Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. GAETZ.

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Mr. GAETZ. To the extent that this is a tax bill, there are good provisions in it on business expensing for economic growth. Nonetheless, Mr. Speaker, this is not a tax bill. This is a welfare bill masquerading as a tax bill. The Wall Street Journal was correct to identify the ways in which this legislation vastly expands the welfare state.

This is how the bipartisan agreement came together: If the Republicans were willing to give the Democrats what they wanted for illegal aliens to get massive subsidies and welfare, then the Democrats were willing to give the Republicans what they wanted on a bunch of business welfare.

The child tax credit, as currently contemplated, will be a massive pull factor to bring people into this country illegally, and we could have, as the majority party, demanded constraints to stop them from being able to use the money that way. Nevertheless, bipartisanship was more important than good policy.

As my friend from Kentucky (Mr. Massie) noted recently, Mr. Speaker, if you aren't paying taxes and you get a refundable tax credit in the form of a check, that is not a tax cut. That is not even tax policy. That is just welfare. That is just giving people money who didn't initially pay it in, and a bunch of them are here illegally.

It is not just a welfare bill in that respect. It is also corporate welfare. Indeed, these tax credits they have put in there are so targeted, they are bought and paid for by the lobbyists who fund their campaigns and give them donations, and it is entirely wrong. We should have a flat tax code.

The R&D tax credits they are putting in are deeply misguided. They continue to distort the economy, and, frankly, it is just another flavor of a lot of the Green New Deal tax credits that you act like you are against, but, indeed, Mr. Speaker, that is not the case.

This is not a tax bill. It is a welfare bill in drag, and that may be appealing to some of the proponents.

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Mr. GAETZ. Mr. Speaker, if my characterization of the child tax credit is intellectually dishonest, then I would love to hear the warrant behind that claim because none of my colleagues can state how a huge sum of this money is not going to end up in the hands of illegal immigrants.

When it comes to evaluating that context in the era of Trump versus the era of Biden, it is somewhat embarrassing that I would have to remind a Republican colleague that it is the Biden administration that has let in 10 million additional people which vastly blows out the cost of this particular endeavor.

Under Trump, we didn't have an open border, so there was less of a concern about drawing more people here illegally to this child tax credit.

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