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GOP senator: US middle class bears the brunt of tax increase on corporations

US Republican Senator Ron Johnson participates in a Senate Foreign relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (File photo by Getty Images)

US Republican Senator Ron Johnson has said that the American middle class bears “the brunt of the tax increase on corporations.

In an interview on Sunday, the senator from Wisconsin also claimed that Democrats can only get funding for “their giveaway programs,” from the middle class.

“The only place Democrats can get the money to fund all of their giveaway programs is from the middle class, because that's where the money is,” Johnson said in an interview on Sunday.

Johnson claimed that the middle class would eventually end up shouldering the costs even if taxes on corporations were raised by the Biden administration.

“They don't really bear the brunt of the tax increase," he said, referring to corporations. "They just pass it along to consumers and to their employees in lower wages and benefits. So yeah, it's the middle class that always pays."

Johnson’s comments came after House Democrats passed their $2 trillion social spendings and climate bill, known as the Build Back Better Act, on Friday.   

The bill includes a provision of imposing a minimum 15 percent tax rate on corporations that report over $1 billion in profits to their shareholders.

House Democrats have been looking to raise the corporate tax rate to 26.5% as part of a sweeping plan that includes tax increases on the wealthy, corporations, and investors, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Democrats wanted to take the measure as a way to help pay for their massive social spending plan, according to the two sources.

Earlier this week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) released a report which indicated that a number of companies — including Amazon and Facebook — would be paying hundreds of millions of dollars in added taxes if the proposal passes.

A number of Senate Democratic lawmakers have supported the tax proposal.

Republican Senator Johnson in his interview also discussed rising inflation in the country, saying that it would cancel out recent increases in workers' wages and social security benefits.

“I think [Democrats are] trying to explain away ... trying to tell Americans that ‘Oh, no, inflation’s good for you. No, it's not,” Johnson said. “Just as your wages are increasing — we've got a record, or at least a more recent record, of an increase of social security benefits — it maybe sounds good, but those increases are going to be wiped out by inflation."

The record high inflation in the United States is disproportionately hurting lower-income families, who spend about a third of their earnings on essentials like food and energy, according to a report.

Retailers are forecasting a record holiday spending season, but prices have risen at the fastest pace in 30 years, which will dampen the Christmas spirit for one in ten Americans, according to the recent report from Bloomberg Equality.

Inflation in the US reached a 30-year high in October, which is eating into recent wage increases. The worst thing is inflation came after federal pandemic relief expired for about 7.5 million Americans.

"Inflation is especially taking a toll on lower-income families, who spend roughly a third of their earnings on essentials like food and energy. It's eating into recent wage increases, and the timing couldn't be worse after federal pandemic relief expired for about 7.5 million people," said the report.


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