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Tuesday, August 02, 2022

What's In the Inflation Reduction Act?

I thought I'd summarize key provisions of the 725 page Inflation Reduction Act, which can and probably will be passed without a single Republican vote through a process called reconciliation. 

The bill will spend $500 billions, and Democrats contend it will reduce inflation.

First, the IRS will receive $80 billion, well in excess of its annual $13 billion budget. Of this $80 nbillion, $45 billion will be used to step up tax enforcement and audits. The IRS predicts it can collect an extra $204 billion, which means a net gain of $124 billion. 

Second, $385 billion will be spent on climate and green energy initiatives, including $20 billion in $7.500 tax credits for those who purchase new electric vehicles and a $4,000 tax credit for those who buy used. This sum of $385 billion is what the $1,400 stimulus checks cost the federal government. The goal is to make green energy cheaper than fossil fuel. Democrats also contend this will reduce carbon emissions 40% by 2030. 

Third, $100 billion will be spent on health care . Medicare will be given the green light to negotiate drug prices for the first time. Obamacare will be beefed up for the next three years.

Fourth, the bill imposes the largest corporate tax increase (15% minimum tax) in decades while simultaneously closing loopholes. 

Democrats contend that, while spending $500 billion, the government will get back $800 billion as follows: IRS - $204 billion; corporate minimum tax - $313 billion; Negotiating drug prices - $288 billion in government savings; and close tax loopholes - $14 billion. This, they contend, will reduce inflation.

Penn Wharton contends this bill will actually increase inflation until 2024, and then decrease it thereafter. It basically concludes it will have no net effect  

Republicans believe the bill will actually increase inflation and add "to the suffering of Americans," as Senator Lindsay Graham has observed.   

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yet the republicans offer no solutions other than trickle down economy. Thye dance to the tune of their corporate oligarchs.

Anonymous said...

Just more vote buying and shifting from the private sector to the government sector, more government employees, more bureaucrats,Less private sector jobs. Just another step to the deniss of our market economy and 1 more step to a venezuela economy. Americans deserve it, they are the most economically ignorant people on earth.

Anonymous said...

Another left-wing failure for the American economy.

Anonymous said...

November is not coming fast enough...

Anonymous said...

The nonpartisan Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimates that the bill will increase taxes in every income bracket.

In 2023, the estimate is that individuals making less than $10,000 will pay 3.1% more, and those making between $20,000-$30,000 per year will see a 1.1% tax increase.

It will also increase funding for more IRS auditors (like that's a good thing), have an effect on inflation that's not discernable from zero, and the tax hikes will provide small tax credits for people making up to $300,000 to buy electric cars.

So the poor and middle class will be paying more in taxes and will still be dealing with runaway inflation.

Just another example of how the democrats help the "little guy".

Vladimir Ill-itch said...

If the government needs to pass an act to reduce inflation, it will most certainly make it worse. Government intervention always makes things worse.

Remember the Can-Spam Act? Spam increased!

Minimum wage laws make people poorer.

The 'War on Poverty' increased it.

The 'War on Drugs'. See War on Poverty.

Increased taxes have not led to better roads, bridges, infrastructure, et al.

Shutdowns of schools and businesses set us back years, years. Years. Kids are suffering from depression. I know - let's shut down schools and their social lives and make it worse!

Surely, this time, government has it right.


the Huntress said...

Glad to see you inviting actual policy debate here. I'll sit back and read the Fox watchers vs the network crowd hash it out. Informed with outright BS vs journalistic reporting in other words. All of the policies coming out of this bill are a net benefit to the country. Inflation will be with us for a while bc the fed didn't raise rates soon enough as we came out of the worst part of the pandemic, also bc the pandemic itself caused supply chain issues that are only now starting to catch up (thats a down side of just in time manufacturing as we found out).

Anonymous said...

Thousands and thousands of new IRS agents.! You think they're going to be all going after Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk? Think again! They'll be going after Mary the bartender and Jim the handyman who collects SS while doing a little side cash work. The goal is to totally eliminate the underground cash economy, which benefits those with the least in our society. I thought Democrats were for the little guy?

The non partisan Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation studied the bill and concluded that it will indirectly raise taxes on those that make less than 400K a year, breaking Bidens pledge not raise taxes on that group. It allows people making 300K a year to take tax a deduction to buy electric cars. We are going to subsidize rich peoples Teslas now LOL. It will also shave a tenth of percent off GDP according to the study. Not much, but given where our economy is at this is a bad time for this.

Anonymous said...

Time to bring in the drawbridge, cover the windows and refrain from making any excess money, hide what you can, cut spending, and hope there will be a new day that is better.

Anonymous said...

Penn Wharton says it actually increases inflation? The Inflation Reduction Act? Don’t you just love the government?

Anonymous said...

