Climate change proposals in the Democrats’ spending bill may include taxes on the oil and gas industries and other measures that could drive heating costs up for everyone as winter approaches — and cost tens of thousands of jobs — Rep. John Joyce said on Wednesday.
“What we’re seeing is a tragedy,” the Pennsylvania Republican said on Newsmax’s “American Agenda.”
“We’ve gone from energy independence and low prices to heat our homes and cool our homes, and we’re seeing those numbers are going to escalate just as we’re heading into winter. We’ve seen the price of gasoline in the last year double. These are taxes on my constituents.”
Joyce added that his state is rich in oil, coal, and natural gas, but President Joe Biden is “reaching out to OPEC and asking them to produce more oil.”
“We have the energy source is right here in America, and we need to be utilizing them and we can do it safely and effectively without any more Green New Deal initiatives,” said Joyce.
The lawmaker also spoke out against Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s call for a tax on unrealized capital gains, which would tax investors on the increase of value in their stocks, even if they don’t sell them, rather than on their current value.
For example, if the value on a stock climbs from $100 to $150 each in a year, the taxpayer would still have to cough up a tax on the extra $50, even if they hadn’t actually earned the profit themselves from it.
Joyce said that “all of America” shares concerns that such a tax would stretch to include everyone, not just the nation’s wealthiest people.
“We’ve seen the tax-and-spend socialists continue to push their agenda forward and continue to transfer the costs to the hard-working American citizens,” said Joyce. “We were sent to Washington to be responsible stewards of the taxpayer dollars, and yet I’m not seeing that from any Democrat right now in Congress.”
