concerned with ongoing worker shortages, inflation, and spiraling fuel costs.
“They’re also rightly worried that power outages could hit the Commonwealth in the coming months.
“Washington Democrats pursued environmental goals crafted by activists with no sense of how the real economy functions. They sidelined power plants that use cheap, reliable energy sources without acknowledging that shortages would occur when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine.
“Independent electricity reliability experts have been sounding the alarm that two thirds of the United States could endure electricity blackouts this summer.
“Then, Kentucky’s ongoing labor shortage hit home during a meeting with bourbon distillers in our famous Bluegrass region.
“As the distillers explained to me, the programs implemented by Washington Democrats in their $2 trillion spending package last year encouraged workers to exit the workforce and stay on the sidelines. The Commonwealth still has 20,000 fewer workers than we did before the pandemic.
“Hamstrung by a lack of employees, these Kentucky business owners are watching apprehensively as Washington Democrats debate another big dose of bad policies. This time, our colleagues are reportedly cooking up a trillion dollars in massive tax hikes on things like small businesses and domestic energy.
“When you tax something, Mr. President, you get less of it. I don’t know many Kentuckians who think America needs fewer small business jobs or less American energy. I’m not certain about the good people of West Virginia, either.
“One estimate has found that almost half of all the jobs in all of West Virginia are tied to small businesses, the vast majority of which are pass-throughs. Half of all the jobs in the entire state.
“I can’t imagine the people Pennsylvania, or Ohio, or a number of other states are especially keen to have fewer small business jobs, higher prices passed along to consumers, or less American energy, either. Yet each of those states and many others have a Senator apparently keen to champion these bad ideas.
“The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation has proven that the policies that Democrats are floating would completely break President Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on the middle class below $400,000.
“The JCT says their bad ideas would create a tax hike for more than a quarter of all Americans who earn between $75,000 and $100,000, and more than half of people earning between $100,000 and $200,000.
“They are taking President Biden’s promise not to raise taxes on anybody below $400,000 and putting it through the shredder.
“This all-Democrat government has already spent America into runaway inflation, and now they want to tax us into recession.”
###
Related Issues: Economy, Taxes, Middle Class, Small Business, Senate Democrats, Inflation, Energy, House Democrats
Next Previous
