Barrasso: Democrats Want to Raise Taxes and Protect Fraud.

[00:00:00]The American people deserve to have more money in their own pockets.

[00:00:05]The working families tax cuts law made that happen.

[00:00:10]Republicans stopped the largest single tax increase in American history. That's what the Democrats wanted.

[00:00:16]Americans already filed their taxes this year and working families are keeping more of what they earn and the data proves it.

[00:00:23]More than 7 and a half million Americans benefited from the no tax on tips policy that we put into place right here on the Senate floor.

[00:00:32]So today there are waiters, barbers, bartenders, tour guides, all were able to claim deductions and it averaged over $7,100 deductions because of income on tax on tips.

[00:00:44]More than 29 million Americans benefited from no tax on overtime.

[00:00:49]Now these are firefighters, police officers, nurses, they're linemen and coal miners in Wyoming. They claimed an average deduction over over $3,000 all as a result of the law that the Republicans have passed.

[00:01:02]Money that went once went to bureaucrats in Washington D.C. now stays in the pockets of hardworking Americans and that's where it belongs.

[00:01:10]Had the Democrats gotten their way, taxes would have gone up by a lot.

[00:01:15]Every Democrat in this chamber voted to continue taxing tip income, overtime income. They just wanted to get a hand on people's money.

[00:01:26]Every Democrat voted to raise taxes by $4 trillion.

[00:01:32]Well, because Republicans were in the majority in the Senate and then the House, we were able to stop this Democrat price increase and tax increase.

[00:01:39]Now what we see is that extremist Democrats and Governor Mansions across the country, state legislatures are undermining trying to undermine the working families tax cuts law and they're doing it in city halls and in state capitals.

[00:01:56]In Washington D.C. right here in the city council tried to force hard working Americans to to pay taxes to the city.

[00:02:01]They can't force them to pay it to the federal government. Hey, the city wants the money on tips and on overtime.

[00:02:08]The city council of Washington D.C.

[00:02:10]refused to allow the hard working waiters, bartenders, police officers, firefighters to keep that hard earned money.

[00:02:19]They didn't have to pay it on federal taxes, but local taxes in D.C.

[00:02:24]D.C. city council said, "Give it to us."

[00:02:28]This is the city that's soon going to get a socialist mayor.

[00:02:31]Just like they have in New York City right now.

[00:02:34]And right now in 21 different states, we have far left governors refusing to allow the tax cuts that we passed to be passed down to the state level.

[00:02:44]So, Democrats in California, New York, and Minnesota, Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina, Virginia, they continue to take away people's tip money, overtime money, so they can spend it locally.

[00:02:58]That's the states and the cities, not the people, the individuals.

[00:03:02]So, just like Democrats here in Congress, the leaders of Democrat states around the country want to raise taxes, not cut them.

[00:03:09]They believe they can spend your money better than you can. They believe they make better decisions than you do.

[00:03:16]They decide and you are the end up as a loser if you're living in one of those liberal states.

[00:03:23]Well, we know why Democrats refuse to loosen the grip on your tax dollars.

[00:03:27]Democrats want to take more money out of your pocket to give free health care to illegal immigrants. And that's what we see in so many of these states with sanctuary cities, sanctuary states.

[00:03:39]Free health care, and it's not free.

[00:03:41]People pay for it. It's taxpayers, it's people going to work every day and having their tax dollars taken to pay for health care for illegal immigrants.

[00:03:48]That seems to be part of the manifesto that the extremists of the Democrat Party are trying to slam down the throats of American taxpayers.

[00:03:57]Cuz we know these extremists are winning Democrat primaries all across the country.

[00:04:02]Their manifesto includes mass amnesty, open borders, elimination of immigration and custom enforcement in the country.

[00:04:10]That's what they are demanding.

[00:04:12]And it's not for the benefit of the American people.

[00:04:16]That's the agenda of the radical left.

[00:04:19]In far left states from California to Minnesota, we have seen their policies in action.

[00:04:24]Working families are overtaxed and fraud is out of control.

[00:04:29]Now, Democrats are going to make less life less affordable.

[00:04:33]That's what we see. That's their model.

[00:04:35]Take it to the government. They know better than we do as taxpayers.

[00:04:39]It's not what the American people want.

[00:04:41]Here's what Republicans are doing. We're protecting taxpayers. We're putting more money back in their pockets so they can decide how to spend it, how to save it, what to invest in.

[00:04:51]We're fighting the fraud, and that's what I hear about so much in Wyoming.

[00:04:55]The fraud in Democrat states that that Democrats ignore ignore, that Democrats enable.

[00:05:02]It's awful fraud. You look at it and you say, "How can this continue?"

[00:05:06]Just this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced we stopped nearly a hundred million dollars in taxpayer money from going to dead people.

[00:05:14]Going to dead people.

[00:05:16]Just yesterday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services stopped more than a billion dollars of Medicaid funding going to California and Minnesota.

[00:05:24]Why? Because of fraud and failure to comply with the regulations to make sure the money is actually not wasted, the money is spent as it's supposed to be, taking care of people who need those services. And there are people that need those services.

[00:05:39]Every time a fraudster takes a dollar or a hundred dollars or a thousand dollars or a million dollars, that's services that don't go to people that need them, desperately need them.

[00:05:51]Here in the Senate, Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa is a leader in the war on fraud.

[00:05:56]And when it comes to exposing that fraud, Senator Ernst is both a watchdog and an attack dog.

[00:06:01]She has proposed a comprehensive anti-fraud piece of legislation.

[00:06:06]Her bill cracks down on fraud. It claws back stolen money. It prosecutes the crooks and the criminals and the scammers who prey upon the taxpayers. I support what Senator Ernst is doing. I'm a co-sponsor. Her anti-fraud legislation would save taxpayers 240 billion dollars.

[00:06:27]That's what kind of fraud is out there.

[00:06:29]Now, Senator Schumer recently said on this very floor that Democrats want to fight corruption.

[00:06:34]It's time for Democrats to prove it.

[00:06:36]Republicans are cutting taxes, we're stopping fraud.

[00:06:40]Democrats, on the other hand, are voting to raise taxes and up until now have been protecting the fraud.

[00:06:48]Thank you, Mr. President. I yield the floor.