[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 87 (Monday, May 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3768-S3769]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                          Biden Administration

  Madam President, we know we are about 6 months out from the next 
election, and as President Biden campaigns for another term, he seems 
desperate to convince the American people that America's economic 
troubles aren't his fault and are somehow a figment of their 
imagination.
  Last week, he said inflation ``was at 9 percent when I came in and 
it's now down [to] 3 percent.'' This marked the second time in only a 
handful of days that the President made this claim, and it would be 
great if it were true. The fact is, under President Biden's economic 
policies, inflation has reached a 40-year high and is stubbornly 
resisting efforts by the Federal Reserve to bring it down.
  In reality, inflation was at only 1.4 percent when President Biden 
took office, and under his leadership, Washington Democrats went on a 
crazy spending spree that sent inflation skyrocketing to the highest in 
40 years.
  I know we are all familiar with the Federal Reserve and its role to 
try to bring down inflation by making money tighter, and they do that 
by raising interest rates. But that is not without a cost, and the 
ability of hard-working Texas families and other Americans to buy a 
car, buy a house--obviously those have been negatively impacted. If you 
went to the grocery store and filled up a basket with groceries the day 
President Biden took office and then did it again recently, you would 
see that your grocery prices went up 36 percent thanks to President 
Biden's policies.
  Mainly what that is--it is not about the Federal Reserve; it is about 
all the spending our Democratic colleagues have done here--about $2.7 
trillion of partisan spending bills, which are like gasoline on the 
inflation fire.
  Finally, as a result of tight money policies by the Federal Reserve, 
inflation has cooled somewhat, but prices remain unbearably high for 
most families, and inflation is still more than double what it was when 
President Biden took office.
  This may be the President's latest attempt to try to divert attention 
and misrepresent his record, but it certainly isn't the only one.
  Last month, the President tweeted this. He said:

       Donald Trump was very proud of his $2 trillion tax cut that 
     overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and biggest corporations 
     and exploded the federal debt. That tax cut is going to 
     expire. If I'm reelected, it is going to stay expired.

  Well, forget for a minute that President Biden has misrepresented who 
benefited from the tax cut and bringing more foreign investment back to 
the United States by bringing our corporate and business tax rates in 
line with other democracies around the world. As a matter of fact, 
before COVID, the economy was about the best it has ever been in my 
adult lifetime because the economy was roaring back, in part because of 
the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act bill that we passed in 2017.
  First, this is an interesting time for the President to start paying 
attention to the national debt--something he has forgotten about 
entirely for the last 3\1/2\ years. On his watch, our national debt is 
now approaching $35 trillion. As I said, he and congressional Democrats 
spent nearly $2.7 trillion in less than 18 months on things like 
handouts for union bosses and money for something they called climate 
justice, whatever that is. But apparently tax relief for working 
families is where he draws the line.
  But the second issue that I can't ignore is this: Allowing the Tax 
Cuts and Jobs Act to expire would raise taxes on virtually everybody, 
including working families.
  The Wall Street Journal recently took a look at this. This was 10 
days ago, May 10. They looked at data from the Tax Foundation and 
determined that ``if the tax cuts expire,'' which is something 
President Biden said he would see to, ``about 62% of households would 
pay more, 9% would pay less and the rest would be largely unaffected,'' 
according to the Tax Foundation, as I said. So based on President 
Biden's tweet that he would let the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire, 62 
percent of households in America would pay more taxes.
  Given the financial pain mainly caused by inflation that families are 
already feeling, a larger tax burden is the very last thing American 
families need, but that seems to be the path on which President Biden 
is headed. It would be salt in the wound for the families who are 
already struggling to cover their basic living expenses, like that 
basket of groceries that costs 36 percent more now than it did 3\1/2\ 
years ago.
  Another thing to note is that this would actually break President 
Biden's marquee promise to never raise taxes on households making under 
$400,000 a year. Once that was pointed out, the President's team 
quickly shifted into damage control and said: Well, the President 
really doesn't want all of this law to expire--just the portions that 
affect people making more than $400,000 a year.
  But it is hard to know whether the President is coming or going when 
he makes these statements, and every time you take him at his word, his 
political team comes in and does cleanup and says: No, he really didn't 
mean that.
  But the President already made his statement in the clearest of 
possible terms. The tax cut will expire unless extended, and if he is 
elected, he said it will stay expired, raising taxes on 62 percent of 
households.
  Of course, it is no surprise that President Biden would allow tax 
increases on working families. After all, his Presidency has been 
defined by giveaways for unlikely winners.
  First, there is the handout for wealthy electric vehicle purchasers. 
The horribly misnamed Inflation Reduction Act included massive handouts

