Late on Wednesday, July 27th, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer along with Senate maverick Joe Manchin announced the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive increase in spending accompanied by even more massive increases in taxes (at 725 pages they could have used a bit of inflation reduction on the legislation itself). The bill, as conceived of by Democrats without any input from Republicans, would increase spending for energy security, climate change and an extension of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) by $433 billion. The bill also includes tax increases estimated to reach $739 billion, resulting in a surplus of around $300 billion to reduce the deficit. Of course, if you add in the recently approved package of subsidies for the technology industries, the so-called CHIPS for America Act, that ballooned from $52 billion to $280 billion, you can see that in reality there is no deficit reduction at all.
The Deficit Reduction Dance
The Deficit Reduction Dance
The Deficit Reduction Dance
Late on Wednesday, July 27th, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer along with Senate maverick Joe Manchin announced the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive increase in spending accompanied by even more massive increases in taxes (at 725 pages they could have used a bit of inflation reduction on the legislation itself). The bill, as conceived of by Democrats without any input from Republicans, would increase spending for energy security, climate change and an extension of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) by $433 billion. The bill also includes tax increases estimated to reach $739 billion, resulting in a surplus of around $300 billion to reduce the deficit. Of course, if you add in the recently approved package of subsidies for the technology industries, the so-called CHIPS for America Act, that ballooned from $52 billion to $280 billion, you can see that in reality there is no deficit reduction at all.