WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Jim Risch (R-Idaho) issued the following statement after the U.S. Senate passed Democrats’ “Inflation Reduction Act” on a party-line vote:
“We haven’t seen this kind of record inflation since Jimmy Carter was president, yet Democrats today chose to pass legislation that will raise taxes and spend hundreds of billions of dollars. These tax hikes won’t affect just the highest tax bracket – Americans making as little as $30,000 per year will pay more to the federal government because of this bill,” said Risch. “Meanwhile, pharmaceutical innovation will be stifled, the IRS will double in size, and not one thing in the so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ will do anything to address the highest inflation Americans have experienced in 41 years. Passing this legislation and leaving it to taxpayers to foot the bill is the height of irresponsibility.”
Background: Senate Democrats’ 700+ page “Inflation Reduction Act” includes the following provisions:
- Tax increases on Americans making less than $400,000 a year.
- Drug pricing negotiations that will stop the development of over 300 lifesaving treatments.
- A methane tax that will increase the average American family’s yearly energy bills by 17%.
- 87,000 new IRS workers to double the size of the IRS and eclipse the staffing levels of the Pentagon, FBI, U.S. State Department and Border Patrol combined.
- Hundreds of thousands of yearly audits on Americans making less than $75,000 a year.
- Government checks for well-off Americans to purchase luxury electric vehicles.
- Taxes and fees on domestic energy producers.
- Federal payouts to energy companies with unionized workforces.
- Nothing to reduce inflation.
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