Economy & Fiscal Responsibility
The American economy works best when individuals, communities, and businesses have the freedom to innovate, grow, and thrive—without the federal government getting in the way. That means cutting taxes, removing red tape, and letting you keep more of your hard-earned money.
Overregulation burdens businesses and stifles growth and innovation. Alabama’s low taxes, minimal regulations, and strong Right to Work laws have helped our state become a leader in auto and aviation manufacturing and space and defense, industries that support tens of thousands of good-paying jobs. The federal government has a lot to learn from Alabama’s leadership. We need to promote pro-growth policies that bring more jobs to Alabama.
American families are expected to be fiscally responsible, and our government should be no different. We are borrowing tens of thousands of dollars per second, and inflation has skyrocketed under President Biden’s leadership to historic highs. The national debt has surpassed $35 trillion, and our debt to GDP ratio is growing at an alarming rate. We must restore fiscal sanity in Washington, or our children will pay the price for Joe Biden’s reckless spending.
Supporting Small Businesses
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, with more than 33 million small businesses nationwide. Small business owners are the ultimate job creators. More than 99% of Alabama’s businesses are small businesses, and they employ nearly half of our state’s workforce. Our small businesses perform best when big government is out of the way. But, the left is attempting to stifle our small businesses by imposing more burdensome regulations that will derail economic growth.
- I took action to repeal the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which requires individuals with “substantial control” over a company or an LLC to disclose personal data with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network—a little-known government bureau that few Americans have heard of—much less know how to comply with. Failure to comply with the CTA can result in two years behind bars and a $10,000 fine. This is the swamp at its worst. That’s why I introduced the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act to overturn the CTA and protect small businesses.
- I introduced legislation to protect workers and support small business owners by modernizing our nation’s labor policies to match the needs of the 21st-century worker and workforce. The Employee Rights Act of 2023 would promote growth and innovation by ensuring our laws protect workers rather than union bosses, while also letting Americans keep more of what they earn.
Pushing Back Against Government Overreach
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has a history of big government overreach and using taxpayer data to target conservative groups. Under the Biden Administration, the IRS has been empowered to continue this overreach into the ordinary transactions of everyday Americans. President Biden is weaponizing the 87,000 additional IRS agents hired as a result of the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” to go after middle class Americans, despite promising to not go after any American who makes less than $400,000. He even went so far as to suggest that banks and credit unions be required to report every financial transaction of $600 or greater to the IRS. Like most Americans, I was alarmed at this absurd proposal. I will continue to hold the IRS accountable to American taxpayers, not Joe Biden.
- I introduced legislationto block this proposal and keep the federal government out of Americans’ bank accounts.
- I held a press conference with bankers and other stakeholders to hear firsthand how this would impact Alabamians.
- Ultimately, my Republican colleagues and I were successful in having this intrusive policy proposal removed.
- I asked taxpayers what they think of Democrats’ plans to spy on their financial transactions. VIDEO. Needless to say, they were strongly opposed.
- I haven’t stopped fighting against similar power grab proposals by the Biden administration. That’s why I helped introduce the Stop the Nosy Obsession with Online Payments, or SNOOP Act, to strike a tax code provision that requires third-party payment platforms, like Venmo and Paypal, to report transactions totaling more than $600 to the IRS.
- Following passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, I blasted Democrats for doubling the size of the IRS.
Combatting Inflation
President Biden’s reckless spending policies have impacted Americans everywhere from the grocery store to the gas pump. From his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, to the $1.2 trillion Inflation Reduction Act, and the $1.2 trillion “Bipartisan” Infrastructure Deal, Joe Biden has increased our spending by more than $4 trillion—which is roughly what it cost to win World War II. At the same time, he has shipped thousands of American energy jobs overseas as part of his radical environmental agenda. We can drive down prices by restoring American energy dependence and stopping Joe Biden’s reckless spending.
- I have proudly voted to stop Joe Biden’s out-of-control spending agenda. I voted against Democrats’ wasteful $1.9 trillion “American Rescue Plan” and the climate-focused $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. I also voted against Democrats’ complete joke of a bill, the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act.”
- I spoke about the costs of the Democrats’ big government approach to pandemic recovery and how their reckless spending is hurting American families.
- President Biden is trying to force hardworking Americans to foot the bill for other people’s student loans, despite the Supreme Court ruling that this proposal is illegal. I have repeatedly joined my Senate colleagues in urging the U.S. Department of Education to withdraw this scheme, and I introduced legislation to overturn President Biden’s blatant attempt to override the rule of law.
- I have voted against each tranche of funding for Ukraine. While I support Ukraine’s war against Russia, the American taxpayers can’t afford to bankroll a war halfway around the world.
- I called out Democrats for prioritizing Ukraine over American taxpayers. WATCH.
- I have spoken out on President Biden’s reckless spending policies that have created record-high inflation for hardworking Americans.
- I introduced legislation to repeal the Natural Gas Tax included in the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act. New fees or taxes on energy companies will raise costs for customers, creating a burden that will fall most heavily on lower-income Alabamians and Americans. My bill eliminates a new methane emissions charge created by the law.
Protecting American Economic Assets
The retirement savings of our military and federal government employees, known as the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), should not be invested in the economies of our adversaries. Doing so would expose these investors to significant economic risk and undermine U.S. national security interests. Former President Trump’s administration rightly intervened and ordered the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) to cancel its plans to invest in Chinese companies. Unfortunately, the Biden administration reversed the Trump-era ban on TSP investment—putting our veterans’ retirement savings accounts in jeopardy.
- I wrote about this issue in the Wall Street Journal in a column entitled, “I’ll Keep Veterans’ Pensions Safe From Communism” and discussed the issue on Fox Business.
- “If I walked into Byron’s Smokehouse in Auburn, Ala., and asked folks if they’d want their retirement savings invested in Chinese companies, I’d get laughed out of the restaurant. So why would we allow the federal Thrift Savings Plan, which serves approximately six million government employees and retirees, including military veterans, to do just that?” I wrote in my WSJ column.
- I continued the push for accountability from the FRTIB surrounding the board’s policy on foreign investments.
- I placed a hold on nominees to the FRTIB until the nominees provided clarification of these foreign investment policies, which forced the nominees to commit to opposing TSP investment in China.
Putting American Businesses First
America’s free market economy is the envy of the world, but there are bad actors who would like to erase our nation’s economic success. As adversaries like China attempt to steal American intellectual property and infiltrate our business and financial sectors, I’m working to curb their influence in the United States. I always have the interests of the American people and main street U.S. investors in mind as I push for sensible financial reforms and regulations to safeguard our economy.
- I led the call for an investigation into Webull Financial, LLC and Moomoo, Inc. — two Chinese-owned stock trading apps operating in the United States. Both apps are widely used by American investors and freely collect and store sensitive information about users, including Social Security numbers, mailing addresses, and sensitive financial account data.
- I pushed for President Biden to ban Russian companies from the U.S. financial system to ensure American investors are not inadvertently funding Russia’s war against Ukraine.
- I supported a ban on all 93 million members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from obtaining visas for business and vacation in the United States. The CCP is responsible for trillions of dollars of intellectual property theft from Americans each year.
- Following the meltdown of cryptocurrency firm FTX, I spoke out about the need for a federal cryptocurrency regulatory framework and called for bipartisan solutions to protect American investors and secure our country’s role as the world’s leading financial innovator.
