[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 176 (Wednesday, October 6, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6927]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Mr. President, now on a related matter, President Biden makes two 
claims about the reckless taxing-and-spending spree the Democrats are 
writing behind closed doors. Listen to this: He is saying it costs zero 
dollars--zero dollars--but he needs massive tax hikes to pay for it. 
Talk about magical Washington math. If they embark on a Washington 
spending binge, as long as they send the bill to the American people 
and not themselves, they consider the whole thing free of charge--free 
of charge.
  Of course Democrats' plans wouldn't pay for themselves. That is why 
their reckless spending spree needs to come paired with a historic 
redistribution of wealth from the American people over to the Federal 
Government. With trillions of dollars in new spending comes the largest 
peacetime tax hike on record.
  Democrats' reckless taxing-and-spending spree isn't even fully 
developed, and it already contains more than 40 different tax increases 
that would hurt families and help China. Some of the tax hikes take aim 
at workers and families directly. Others target small businesses, 
passthroughs, and family farms with extra burdens. Still others would 
make it harder to invest, create, and sustain jobs here in America 
instead of overseas.
  Ivy League economists say the Democrats' tax hikes would increase the 
incentive for American companies to move investments and profits 
overseas. Under Democrats' proposed expansion of the global minimum 
tax, more than a dozen of our most developed peers would have tax 
structures more favorable to U.S. companies than our own. If President 
Biden got his way on corporate taxes, even China would become more 
hospitable to job creators by comparison.
  So let me say that again: Democrats are planning to send America's 
top tax rate for job creators higher--higher--than communist China's.
  Needless to say, the biggest losers when Democrats make it harder to 
do business in America are, of course, American workers. Based on data 
from the Joint Committee on Taxation, two-thirds of the burden of the 
corporate tax hike Democrats are trying to ram through would end up 
falling on lower and middle-income Americans; 98.4 percent of it would 
hit Americans with incomes under $500,000. It turns out that President 
Biden's promise that taxes wouldn't go up for the vast majority of 
American families wasn't worth all that much.
  Not only are their taxes set to go up, so is the budget of the IRS. 
Democrats want to spend $80 billion so the Federal tax authorities can 
expand their reach into financial habits of average Americans, snooping 
on transactions as small as $600. They want to finance their spending 
spree by effectively treating every ordinary American as if they were 
under IRS audit--every ordinary American as if they were under IRS 
audit.
  I must have forgotten when the President campaigned on giving 
everybody their own audit. I don't remember him saying that last year. 
It isn't ordinary middle-class Americans who need a careful audit; it 
is the Democrats' reckless taxing-and-spending spree, with these 
historic tax hikes that would hurt families and help China.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CASEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.