{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/icymi-scott-op-ed-on-the-build-back-better-plan/", "ICYMI: Scott Op-Ed on the Build Back Better Plan", "2021-11-17", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "Senate", "SC", "Tim Scott", "S001184", "www.scott.senate.gov", "timscott", "https://www.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/jsf/jet-engine:press-list", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 This week, U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-S.C.) penned an opinion piece published in the Post & Courier explaining the deeper costs and long term negative impacts of President Biden\u2019s \u201cBuild Back Better\u201d plan.\n\nOpinion: Build Back Better is not free, and it\u2019s not something we need\n\nPost & Courier\n\nU.S. Senator Tim Scott\n\nNovember 14, 2021\n\n\u201cZero down!\u201d \u201cYou don\u2019t pay a dime\u2026guaranteed!\u201d\n\nYou\u2019re flipping through the channels and the temptation of \u201cfree\u201d causes you to stop surfing and see what the offer is all about. The commercial narrator enthusiastically says that you, yes you, can get the latest car or gadget today without paying a red cent. But if you stay tuned till the end when the salesman speed reads the fine print, the pitch that seemed too good to be true is just that.\n\n\u201cMy Build Back Better Agenda costs zero dollars.\u201d It won\u2019t \u201cadd a single penny to our deficit.\u201d\n\nYou\u2019d be forgiven for wondering whether President Joe Biden and his party are hocking snake oil or their reckless tax and spend package. Like the misleading commercials, it doesn\u2019t come as a surprise when the conditions and exception reveal that the price tag isn\u2019t actually as advertised.\n\nWhether it\u2019s $3.5 trillion or $1.75 trillion, the Democrat\u2019s liberal wish list still amounts to increases in taxes and decreases in American\u2019s spending power. But the shocking sticker price only scratches the surface of the actual cost of this plan. The real, long-term cost is much, much higher because of the junk that\u2019s in it. That\u2019s why President Biden and the Democrats are hoping the American people won\u2019t take a closer look at what\u2019s in their spending proposal.\n\nEven before this package, our economy was on the fritz. The partisan spending Democrats passed earlier this year has already caused an inflationary crisis that is hitting middle-class Americans hardest. With the cost of beef up nearly 20 percent, gas prices up more than 40 percent, and children\u2019s shoes over 10 percent more expensive than last year, our purchasing power has gone down. If passed, this new spending spree would actually reduce wages and raise taxes on 95 percent of middle-class families in the long run.\n\nBut that\u2019s not all. To find the money to pay for this plan, Democrats proposed to take those tax dollars and invest an additional $80 billion to hire more IRS agents to turn around and snoop on taxpayers. They wanted to empower the IRS to know about the transactions of any American that had $10,000 or more coming out of their bank account in a given year. The compliance costs would have been crippling for small town institutions, to say nothing of the invasion of privacy for tens of millions of Americans.\n\n[\u2026]\n\nClick HERE to read the full op-ed.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"]], "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.scott.senate.gov/media-center/press-releases/icymi-scott-op-ed-on-the-build-back-better-plan/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.5329131856560707, "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"}