"Inflation Reduction Act": some confusion In The Mainstream Press"

The bill, narrowly passed in both houses and signed by President Biden, is titled something like, "The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022" give or take a word or two.

But most news outlets, broadcast, online and in print are referring to it in terms of climate change, spending and tax issues.

They often cite tax code changes that will have corporations finally, "paying their fair share". It is my experience that companies never pay these taxes in a vacuum. They always treat increased taxes as an additional expense and pass it along to the rest of us by increasing the price of their products or services.

How tax driven price increases will reduce inflation is not clear to me.

So well reasoned there dude. Thank you for your astute contribution.

Well reasoned rage whining.

Only people on right can be so articulate in asking questions. I appreciate exposure to such reasoning. The level of research and in depth analysis going into the thesis is elucidating.

Setting aside style or vocabulary choices, what is wrong with what was said about the legislation?

Setting aside style or vocabulary choices, what is wrong with what was said about the legislation? Originally Posted by ICU 812

You've got a good point ICU. People who live and breath macroeconomics and who are candid will admit that the bill was poorly named. The name was chosen for political purposes. As Texas Contrarian has noted here, inflation is likely to come down anyway over coming months, and this was a cynical ploy to try to give Congressional Democrats an opportunity to claim credit for that before the midterms.

This bill will do nothing to control inflation over the next two years. The consensus appears to be it will push it up a bit.

Where is WTF?

Isn't he the guy who keeps mocking the idea that spending MORE money will reduce the inflation unleashed by previous bouts of reckless, irresponsible dim-retard over-spending?

The barn is on fire, and WTF is nowhere to be found! Is he still out there rage-whining about Ronnie Reagan?


‘Inflation Reduction Act’ Is an Insult to Used-Car Salesmen

Democrats hide a power grab behind a purported solution to rising prices—a problem they themselves caused.

By Gerard Baker
Aug. 1, 2022 12:00 pm ET


Just as some claims made in business are so self-evidently fictitious that even the most shameless of hucksters will recoil from articulating them, so some propositions advanced in politics are so dishonest that even the most mendacious politician will avoid association with them.

Then there’s the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

If you’ve ever been convinced by a used-car salesman that the 20-year-old rusting hulk out back with the dodgy chassis and the blue smoke pouring out of the exhaust is a “reliable pre-owned bargain,” you’re going to love the Inflation Reduction Act.

This, you will know, is the new name that has been conferred by Senate Democrats and the White House on the remnants of the old Build Back Better bill, the vastly ambitious tax-and-spending measure that was nearly foisted on an unsuspecting American public last year in the middle of a pandemic.

Like that lemon sitting at the back of the dealer’s lot, it’s been given a little touch-up, a fresh coat of paint, a reduced price tag and a bright new description. The master plan that was going to save the planet from extinction a year ago has been repurposed as a fully functional inflation-fighting weapon, laser-focused on reducing price pressures in the American economy.

I’m being a little unfair to used-car dealers. Surely not even the most opportunistic of charlatans would take his customer for that kind of a fool.

Start with the premise for the principal claim in the bill—namely that the package of $739 billion in tax increases and reduced outlays and a little $433 billion in new spending will produce a “historic” $300-plus billion reduction in the federal deficit over 10 years “to fight inflation.”

True, deficit reduction should, other things being equal, reduce aggregate demand and inflation. We’ll come to the economic wisdom and plausibility of the specific measures shortly, but it is worth noting that, in the very first sentence of their summary, the Democrats hand up a self-indictment of almost everything they’ve been doing in the 18 months since the party took the Senate and the White House.

If a bill that reduces the deficit by $300 billion over 10 years represents “inflation reduction,” what are we to make of a law Congress passed last year that increased the deficit by an estimated $1.7 trillion in less than two years?

If we are in the business of renaming legislative measures with a bill that is going to reduce inflation through deficit reduction, can we now all agree to call the American Rescue Plan of 2021—which added six times as much to the deficit in one-fifth of the time—the Inflation Acceleration Act?

Then take a look at what the Democrats’ new bill actually achieves in deficit reduction.

Because the spending provisions kick in more quickly than the revenue-raising provisions, the bill would actually increase the deficit in its first few years. According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, it would begin to reduce the deficit only in 2027.

So the Inflation Reduction Act—sold to Americans on the basis that it will reduce the surging inflation the Democrats themselves helped unleash—won’t even have any downward effect on the deficit for five years. I’m skeptical about the average lawmaker’s ability to predict the inflation rate in five years, but if we have to wait until 2027 to get on top of the current cost-of-living crisis, we are in trouble.

As for those tax increases that kick in straightaway, especially the minimum corporate tax rate, not only are they outweighed by the spending increases, but they make no sense at all for an economy that is clearly contracting at an alarming pace.

