As inflation rages and the economy sinks into recession Senate Democrats jammed through their long sought massive tax and spending bill that independent experts warn will lead to fewer jobs, less wages and more inflation. The partisan measure was drafted behind closed doors and passed on a party-line vote following an overnight session in the Senate.
 
“Families across America are suffering from 40-year-high inflation, fueled by a partisan anti-energy, anti-growth tax-and-spend agenda. Democrats ignored their own economists when they spent $1.9 trillion to get us in this mess.  Now they’re ignoring independent analyses warning that this bill is going to cause even more pain. This partisan bill, written behind closed doors without any input from Republicans, will raise taxes, cut jobs, kill cures and fuel inflation – all at the worst possible time. The American people have endured enough,” Grassley said.
 
Contrary to the bill’s name, the independent analysists predict that the Inflation Reduction Act will have a negligible impact on inflation over the long term and would actually cause inflation to increase through 2024.
 
The bill’s tax increases would hit every tax bracket, breaking President Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on people earning less than $400,000, and departing from popular policy not to raise taxes during a recession.  Families and individuals earning under $200,000 would shoulder nearly $17 billion in additional taxes in 2023 alone, according the Joint Committee on Taxation.
 
A novel book minimum tax will hit American manufacturers particularly hard causing the industry to warn of 200,000 lost jobs, $17 billion in lower wages and $70 billion in lower GDP.
 
The bill also attacks research and development of new medications and therapies. A University of Chicago study found that this approach would lead to significantly less new cures and treatments. The Congressional Budget Office has similarly predicted a drop in new drugs because of this policy.
 
For years, Grassley’s led the effort to pass bipartisan prescription drug pricing reform that saves money for taxpayers and consumers, caps annual out-of-pocket expenses and prevents prices from rising faster than inflation – all without raising taxes and fueling inflation. Grassley’s bill also includes critical transparency and accountability measures that were omitted from the Democrats’ bill. It was filed as an amendment to the partisan bill with 10 Republican cosponsors, showing that Democrats could have chosen to pass drug pricing reform on a bipartisan basis had they wanted to. Grassley remains committed to working in a bipartisan manner to lowering drug prices. In the past year, Grassley has passed five of his prescription drug bills out of Committee on a bipartisan basis.