See highlights from Chair DelBene’s conversation below:
CNBC: Rep. Suzan DelBene: Fair tax policy is making sure everyone is paying their fair share
“A strong economy means that families are doing well, that kids have access to incredible opportunities, and that’s not what we’re seeing right now. What we’re seeing right now is families struggling, prices skyrocketing across the country, housing, food, health care, childcare, energy costs, gas prices, all going up. Families are struggling across the country, and a lot of that is due to policies put in place by this administration and Republicans in Congress.
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“When you have a president who’s changing his mind on issues every day, when you have a Congress that’s a rubber stamp for the president and not willing to stand up, that’s having huge impact, and you see it in the numbers over and over, but you also see it when you’re on the ground talking to families all across the country. They’re struggling. And the president has made light of this, saying, ‘I love the inflation,’ or he said that ‘affordability is a hoax.’ That’s the number one issue everywhere.
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“I come from the state of Washington, very much a trade-dependent state. You’ve seen the tariffs immediately [on] Canada having an impact. 80% of our potash for fertilizer comes from Canada. Inputs for farmers’ costs went up dramatically right away, and of course they’ve gone up even more with the war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, causing fertilizer costs to go up even more. Farmers have been struggling.
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“When you talk about what families are feeling right now, people say, ‘Who is fighting for me? Who is standing up to make a difference?’ We have great candidates all across the country who actually are talking to people on the ground who understand the important role Congress can play in actually representing the people.
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“You were talking earlier about someone being a trillionaire, but what about families who can’t afford to get by day to day? We have housing prices [that] are high, people are struggling to make decisions between putting food on the table, paying rent. We have programs that are important to families across the country that have been undercut by this administration, by Republicans in Congress, who don’t care about funding programs that actually help lift up families.
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“Let’s talk about policies we know can have a huge impact, one that I’m a strong supporter of is the expanded Child Tax Credit. When we make sure that we are making investments in our kids, we save money. Let’s talk about ROI, when we invest, we can get an incredible return. When we cut childhood poverty in this country nearly in half in just a year when that policy was in place, imagine what that means when we do that long term. Childhood poverty costs us about a trillion dollars. When we make small investments and cut that in half, that’s an economic benefit, it’s a long-term benefit for our kids.
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“The gap that we’re seeing across the country between the wealthy and working families is growing. We should be focused on making sure we build a strong middle class. That everyone has opportunity. That people are getting by, that’s a huge priority. But what you have seen from Republicans in this administration is a focus on the wealthy and the well-connected, and they’re making working families pay for it.
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“We have incredible candidates running all across the country in purple districts, in these swing districts across the country. Farmers, folks who understand what’s happening on the ground for our farmers, like Jamie Ager in North Carolina running against Chuck Edwards. A farmer on the ground, he knows. These are what people are looking for, candidates who are connected to their communities, actually coming to Congress to fight for families and communities who aren’t focused on being a rubber stamp for Donald Trump.”
