[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 133 (Saturday, August 6, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4062-S4063]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    INFLATION REDUCTION ACT OF 2022

  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, we are somehow continuing to consider the 
Democrats' grab bag of bad ideas, otherwise known--I would say, 
misleadingly--as the Inflation Reduction Act.
  Let's start with the bill's title. It gets you feeling somewhat 
hopeful, doesn't it? The Inflation Reduction Act sounds like a bill 
that is going to address perhaps the No. 1 problem facing our Nation--
inflation. Then you actually look at the bill's contents and discover 
that the bill will do nothing to reduce inflation--nothing.
  And you don't have to take my word for it. Here is what the 
nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model had to say about the bill's 
impact on inflation: ``The impact on inflation is statistically 
indistinguishable from zero''--``statistically indistinguishable from 
zero.''
  The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office also found that the bill 
would do nothing to address our current inflation crisis. So did the 
Tax Foundation.
  So much for inflation reduction.
  So what about the deficit reduction the Democrats are touting? Well, 
unfortunately, there is a good chance there won't be much of that 
either. Democrats rely on some very shady accounting to reach their 
supposed deficit reduction number--most notably from the repeal of a 
rule that has never been implemented and, at this point, was never 
expected to be.
  No matter what this rule was predicted to cost, if it was never going 
to be implemented, its cost was effectively zero. So repealing this 
rule leaves you with exactly zero--zero dollars to spend, not $120 
billion.
  Then there is the question of the bill's expanded ObamaCare 
subsidies. The Democrats' bill extends the expanded ObamaCare subsidies 
by 3 years. But it is common knowledge that the Democrats want to 
extend them permanently, as the President explicitly said in his State 
of the Union Address. And when you figure in the cost of extending them 
permanently, most of the purported cost savings in the bill, which the 
Democrats claim will go toward deficit reduction, dwindle away.
  So no deficit reduction, an extremely doubtful amount of deficit 
reduction--what else? Well, there are the hundreds of billions of 
dollars in tax hikes. Yes, hundreds of billions of dollars in tax 
hikes. Our economy has posted two consecutive quarters of negative 
growth. In fact, by any common definition, we are now in a recession. 
And Democrats think now is a good time to hike taxes on businesses--
businesses that are already struggling with 40-year high inflation?
  The Democrats' book minimum tax, as proposed last week, would be a 
$313 billion tax hike, with roughly half of the increase falling on 
American manufacturers.
  I don't think I need to tell anyone what happens when you raise taxes 
on businesses, particularly when the economy is shrinking. You get less 
growth, lower wages, and fewer jobs.
  According to an analysis from the National Association of 
Manufacturers, in 2023 alone, the version of the bill Democrats 
introduced last week would reduce real gross domestic product by more 
than $68 billion and result in more than 218,000 fewer workers in the 
overall economy.
  The Tax Foundation also found that the bill would, unsurprisingly, 
reduce economic growth, reduce wages, and reduce jobs. In short, a big 
part of the burden of the Democrats' tax hike on businesses would fall 
on American families and American workers.
  And the book minimum tax on American businesses is not the only tax 
hike Democrats are proposing on this bill. They just purportedly 
replaced a $14 billion tax hike on investment with a new $74 billion 
stock buyback tax designed to punish investors who choose to keep their 
own money invested in a business--a tax hike that will likely 
discourage new investment and have a negative impact on Americans' 
retirement savings.
  And, of course, they have included a number of taxes and fees on oil 
and gas production. I guess Democrats would like our current sky-high 
energy prices to continue long-term, because I am at a loss for any 
other reason why Democrats would choose to hike taxes on oil and gas 
production at a time when Americans are already struggling with high 
gas prices and high utility bills.
  The Democrats didn't always think raising taxes during a recession 
was a good idea. In fact, President Obama once said:
       [T]he last thing you want to do is to raise taxes in the 
     middle of a recession.
  That was from President Obama.
  As the current Democratic leader once said:
       You don't want to take money out of the economy when the 
     economy is shrinking.
  Well, unfortunately, now that their Green New Deal fantasies are on 
the line, the Democrats have changed their tune. That is right. 
Democrats are hiking taxes during a recession not to address our border 
crisis or inflation or rising crime but so that they can implement 
their Green New Deal agenda.
  Their so-called Inflation Reduction Act is chock-full of Green New 
Deal spending, things like $1.5 billion--billion dollars--for a grant 
program to plant trees; $1 billion for electric, heavy-duty vehicles 
like garbage trucks, which is something that communities used to 
normally provide for; $3 billion for the U.S. Postal Service to 
purchase zero-emissions delivery vehicles; and $1.9 billion for things 
like road equity and identifying gaps in tree canopy coverage.
  Yes, the Democrats are apparently willing to send us into a longer 
term recession--or stagflation--in order to provide billions of dollars 
for things like road equity and identifying gaps in tree canopy 
coverage.
  All told, the Democrats provide more than $60 billion in this bill 
for ``environmental justice''--$60 billion. Now, to put that number in 
perspective, that is more than the Federal Government spent on highways 
in 2019.
  The bill also contains at least $30 billion in climate slush funds, 
part of which is allocated for, among other things, climate-related 
political activity--yes, climate-related political activity--because, 
for sure, there is nothing more that families who are struggling with 
ballooning grocery bills and the high price of gas are eager to see 
their tax dollars going toward than Green New Deal activism. 
Apparently, it is a very high priority for Democrats, but I would say, 
in all likelihood, not for the American people and American families.

