[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 170 (Wednesday, September 29, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6756-S6757]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                 Taxes

  Mr. President, on another matter, President Biden and congressional 
Democrats have repeatedly pledged not to raise taxes on anyone earning 
under $400,000. They have said it so many times that it has begun to 
sound like a broken record. The thing is, when someone feels the need 
to repeat a claim over and over, it is likely that they are trying to 
pull the wool over our eyes. That is exactly the case with the 
Democrats' tax pledge.
  According to an analysis by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on 
Taxation, there isn't a single income group completely spared from the 
Democrats' tax hikes. In other words, it is going to hit a lot of 
people with incomes below $400,000 a year.
  And I know my colleagues know what the Joint Committee on Taxation 
is. It is an expert group that studies the Tax Code and the impact of 
tax changes. But, for the public at large, this is a nonpartisan group 
of people that do a very fine job of saying how changes in the Tax Code 
will affect whomever they are supposed to affect. Not those making 
under $400,000, not those making under $100,000, and not even those 
making under $10,000 will be guaranteed not having their taxes 
increased, as the President promised.
  So going back to the Joint Committee on Taxation analysis, over 12 
percent of taxpayers with incomes between $50,000 and $100,000 would 
see a tax increase. Thirty-five percent of those earning between 
$100,000 and $200,000 would pay higher taxes. You can't raise taxes on 
small businesses and other job creators--these entrepreneurs--without 
hitting the middle class.
  Economic studies show that when you raise taxes on businesses, 
anywhere from 20 to 70 percent of that tax

[[Page S6757]]

increase falls on the workers. Now, the Joint Committee on Taxation 
assumes it is about 25 percent. Whatever doesn't fall on the backs of 
workers falls on shareholders. And then you need to remember that when 
it falls on shareholders, there are millions of middle-class Americans 
trying to accumulate a nest egg for retirement.
  So, yes, when you hike taxes on small business from a top rate of 37 
percent to over 46 percent--once including the Democrats' proposed 
surtaxes--you, President Biden, hit the middle class. When you increase 
taxes on corporations from 21 percent to 26.5 percent--returning our 
corporate tax rate to one of the highest in the developed world once 
figuring in State taxes as well--you, President Biden, also hit the 
middle class.
  Yet, Democrats contend their proposal includes tax cuts for the 
middle class. More accurately, they cut taxes for a chosen group of 
middle and lower income Americans and a select few millionaires. Unlike 
the 2017 tax law that was passed by a Republican Senate that cuts taxes 
for the vast majority of the middle class, the Democrats' tax-and-
spending bill leaves most--over 70 percent--of the taxpayers with 
either a goose egg or a tax hike.
  The Democrats' tax bill is about picking winners and losers; it is 
not about sound tax policy. If you don't have the right family 
composition or spend your money how Democrats want, you don't get a tax 
cut, but you may get a tax increase. On the other hand, if you are 
wealthy and on a waiting list for a $69,000, all-electric, 2022 SUV, 
you are in store for a $12,500 tax credit--financed in part on the 
backs of the middle class. Moreover, if you are a multibillion-dollar 
company with a preexisting commitment to go net zero emissions by 2040, 
you are in for a multimillion-dollar tax windfall--once again, that tax 
windfall financed in part on the backs of the middle class.
  So I hope the American people won't be fooled by my Democratic 
colleagues' rhetoric. Their bill hikes taxes on millions of taxpayers, 
and their narrowly targeted tax cut leaves most out in the cold.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. LUMMIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ossoff). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.