Texas senators oppose tax increase for President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan

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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz says that President Biden’s proposed American Families Plan “would take away more of Americans’ hard-earned money.”

Texas Sen. John Cornyn agrees.

“It sure seems like a lot of money for a lot of social engineering,” he said recently.

The plan, unveiled last week, would expand access to education, increase child support and extend tax cuts for families with children and raise taxes on those in the top income tax bracket.

It includes $1 trillion in new spending and $800 billion in tax credits. The plan is funded partially by raising the top income tax rate from 37% to 39.6%.

“A huge tax increase that would take more out of the pockets of hardworking Americans in a struggling economy,” Cruz said in an op-ed for FoxNews.com last week.

The U.S. entered a recession in February 2020 according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, which officially declares recessions, but the economy has been growing in recent months.

The Biden administration believes the plan will help Americans during the recession.

“But the President knows that we need to do more,” the plan said, referencing Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure package introduced last month and the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, bringing his economic proposals total to about $6 trillion.

“It is not enough to restore where we were prior to the pandemic,” the plan says. “We need to build a stronger economy that does not leave anyone behind — we need to build back better.”

Like Cruz, Cornyn cited the recession as a reason for opposing the tax increase.

“I just think it’s a bad idea as we’re coming out of a recession, because of the pandemic, to raise taxes,” Cornyn said last week.

When asked about specific policies in the proposed plan, such as providing “universal, high quality preschool to all 3- and 4-year-olds” and “two years of free community college,” Cornyn opposed the plans because “there is no such thing as a free lunch.”

“Call it free, but somebody is going to have to pay for it,” he said last week. “And the question is who?”