The outgoing House Republican Ways and Means Republican leader, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), and his colleagues blamed President Joe Biden for ruining a strong American economy.
The Republicans currently appear to be in a strong position to take back Congress, or at least the House, in the midterm elections on Nov. 8, posing a threat to Biden’s economic agenda.
The White House was accused by Republicans of misinforming the public regarding several key economic issues. One was the president’s claim that he was responsible for the automatic increase in Social Security payments.
Rep. Brady slammed that claim as false during an interview on Fox News Radio’s “The Guy Benson Show.”
Brady said that the White House lied to voters by saying that the Republicans would cut Social Security and Medicare if they were back in charge of Congress.
“There’s so much disinformation and fear-mongering coming out of the White House. I think everyone understands why Social Security payments went up—because inflation is crushing so many seniors,” said Brady.
“Seniors are just getting crushed under this president. A lot of this fear-mongering that Republicans are going to harm Social Security and Medicare has been fact-checked as absolutely false.”
The congressman said that Biden’s threat toward oil companies with more tax hikes was an attempt to pass the blame for higher gas prices on others.
“There’s no faster way to drive prices up and make America more dependent on foreign countries and foreign oil than to do this windfall profits tax that discourages investment right here in the United States for production, for getting it through the pipelines, and getting it back out to the community affordably,” Brady declared.
Brady said that rising inflation has put millions of American workers, families, and businesses under stress this year and predicted that the U.S. economy will shrink even further in 2023.
“This president took a very strong recovery in what should have been a record year in growth and just bungled it all. I’ve never honestly seen a president so quickly and thoroughly wreck an economy as Joe Biden,” he said.
He and the other Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee announced a proposal this week that would extend the Trump-era tax provisions from 2017 and make them permanent if they sweep the elections.
The proposed bill would renew a 20 percent deduction for businesses, while maintaining a higher standard deduction and extend lowered tax rates for families.
Critics say that this may actually stimulate the economy, at the same time the Federal Reserve is attempting to slow it down by hiking interest rates.
The House Republicans also promised stricter oversight over the Internal Revenue Service and make its officials report to Congress every quarter and on an annual basis, to review how it intends to use its resources and to protect taxpayer rights.
Any major plan conceived by the tax agency would also be subject to congressional approval.
