Press Releases
Scalise: Dems’ Inflationary Spending is Destroying Families and Workers
Washington, DC,
December 10, 2021
Today, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox Business Network’s Kudlow to discuss how Democrats’ radical agenda has caused inflation to soar to its highest level in 39 years and called out President Biden and Speaker Pelosi for lying to the American people about the true cost of their multi-trillion-dollar legislation. In addition, Whip Scalise highlighted how Democrats’ socialist tax-and-spending spree would devastate the U.S. economy, reverse American energy independence, and hurt middle class families. Whip Scalise also criticized Democrats for voting to raise taxes on struggling American workers and small businesses to give tax breaks to millionaires and billions in blue states as well as their union allies.
 Click here or on the image above to watch the interview.
On inflation reaching a 39-year high in November:“You know, it’s never a good day when you see inflation numbers this high. In fact, you have to go back to 1982 to find numbers this high on inflation. And, of course, you know, as our good friend, Art Laffer, will tell you what they did back then to fix the problem, and to get inflation under control, was not to raise taxes and spending - they cut taxes and they got our economy back on track by cutting taxes and controlling spending. We know the formula that needs to apply. And that’s why, as you said, I wish you would’ve coined the term, you know, ‘Save America, Kill the Bill’ because it applies. Don’t pause it until February. Pause it and throw it into the scrap heap of history. Because raising taxes [by] trillions of dollars – we asked for the Congressional Budget [Office’s] report that just came out today to say, ‘Show us what the full 10-year picture would be.’ And as you mentioned, devastating $4.9 trillion, not $1 [or] $1.5 trillion. And by the way, $1.5 trillion would be a devastating number in terms of spending in taxes that would kill American jobs and add more inflation.“So, we know what this would do. It would make matters worse. If you added more spending and inflation – and voters have figured this out – they have equated the two. Spending in Washington equals more inflation for you at home, at the pump, at the grocery store, everywhere you go. So, ‘Save America, Kill the Bill’ is a mantra. But it’s also something that we just need to keep pushing because [the] more and more people find out about this bill, they don’t want it. “This is something that, you know, it’s not a Christmas present under the tree. This is something that needs to be burned in the fire. And then, ultimately, let’s go back to working on those fundamentals that always worked like they did in ’82. They cut taxes, they got inflation under control and had one of the great economic recoveries like we’ve ever seen. Let’s go do that again.”
On the chances that Democrats’ tax-and-spending spree is passed in the Senate:
“Go look at the House vote from two weeks ago. We were able to hold all Republicans against it. And in fact, we had one Democrat that voted no. If we just have one Democrat and the Senate vote ‘No,’ the bill is dead. And then we can get back to the fundamentals that work.“But these numbers are devastating. But everybody knows when Joe Biden said, ‘There’s no cost to it,’ I don’t think there’s anybody in Washington or in middle America that believed it. But these are the same people that said, ‘If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it.’ And they said, ‘Pass Obamacare so that we can find out what’s in it.’ We found out what [was] in it. Millions of people lost their healthcare, even though they promised they wouldn’t. This will cost you a lot of money. In fact, it’s already costing families in terms of higher inflation for the trillions that were spent earlier this year.“President Biden rammed [$1.9 trillion] through Congress right when he became president. That’s, by the way, also the time that he said, ‘Kill the Keystone pipeline. Kill drilling in America. Allow pipelines for Russia. Allow drilling for OPEC countries.’ And that’s why we’re paying 60 percent, 40 to 60 percent more for gasoline at the pump. People have seen this playbook before. They don’t want it to be run a second time. They’d like to see Washington get control on spending, lower taxes so that we can actually raise wages and raise real income for families, and get rid of this inflation that’s taking money out [of] the pockets primarily of lower-income families.”On Democrats’ budget gimmicks to mask the true cost of their trillion-dollar tax-and-spending spree:“Well, and unfortunately, it would’ve [still passed even with the full score] because a lot of the people that voted for it are the ones who created the budget gimmicks because they saw that the price tag was high and they had a choice to make, Larry. They could have actually cut some of the spending, which we were telling them to do. But instead, they didn’t want to cut any of the spending. They were frothing at the mouth to spend more money. So they imposed budget gimmicks. They moved dates around [and] expiration dates around.”On the tax-and-spending spree’s far-left giveaways to millionaires, billionaires, and union bosses :“So, the SALT tax deduction, for example, it’s a big giveaway to millionaires and billionaires in five states. But they changed the dates so that it looked like it wasn’t going to cost as much. It’s going to cost $250 billion for that one provision to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. They knew that. They just moved the numbers to try to trick everybody in America.“Their problem is, especially in the Senate, is that now hardworking families are finding out they’re the ones that are gonna be paying more to give those tax breaks away for things like charging stations for electric vehicles, but only if the electric vehicles are union-made.Those kinds of things are what are disgusting people as they’re finding out about it. That’s our best chance to kill the bill. More transparency. The ray of sunshine is our best disinfectant against this crazy big government socialism.” On voters rejecting the Democrats’ inflationary policies:“Look, voters in Virginia [and New Jersey] figured it out. That Senate President, who was [beaten] by a truck driver who didn’t really spend that much money – maybe a thousand dollars he spent – I think that’s what scares Democrats the most. They realize, ‘Wow. Even with this guy’s millions of dollars that he spent, he was [beaten] by a guy just because he had [Republican] next to his name and the incumbent was a Democrat.’ And people are fed up with what these Democrats in Washington are doing to spend money like it’s out of control. Voters have figured it out. Maybe some people in Washington will figure it out too.”
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