Senate Republicans united in opposition to the Inflation Reduction Act are convinced the bill will only exacerbate the inflationary crisis and worsen America’s economic downturn.
“I voted for a bipartisan infrastructure bill, I voted for gun legislation, I’m not going to vote for this,” senior Senate Republican Lindsey Graham told CNN on Sunday.
The legislation “is going to make everything worse. It’s not going to help inflation,” the senator insisted.
Graham pointed to the bill’s provision of a new 15 percent minimum tax on large corporations, which he said would “destroy expensing” accounting and “disincentiviz[e] companies for building factories, buying equipment, which would help guide us out of recession.”
“There’s a 16.4 percent tax on imported barrels of oil that are going to increase cost at the gas pump, subsidies for Obamacare go to families making $304,000 a year, which I think is ill-conceived, and the bottom line, it’s not going to help inflation,” the South Carolina Republican added, characterizing the bill’s name as a “gimmick.”
“It says it would reduce the deficit by $100 billion – we’re going to spend almost a trillion dollars….This thing is gonna make everything worse, and not one Republican is gonna vote for it,” Graham assured.
Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland dismissed Republican claims that the bill would raise taxes on ordinary Americans in the middle of a recession. “We’re not raising taxes. What we’re doing, in fact, we’re reducing the deficit. So we’re actually taking money out of the economy,” Cardin said, speaking to Fox News on Sunday.
“So that’s good news for inflation, and we’re dealing with the cost centers that typical families are facing in healthcare and energy costs. So this should be helpful for American families, and it should be helpful for our economy, and it will help us with inflation,” Cardin assured.
Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York also praised the legislative package, saying it would cut inflation, lower prescription drug costs, fight climate change, close tax loopholes, cut the deficit, “help every citizen in this country and make America a much better place.”
The Inflation Reduction Act includes an estimated $433 billion in spending provisions, including an expansion of Medicare’s ability to negotiate pharmaceutical prices with drug companies, an extension of subsidies to 13 million underinsured Americans, hundreds of billions of dollars for climate provisions, and a projected increase in tax revenue of $739 billion.
Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott told CBS News’ Face the Nation on Sunday that in addition to the tax hike and more spending, the bill would actually also lead to a $280 billion cut in Medicare spending, thus worsening Democrats’ chances in the November midterm election.
“This bill is not going to help Democrats. It’s going to help Republicans. Raising taxes $700 billion, cutting Medicare $280 billion, raising gas taxes, having 87,000 more IRS agents. Do you know how much - how happy people are to have more IRS agents out there? I mean, this is not – this is not going to be popular around the country,” Scott said.
The Inflation Reduction Act came one step closer to passing earlier this week after Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a DINO Democrat known for breaking with his own party on major spending legislation, supported the bill together with Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona – another common spending bill holdout.
If all 50 Democrats manage to hang on to their united front on the legislation, the bill would pass the Senate, which is split straight down the middle between the president’s party and the GOP, with Vice President Kamala Harris expected to cast a tiebreaking vote using her position as president of the Senate.
In case of passage, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives will briefly return to Washington from their lengthy summer break on Friday for the bill’s final approval, after which it will head to President Biden’s desk for signature.
“I think it’s gonna pass,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Sunday morning.
The US inflation rate hit its highest showing in decades last month, with prices for gasoline, food, and rent surging to levels unseen since 1981 – when the US was mired in the stagflationary crisis.