Congressman Doug LaMalfa issues Reconciliation update
Congressman Doug LaMalfa issued the following statement on the Reconciliation process underway in Congress.
There has been a lot of debate and discussion over the last few weeks about the Biden Administration’s $3.5 trillion supplemental spending package and tax increases. The House and Senate majorities are attempting to pass this plan using a process known as reconciliation. That process limits the legislation to only being about spending and not policy. It allows a single party majority to pass a huge spending bill with only a majority vote in both houses and without needing the 60 votes typically required in the US Senate.
LaMalfa, speaking in Committee against Reconciliation, said, “I am deeply opposed to this bill and the significant consequences it will have to our economy. The bill contains over $2 trillion in new taxes, with a good portion of those taxes being passed on directly to consumers in the form of higher prices or being passed on to workers through lower pay and fewer jobs. The non-partisan Tax Foundation reported to Congress that this bill will eliminate at least 303,000 American jobs. Struggling families will be hit hard when facing higher prices due to increases in taxes, increases in consumer prices from inflation and reduced employment. How does adding another 16-cent per gallon tax on imported oil, when energy prices are already near historic highs, help reduce costs for families? No one is doing a round trip cattle haul from Alturas to Oroville in an electric vehicle. I’ve yet to see an electric truck haul salvaged logs out of our burnt-up forests.
“The Wall Street Journal confirmed our analysis that the tax increases in this bill, while also targeted at large corporations, would hit family run businesses the hardest. After 18 months of pandemic, where our Main Street businesses have been hit hardest, this bill increases Main Street business taxes up to 46.4 percent, an increase of 17 points. While large publicly traded companies will see their taxes increase to 26.5 percent, or 5.5 points higher than current law. All these taxes are designed to offset a partisan spending bonanza that will further inject government into larger portions of our lives while gifting taxpayer funds to politically favored industries and granting tax breaks to wealthy Democratic donors.
“This reconciliation bill is designed to transform the country and force huge fines on energy users, including America’s electric utilities. The bill requires our nation’s utilities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent within 8 years or face huge fines, regardless of the costs to consumers or reliability. Again, higher costs on energy production will not help families make ends meet.
“These taxes and fees are just one small part of a very partisan (and) complicated bill. There are portions that affect healthcare, medical research, childcare, forestry and enacting parts of the Green New Deal. One section in the bill would make most post-fire salvage logging impossible while creating a totally new $10 billion Civilian Climate Corps program. It would also dramatically reduce research and development of new lifesaving medical breakthroughs. A University of Chicago analysis found that sections included in this bill “would lead to a 29 to 60 percent reduction in Research and Development in new drugs from 2021 to 2039 which translates into 167 to 342 fewer new drug approvals during that period.”
As in any very large spending bill, there are some portions that by themselves make sense and could achieve large bipartisan support. Unfortunately, they are paired with a massive tax and spend bill that will harm families, small businesses, and expand government power. We should take the bipartisan pieces and pass them with reductions in wasteful spending elsewhere to ensure we don’t have to keep growing our national debt.
The final form of the partisan reconciliation bill is being re-negotiated because even moderate Democrats understand that this tax and spend scheme goes too far. I am steadfast in my opposition to this bill and will continue to work to prevent its passage until we can do better.
