Chuck Grassley Asked Why He Supports Extending Tax Cuts That 'Largely Go To The Top 5%'

Forbes Breaking News

At a town hall on Tuesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was asked about the Senate budget reconciliation.

Transcript

00:00Anybody interested in a tax?

00:04Well, here, I'm going to call on everybody,

00:07but I'm going to go through this list of people

00:10that were complaining to me in Hampton,

00:14you didn't discuss any of these things.

00:17Anything interested in a tax bill?

00:21Yes, a tax bill.

00:22You're talking about the Senate budget resolution

00:25and reconciliation, is that you're referring to?

00:28But before you ask your question,

00:30let me explain that the budget just passed last week,

00:34and then the budget does not go to the president.

00:38That's just an internal congressional document

00:41that sets the stage for what you're going to ask me about.

00:44Right.

00:45I mean, it sets amounts that each committee is supposed to cut or budget.

00:51Am I correct?

00:52Now, if you're like a House member and you look at the Senate

00:55and we only have $1 billion for each committee,

01:00that doesn't mean we aren't going to cut more than $1 billion,

01:04but we just want to leave maximum leeway to the committee

01:08to decide how they're going to spend it.

01:10So go ahead with your question.

01:12The resolution that you supported extends and expands the tax cuts

01:18for the 2017 tax bill.

01:20And to extend those cuts, which largely go to the top 5% or so of people,

01:26they get something like 50% of the benefits from that tax bill.

01:31The resolution allows deficits to increase by $1.5 trillion

01:34under the Finance Committee's calculations,

01:36but that doesn't account for $4 trillion in costs of extending the tax cuts,

01:42bringing the actual cost around $5.3 trillion over 10 years.

01:50And this is from the bipartisan policy center.

01:53And meanwhile, like the House resolution,

01:55the Senate resolution calls for $880 billion in cuts over 10 years

01:59from the Energy and Commerce Committee,

02:01which includes Medicare and Medicaid.

02:03And it also orders the Agriculture Committee to cut $230 billion

02:07among cuts from other committees while increasing funds for defense in other areas.

02:12And yet, after all those cuts, we still end up with trillions of deficits.

02:18How is this fiscally responsible, Senator,

02:20to extend these tax cuts when they're raising deficits

02:25and resulting in cuts to services that people need

02:28and giving benefits to the top 5% or so tax payers?

02:34Okay.

02:35Well, first of all, the last two items you mentioned

02:39are in the House part of it, not the Senate part of it.

02:43So you'll have to talk to your Congress people about that.

02:48But I can answer the tax part of it very easily

02:52because the way the 2017 tax bill was passed,

03:02it was passed under this process of reconciliation,

03:05and you can't pass a tax bill, either increase or decrease,

03:13for more than 10 years unless you get 60 votes to do it.

03:19So we only had 51 or 52 votes in 2017.

03:24So it sunsets.

03:27It could go for two more years,

03:29but we sunset at December 31, 2025.

03:33So here's what's going to happen

03:35if we don't continue that tax policy into the future.

03:40You're going to have the biggest tax increase

03:42in the history of the country

03:44without even a vote of Congress

03:47because it sunsets,

03:49and so you just automatically go back

03:51to the tax levels prior to 2017.

03:55We can't let that happen

03:56because it would be the biggest tax increase

03:59on the middle class in the history of America.

04:03And it wouldn't give any more benefits to anybody

04:07than what they had in the 2017 tax bill.

04:11So it's very important

04:13that we keep the tax level where it is,

04:17which has been historically

04:19about 17% of all the gross national product

04:25of this country

04:26coming to the Congress of the United States

04:29at about 17% to 18%

04:31of all the economic activity in this country.

04:38So it keeps the tax policy

04:40that we've had in place for decades.

04:44Okay?

04:45Now, the next one would be...

04:47What do you mean?

04:49The next one would be...

04:50The next one would be border security.

04:53He asked a question.

04:56Can I ask you a quick question?

04:59I understand holding that tax

05:02at what you're saying,

05:04but why aren't we doing more

05:06to make the billionaires pay more?

05:07It might surprise you this.

05:20It might surprise you

05:22that the list of possibilities

05:28we have on our working sheet

05:31that the members of the finance committee,

05:33and I'm a member of that committee,

05:35are going to discuss,

05:38is raising from 37 to 39.6

05:42on the very group of people you talk about.

05:44Now, that doesn't make...

05:45That doesn't mean it's going to happen,

05:47but that means...

05:48You're damn right!

05:48That means it's...

05:50And the rationale for it is

05:53that we can take that money

05:57and use it for child...

05:59Increase in child tax credit.

06:01Well, you've got to take care

06:03of the tax loops, too.

06:05Now, anybody in...

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