{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=9E6CAA54-1629-4861-8CF6-3E4A855F2767", "Thune: Democrats Give Millionaires Massive Tax Breaks, Working Families Left in the Dust", "2021-12-07", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today discussed the massive tax breaks for millionaires in the Democrats\u2019 reckless tax-and-spending spree. Thune noted that middle-income, working families would be forced to fund the Democrats\u2019 radical bill that would significantly expand the role of the federal government into their daily lives.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cMr. President, Democrats continue to work on their reckless tax-and-spending spree \u2026 or perhaps I should say their reckless tax-and-spending disaster.\n\n\u201cTax hikes, deficit spending, inflationary spending \u2026 it\u2019s all there in Democrats\u2019 spending package.\n\n\u201cPlus, of course, that tax break for wealthy Americans.\n\n\u201cYes, you heard me right.\n\n\u201cA tax break for millionaires.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m talking, of course, about Democrats\u2019 expansion of the state and local tax deduction \u2013 known as the SALT deduction \u2013 which would overwhelmingly benefit affluent taxpayers in mainly Democrat-led states, and do almost nothing for middle- and lower-income families.\n\n\u201cMr. President, for months and months Democrats have been going on about the need for the wealthy to pay their \u201cfair share\u201d of taxes.\n\n\u201cWhich is why I find it the height of irony that Democrats\u2019 current bill contains a substantial tax break for wealthy Americans.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m not surprised that Democrats kept SALT out of the Ways and Means Committee markup.\n\n\u201cAfter constantly talking about making the wealthy pay their \u201cfair share,\u201d it\u2019s a little awkward to publicly debate your tax break for the wealthy.\n\n\u201cInstead, Democrats stuffed the tax break into their reconciliation bill under the subtitle of \u2013 of all things \u2013 \u2018Social Safety Net.\u2019\n\n\u201cYes.\n\n\u201cSocial safety net.\n\n\u201cWho benefits from this particular \u2018safety net,\u2019 exactly?\n\n\u201cAbout 94 percent of the tax benefit would go to the top 20 percent of earners.\n\n\u201cAbout 70 percent would go to the top 5 percent of earners.\n\n\u201cAnd nearly one-third of the tax benefit would go to the top 1 percent of households.\n\n\u201cThe average tax savings for middle-income households from raising the SALT cap would be $20.\n\n\u201c$20.\n\n\u201cMeanwhile, millionaires would receive an average tax cut of about $14,900.\n\n\u201cI guess the priorities of wealthy Democrat donors in blue states trump Democrats\u2019 plans to make wealthy Americans pay their \u2018fair share.\u2019\n\n\u201cMr. President, not only does the bill contain a tax break for millionaires; this tax break is one of the most expensive parts of the bill.\n\n\u201cIn fact, it\u2019s the second-most expensive item in the House-passed bill over the next five years.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cAccording to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, only Democrats\u2019 child care and pre-K programs would exceed the cost of raising the SALT cap.\n\n\u201cGiven their rhetoric, you would think that Democrats might have chosen to forgo this tax break for the wealthy and spend the money on one of their other programs that they fund for only part of their bill\u2019s 10-year budget window.\n\n\u201cBut no.\n\n\u201cThis tax break is apparently so important to Democrats that they are willing to shortchange some of their other priorities in order to include it.\n\n\u201cMr. President, we\u2019ve also heard a lot from Democrats about how corporations need to pay their fair share \u2013 which I guess is whatever Democrats determine it to be.\n\n\u201cAnd Democrats\u2019 bill does include a corporate minimum tax.\n\n\u201cExcept it turns out that it\u2019s not really a corporate minimum tax since some corporations won\u2019t have to pay the full tax.\n\n\u201cDemocrats have carved out certain exceptions to the corporate minimum tax, including clean energy tax credits.\n\n\u201cSo if you\u2019re a corporation engaged in Democrat-approved activities, you\u2019ll be able to avoid paying some or all of the corporate minimum tax.\n\n\u201cIf you don\u2019t qualify for Democrats\u2019 approved carveouts, on the other hand, you can look forward to paying the full tax.\n\n\u201cMr. President, Democrats\u2019 hypocrisy might be amusing if this bill weren\u2019t so dangerous.\n\n\u201cBut unfortunately there\u2019s not much to laugh about when it comes to this bill.