[[Page S4063]]

  I haven't even talked about the tax credits and rebates the 
Democrats' bill will provide for wealthy Americans who purchase new 
electric vehicles or who remodel their kitchens with Democrat-approved 
green appliances.
  Well, I could go on for a while here. It is difficult, really, 
honestly, to squeeze all of the bad ideas in the Democrats' bill into 
just one floor speech, and I haven't mentioned the socialist-style 
price controls that the Democrats' bill would pose on prescription 
drugs--price controls that would result in fewer new drugs and 
treatments--or the additional $80 billion--yes, $80 billion--that the 
Democrats' bill would give to the IRS, with the majority of it being 
used to boost IRS audits.
  Now, of that $80 billion, $45 billion of it would go to IRS 
enforcement--$45 billion, or 57 percent. Do you want to know how much 
of that $80 billion would go to taxpayer services? Four percent. Four 
percent--that for an Agency that only succeeded in answering about 1 
out of every 50 taxpayers' phone calls during the 2021 tax season.
  There is $80 billion to the IRS for an additional 87,000 employees--
87,000 new employees at an Agency that, I am told, only has about 53 
percent of its workforce actually going back to the office--87,000 
employees. You are going to have tax agents moving in with families 
around this country.
  The Democrats aren't focused on improving taxpayer services but on 
boosting the number of IRS audits. No one should be deceived into 
thinking these increased audits will fall solely on millionaires and 
billionaires. No matter what the Democrats and some officials at the 
IRS conveniently claim, the fact of the matter is that it is 
exceedingly unlikely the Democrats will be able to collect the revenue 
they want to collect from increased IRS enforcement without auditing 
small businesses and ordinary taxpayers. In fact, based on data from 
the Joint Committee on Taxation, somewhere between 78 to 90 percent of 
the revenue that is projected to be raised from underreported income 
would likely come from those making under $200,000 a year.
  So 87,000 new IRS agents are sent out with the purpose of collecting 
more revenue, allegedly, according to the Democrats, from high-income 
taxpayers and businesses that are escaping taxation; yet the Joint 
Committee on Taxation finds that 78 to 90 percent of the revenue 
projected to be raised from underreported income would likely come from 
those making under $200,000 a year.
  Almost 18 months ago now, the Democrats passed a massive, partisan 
$1.9 trillion spending spree, which fueled inflation--record 
inflation--that Americans are still struggling with in this country. By 
the way, that $1.9 trillion spending spree was all on the debt--all on 
the debt. They didn't attempt to pay for it; they just put it on the 
debt.
  So now, to talk about possibly reducing the deficit by what I think, 
when it is all said and done, in this bill will be under $100 billion, 
that will assume all kinds of things like actually they are going to 
raise revenue from these 87,000 new agents whom they are going to hire 
at the IRS to audit American taxpayers. It also assumes things like the 
ObamaCare premium subsidies are only going to be limited to a 3-year 
extension rather than a full 10 years, which we all know is ultimately 
going to happen.
  In the end, I believe there will be zero deficit reduction, but the 
fact of the matter is that that piece of legislation, in addition to 
fueling inflation and adding to the debt--and having learned from that 
experience, I would hope you would think that the Democrats here would 
not double down with yet another terrible economic idea, which is 
another tax-and-spending spree. Like the so-called American Rescue Plan 
before it, it will leave our economy and the American people worse off.
  For their sake, I hope the Democrats will think better of this bill 
before it is too late. We are going to have an opportunity to debate it 
here, probably in a few hours, and will have an opportunity to vote on 
lots of amendments, and we will see what that process yields.
  I can tell you one thing: The American people are tired of 40-year 
high inflation; they are tired of higher energy prices; they are tired 
of higher food prices; and they are concerned about an economy that is 
in recession. They are looking at a Democrat leadership in Washington, 
DC, that has as its No. 1 goal--out of all of the things you could do 
to attack inflation, attack high energy costs, to deal with a broken 
border, crime in our cities, and to deal with a wobbly economy, their 
prescription, as always, is the same thing no matter what the problem 
is; that is, to raise taxes, increase spending, and grow government--
all at the expense of the American people.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Delaware.

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