Speeches and Floor Statements

Representative Don Beyer, Senior House Democrat on the JEC, slams Republicans in his opening statement about Trump’s tax scam at today’s Republican-led hearing titled, “Building on the Success of TCJA: The 2025 Tax Policy Debate”.

Beyer’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, are below and can be watched here:

“Thank you, Vice Chairman Schweikert. And thank you to your staff for putting together this hearing today. As we discuss what direction the tax debate should take next year, let’s take a moment to talk through the economic record of the last round of Republican tax policy. 

The Republican party line is that Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act led to an investment and economic boom and that the tax cuts largely paid for themselves. But let’s look at the numbers.

While the economy did grow at 3% in 2018 and 2.6% in 2019, independent studies from places like the International Monetary Fund and the Congressional Research Service found that the law had very little to do with this growth.

And this growth didn’t come close to paying for the cost of the tax cuts. CRS estimated that we would have had to see a growth rate over 9% or so in 2018 to be on track for that goal. So, if those claims weren’t accurate, what did happen in the economy after the law was passed?

Looking just at the tax cuts for corporations, a recent estimate found that 80% of the benefits went to the richest 10% of the income distribution, resulting in billions of dollars of tax giveaways to big businesses.   

Meanwhile, a middle or low-income household will only save a few hundred dollars on their taxes this year because of the law. In the end, the Trump tax law was just another round of failed trickle-down economics, which is exactly what it sounds like:

A trick.

And now, as this hearing’s title makes clear, Republicans want to do it all over again. Before the end of next year, they have called for nearly $4 trillion in new tax cuts that a non-partisan analysis found would largely benefit the top 10%. 

We need to get our priorities straight.

Instead of providing more tax breaks to the wealthy, Democrats have shown how to invest in our communities to help tackle the real challenges that people face every day.

Instead of cutting taxes at the top and hoping the benefits trickled down, Democrats put working-class families front and center by expanding the Child Tax Credit in 2021, cutting child poverty to a record low of 5.2%. And while I fought to extend that provision, when the expanded CTC expired at the end of 2021, child poverty rose to 13.7% last year.

The CTC is a proven way to reduce child poverty, but Republicans have repeatedly blocked our efforts to expand it in a way that fully invests in our kids. We’re also facing a nationwide housing shortage.

We must continue to support expanding and improving the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to build much-needed housing supply.

And while quality health care is out of reach for many people, Democrats expanded premium tax credits that helped millions more low- and middle-income families afford health insurance. 

If Congress does not act to extend these credits, 3.8 million Americans will lose their coverage altogether, and millions more will pay higher costs when it expires next year.

Congress should also protect the cost-saving energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. These supports are not only bringing down the costs of essentials for both families and society as a whole, but are also investing in climate-friendly, broad-based economic growth.

But still, there are others who oppose all of these investments, pointing to the price tag as the reason why we can’t support our communities.

My colleagues on the other side of the aisle love talking about curbing our national debt, but only when Democrats are in power.   

Meanwhile, extending Trump’s tax cuts would add nearly $4 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years, with hundreds of billions more in additional interest costs. 

They may try to lower the price tag through across-the-board tariffs that would drive up prices and leave us all worse off.  Or maybe they’ll try and pay for it by slashing funding for school meals, first responders, public lands, or food safety. Either way, there are far more effective ways to spur economic growth.

It’s our duty to weigh how changes to the tax code can promote pro-growth investments in children, health care, housing, and clean energy.

Imagine how different our world would look if children were lifted out of poverty, and they could focus on getting a quality education instead of worrying about their next meal. What if we finally tackled our broken health care system, ensured everyone had access to affordable housing, and tackled climate change by committing to a clean energy future.

We could make each of these solutions a reality if we took each dollar of deficits the Republicans want to enact and instead invested them right back in our communities.

Deficit-busting giveaways to the rich rob us of the opportunity to build a stronger economy. I’m pleased to join my colleagues to further explore these issues in today’s hearing.