[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 144 (Thursday, September 8, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4500-S4501]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
The Inflation Reduction Act
Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, a month ago yesterday, Senate Democrats
shoved another partisan spending bill through the Senate--this one, the
inaccurately named ``Inflation Reduction Act.'' I say ``inaccurately
named'' because the so-called Inflation Reduction Act will do nothing
to reduce inflation. That is right. The so-called Inflation Reduction
Act will not actually reduce inflation. You don't have to take my word
for it; the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model said this about the
bill's impact on inflation: ``The impact on inflation is statistically
indistinguishable from zero''--``statistically indistinguishable from
zero.''
Democrats also claim that the bill will lead to deficit reduction,
but that is not really true, either. In the first place, Democrats
arrive at their deficit reduction assumptions using some extremely
fuzzy math. A substantial part of their deficit reduction claims depend
on not extending a program that they have already called for extending
and on supposedly eliminating a rule that at this point was never going
to be implemented anyway.
But even using their rosiest assumptions, the deficit reduction they
would have achieved with the Inflation Reduction Act was wiped out
completely 8 days after the bill was signed by the President's costly,
reckless student loan giveaway.
Democrats have clearly been seeing the polling on Americans' opinion
of the economy and their lack of faith in President Biden and Democrats
to deal with the economic challenges we are facing. That is
unquestionably why Democrats named their bill the ``Inflation Reduction
Act'' and touted their commitment to deficit reduction in an attempt to
suggest fiscal responsibility. The problem, of course, is that their
commitment to deficit reduction, inflation reduction, and fiscal
responsibility was and continues to be nothing more than window
dressing.
At its core, the Inflation Reduction Act, like the so-called American
Rescue Plan before it, is just another big government, big spending
piece of legislation. It will do nothing to address the real economic
challenges facing our Nation. Instead, it will waste taxpayer dollars
on Democrats' big government fantasies. It will drive up energy costs
in the service of Democrats' Green New Deal agenda. It will push people
off private insurance and into government-run healthcare, driving up
the cost to taxpayers. The legislation imposes socialist-style price
controls that will discourage medical innovation and reduce the number
of new treatments and cures. It imposes new taxes on businesses that
will slow economic growth and result in lower wages and fewer jobs. And
the list goes on.
In case there was any doubt about their intentions with this bill,
Democrats made their priorities very, very clear when the Senate
considered amendments. Democrats' so-called Inflation Reduction Act
hikes taxes on domestic oil and gas production--something that will
unquestionably result in higher energy prices for American families,
who are already facing higher energy bills in the Biden economy.
During the amendment vote-arama on this legislation, Democrats made
it very clear that they are, indeed, just fine with restricting
American energy production and seeing Americans' energy bills soar.
Democrats rejected attempts to ease their tax hikes on domestic oil
and gas. They rejected amendments to make it easier for companies to
develop American oil and natural gas. They also rejected a
comprehensive amendment to reform the burdensome permitting process,
which is one of the biggest obstacles to new energy investment. They
even rejected an amendment to prevent Democrats' new electric vehicle
tax credit from going to wealthy Americans. So apparently it is just
fine to support measures that would drive up Americans' energy bills,
but electric vehicle tax breaks for wealthy Americans have to be
preserved, not to mention the irony of U.S. automakers recently hiking
prices on certain electric vehicles by $6,500 to $8,000, which roughly
matches the $7,500 tax credit in the Democrats' inflation reduction
bill.
Now, I have been a longtime supporter of clean energy, but the fact
of the matter is, clean energy technology has not advanced to a point
where we can solely rely on alternative energy. We need oil, we need
natural gas, and we will continue to need them for a while yet. Efforts
to discourage domestic production of conventional energy will simply
drive up energy costs for hard-working Americans and force our country
to rely on unstable foreign sources of oil and gas. Now, that may very
well be the Democrats' plan in hopes of hastening the arrival of their
Green New Deal future.
Democrats like to bill themselves as the party of the little guy, but
their track record gives the lie to that. Democrats couldn't bring
themselves to support measures to lower Americans' energy bills by
increasing domestic oil and gas production because it conflicts with
their Green New Deal ideology. They did all unite to protect a tax
deduction that mainly goes to wealthy Americans in high-tax States and
to make sure, as I mentioned, that wealthy Americans are able to access
tax credits for electric vehicles.
Of course, they opposed a measure to prevent more audits of Americans
making less than $400,000 a year. That is right. Democrats' legislation
includes tens of billions of dollars for new IRS agents and increased
audits. Democrats' hope is that more audits of Americans will help pay
for some of their spending measures like increased government
healthcare subsidies and their Green New Deal priorities.
The Biden administration put out a statement claiming that this
wouldn't mean increased audits of Americans making less than $400,000 a
year, but when Democrats had the opportunity to confirm that by
supporting an amendment that would have prevented the new enforcement
funds from being used to audit Americans making less than $400,000 a
year, they unanimously--unanimously--voted against it.
I could go on. I haven't even talked about the border security
amendments the Democrats opposed. Republicans thought that perhaps,
while Democrats were throwing money at environmental justice and
climate slush funds and identifying gaps in tree canopy coverage,
perhaps they could spare some money for the crisis at our southern
border--a crisis that Democrats have largely chosen to pretend doesn't
exist. But Democrats quashed any attempt to divert money to address the
border crisis. Apparently, identifying gaps in tree canopy coverage is
more important than securing our southern border.
Democrats went so far as to oppose--oppose--an amendment that would
have prohibited hiring additional IRS agents until additional Customs
and Border Protection agents are hired to help secure the border. You
heard that right. Now, I am pretty sure Americans are more worried
about our border crisis than what Democrats apparently think is an IRS
enforcement crisis. But
[[Page S4501]]
clearly Democrats don't want to let border security get in the way of
funding for the Green New Deal priorities or supersizing the IRS.
It may have an appealing name, but, as the substance of the bill
demonstrates, the so called Inflation Reduction Act is nothing more
than the latest installment of Democrats' big government and big
spending agenda. It will do nothing to address the real economic
challenges facing Americans, and it will do nothing to address
Americans' priorities. What it will do is spend hundreds of billions of
taxpayer dollars on Democrats' socialist and big government fantasies
and raise taxes to help pay for it. Meanwhile, our inflation crisis and
our border crisis and rising crime will continue.
I yield the floor.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Vermont.