Democrats claim that some measures, such as enabling Medicare to negotiate drug prices, will tamp down inflation. But that’s largely speculative, and the independent Penn Wharton analysis sees no overall impact on inflation.

Of course it doesn’t. That’s not what the bill was ever intended to do.

Tear off the absurd Inflation Reduction Act label, and behind it, you will see—illuminated by the excited glow of media coverage of the Democrats’ premature victory laps—exactly what it is: another large plank in the Democratic plan to “re-engineer“ the U.S. economy, with another hefty expansion of government, disappointingly enabled in part, by the way, by congressional Republicans, who cleared a path for it by helping pass another bill, subsidizing semiconductor producers.

The left’s increasingly shrill claims of a climate “emergency” have always been a thin veneer to cover their ambitions to take over large swaths of the American economy.

It all amounts to a breathtaking piece of policy-making chutzpah worthy of the most unscrupulous salesman’s patter: Having created the inflationary mess in the first place, Democrats now aim to con the country into believing that they’re cleaning it up, even as they steal a further march in their plan to remake the country.

If anyone thinks that’s what America voted for two years ago, I have a used car to sell them.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/inflati...r-11659363843?[/QUOTE]

Every time Democrats want more money just ask them what they will spend it on. Not the unicorn and pixie dust answer of climate change.

Every one should read this bill and pick out your favorite parts
One item worth 8.5 billion for cow farts and burps

"USDA program awarded $8.5 billion, the bill instructs the agency to prioritize projects that will reduce emissions from cows"

I love Joe Manchins response to the question as to whether this bill will actually decrease inflation.


"Well, not right away"! That's right Joe, maybe two years at the earliest we might see a slight reduction but more like 4 to 6 years but hey, what about all the other good stuff? I mean, what's not to love about 87,000 new IRS "armed" agents?



Not sure what bill this was part of but it will highlight the problem with spending.


https://dailycaller.com/2022/08/03/biden-admin-grant-botswana-lgbt-social-acceptance/


Biden Admin Spending Up To $300K In Taxpayer Money To Boost LGBT ‘Social Acceptance’ In Botswana

• President Joe Biden’s Department of State will deliver up to $300,000 to a U.S. group or educational institution to promote gay and transgender “social acceptance” in Botswana, according to a grant listing reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

• “With the Biden Administration’s track record of wasteful, woke spending domestically, it shouldn’t surprise us that this Administration is using our taxpayer dollars to spread wokeness abroad too,” Republican Florida Rep. Greg Steube, who sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told the DCNF.
  

Another failed link by hf.

Everybody else's links work (with a very slight chance of failure).
Can anyone tell me why hf's links fail, or worse, go to an unsecured site?

Just asking.

I love Joe Manchins response to the question as to whether this bill will actually decrease inflation.


"Well, not right away"! That's right Joe, maybe two years at the earliest we might see a slight reduction but more like 4 to 6 years but hey, what about all the other good stuff? I mean, what's not to love about 87,000 new IRS "armed" agents?



Not sure what bill this was part of but it will highlight the problem with spending.


https://dailycaller.com/2022/08/03/biden-admin-grant-botswana-lgbt-social-acceptance/


Biden Admin Spending Up To $300K In Taxpayer Money To Boost LGBT ‘Social Acceptance’ In Botswana

• President Joe Biden’s Department of State will deliver up to $300,000 to a U.S. group or educational institution to promote gay and transgender “social acceptance” in Botswana, according to a grant listing reviewed by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

• “With the Biden Administration’s track record of wasteful, woke spending domestically, it shouldn’t surprise us that this Administration is using our taxpayer dollars to spread wokeness abroad too,” Republican Florida Rep. Greg Steube, who sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told the DCNF.
  

Originally Posted by HedonistForever

The bill, narrowly passed in both houses and signed by President Biden, is titled something like, "The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022" give or take a word or two.

But most news outlets, broadcast, online and in print are referring to it in terms of climate change, spending and tax issues.

They often cite tax code changes that will have corporations finally, "paying their fair share". It is my experience that companies never pay these taxes in a vacuum. They always treat increased taxes as an additional expense and pass it along to the rest of us by increasing the price of their products or services.

How tax driven price increases will reduce inflation is not clear to me. Originally Posted by ICU 812

It's definitely an Act no doubt about it.

15% tax increase on corporations. Expect to pay 15% more on the stuff you buy. This hurts the middle class and poor disproportionately. Yup, the Democraps are for the little guy. FJB MAGA

Still no one has argued that the statement in the OP is wrong, or why it is wrong.

Step up. I will respond with shorter words in shoer sentences.

Still no one has argued that the statement in the OP is wrong, or why it is wrong.

Step up. I will respond with shorter words in shoer sentences. Originally Posted by ICU 812

I’d like to see one of them shoer sentences.

I’d like to see one of them shoer sentences. Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

Sure. Tell us all where the ideas in the OP are wrong. I will answer.