This is a pure political ploy to prop up the feckless Biden administration and Democrats bent on tax and spend policies. An attempted "win" prior to the midterms. Manchin was bamboozled by Chuckie. Dems love to grow big government so that they can control our lives. No sane person is in favor of increasing IRS staff to harass those working in the gig economy. Just more Big Brother tactics from the left.

Anonymous said...

Thousands and thousands of new IRS agents.! You think they're going to be all going after Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk? Think again! They'll be going after Mary the bartender and Jim the handyman who collects SS while doing a little side cash work.

They will only be going after these people if they are Republicans. If not they get a pass. Printing more money we don't have to chase less products will only increase inflation. It's Econ 101. Example below from a left wing outlet of course. Less Halloween candy equals it will be more expensive.

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/hershey-raises-annual-adjusted-profit-growth-forecast-2022-07-28/

Anonymous said...

Holy crap, I can't believe this shit. two polls out today on Trump Biden:

Harvard Harris has it Trump 45 Biden 41.
Rasmussan has it 46-40.

It's like they are encouraging him to run because those polls can't be right. They are baiting him, either that, or people hate Biden more than I thought...........

Anonymous said...

More spending should definitely solve our $31 trillion debt problem. We have to keep spending our way out of this.

Sincerely,
No sane person who's ever paid bills

Anonymous said...

Well Wharton says
"show the initiative would have an impact on inflation that is "statistically indistinguishable from zero."

"The Act would very slightly increase inflation until 2024 and decrease inflation thereafter," the analysis said. "These point estimates are statistically indistinguishable from zero, thereby indicating low confidence that the legislation will have any impact on inflation."

from the liberal rag
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/manchin-schumer-spending-bill-have-indistinguishable-effect-inflation-penn-wharton

Anonymous said...

12.41
"You think they're going to be all going after Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk? Think again! They'll be going after Mary the bartender and Jim the handyman who collects SS while doing a little side cash work.
Well try
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/us/politics/comey-mccabe-irs-audits.html
"The former F.B.I. director and his deputy, both of whom former President Donald J. Trump wanted prosecuted, were selected for a rare audit program that the tax agency says is random."
where are the folks with the pitchforks?
strangely silent.
Maybe with extra agents trump can get thru the "audit" and release his tax returns and everyone can see how much "skin he has in the game".
probably less then the folks doing some side cash work.

Anonymous said...

12.41
from your source
"blaming a scarcity of raw ingredients and difficulties in securing suppliers.

Pandemic-induced global supply chain disruptions and the Russia-Ukraine war have crunched supplies of cocoa, edible oil and other food ingredients, pinching production lines of packaged food companies around the world."
Hmmm--seems the problem is global--not localized to the US.

Anonymous said...

@9:50

Inflation was caused by Trump’s policies. Be real.

Anonymous said...

So the plan is to throw money at government agencies to collect more tax money from the American so they can say they are saving American families and putting money back in their pockets. Does anyone else hear the hypocrisy and distorted belief behind this act?

Anonymous said...

Hahaha; you're a riot!😆

Anonymous said...

10:15, I am not sure if you are aware of this, but the IRS often avoids auditing very high-income individuals (read: the people who are most heavily incentivized to cheat on their taxes AND owe the government the most money), because they have the resources to tie up the IRS in court, and the IRS doesn't have the resources to fight back. The point of giving the IRS more money is so it can go after really rich people who owe tons of money, rather than simply upper-middle class people who owe relatively modest sums of money but can't afford to put up much of a fight.

There is also money in the bill to develop a free tax filing service, so you don't have to pay TurboTax (a private company) or whoever to fill out your tax returns (a basic obligation of citizenship). I think we can all agree that is a good thing, unless you work for TurboTax, in which case I do not care what you think.

Anonymous said...

Finally the Democrats will get this bill past and it will be one of the best things to happen from Washington since Obama.

Screw all you Trumpicans, he the one who caused all the inflation we are experiencing now.

Anonymous said...

Calling this Bill the Inflation Reduction Act is an insult. When Bernie Sanders readily admits this Bill won't do a damn thing about inflation, you know it's bullshit. Call it what it is, a huge tax and spending bill. Maybe you agree with hit, or maybe you don't, but naming it the Inflation Reduction Act is deceptive. This is why people hate politics.

Anonymous said...

@4:28 The IRS should never be used for political reasons. That goes for Trump, and it goes for Obama and his pal Lois Lerner.

Now, you wan't to talk about Andrew McCabe? Andrew McCabe is what's wrong with american law enforcement today. I read the entire IG's report regarding Andrew McCabe, and here's what he did in a nut shell. He leaked information to the WSJ, grossly violated the FBI's code of ethics, and then he had the gall to blame FBI NY for what he did. He's scum, and if he walked into FBI NY today he would leave in an ambulance LOL. Despite it all, he still collects his big fat pension. I won't be crying any tears for that asshole I can assure you.