The Senate passed the $700 billion Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday, a scaled-down version of the Build Back Better Act.
The Senate voted to pass HR 5376, otherwise known as the Inflation Reduction Act, 51-50. The legislation was passed by a party line, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking ties.
The Inflation Reduction Act came about after Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) had struck a deal on a slimmed-down version of the Build Back Better Act. The Inflation Reduction Act focuses on deficit reduction and inflation, expanding increased Obamacare subsidies, spending more than $300 billion on climate change programs and allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of medicines.
sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., talks to reporters as the Capitol in Washington, Aug. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Republican Study Committee (RSC) chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) detailed the 50 most radical aspects of the legislation.
Perhaps ironically for Manchin, the bill would not reduce inflation, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
According to the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), the legislation would also hit manufacturers the hardest with a corporate tax rate of 15 percent.
The Inflation Reduction Act would also add more “fuel” to the “inflation fire,” said House Budget Committee Representative Jason Smith (R-MO). He explained that the Inflation Reduction Act uses budget gimmicks and false offsets to mask the bill’s true cost. Smith said the bill would add $114 billion to debt if Manchin’s fake gimmicks are taken into account.
The bill goes to the House, where it is likely to pass, barring major disputes that have yet to arise.
The House Freedom Caucus issued a statement after the vote in which they speak out against the Inflation Reduction Act:
The fact is, the Democrats’ most recent spending bonanza has much more to do with executing their socialist “Green New Deal” agenda than actually helping Americans suffering from a staggering 9.1% inflation rate. A large number of impartial experts all agree that this legislation will not reduce inflation, and many predict it will have the opposite effect. Worse, this bill not only puts $369 billion in benefits to special climate change interest groups, but it also puts it on the back of US taxpayers. To fund their socialist agenda, Democrats are increasing the Internal Revenue Service by $80 billion (six times the agency’s annual budget) to create an army of 87,000 new enforcement agents to attack Americans with as much as a million extra. audits per year on taxpayers earning less than $200,000 — the same middle class that suffers most from Bidenomics’ skyrocketing inflation.
The Freedom Caucus added: “The misnamed ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ is a disaster from every perspective and must be defeated.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.