OpinionMay 8, 2024
President Biden's call to end the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act could mean higher taxes for families and small businesses, compounding economic woes under "Bidenomics." House Republicans propose alternatives to foster growth.
Jason Smith
Jason Smith

President Biden two weeks ago called for the expiration of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, President Trump’s signature legislation that jump-started the best economy of my lifetime and continues to provide needed tax relief to working families today. In one statement, the president promised American workers, families, farmers and small businesses that they would see their taxes go up, breaking his promise that families making less than $400,000 would not receive a tax increase.

Biden’s plan would, in fact, increase taxes for the average family of four making $75,000 by $1,500 per year. Why is that? Biden’s plan would slash the child tax credit in half from $2,000 per child to $1,000 per child. It would increase the small business tax rate to 43.4%, cut the exemption from the death tax in half, and eliminate the expanded guaranteed deduction for families that greatly simplifies working families’ taxes.

Biden’s plan is a disaster, and it would be bad enough if the economy was in good shape. But “Bidenomics” has resulted in skyrocketing cost-of-living increases. Prices are up almost 20% since he took the oath of office. Mortgage payments are now $1,200 higher per month for the median home. The price to put food on the table, clothes on your back and gasoline in your cars has exploded as real wages are almost 4% lower than when Joe Biden was sworn in.

I brought Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in front of my committee last week to answer for all of the president’s disastrous economic decision-making. Unfortunately, she had very few satisfactory answers on why Americans should believe the president’s policies will improve their lives and livelihoods.

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Among the issues I raised was how the wealthy and well-connected benefit from the Biden administration’s Green New Deal spending. I drew Secretary Yellen’s attention to the billions of American taxpayer dollars that are being sent to Chinese companies as part of the administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, legislation that to date has failed to bring inflation back to where it was under President Trump. And I questioned why this administration has surrendered our tax sovereignty to foreign countries and allowed global elites to unfairly take American tax revenue from businesses headquartered in the United States, further hurting jobs, wages and our economy.

But unlike President Biden and his administration, House Republicans are acting to promote real economic growth that benefits the working class, allows small businesses to thrive, and allows our farmers to supply the best agricultural products anywhere in the world. We are working to ensure working-class families are not hit with a $7 trillion tax increase, as President Biden called for in his budget. We are promoting trade policies that gains new markets for our farmers and ensures fair treatment for U.S. agricultural products while also cracking down on a flood of Chinese imports that take advantage of loopholes.

For the first time ever, we are using trade programs Congress oversees as actual mechanisms to move supply chains out of China and counter its malign influence. And we are putting foreign bureaucrats on notice that we intend on keeping American businesses right here at home without a global tax raid.

JASON SMITH represents Missouri’s 8th Congressional District.

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