RNC Women

With the clock ticking, the American people are now just 32 days from suffering a $3.9 trillion tax increase due to the refusal of congressional Democrats and the Obama White House to renew the Bush tax cuts for every American taxpayer. 

According to research from the Tax Foundation, the average middle class family in the United States will see a tax hike of $1,540 on January 1^st if Congress fails to act before then.  And according to the IRS, nearly half of the income generated by small businesses in America would be hit by this tax hike. 

This looming tax hike is injecting uncertainty into our economy at a time when we can least afford it.  Small business owners are working hard to make ends meet.  They need to know how much the government will take in taxes next year in order to make decisions about how much to invest in infrastructure and new employees.  The foot dragging from the Pelosi Congress and the Obama White House is only serving to delay the economic recovery. 

This is hardly an unexpected problem.  Democrats in Congress have known for years the exact date on which these tax cuts are set to expire.  This past summer, media outlets began to report on the negative effects the uncertainty surrounding the tax cuts – as well as the new mandates contained in ObamaCare – were having on job creation.  An August article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported “that businesses are frozen, afraid to hire or make any other long-term plans. 'We've been operating for the last year and a half in conditions of perfect uncertainty,' said David J. Ward, president of Madison-based consulting firm NorthStar Economics Inc., adding that he has never before seen such economic doubt in his 45 years as an economist.”

Thankfully, this refusal to act on behalf of American taxpayers will be the final failure of the Pelosi Congress.  It is little wonder that the agenda of Congressional Democrats and the leadership of Nancy Pelosi were rejected by the American people at the ballot box.  American small businesses need the certainty of knowing that their taxes will not go up just as we climb out of a recession.  The new Republican majority in Congress will provide that certainty, and make sure that the American taxpayers are treated with the respect they deserve.