Last night, Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kansas) voted to advance the full budget reconciliation bill in the House Budget Committee – which passed the committee 17 - 16. He delivered remarks in support of the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act last Friday in the Budget Committee markup.
“The bill we’re marking up here today is the culmination of years of work to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, secure our borders and rein in wasteful Washington spending,” said Rep. Estes. “It’s a bill that meets the mandate provided to this Congress by the American people last November. It’s a bill for the American people, and my friends on the left have only empty talking points to try and paint this legislation as something that it’s not.”
Watch video of Rep. Estes’ remarks here.
Full Remarks
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s good to be here with you and our colleagues as we work to advance the America First policies that are embedded in this One Big, Beautiful Bill.
The bill we’re marking up here today is the culmination of years of work to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, secure our borders and rein in wasteful Washington spending.
It’s a bill that meets the mandate provided to this Congress by the American people last November. It’s a bill for the American people, and my friends on the left have only empty talking points to try and paint this legislation as something that it’s not.
Today, I want to take a brief moment and refute some of the lies with some of the facts.
First, let’s look at the historic Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. While nearly half of my Republican and Democrat colleagues were not here in 2017, I remember the quote “crumbs” Nancy Pelosi claimed the middle class Americans would be receiving because of the Trump Tax Cuts. The reality is those “crumbs” were really thousands of dollars in lower taxes, increased wages, and stronger economic opportunities for Americans at all economic levels.
On Tax Day of this year, I wrote an op-ed about the left’s deceit on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Mr. Chairman, I’d like to submit that op-ed for the record.
In it, I said, “The New York Times noted in 2019 that most Americans received a tax cut from the 2017 tax reform but simply didn’t believe it. “Their quote was: “To a large degree, the gap between perception and reality on the tax cuts appears to flow from a sustained—and misleading—effort by liberal opponents of the law to brand it as a broad middle-class tax increase,” the paper wrote.
“And in 2021, then-House Democratic Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries told MSNBC, “83% of the benefits went to the wealthiest 1%, and they saddled us with approximately $2 trillion in debt to subsidize the lifestyle of the rich and shameless.”
“The statement was so bad, The Washington Post upgraded its fact check from two “Pinocchios” to three and called it a “zombie claim.” That’s because Jeffries and Democrats were relying on projections of what would happen after significant provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expired—the same provisions Republicans are trying to save and Democrats are trying to stop.”
In the op-ed, I went on to say that the flow of misinformation has convinced a broad swath of Americans that they didn’t receive a tax cut – which they did – and the same cast of deceivers is trying to dupe Americans by promoting the extension of the law as a tax giveaway for millionaires and billionaires – which it isn’t. The Joint Committee on Taxation says that Americans making between 30,000 and 80,000 dollars would pay 15 percent less in taxes in 2027 under our bill, a nearly double higher percentage than those making over 1 million dollars.
Nevertheless, we’re already seeing success in our physical and financial security.
This week we learned the annual inflation rate is the lowest it’s been since Joe Biden first took office more than four years ago. Let me clear – prices are too high, and the impact of inflation is still hurting Americans and hurting Kansans, but we’re finally turning the page.
Mr. Chairman, this bill – particularly the pro-family, pro-worker, pro-growth provisions – is critical to preventing a massive tax increase for everyday Americans, to give our economy a boost, secure our border and bend the curve on decades of Washington’s waste, fraud and abuse spending. I urge my colleagues to support this One Big, Beautiful Bill.
