The Big Picture

Who is Paying for the Budget Bill?

In an effort to fulfill many of his campaign promises, President Biden, along with numerous congressional Democrats, came to an agreement on a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint. This blueprint, dubbed the “Human Infrastructure” budget proposal, allocates money to “combat climate change,” expand Medicare, as well as numerous other partisan priorities.

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your representative and senators and ask them to cosponsor the Let States Cut Taxes Act, H.R. 2002 and S. 730, introduced by Rep. Dan Bishop (R-N.C.) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), and the State Fiscal Flexibility Act, S. 743 introduced by Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho). These bills would eliminate a provision in the “American Rescue Plan” Act, the most recent $1.9 trillion hyper-partisan COVID-19 “relief” package, that bans states from cutting taxes until 2024 if they take any funds from the package.

On behalf of FreedomWorks’ activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and ask them to cosponsor the Stop PPE Taxes Act, S. 4497, introduced by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). This legislation would temporarily remove import duties and tariffs from personal protective equipment (PPE) being used to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus, and the excessive lockdowns associated with the government’s response have put many of America’s small businesses underwater. Millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet. Lawmakers are trying to address the issue and get our economy going again. Evidently, those in Arizona didn’t get the memo.

If you used your free time on Saturday or Sunday to watch football, you may have seen an ad run by Joe Biden’s campaign in which the narrator says that Biden won’t raise taxes on anyone earning less than $400,000 annually. The ad perpetuates the myth that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was a “tax cut for the rich.” As Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute notes, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act “provided the largest percentage tax cuts to the bottom two quintiles—that is, the bottom 40 percent of U.S. households.”

As states brace themselves for the revenue nightmare that COVID-19 will bring, the California Assembly is set to consider legislation that could irreparably damage their economic future. Rep. Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) recently proposed Assembly Bill 2088 that would be the first wealth tax in the nation, imposing a 0.4 percent tax on net worth for individuals and joint filers worth over $30 million. As if that wasn’t bad enough, AB 2088 would completely soak the rich by raising the top income tax rate from the already astronomical 13.3 percent to an even more ludicrous 16.8 percent.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) railed last week against Republicans’ proposal to modestly reduce unemployment insurance benefits. Republicans were concerned that the $600 weekly unemployment insurance benefit has harmed the recovery from the severe disruptions caused by partial economic shutdowns in response to COVID-19.

The Wall Street Journal claims that Bernie Sanders will increase federal taxes to the highest levels since World War II to pay for all of Sanders’ socialist promises: