[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.