Here’s how SC’s US House members voted on Biden’s Build Back Better spending plan
South Carolina’s Republican U.S. House members were united against President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better plan, a bill focused on the president’s social spending priorities, in a vote Friday.
All six GOP members — U.S. Reps. Jeff Duncan, Nancy Mace, Ralph Norman, Tom Rice, William Timmons and Joe Wilson — voted against the nearly $2 trillion spending bill, which would expand the social safety net, attempt to curb climate change and expand COVID-19 recovery dollars. U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina’s lone Democratic representative in the House, voted in favor of the spending bill.
“House Democrats just voted to pass the most radical and irresponsible tax and spending bill in American history that will essentially involve the government in every aspect of American life,” Duncan, R-Laurens, said in a statement.
Duncan pointed to high gas prices and inflation, saying the bill will only take more money away from common people.
“This is not what Americans want or need,” Duncan said. “I was proud to vote against this monstrosity of a bill and hope it is swiftly defeated in the Senate.”
Rice, R-Myrtle Beach, called the bill “a grab bag of economy-killing tax increases, massive expansion of the entitlement state, and even bigger government programs.”
“I have news for everyone: If you rely on the government to take care of you, you will always live in poverty,” Rice said.
Clyburn, the Democrats’ majority whip, was the sole member of South Carolina’s delegation to vote in favor of the bill.
“Experts have told us that the Build Back Better Act will positively impact our economy,” Clyburn said in a statement. “This legislation will lower costs and fight inflation because it is fully paid for by making big corporations and the wealthiest pay their fair share. It is my hope that the Senate will follow our lead and support this opportunity to make America’s greatness more accessible and affordable for all.”
The Build Back Better Act passed the house by a vote of 220-213 Friday morning. It now heads to the Senate, where it faces rocky odds as Democrats hold 50 seats and will have to win over their more moderate members.
South Carolina’s senators, both Republicans, have already expressed their opposition to the spending bill.
“Build Back Better is NOT free and it’s NOT something we need!” Sen. Tim Scott tweeted Friday.
Sen. Lindsey Graham has called the bill a “fraud on the American people.”
The $2 trillion package covers a wide range of topics. It would expand family leave, provide free universal preschool for 3 and 4 year olds, increase Pell grants for college students, cap the costs of some drugs and provide incentives for individuals and businesses to participate in programs to curb climate change. The bill would also increase funding to the enforcement wing of the IRS, as well as increasing taxes on companies.
Clyburn highlighted the bill’s measure to expand child tax credits. Under the ARP Child Tax Credit, the bill would provide $300 more a month to families with children under the age of 6 and $250 more a month to families with kids 6-17, Clyburn said in a statement. In South Carolina alone, 963,000 children would qualify under the credit expansion and, on average, households would receive $428.
Democrats long maintained that the bill would not add to the nation’s long-term debt because the new taxes brought in by the beefed-up IRS would pay for it. However, the Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would increase the budget deficit by $367 billion from 2022-2031, which would be partially offset by $207 billion that could be brought in by tougher IRS tax enforcement.
“For months, Biden and the Democrats claimed their tax and spending spree would cost ‘zero dollars.’ Yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said this bill would add $367 billion to the deficit,” Timmons, R-Greenville, said in a statement. “At a time when American families are being hit hard by record levels of inflation, House Democrats passed legislation that will further raise the price of household goods, increase taxes, expand the size of the federal government, exacerbate our national debt and deficit, and kill American jobs—all while giving massive tax breaks to wealthy Americans.”
The budget office score was off-putting to Republicans and some House moderates.
“As a member of the Ways and Means Committee, I’ve spent the last several months closely analyzing the tax provisions of the Build Back Better Act,” Rice said in a statement Friday. “As usual, this bill is the opposite of everything the Democrats claim: It’s not fully paid for, it does raise taxes, and it will exacerbate our inflation problems.”
This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 11:51 AM with the headline "Here’s how SC’s US House members voted on Biden’s Build Back Better spending plan."
