[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 133 (Saturday, August 6, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4069-S4070]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    INFLATION REDUCTION ACT OF 2022

  Mr. WYDEN. Madam President, public service is about making people's 
lives better, and here is what is on offer this afternoon to make 
people's lives better in our country: Reduced healthcare costs for 
seniors, reduced carbon emissions, reduced energy costs, and reduced 
cheating by wealthy tax cheats. That is just a part of what is on offer 
this afternoon.
  Let me just briefly touch on each of them.
  We all know that medicines are way too expensive in our country. 
People always come back from trips, and they say: Why is it so much 
cheaper overseas?
  It is because these big pharmaceutical companies are under absolutely 
no restraints to hold down the prices, and that is what we are 
beginning to change today.
  What we are beginning to change today is to say that for those 
seniors who count on Medicare, for the first time, the program that 
they love, Medicare, is going to have the power to negotiate lower drug 
prices for them. The fact is, the Senate is lifting a curse with this 
legislation. That is how seniors feel when they hear that Medicare 
can't even go to bat for them. And, of course, Big Pharma has protected 
this ban on Medicare negotiating like it was the Holy Grail. Even 
today, they are warning that when we pass this, they are going to try 
to tie it up with the courts and the State legislatures and the 
Agencies. But we are not going to let that happen.
  The prediction from some independent authorities on medicine has said 
that because of the compounding benefits of our bill--with more drugs 
being negotiated on a regular basis--we are looking at the possibility 
of a trillion dollars in savings before too long.
  If a drug company refuses to negotiate, they are going to face a 
steep excise tax on the sale of their products until they come to the 
table. If they are price gouging, if they are raising their prices 
above the rate of inflation, say, for an older drug, they are going to 
pay a penalty.
  And then we have new significant relief for seniors who, when they 
get mugged at the pharmacy counter, come home and say they just can't 
pay all the bills. Our legislation puts a new $2,000 out-of-pocket cap 
on Medicare Part D so that seniors are no longer forced to choose 
between paying for medicine and paying for food.
  Those are all important benefits. The fact is, that penalty for price 
gouging is going into in effect in a couple of months, in November, so 
seniors are going to be able to say: We are seeing real relief from 
this legislation.
  There are other steps that we would have liked to take. I understand 
that. I pushed for them. The President of the Senate has pushed for 
them. But let's understand the bottom line here. Every one of the 
policies I have outlined, on their own, is going to be life-changing 
for millions of senior citizens, and it is going to lay the groundwork 
for doing more.
  I would also like to move briefly from healthcare to climate because 
the Inflation Reduction Act includes the biggest effort in history to 
save our climate and invest in clean energy and jobs. And because we 
all worked together, those are going to be jobs here in America. They 
are going to be clean energy jobs in our country because of the black 
letter text that we wrote into the bill.
  The old system was a joke. It picked winners and losers, and anybody 
who was powerful could probably figure out how to get a tax break. And 
there were permanent breaks for oil and gas but only temporary 
incentives for clean energy. The system was broken. It was out of date 
a long time ago.
  We put that old system into the dustbin of history, and we put in 
place emissions-based credits to turbocharge investment in clean 
energy, clean transportation, and energy conservation. Our new plan is 
going to reduce the typical American household's energy cost by $500 
per year, and it is going to create 600,000 new jobs from Portland, OR, 
to Portland, ME.
  As the President of the Senate knows, we pay for this bill with a few 
important changes in our tax law. For example, we just showed a couple 
of days ago that of 100 companies--these are companies with billions of 
dollars in profits--they are paying--many of them, more than 100--an 
effective tax rate of 1.1 percent.
  Let me say that again: More than 100 hugely profitable companies that 
are going to pay under this legislation, and the President of the 
Senate did very important work on this, they are paying, on average, 
1.1 percent in taxes.
  Now, it is no surprise that those companies that are paying 1.1 
percent think that somehow making them pay a minimum rate--a minimum 
rate, by the way, which is far less than the rate that a firefighter 
and a nurse pay--that, oh, my goodness, we won't have jobs, we won't 
have businesses if they do.
  And we make it clear that we are not raising taxes on anybody. 
Anybody making less than $400,000 is not going to pay any additional 
taxes under this bill. I know there are some of our colleagues on the 
other side who have always subscribed to this trickle-down theory of 
economics and say that, well, if those at the very top--say, those 
corporations paying 1.1 percent--actually pay some taxes, that means 
that nurses and firefighters are going to pay more taxes, and nurses 
and firefighters don't buy that for a second.
  We also paid for the legislation in an important way that was 
proposed by our colleague from Ohio, Senator Brown, that I was proud to 
join him on, and that is a 1-percent tax on stock buybacks.
  Corporations have spent trillions of dollars on stock buybacks in 
recent years, a huge windfall for corporate executives and wealthy 
shareholder. It set a record in 2018, broke it again in 2021 right in 
the middle of a global pandemic, and I just noticed the profits of some 
of the biggest oil companies here in the last few weeks, again, they 
are kind of leading the league in stock buybacks.
  Stock buybacks make a lot of wealthy people even wealthier on paper, 
but they do very little to strengthen the economy, drive innovation, or 
improve the well-being of American workers.
  Our 1 percent tax is not only going to help pay to prevent the worst 
effects of climate change, it is also going to encourage big 
corporations to invest in their workers and research and development 
instead of more handouts to the top.
  Finally, I just want to emphasize this question of tougher IRS tax 
enforcement. We have heard some of our colleagues on the other side say 
that somehow this is going to target the working person. I see our good 
friend from Delaware, another member of the committee. That is just not 
going to happen. And the reason it is not, as my colleagues on the 
Finance Committee know so well, working people are not the problem 
here. They pay taxes with every single paycheck. It is right there on 
their paycheck. Everybody knows what taxes they pay, and should they be 
engaging in any questionable activities, it would end up showing up on 
these forms. They are not the problem.
  But as we have been told again and again by independent experts, 
Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, we do have a problem with 
big, wealthy tax cheats. Big, wealthy tax cheats don't pay taxes with 
every single paycheck like firefighters and nurses.
  And after a decade of Republican budget cuts, we are now in a very 
difficult position to go after these wealthy tax cheats who rip off the 
American people for billions of dollars every year.
  The current Commissioner who joins many Democratic Commissioners and 
Republican Commissioners in the past--the current one is a Republican 
appointee--estimated the number of

[[Page S4070]]

taxes owed that are not collected could be as much as a trillion 
dollars per year.
  We believe that the Agency ought to have the resources it needs to go 
after sophisticated, lawbreaking tax cheats at the top. And I know that 
my colleagues on the Finance Committee join me in saying: We are going 
to watchdog the Agency very carefully and make sure the focus is on 
these wealthy tax cheats and not the typical working person, as my 
colleagues on the other side of the aisle have talked about.
  So there you have it, folks. Here is what is on offer: What is on 
offer are lower costs for seniors, reduced climate emissions, help for 
working families, cracking down on wealthy tax cheats. That is what 
this is all about today. That is why this legislation, I believe, is 
going to give public service a good name.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CARPER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Delaware.
  Mr. CARPER. Almost everything that is good that he has just talked 
about came out of the Finance Committee, terrific staff work, terrific 
leadership. Thank you.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Hirono). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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