WASHINGTON, D.C.— Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) voted today to send the Inflation Reduction Act to the President’s desk and lower health care and prescription drug costs, combat climate change, tackle the root causes of inflation, and reduce the deficit.
“Rising prices have impacted working families across the country, and the Inflation Reduction Act will put money back into the pockets of Coastal Virginians by lowering health care costs, reducing energy prices, creating jobs, and fighting inflation. The Inflation Reduction Act will also combat climate change and invest in American energy to end our dependence on foreign energy sources like Russia and China,” Rep. Luria said. “The Inflation Reduction Act delivers for Coastal Virginians in the short-term while making long-term investments to reduce the deficit and build a better future for generations of Americans.”
According to 126 leading economists—including seven Nobel Prize winners, three former chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers, two former Treasury Secretaries— the Inflation Reduction Act “will fight inflation and lower costs for American families while setting the stage for strong, stable, and broadly-shared long-term economic growth.”
The Inflation Reduction Act will lower health care costs by allowing the federal government to negotiate prices for prescription drugs, limiting the out-of-pocket prescription costs for seniors, and ensuring that drug companies can no longer raise prices faster than the rate of inflation.
The legislation also represents the largest single federal investment to combat climate change and promote energy security through growing our domestic energy production and ending our reliance on foreign sources.
The Inflation Reduction Act is fully paid for and will not add to the national debt or raise taxes on working families, and will reduce the deficit by more than $100 billion over the next decade.
The Inflation Reduction Act:
-Enacts historic deficit reduction to fight inflation.
-Lowers energy costs, increases cleaner production, and reduces carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030.
-Allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices and caps out-of-pocket costs to $2,000.
-Lowers ACA health care premiums for millions of Americans.
-Caps insulin costs at $35 a month for seniors and individuals with disabilities on Medicare.
Paul Plante says
Invest in American energy to end our dependence on foreign energy sources like Russia and China?
HUH?
Is the congresswoman daft?
Or just out of touch with reality?
We DO NOT depend on China for energy.
We EXPORT energy to China.
FORBES
“Why China Is Suddenly Buying Record Amounts Of American Crude Oil”
Dan Eberhart
Sep 20, 2020
Relations between the United States and China may be near all-time lows, but the trading of energy commodities between the two powers remains active — at least for crude oil.
Indeed, China’s imports of U.S. crude are expected reach a new high of about 900,000 barrels a day this month.
According to Chinese customs data, China’s imports of US crude oil spiked to a record high of 867,000 barrels a day in July, up from 143,000 barrels a day in June.
Fishingman727 says
86,000 additional IRS agents. Trillions more debt on our childrens future. Massive spending is throwing more gasoline on the inflation fire. A business must count taxes as a cost of doing business and set prices accordingly. Every dollar spent eventually works its way down to come out of our pockets.
People save for things they need, our elected officials spend money they don’t have and create debt others must repay. In normal circumstances, people in charge that lie this much are fired or put in jail. Not in politics.
“Inflation reduction act” my butt.
Paul Plante says
According to 126 leading economists—including seven Nobel Prize winners, three former chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers, two former Treasury Secretaries— the Inflation Reduction Act “will fight inflation and lower costs for American families while setting the stage for strong, stable, and broadly-shared long-term economic growth?”
That laughable!
Every day, I read the financial news, and every day, the “leading economists” are way off in their prognostications, way worse even than TV weathermen.
Like former fed chief, the bearded buffoon Ben Bernanke who famously said just before housing market crash that the price of houses doesn’t go down.
Nobel Prize winners?
Nobel prizes in economics are given out for esoteric and arcane formulas for things totally unrelated to the Joe plan under discussion here.
In 2021 the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was divided between David Card, Joshua Angrist and Guido Imbens, with Card winning one half for his empirical contributions to labour economics, while Angrist and Imbens shared the other half for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships.
What do either have to do with the Joe Plan, other than nothing!
Former chairs of the Council of Economic Advisers?
More political hacks and this year’s chair, Deese, is one of those who famously said that inflation was transitory.
Two former treasury secretaries?
They are political hacks liable to say anything, as we see with Janet “TOODLES” Yellen today and her blatant and shameless cheerleading for Joe Biden.
So on its face, that statement means nothing at all, and certainly does not guarantee the Joe Plan won’t be another BIDEN BOONDOGGLE.
