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Why Is No One Using the Inflation Reduction Act's Actual Name?

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As of yesterday, the Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate. In a 50-50 vote with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tiebreaker, the Senate passed a massive spending bill under reconciliation rules. The bill will bring a ton of new deficit spending, create massive handouts for climate change initiatives, and add tens of thousands of new IRS agents to harass lower- and middle-class taxpayers.

But, curiously enough, reporters and politicians praising the passage of the bill aren’t actually mentioning the name of the bill: The Inflation Reduction Act.

I mentioned this on Saturday, when CNN’s John Harwood chastised Sen. Marco Rubio for calling the bill a “garbage bill.” But Harwood isn’t the only one.

I could go on and on with this, but one thing is pretty clear: This was never an Inflation Reduction Act.

This is Build Back Better v2.0. It is a handout to the IRS so Democrats can fund their pet projects by harassing and fleecing small businesses and middle-class Americans. It is a handout to upper-class Americans who want to make the switch to electric vehicles. It is a handout to pet companies that produce those vehicles.

You are giving massive subsidies during high inflation and raising taxes during a recession. It is a violation of basic economic principles at a time when the economy is extremely unstable.

This bill was the end result of Democrats negotiating with themselves. At no point was there any Republican input. They couldn’t even get the most liberal Republican in the Senate, Lisa Murkowski, on board with the bill. At no one was it ever anything other than the Affordable Care Act all over again – final passage of a Democrat bill with Democrat ideas and no attempt at getting bipartisan support.

If you’ll recall, the whole reason Americans were encouraged to dump Trump was to bring back normalcy and get the two sides working together again. That went out the window the moment it was convenient for Democrats.

Of course, this will pass the House of Representatives, and it will get to the President’s desk. He will sign it into law and by the time this bill actually impacts Americans, Biden will likely be out of office and the Democrats out of power in the House and Senate. It would be incumbent on Republicans to undo this as quickly as possible. It is possible that they could, but I’m not sure that they will.

Meanwhile, lower- and middle-class Americans, small businesses, and everyone the Democrats say they want to protect will be most impacted by this. You and I will be hurt, and the rich and powerful will feel no impact by this – except when they get those sweet tax breaks to buy the latest model of their favorite electric vehicles most of us can’t afford even with the subsidy.

All of this is happening and yet the bill’s actual name, the Inflation Reduction Act, is never actually addressed in the bill or in the reporting of it. Truly, a job well done by the Senate, the Democrats, and their allies in the media.

The Congressional Budget Office Hasn't Finished Scoring the Manchin's Inflation Reduction Act

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While the Senate’s “Vote-a-Rama” for Build Back Better v2.0, better known as the Inflation Reduction Act, is underway, it seems that the Congressional Budget Office hasn’t even finished scoring the bill we’ve been assured reduces inflation.

Dear Mr. Leader:

This letter provides information about the budgetary effects of H.R. 5376, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, as amended in the nature of a substitute (ERN22410) and posted on the website of the Senate Majority Leader on August 6, 2022: www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/inflation_reduction_act_of_20221.pdf

The Congressional Budget Office has not yet completed point estimates for every title, but for those that we have completed, the estimated budgetary effects for 2022, the 2022-2026 period, and the 2022-2031 period are shown in the attached table.

We will provide updated estimates of the other titles as soon as they are available.

Here is the CBO’s estimate so far which… would have been enough to scare Manchin away back when he pretended to be moderate.

  • Title I, Committee on Finance, would reduce deficits by more than $1 billion over the 2022-2031 period.
  • Title II, Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, would increase deficits by less than $135 billion over the 2022-2031 period.
  • Title III, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, would increase deficits by less than $332 billion over the 2022-2031 period.
  • Title IV, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, would increase deficits by less than $83.076 billion over the 2022-2031 period.
  • Title V, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, would increase deficits by less than $198 billion over the 2022-2031 period.
  • Title VI, Committee on Environment and Public Works, would increase deficits by less than $67.264 billion over the 2022-2031 period.
  • Title VII, Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, would increase deficits by less than $37 billion over the 2022-2031 period.
  • Title VIII, Committee on Indian Affairs, would increase deficits by less than $20.5 billion over the 2022-2031 period.
  • Title IX, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, would increase deficits by less than $726.38 billion over the 2022-2031 period.

I’m not a stellar math student, but that seems like a lot of deficit increasing. No wonder the Democrats want to pass the bill before the CBO finishes scoring it.

There is still a new 30-page section to score, which was amended in recently. This is going to be another big spending bill that the Democrats will use to fund pet projects and not actually reduce any inflation with. Full steam ahead.

Special thanks to Joe Manchin, who appears to be cashing in his winnings and is on his way out the door (whether voluntarily or by force). This spending bill is entirely on him.

Kyrsten Sinema Announces Decision on Reconciliation Bill, Seals Joe Manchin's Fate in the Process

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The game of “will she or won’t she” has ended regarding Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and the Democrats’ new reconciliation bill. As RedState reported on Wednesday, there were still questions about whether the Arizona senator would support the laughably dubbed “Inflation Reduction Act.”

Counting on her opposition was always a pipedream, though, and Sinema has made it official. She will join Sen. Joe Manchin in proving that even “good Democrats” are still Democrats.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) said she would “move forward” on a revised version of Senate Democrats’ health care, climate and deficit-reduction package, after party leaders agreed to scale back some of their original tax proposals.

The new approach — along with other changes to the proposal known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 — satisfied Sinema’s chief concerns and helped set in motion a plan to approve it as soon as this weekend.

In a statement, Sinema said Democrats had “agreed to remove” a key tax targeting wealthy investors and had made changes to a second provision that aims to impose a new minimum tax on corporations that currently pay nothing to the U.S. government. From here, Sinema said she would await a final review from the chamber’s parliamentarian — a critical step in the process that allows Democrats to move their spending bill — at which point she would “move forward.”

It’s a little weird how quickly Sinema has gone from Green Party radical to big business shill in just a few years. According to the Post’s reporting, she secured changes to the tax structure of the bill, including the minimum tax provision for major corporations. All of those changes will benefit the wealthy, but aren’t those the major revenue drivers that are supposed to allow the bill to reduce the deficit? We’ll have to see how the numbers play out in the revised version of the legislation to learn how many pounds of flesh she actually took.

Regardless, while Sinema hails from purple Arizona and can afford to sign onto a boondoggle bill that blows $400 billion on “climate change,” Manchin is from West Virginia. With the reconciliation deal that he spearheaded set to pass, he now gets to own the consequences. He promised his constituents he wouldn’t be part of another big spending bill in the middle of the current inflation crisis. He broke that promise for some weak payoffs and unenforceable promises regarding permitting reform. I’m sure Democrats will keep the money flowing to his wife as well.

There will be a price to pay for all this in 2024 if Manchin is deluded enough to run for re-election after only winning by three percent the last go around. So while he is probably celebrating Sinema’s decision right now, it has sealed his fate. He’s blown his cover, and if Republicans are smart, they will not provide him with anymore in the future. Let him burn.