\n\n\u201cDemocrats\u2019 \u2018Build Back Better\u2019 spending disaster will pour $1.75 trillion in government money into an already overheated economy, which will likely prolong the serious inflation we\u2019re currently experiencing.\n\n\u201cDemocrats helped create our current inflation situation by flooding the economy with a lot of unnecessary government money earlier this year.\n\n\u201cAnd now Democrats are going to pour another $1.75 trillion onto the inflationary fire.\n\n\u201cAmerican families are already experiencing the worst inflation in more than 30 years.\n\n\u201cI don\u2019t want to even think about what inflation will look like if Democrats succeed in passing another $1.75 trillion in government spending.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I say $1.75 trillion.\n\n\u201cBut of course Democrats only arrived at that number through a series of shell games and budget gimmicks.\n\n\u201cThe real cost of Democrats\u2019 bill is much, much higher.\n\n\u201cAn honest accounting of the bill puts the number in the range of $4.5 to nearly $5 trillion.\n\n\u201c$5 trillion.\n\n\u201cTo put that number in perspective, the entire federal budget for fiscal year 2019 was $4.4 trillion.\n\n\u201cThe entire federal budget.\n\n\u201cMr. President, Democrats are proposing a major expansion of government.\n\n\u201cAnd they are deceiving the American people into thinking that it can be paid for with $1.75 trillion.\n\n\u201cThat is simply not true.\n\n\u201cDemocrats arrive at that number by putting some of their provisions \u2013 from tax measures to new programs \u2013 into place for as little as a year.\n\n\u201cBut of course Democrats don\u2019t have the slightest intention of having those tax measures or new programs expire after a year or two, or ever.\n\n\u201cTake their child allowance.\n\n\u201cDemocrats\u2019 legislation would have their child allowance sunset in one year.\n\n\u201cOne year.\n\n\u201cBut of course Democrats fully intend for their child allowance to be permanent.\n\n\u201cBut by only funding the child allowance and other measures for a fraction of their bill\u2019s 10-year budget window, they can disguise the true cost of permanently implementing these measures \u2013 and how much these measures will end up costing the American people.\n\n\u201cAnd these programs will cost them.\n\n\u201cDemocrats may talk about funding their legislation with taxes on corporations and the wealthy, but ordinary Americans are going to be paying for a major part of the bill.\n\n\u201cA substantial part of Democrats\u2019 tax increases on businesses and investment will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices or reduced services.\n\n\u201cAnd those price hikes will come on top of the inflation we\u2019re already experiencing \u2013 and the additional inflation we\u2019re likely to experience as a result of this bill.\n\n\u201cAmericans are also likely to pay for this legislation with decreased economic growth and fewer economic opportunities.\n\n\u201cAnd they may pay in further tax hikes when Democrats try to extend their programs and need to come up with money to at least partially pay for them.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I am hard-pressed to think of anything more irresponsible than Democrats passing this legislation at this time.\n\n\u201cAs I mentioned, inflation is currently at a 30-year high.\n\n\u201cAmerican families are struggling with high gas prices, high grocery bills, high rent prices, the high price of used cars \u2026 the list goes on.\n\n\u201cAnd yet Democrats are planning to pass a bill that is likely to worsen our inflation situation and extend our current inflation crisis even further.\n\n\u201cNot to mention driving up our deficit and worsening our country\u2019s fiscal health.\n\n\u201cMr. President, we don\u2019t know what government money will be needed down the road.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re emerging from a pandemic that required a lot of unexpected government expenditure.\n\n\u201cAnd we don\u2019t know what other challenges our country will end up facing in the future.\n\n\u201cYet Democrats are planning to keep spending as if there\u2019s no tomorrow, with absolutely no regard for our current inflation situation or for possible future needs.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s deeply irresponsible, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cAnd if Democrats succeed in passing their spending spree, the American people will be paying a very steep price for decades to come.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", 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