Twenty-two Republican governors slammed the Democrats’ attempt at a reconciliation spending bill as “another reckless tax and spending spree” after Sen. Joe Manchin came to an agreement with his leadership.
“The Democrats’ solution to 40-year high inflation is passing another reckless tax and spending spree to the tune of $740 billion, affecting Americans in every tax bracket,” stated the group of 22 Republican governors, led by South Carolina’s Gov. Henry McMaster and Georgia’s Gov. Brian Kemp.
“While denying recession, Democrats want to raise taxes on businesses and manufacturers, which will force higher costs onto consumers, worsen inflation, and aggravate shortages,” the group continued.
Last week, the federal government reported that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) shrank by 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022, which signaled that the economy is entering a recession.
In fact, the mortgage debt rose 1.9 percent this past quarter as the housing market continues to soar coming out of the pandemic, and the Consumer Price Index was up 8.6 percent in the quarter compared with a year earlier –the biggest increase since the fourth quarter of 1981.
“With sky high prices at the pump, the last thing Americans need is for Democrats to punish energy producers, which will ultimately hurt working families struggling to pay for gas, goods, food, and utilities,” the group explained. “Our citizens cannot afford Joe Biden’s broken promises on taxes and Democrats’ inflationary spending that will only exacerbate the economic crisis they created.”
The other 2o Republican governors who signed their names to the statement were: Alabama’s Kay Ivey, Arizona’s Doug Ducey, Arkansas’s Asa Hutchinson, Florida’s Ron DeSantis, Idaho’s Brad Little, Indiana’s Eric Holcomb, Iowa’s Kim Reynolds, Mississippi’s Tate Reeves, Missouri’s Mike Parson, Montana’s Greg Gianforte, Nebraska’s Pete Ricketts, New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu, North Dakota’s Doug Burgum, Oklahoma’s Kevin Stitt, South Dakota’s Kristi Noem, Tennessee’s Bill Lee, Texas’s Greg Abbott, Utah’s Spencer Cox, Virginia’s Glenn Youngkin, and Wyoming’s Mark Gordon.
The Inflation Reduction Act, the spending bill the Democrats are now trying to pass, was found by the Congressional Budget Office to cut deficits years from now, after it raises them in four out of the next five years.
Breitbart News’s John Carney wrote on Wednesday:
The Inflation Reduction Act, which nonpartisan analysts say would not reduce inflation, would shrink budget deficits by $101.5 billion between this year and 2031, the Congressional Budget Office said in an estimate on Wednesday.
Between this year and 2027, however, the budget deficit would grow by $24.6 billion. The nonpartisan budget analysis agency sees the deficit falling next year as new tax provisions kick in and then being higher in each year until 2028.
The shift is due to expectations in the timing of when changes in drug pricing would take effect. The 10-year cost is also reduced by the sunsetting of some of the spending provisions, something that has been attacked by Republican lawmakers as a gimmick that conceals the true cost of the bill.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, also released a fact sheet saying that the bill would add more fuel to the “inflation fire” by using budget gimmicks that sunset to hide the true cost of Manchin’s alleged deficit reduction bill.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.