Republican Chutzpah

It's been a long time since cursing seemed an effective political tactic.  But disdain still works.

Vice President Kamala Harris should not have had to break the 50 - 50 tie in the Senate over the Inflation Reduction Act.  Not even one - uno, un, odin, ein, ichi - Republican there could see the benefit to the United States of billions of dollars for the environment, for health care, and for improving our country's infrastructure.

During debate on the bill, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell attempted to shame his Democratic colleagues and the Biden admnistration.  McConnell claimed that the IRA wastes money on what he called, in effect, liberal pipe dreams.  He claimed also that the voting public would both agree with and resent that assumption, and would (GOTV's words, not his) throw the bums out in November.

Fat chance.  There will be bums thrown out in the next midterm, but they won't be Democrats.  They will be Senate Republicans, among them those who voted against capping the cost of insulin.  Typical right-wing hypocrisy, and shades of Alan Grayson ...

The Inflation Reduction Act will:

• result in lowering the deficit (including interest payments) by about $178 billion dollars during the first decade
• will continue to reduce deficits thereafter, leading to a decrease in payments to foreign owners of the national debt
• modify, extend, and create a variety of tax credits for green energy and other efforts primarily through 2031 or 2033
• raise the Superfund tax on crude oil and imported petroleum to 16.4 cents per barrel (indexed to inflation) and increase other taxes and fees on the fossil fuel sector
• impose a 15 percent minimum tax on corporate book income for corporations with profits over $1 billion, effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2022

These estimates are from taxfoundation.org.  Those folks use what's called the  General Equilibrium Model to estimate that the tax provisions, IRS enforcement, and drug pricing provisions in the bill would increase federal revenues by about $656 billion over the budget window, before accounting for $352 billion in expanded tax credits for individuals and businesses, resulting in a net revenue increase of about $304 billion from 2022 to 2031.

Not bad for a bunch of left-wing doctrinaires ... 👍