On the recordSeptember 7, 2022
I would just like to briefly discuss the amendment that came up during the budget discussion. Senate Democrats made it very, very clear that we were strongly against taxing those in our country with incomes under $400,000. The problem with the amendment that the Republicans offered is they used the word ``taxable'' income. So, while we strongly opposed raising taxes on middle-class people and others making under $400,000, the wording of the Republicans' amendment, which talked about taxable income, could have immunized billionaires from being subject to an audit. That is because, as the Presiding Officer and I have talked about, billionaires often live by this ``buy, borrow, and die'' philosophy, and they have little or no taxable income for years on end. My colleagues probably saw some of the stories, for example, about billionaires who are claiming the child tax credit because their taxable income is actually low under the way it is defined. Just to make sure the record is clear, we are all in on this effort of not taxing middle-income folks. We subscribe completely. In fact, it is what we had in the bill, and our enforcement section made that clear as well. But we are not for creating new paths to tax evasion for billionaires. Regrettably, that is what the language in the Republicans' amendment would have done. I yield the floor. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida.
