House Ways and Means Committee Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-TX) told Breitbart News Daily the House Democrats’ China bill is stuffed with a “laundry list” of socialist and welfare carveouts.
Brady spoke to Breitbart News Daily host Alex Marlow after the House passed H.R. 4521, the America COMPETES Act, which featured Democrat support and Republican opposition.
House Democrats crafted their version of the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (USICA), which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) have championed.
Brady and other House Republicans have derided the bill as being stuffed with woke, welfare, and climate change carveouts.
The Texas conservative said on Breitbart News Daily that although “confronting China is a bipartisan issue,” Democrats in the House “went it alone, with just a laundry list of their socialist agenda again.”
Brady asked rhetorically, “The key question for Americans I think will be: Does this confront China’s predatory trade practices? No. Hold them accountable as President Trump in his phase one agreement with China? No. Third, does it counter China’s aggression around the world when it comes to trade agreements in divvying up the world’s customers for China instead of America? The short answer is no.”
“There’s no serious effort to counter China economically, on trade, force them to change their behavior on stealing intellectual property from America, or forcing companies to transfer their technologies to China. It is a partisan bill,” he added.
Brady has sounded the alarm over the bill’s massive renewal of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, which he has described as a “trade welfare expansion.”
Brady said that the TAA program is meant to help those who lose their jobs due to trade; however, he suggested that some may be able to receive TAA assistance even if they did not lose their job due to trade.
Brady said the provision in the America COMPETES Act is “four times bigger than the Build Back Better monstrosity.” The expanded TAA assistance costs $22 billion, far more than the $6 billion increase in subsidies in the Build Back Better bill passed in the House in November 2021.
The America COMPETES Act would also grant, in Brady’s words, a “permanent and larger” Health Care Tax Credit for TAA workers, who already have access to health care subsidies in the individual health insurance market.
Brady also said that “Bidenflation” has harmed the average working American family, forcing them to pay last year, on average, $3,500 more than they did the year before for the same products.
Marlow noted that “Bidenflation” is a “regressive tax” that hurts the poor and working families more than the wealthy.
Brady agreed, adding that minorities also feel the brunt of inflation, and that inflation pushes many people into a higher tax bracket, which is yet another expense made greater due to “Bidenflation.” He said that last year’s inflation under President Joe Biden wiped out the financial gains many people made under former President Donald Trump and his policies.
Breitbart News Daily broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.