HELENA — Montana’s only congressman, U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale, voted “no” Friday morning against President Biden’s $2 trillion Build Back Better plan, calling it “the largest tax increase in American history.”
Rosendale joined all of his fellow House Republicans in voting against the measure, which passed the House on a 220-213 vote. One Democrat voted against it. The bill now heads to the Senate, where Rosendale urged colleagues to defeat it.
“Joe Biden’s $5 trillion `Build Back Bankrupt’ boondoggle aims to give the federal government womb-to-tomb control over our lives,” he said in a statement. “This disastrous piece of legislation is the largest spending bill and the largest tax increase in American history – and is an imminent threat to our way of life.”
Rosendale claims that the true cost of the bill is much more than its $2 trillion price-tag over 10 years – if temporary provisions in the measure are extended.
The Build Back Better program includes programs to finance child care, affordable housing, expanded Medicare and other health-care coverage, universal pre-kindergarten, higher college Pell grants, job training, and lower prescription drug prices.
It also has multiple initiatives to encourage energy conservation, electric vehicles, and renewable-power development and consumption.
It would increase taxes on large corporations and the wealthy, while cutting some taxes for lower- and middle-income families.
Rosendale said the bill will create 150 new federal programs and that while supporters say the tax increases fall only on corporations and the wealthy, the increases will hit “small businesses and individuals of all income levels.”
He also criticized the bill’s provisions that “advance the far Left’s so-called environmental justice agenda” and said it would allow the use of taxpayer dollars to fund “abortion on demand” and subsidize health-insurance plans that cover abortion.
The bill would expand Medicaid coverage – which already pays for “medically necessary” abortions – and subsidies for Affordable Care Act private insurance plans, some of which also already cover abortions.
