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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) joined CNBC’s Squawk Box this morning to discuss how raising taxes, spending hundreds of billions of dollars, supersizing the IRS, and implementing Green New Deal provisions would be harmful to working West Virginians.
HIGHLIGHTS:
DEMOCRAT TAX HIKES, SPENDING HARMFUL TO WEST VIRGINIANS: “Well, I think the overall impact to our state is devastating…last weekend, when I was talking with folks when I was home, they were very aware that the taxes that go up in this bill will be directly put onto them as individuals or businesses. They understand that the heavy foot of advantages to green energies disadvantages the industries in our state. While we're very supportive of renewables, we understand that it will hurt our industries and our working people. We understand also that the massive increase of the IRS will come down on the heads of our small businesses and our individuals in West Virginia. I think West Virginians feel like they've been sold, a little bit, a bill of goods here because of the initial promises that this would be very slim, and it would help with inflation. I think all of the independent studies show that the continued high prices that we see are going to continue under this bill, and it's very discouraging to folks back home.”
ON MOUNTAIN VALLEY PIPELINE HELD UP BY RED TAPE: “I've worked hard to get that completed. It's 95% completed. It's been permitted, and it gets rejected by a regulatory regime that we see exists in this administration that has existed before in the Obama administration. I think that there is no will in this administration to actually see our energy, particularly our fossil energies, move. And so while I'm very supportive of getting the MVP completed, it would mean a lot of jobs and economic energy in our state, absolutely. But, to say that if you pass this bill, you're going to get a regulating bill in 45 days, I've never heard of guarantees like that. And we all know that this is a very divisive issue on the regulatory front between Republicans and Democrats.”
AMID RECORD INFLATION, WORKING FAMILIES WOULD BE HIT HARDEST: “I think what people realize is food’s higher gas is higher, their electric bills are going up. And, this is going to have an even more direct effect on those kinds of issues. And that's what people are worried about.”
BROADBAND DEPLOYMENT STIFLED BY PROPOSED TAX INCREASES: “I'll give you a good example. Yesterday I was in committee. I talked to somebody from the wireless industry. I asked them, ‘If you look at the corporate tax proposal that's before us. What does that mean?’ And because they have to count spectrum as part of their book tax that means that it's going to be a $7 billion raise in their taxes. Where does that go? That goes to the individuals and that goes to slowing down the process of closing the digital divide. So, there's all other kinds of ramifications when you begin to massively add new taxes.”
COAL, MANUFACTURING HARDEST HIT BY TAX HIKE PROPOSAL: “If you look at what industries are mostly harmed by the new way of looking at taxing at a minimum tax you see that manufacturing is 50% harmed in this. That they're…projecting lose over 218,000 jobs in the short term. If you look at the coal industry, which of course I'm very interested in, their taxes are projected to go up 7.2%. But, we still don't have the details of this. It's Wednesday, and this is going to get crammed down our throat here in the next 48 hours it appears as though. And massive changes would be made. I'm not voting for this….Shouldn't we be doing things that are going to bring inflation down? We can't stay up where we are and sustain this. And with winter coming, I think we're really going to see this on our electricity prices."
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