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“The U.S. Senate on Sunday passed a sweeping $430 billion bill… aimed at reducing carbon emissions and shifting consumers to green energy, while cutting prescription drug costs for the elderly and tightening enforcement on taxes for corporations and the wealthy.” Reuters
Here’s our previous coverage of the Manchin-Schumer deal. The Flip Side
The right is critical of the bill, arguing that it will not reduce inflation and that additional spending on green energy is unlikely to be effective.
“Bernie Sanders voted for the Manchin-Schumer tax-and-spend-palooza bill that passed the Senate [Sunday], but the Senate’s only self-described socialist was brave enough to note how badly misnamed it was by its sponsors. Sanders labeled it a ‘so-called’ Inflation Reduction Act, ‘because,’ he said, ‘according to the CBO and other economic organizations that study this bill, it will, in fact, have a minimal impact on inflation.’ He added, ‘Clearly, the inflation of today is pushing the average person even further behind.’”
John Fund, National Review
“Today’s rhetoric closely echoes liberal braggadocio about the nearly $800 billion Obama stimulus package. That February 2009 legislation similarly included over $80 billion for dozens of new programs that President Barack Obama described as creating ‘a big step down the road to energy independence, and laying the groundwork for a new, green energy economy.’… Then-Vice President Joe Biden issued a December 2009 progress report reviewing the ‘transformation to a clean energy economy’…
“Now over a decade later, it’s obvious that transformation was more rhetoric than reality, as today’s Democrats insist far more spending is needed to do the same job… Speaker Pelosi now argues even more spending is needed due to ‘rising sea levels,’ among other ills. Pelosi also predictably says this latest and far larger green energy spending is ‘about the future.’…
“If enacted, however, that raises the question: How soon into the future will the next record green energy spending plan appear, because this one, like the last, didn’t prove as transformational as its supporters claimed?”
Matt Weidinger, American Enterprise Institute
Regarding additional IRS funding, “Who is not in favor of going after wealthy tax cheats? Well, for one thing, they're not all going to be wealthy, and they're not all going to be cheating. The tax system is complex. People make mistakes that are not cheating…
“Workers who make more than $400,000 — that includes people right at that number up to super-billionaires — are only about 1.8% of all taxpayers, even though they account for about 25% of the nation's income. The other 98.2%, making up about 75% of the nation's income, is a lot bigger. And indeed, that's where much of current IRS enforcement is focused. The same will likely be true of the new, muscled-up IRS…
“[The bill] includes provisions to hire 87,000 new IRS agents. The IRS has just 93,654 employees, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Why would Congress, in one bill, increase the IRS workforce by something like 92%?… Democrats do not want to restore the IRS to where it was at some point in the past. They want a new, muscular, aggressive IRS to go after the ‘wealthy.’ And when they discover that there aren't enough of the ‘wealthy’ to reach their goal, they might turn their sights on workers with incomes that do not qualify as ‘wealthy.’”
Byron York, Washington Examiner
The left supports the bill, arguing that additional spending on green energy and IRS enforcement will be beneficial.
The left supports the bill, arguing that additional spending on green energy and IRS enforcement will be beneficial.
“[The bill] will be measured in whether it lives up to Democratic claims that it will slash carbon emissions at a time when the deadly effects of climate change -- seen in extreme floods, droughts and wildfires -- are becoming ever more obvious…
“The party and the White House also say the bill could have a massive human impact by helping elderly Americans struggling to pay for certain vital medicines and create real quality of life improvements for millions. And in extending Obamacare subsidies, this measure would lock in and prolong one of the greatest achievements of Democratic rule in the 21st century…
“This adds to Biden's previous successes in Congress, including a bipartisan infrastructure deal that evaded his two most recent predecessors, the first major federal gun safety legislation passed in decades and a pandemic rescue plan early in his presidency that the White House said lifted millions of kids out of poverty… So Democrats, who may lose their majorities in November, may at least be able to console themselves by knowing that they did not squander their lease on power as had seemed likely for many months.”
Stephen Collinson, CNN
“Republicans continue to vote against their best interest as it relates to where the money will flow. The vast majority of it will flow into Republican districts — that’s what the data shows…
“Kevin McCarthy’s constituents benefit from the capital investments that come in by way of solar plants, wind plants, battery storage projects that are being built, the jobs that are created, the property tax benefits, the royalties, the lease payments, etc. All of that accrues to his constituents and yet most likely for political reasons, at the federal level, McCarthy and many others speak out against renewables… The political reality in this country is unfortunate.”
Liam Denning and Bobby Ghosh, Bloomberg
“[The new IRS] funding can’t come a moment too soon… Tax audits fell by 675,000 between 2010 and 2017, a 42 percent decline, and by 2019 they reached a 40-year low. New investigations of people who don’t file their taxes at all fell from 2.4 million in 2011 to just 362,000 in 2017. The gap between what the agency should have collected in taxes and what it actually brought in from 2011 to 2013 was $441 billion… The gap may now exceed $1 trillion a year…
“A shrinking budget has also skewed the agency’s priorities. The wealthy are far more likely to misreport their income on their taxes, but audits for the richest have been falling far faster than for those earning the least. Millionaires were 80 percent less likely to be audited in 2018 than they were in 2011. Audit rates for the richest 1 percent and Earned Income Tax Credit recipients—Americans who usually earn less than $20,000 a year—actually converged by 2019… The agency is already pledging to put the [additional] money to use going after rich tax cheats.”
Bryce Covert, Slate
A libertarian's take
“The bill apportions $740 billion for a grab bag of Democratic spending priorities in the name of combating inflation. One item on the list: tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles (EVs). There's a problem: No cars exist that qualify for the credits…
“Starting in 2024, an EV that qualifies for the full rebate amount must source at least 40 percent of its battery's components—including minerals such as lithium, cobalt, manganese, and graphite—from either the U.S. or a country with which the U.S. has a trade agreement. Also starting in 2024, no minerals can be sourced from a ‘foreign entity of concern,’ such as China…
“But 60–80 percent of EV batteries' mineral ingredients are controlled by China. That country currently produces 76 percent of the world's lithium-ion batteries, while the U.S. produces only 8 percent. Despite ambitious plans to scale up, the U.S. and Europe together will likely account for only about a quarter of total global production of EV component minerals by 2030… Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D–Mich.), whose state includes the U.S. auto capital of Detroit, called it ‘a very cumbersome, unworkable credit once the full restrictions set in.’”
Joe Lancaster, Reason
