{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom-news-releases-barrasso-democrat-tax-hikes-would-strangle-small-businesses/", "Barrasso: Democrat Tax Hikes Would Strangle Small Businesses", "2024-09-13", "2024", "2024-09", "Republican", "Senate", "WY", "John Barrasso", "B001261", "www.barrasso.senate.gov", "barrasso", "https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom/news-releases/", "scraper", "\u201cRepublicans have been very loud and clear that we\u2019re going to do everything that we can in our power to make sure these tax increases never happen.\u201d\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 At Thursday\u2019s Senate Committee on Finance hearing, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) discussed the damaging impact of Democrats\u2019 proposed tax hikes on small businesses in Wyoming with tax policy experts Jeff Brabant of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and Daniel Bunn of the Tax Foundation.\n\nSpecifically, Senator Barrasso detailed the concerns expressed by Wyoming\u2019s small business owners about tax increases, as well as the negative impact that a supercharged death tax would have on family businesses.\n\nBrabant and Bunn testified at today\u2019s Senate Committee on Finance hearing on The 2025 Tax Policy Debate and Tax Avoidance Strategies.\n\nOn Democrats\u2019 Proposed Tax Hikes for Small Businesses\n\n\u201cI\u2019ve been a member of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) when I was practicing medicine in Casper, Wyoming. Our Casper Orthopedics was a proud member.\n\n\u201cThere are a couple of questions, things I\u2019d like to talk with you about in terms of what\u2019s happening here. Plenty of talk on the numerous tax increases that are facing small businesses coming into 2025.\n\n\u201cRepublicans have been very loud and clear that we\u2019re going to do everything that we can in our power to make sure these tax increases never happen.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019ve talked about the death tax, the expiration of the small business tax deduction, and increased tax rates across the board that would impact small business owners.\n\n\u201cTo go even further though, Democrats seem to want to add to that uncertainty that is facing the country and threaten small business owners with a new supercharged death tax, increased capital gains rates, an additional 5% surtax on small business income.\n\n\u201cI mean, this to me looks like a plan to strangle small businesses.\n\n\u201cSo are you hearing from small businesses and the owners about these provisions? And what are they telling you about the 2025 expirations and some of these new tax hikes and proposals that are being threatened?\u201d\n\nFollow-Up:\n\n\u201cSo the things I mentioned that you mentioned are inflation, increased prices, hiring fewer people, higher unemployment. So what impact are these tax proposals then going to have on our broader economy?\u201d\n\nClick here to watch Sen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks on Democrat tax hikes.\n\nOn the Supercharged Death Tax and Family Businesses\n\n\u201cI travel all around Wyoming and talk to farmers, ranchers, and small business owners.\n\n\u201cOn Labor Day, I was in the small town of Meeteetse, Wyoming \u2013 a town that\u2019s so small that the high school football team plays in the six-man division because that\u2019s as many students as they have to be able to play.\n\n\u201cOne of the things that keeps them up at night is hearing this stuff about this stepped-up basis.\n\n\u201cMany operations across Wyoming and small businesses are generational. The Biden-Harris administration has proposed this supercharged death tax. If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have their way in 2025, they\u2019d allow the current death tax exemption to expire.\n\n\u201cWhen I hear about this in Meeteetse, Wyoming, this has really gotten out a long way from Washington for people worried about what Washington may do that\u2019s going to apply to their freedoms, life, their livelihood.\n\n\u201cAre you hearing the same thing from members of NFIB about keeping the current death tax exemption in place, as well as concerns about these new supercharged death tax as well as this stepped-up basis?\u201d\n\nFollow-Up:\n\n\u201cWe have a group called the Centennial Ranch Group. We have a celebration each year for those that have kept the ranch in the family for 100 years in Wyoming. Wyoming has only been a state for a little less than 140 years.\n\n\u201cThese are families that have been through drought, fire, terrible winters, all of it. Yet, their biggest threat to continuing in the family business is the federal government on what they\u2019re doing along those lines. So I appreciate your comments on that.\u201d\n\nClick here to watch Sen. Barrasso\u2019s remarks on the supercharged death tax.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:46:43Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.barrasso.senate.gov/newsroom-news-releases-barrasso-democrat-tax-hikes-would-strangle-small-businesses/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.825781375169754, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}