[[Page S3769]]

for some of the most expensive vehicles on the market--vehicles that 
many Americans simply cannot afford. Yet they are being asked to 
subsidize rich people getting fancy new electric vehicles. Wealthy 
Americans earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year can receive 
up to $7,500 in taxpayer assistance to buy an electric vehicle, 
including those made in China.
  Democrats passed this bill at a time when many people couldn't--still 
can't--afford basic expenses. Democrats responded by forcing every 
person in America to subsidize expensive electric vehicles for well-to-
do people. The initial estimate pegged the cost of these EV tax credits 
at just over $30 billion--$30 billion. But private forecasters later 
released an updated estimate which found that the actual cost of these 
electric vehicle tax credits is more than $196 billion--six and a half 
times higher than advertised. Of course, hard-working families are the 
ones footing the bill for these tax credits which disproportionately 
benefit wealthy people.
  Then there is the President's attempt to ``cancel'' student debt for 
millions of borrowers. Now, his administration has offered multiple 
plans to wipe away loans for millions of borrowers and stick taxpayers 
with the bill. The Supreme Court told him he couldn't, and he went back 
to the drawing board and figured out a way to go ahead and do it.
  To state the obvious, the vast majority of Americans do not benefit 
from that. Eighty-seven percent of Americans do not have outstanding 
student loan debt, so the 87 percent are going to pay for the 13 
percent who do. Many people decided not to go to college either because 
they couldn't afford it or because they pursued some other course of 
study. Many worked while pursuing a degree. Many paid off their loans 
after graduating, just as they agreed to do. Still, President Biden 
expects every single person without college debt to shoulder the cost 
for someone else's degree.
  This is something they agreed to do by contract, to pay that money 
back.
  His student debt cancelation plan would cost taxpayers $475 billion 
even though only 13 percent of Americans reap the benefits. The new 
plans he rolled out earlier this year would cost an additional $84 
billion.
  It is fundamentally unfair to expect taxpayers with no student loan 
debt to pay for someone else's degree, especially when that person 
agreed to pay it back.
  The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which President Biden wants to see expire, 
isn't the problem. This law puts money back in the pockets of hard-
working Texans by allowing workers to keep more of what they earn.
  See, that is the problem here in Washington, DC. So many bureaucrats 
and insiders think that the money you earn is actually what you are 
allowed to keep by the government because it is really all the 
government's, and the government just allows you to keep some of it.
  Well, they have it exactly backward. It is the money of the people 
who earn it, and the people who earn it pay their taxes, as they are 
required to do. But it is their money, and every dollar of a tax 
increase that Washington orders is a dollar less in their pocket to 
spend on their family. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts gave tax relief to 
small businesses and job creators, unleashing a wave of economic 
growth; and it encouraged companies who had invested their money abroad 
to bring that money back home and build new businesses or expand their 
businesses here and not overseas.

  After this bill became law, unemployment decreased, wages increased, 
and communities across America experienced a wave of economic success.
  Unfortunately, the pandemic threw a wrench into our humming economy, 
and then President Biden came along with a sledgehammer, seemingly 
determined to destroy every economic gain we made under President 
Trump.
  His policies ushered in the worst inflation in 40 years; and as a 
result, hard-working families are struggling to make ends meet. Costs 
of groceries, gas, rent have skyrocketed, while household incomes 
remain anemic.
  Many Americans who have been scrimping and saving for years in order 
to buy a home have had to keep that dream on hold because of high 
interest rates. And now the President seems intent on allowing the 2017 
tax cuts to expire, ensuring that millions more of Americans will pay 
more in taxes.
  If President Biden manages to win another term in the White House, I 
worry about how much more economic pain he will inflict on families. 
Inflation is up; interest rates are up; and, according to President 
Biden, another term in office for him means your taxes will go up, too.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Butler). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.