Blunt urges Democrats to abandon tax hikes on middle-class families

Missouri U.S. Senator Roy Blunt is urging Democrats to abandon their push to raise taxes on middle-class families and businesses. Blunt noted that the tax increases proposed under Senate Democrats’ reckless tax-and-spend spree will hamper America’s economic recovery and hurt those already struggling with higher prices due to rising inflation.

Read or watch Blunt’s remarks below:

“Madam President, when President Biden was campaigning last year, he made the pledge over and over again that he wouldn’t raise taxes on any American making less than $400,000 a year. Frankly, I think that’s a good pledge and is one he keeps making. But right now, it seems that the facts would prove that he and, frankly, our Democrat colleagues here in the Congress are pushing for this reckless tax spree, this reckless spending spree in a way that makes it impossible for him to keep that pledge.

“The Tax Foundation—and people can check this if they want to verify these numbers—looked at President Biden’s 10-year plan, the plan he outlined in his 2022 budget. This is not a plan that the Tax Foundation or any other group came up with on their own. They found that his plan would mean a higher average tax burden nationwide, including for middle-class Americans.

“In some states, the average taxpayer would see increases immediately. In others, tax hikes would grow over time as the various provisions change in the way that the president’s plan says they would change. You know, no matter what the president says, the tax burden getting heavier under his plan for middle-class families in every state.

“In Missouri, the tax burden on the average filer would be $618 higher in 2026 than it is today. In New Hampshire, it’d be $1,072 higher than it is today. And Madam President, maybe most importantly, in Nevada, it’d be $1,293 higher than it is today for the average taxpayer.

“And if that doesn’t convince you, there’s another analysis recently. This one was from the reliably liberal Tax Policy Center. It predicted that three out of every four taxpayers earning $75,000 to $100,000 a year would be worse off next year under the Biden plan. By 2031, that organization estimates that 95% of the people making between $75,000 and $100,000 would suffer losses on their tax bill.

“The tax-and-spending spree envisions monster tax hikes on business. But we all know when you raise taxes on business, they have to get the money from somewhere. In fact, there are only a couple of places to get the money. And one is from workers, and one is from customers. And trying to figure out that balance where you don’t lose customers and you don’t lose workers, pretty hard to figure out.

“You really can’t isolate middle-class workers from these tax impacts. You also can’t isolate middle-class customers from these impacts. You can’t keep those families from paying higher prices when a chunk of the business tax that the president and Democrats talk about have to get passed on to customers.

“So President Biden’s tax increases are likely to boost inflation even more than we’ve seen already, and we’ve seen a lot of it already. Go to the gas pump, go to the grocery store, go buy clothes, have the basic necessities you have to have, and you’re going to see that they are substantially higher than they were a year ago or two years ago before COVID, a year ago during COVID.

“The president’s budget effectively repeals the individual tax cuts enacted by Republicans in 2017. The cuts that were enacted in that law for Americans really across income levels have rate reductions that have to be extended in four years. The president’s plan doesn’t call for extending any of those rate reductions. Under the president’s proposal, someone making $94,000 per year will see her marginal tax rate jump from 24% to 28% in 2026. Added to that, you’ve got higher taxes that Democrats plan to impose on family farmers and ranchers who are hoping to pass along their family business to the next generation.

“And frankly, Madam President, instead of advocating for these middle-class Americans I’ve just talked about, our Democratic friends seem to be fixated on restoring a tax break that overwhelmingly benefits wealthy Americans in high-tax states. They’re pushing to allow people to deduct more than $10,000 in state and local taxes on their federal returns. That scheme, by the way, would allow the top 1% of earners to increase their after-tax income by about 2.5%, 2.8%, while the bottom 60% of all filers—if the law is changed back to what it used to be—the bottom 60% of all filers would gain less than 1/100% on average.

“It’s clear that President Biden’s tax hikes will hit a lot of Americans and a lot of Americans that make less than $400,000. The higher tax costs will hurt people who are already struggling with higher prices at the pump and everywhere they shop, and it’ll hurt our economic recovery.

“My friends may not want to admit—and I wouldn’t either if I was them—that they’re going to raise taxes on middle-class families, but that’s exactly what they’re doing. And if anybody doesn’t know it now, they will know it if Democrats in the Senate and the House get their way.”