***WATCH: Senator Murray speaks on how Republican tax cuts for billionaires drive our national debt, focus on cutting investments in working families is misplaced and wrong***
Senator Murray: “We need to get one thing clear: despite all of the boogeymen that Republicans like to point to as driving the national debt, the reality is that the single biggest driver of our national debt since 2001 has been Republican tax cuts. The Trump and Bush tax cuts have cost our nation over $10 trillion dollars and counting!”
Senator Murray: ““For parents back in Washington state, for working families, they don’t want us to invest in the richest people in the world. They want us to invest in our roads, and schools, and health care, and security, and ending the child care crisis—things that actually make their lives better. You have to be kind of out of touch to miss that.”
Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Budget Committee, and current chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, attended a Budget Committee hearing on the updated ten-year budget and economic outlet released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in June. CBO Director Phillip Swagel testified at today’s hearing. In her opening comments, Senator Murray spoke forcefully about the reality that the single biggest driver of our national debt since 2001 has been Republican tax cuts—and if Republicans return to power, their top priority is once again passing deficit-busting tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and biggest corporations.
“While they love to talk about ‘reining in’ spending…which in my mind actually means the investments that we make for families and working people—I don’t hear the same concern regarding the huge tax breaks that go to mostly billionaires,” Murray said at today’s hearing. “We need to get one thing clear: despite all of the boogeymen that Republicans like to point to as driving the national debt, the reality is that the single biggest driver of our national debt since 2001 has been Republican tax cuts. The Trump and Bush tax cuts have cost our nation over $10 trillion dollars and counting!”
“And what do Republicans want to do if they return to power? What is at the top of the Trump economic agenda?” Murray continued. “Do they want to solve the child care crisis? Do they want to extend health care credits that are saving millions of families thousands of dollars? Of course not! They want more tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and biggest corporations. Republicans’ big economic vision is to extend their horribly one-sided Trump tax cuts… There is no reason that investors on Wall Street should pay less in taxes than a firefighter in Spokane, Washington, or a nurse in Seattle—or that companies making billions in profits should pay less than mom-and-pop shops across Washington state. And there is every reason for us to ask the wealthiest people in our country to pay their fair share so that we can make this country stronger for everyone.”
“For parents back in Washington state, for working families, they don’t want us to invest in the richest people in the world. They want us to invest in our roads, and schools, and health care, and security, and ending the child care crisis—things that actually make their lives better. You have to be kind of out of touch to miss that.”
Yesterday, Senator Murray announced that, as Appropriations Committee Chair, she had reached an agreement with Committee Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) to increase both defense and nondefense discretionary (NDD) spending as part of the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriations process to invest in our national security and in working families and communities across America. As Senator Murray outlined in a recent Senate floor speech, NDD funding is essential to American families’ wellbeing, safety, and our country’s competitiveness and future—that’s why Murray has been working nonstop to ensure Congress provides more than the 1% increase in nondefense funding in Fiscal Year 2025 that was provided for by the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Video of Senator Murray’s floor speech on nondefense spending is HERE.
Senator Murray spoke to this at today’s hearing, saying: “I have talked at length about the hardship and pain capping non-defense discretionary spending puts on Americans. Yet, Republicans not only insist on these caps, they also put outsized focus on this spending as it relates to the deficit. Current NDD spending as a percentage of GDP has declined from the long-term average, and NDD spending accounts for less than a single percent of the increase in spending since the start of the pandemic in 2019—which are the spending levels Republicans want us to return to.”
Murray asked Director Swagel, “Beyond emergency pandemic spending, what are the significant drivers behind our country’s deficit over the last decade?”
“I would point to three things: one is rising interest payments, two is rising health care costs, and then three is rising spending on other benefit programs, Social Security is the largest of them. And so, it’s the aging of the population, it’s health care cost growth, and it’s interest costs,” Dr. Swagel replied.
“And revenue?” Murray asked.
“And revenue has not kept up. And you can see that in the charts put up by both the Chair and the Ranking Member, that legislative action has made it so that, you know, rather than rising, revenue as a share of GDP has remained flat. So as spending has gone up, revenue has not kept up.”
Next, Murray pointed out that there has only been one legislative change since CBO’s last projection in February that affected revenue: IRS rescissions. According to CBO’s report, these rescissions accounted for a $32 billion reduction in projected revenue. “The IRS and Treasury project six-fold returns for every dollar spent on tax enforcement. Yet, we continue to hear from our Republican friends that we should target IRS funding as part of the increasing deficit,” Murray said. “How does rescinding funds provided to the IRS under the Inflation Reduction Act impact revenue and deficits?”
“In our calculations, a dollar that goes to the IRS results in an additional two dollars of revenue—so, for a net of one,” Dr. Swagel replied. “So the rescissions, on net, increase the deficit.”
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