Congressman Meuser Reacts to Biden’s Visit to Pennsylvania

WASHINGTON, D.C.— Today, Congressman Dan Meuser (PA-09) issued the below statement following President Biden’s visit to Northeast Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

During the visit, President Biden laid out a tax plan that would be detrimental to Pennsylvania and America’s hardworking middle class. Among the tax increases, President proposed tax hikes on American families, small businesses, energy production, inheritance, and more.

Congressman Meuser said, “President Biden continues to prove that he is nothing more than an out of touch tax-and-spend politician. The tax hikes he discussed while visiting Pennsylvania, as well as the trillions in new taxes proposed in his budget will be detrimental to the middle class. He has chosen to pursue a woke agenda that prioritizes climate resiliency programs, DEI initiatives, and government handouts over the needs of hard-working, blue-collar Pennsylvanians. Rather than implementing pro-growth policies that allow small businesses and their employees to thrive, he wants to stifle their ability to succeed by taxing them out of business. His tax plan will force mom-and-pop shops across the Commonwealth to close their doors, force larger companies to move jobs overseas, and cause consumer prices to climb even higher than they already have throughout his administration. These tax increases are necessary to fund the continuation of his Administration’s out-of-control spending that has already caused inflation to rise nearly 20%.” 

Meuser continued, “We need a President who understands the struggles of small business owners and recognizes the challenges facing our workforce. We need economic policies like we had during the Trump Administration, which created the most prosperous economy in history. By protecting and extending the provisions in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, we can ensure small businesses thrive, families can save, and America prospers. We need a course correction, and reimplementing former President Trump’s policies is how we get our nation back on track.”

A portion of President Biden’s remarks from Pittsburgh can be found here.

A Snapshot of President Biden’s Proposed Taxes:

Small Business Tax Hikes:

President Biden has proposed increasing the tax rate for S corporations, partnerships and all "pass through" businesses, most of which are small businesses, to 39.6%. President Biden has also proposed eliminating the popular 199A pass through deduction for these businesses, which has been immensely important to these small businesses. These increases would be crippling for the millions of small business owners who operate pass through businesses.

Corporate Tax Rate:

President Biden has proposed raising the Corporate Tax Rate from 21% to 28%. Such a tax rate is higher than communist China, Ireland, France, England, and many others. When factoring in the average 4% state Corporate Tax Rate, the effective rate is 32% -- the second highest corporate income tax in the developed world. This will drive jobs overseas, as companies would seek more competitive tax rates outside of the United States, and ultimately hurt American workers. 

Capital Gains Tax:

President Biden has proposed raising the Capital Gains Tax to 44.6% -- the highest rate in 100 years. When factoring in Pennsylvania’s 3.07% Capital Gains Tax, small businesses would pay a combined 47.7% tax on Capital Gains.

Biden has also promised to impose a tax on unrealized gains on assets held by taxpayers, but not sold. As an example, if a stock account has increased in value over the last year the owner would now pay taxes on the gains, even though they have not sold these assets.

Energy Taxes:

Biden has also proposed an additional $120 billion in taxes increases for American energy producers, which will increase energy prices even further, hurt American energy independence and force the U.S. to rely on other nations for our energy needs.

Specifically, Biden has continually proposed repealing for the expensing of Intangible Drilling Costs (IDCs), which are widely used by energy producers to deduct expenses related to producing energy. These expenses include labor, site preparation, repairs, equipment rentals, and survey work.

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