Congressman John Moolenaar voted against the $1.7 trillion spending package passed by House Democrats on a largely party-line vote. In fact, the only bipartisanship came in opposition to the massive spending bill with one Democrat joining every Republican in voting against it.

“Michigan families are facing some of the highest inflation in the nation, fueled in part by the $2 trillion in spending Democrats passed in March. Now while Michigan families face higher costs for Thanksgiving and Christmas, Democrats are doubling down and passing another bill that costs nearly $2 trillion. Michigan families will be forced to pay the price while Democrats in Washington spend their hard-earned tax dollars," said Moolenaar.

“This legislation also contains terrible policies, including tax increases on 30 percent of middle class families and a federal takeover of child care that will limit the choices of Michigan parents while increasing costs. This radical legislation will expand the size of the federal government, creating a cradle-to-the-grave takeover of American life that will squeeze 330 million unique Americans with top-down policies that don’t fit their lives," added Moolenaar.

“Finally, at a time when we need to be attracting manufacturing back to America so we can secure our supply chains, the Democrats are raising taxes on businesses, which will cause them to look elsewhere for their manufacturing facilities. This is a disastrous policy that will harm our nation’s ability to bring manufacturing back to America," concluded Moolenaar.

There is a bipartisan consensus that the Democrats' spending this year has led to higher prices for Michigan families. Earlier this week, former Obama auto advisor Stephen Rattner wrote in the New York Times, "The original sin was the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in March...That has contributed materially to today’s inflation levels."

An additional analysis of the legislation from left-of-center Brookings Institute found that "taking into account all major tax provisions, roughly 20 percent to 30 percent of middle-income households would pay more in taxes in 2022."