Donald L. Green says
Summed up perfectly. Thanks!
Vacruiser says
The quote below is applicable to every word out of this Democrat Representative’s mouth!! I hope Northampton voters send her back to her boat!
“We know they are lying, they know they are lying, they know we know they are lying, AND they ARE still lying.”
– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Paul Plante says
Rigzone
“Inflation Reduction Act Could Result In More Energy Service Inflation”
by Bojan Lepic | Rigzone Staff
Monday, August 15, 2022
The US Inflation Reduction Act will usher in more energy service inflation in the next 18 months as the incentives offered to manufacturers struggle to keep up with the increased demand triggered by the bill, Rystad Energy claims.
The bill will provide over $100 billion to accelerate construction start dates for low-carbon developments, including solar, wind, and battery storage.
However, the $60 billion provided for expanding manufacturing capabilities will struggle to alleviate existing inflation or even keep pace with expected growth.
“Cost inflation in the US energy industry has hit operators, manufacturers, and suppliers hard – and the Inflation Reduction Act shows no signs of addressing that in the near term.”
Elements of the Inflation Reduction Act are designed to boost the domestic energy labor market with wage requirements for developers to take advantage of tax credits.
To receive tax credits for clean energy projects, developers must comply with wage requirements set by the Secretary of Labor.
Wage rates will be determined by averages based on region and job title to ensure that workers also benefit from the legislation.
For projects commenced in 2022, 10 percent of all labor hours spent on construction, alteration, or repairs must be performed by qualified apprentices.
This percentage increases to 12.5 percent in 2023 and 15 percent in 2024.
“The increase in apprentices will likely cause productivity declines for clean energy projects.”
“More inexperienced workers will likely lead to more inefficiencies on job sites.”
Paul Plante says
Reuters
“Biden to sign law on Tuesday cutting most current EV credits”
By David Shepardson
August 15, 2022
Aug 15 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will sign legislation on Tuesday that will eliminate electric vehicle tax credits for most models currently getting up to $7,500 effective.
The White House said Biden will sign legislation to approve the $430 billion climate, health and tax bill on Tuesday.
Many automakers and dealers have been working with customers to complete binding written contracts ahead of Biden’s signing to make them eligible for credits even if they have not received vehicles.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing Volkswagen, General Motors Co, Toyota Motor and Ford Motor among others, said earlier the law would make 70% of 72 U.S. electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel-cell EVs that currently qualify ineligible upon Biden’s signing.
Audi of America, Kia Corp and Porsche said Friday that buyers of its EVs will lose access to federal tax credits when Biden signs.
Audi said only its Audi plug-in hybrid electric will retain its existing federal credit through the end of 2022.
The bill makes any EVs assembled outside North America ineligible for tax credits, which has brought criticism from the European Union, South Korea and many automakers.
Paul Plante says
Reuters
“Biden signs inflation act, hands pen to Manchin”
By Nandita Bose and Steve Holland
August 16, 2022
WASHINGTON, Aug 16 (Reuters) – President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed into law a $430 billion bill that is seen as the biggest climate package in U.S. history, designed to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions as well as lower prescription drug prices and high inflation.
Democrats hope to capitalize on a string of legislative victories in congressional midterm elections in November and roll out inflation act ad campaigns.
Democrats say it will help combat inflation by reducing the federal deficit.
Rating agencies and independent economists agree but say the results will take years.
Republicans criticized the legislation for doing little to lower prices.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said the new law will have the opposite impact.
“Democrats robbed Americans last year by spending our economy into record inflation.”
“This year, their solution is to do it a second time.”
“The partisan bill President Biden signed into law today means higher taxes, higher energy bills, and aggressive IRS audits,” he said, referring to the Internal Revenue Service.
Paul Plante says
Voice Of America
“Inflation Reduction Act May Have Little Impact on Inflation”
Associated Press
August 16, 2022
WASHINGTON — With inflation raging near its highest level in four decades, President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed into law his landmark Inflation Reduction Act.
Its title raises a tantalizing question: Will the measure actually tame the price spikes that have inflicted hardships on American households?
Economic analyses of the proposal suggest that the likely answer is no — not anytime soon, anyway.
The legislation, which was approved by Congress last week, won’t directly address some of the main drivers of surging prices — from gas and food to rents and restaurant meals.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded this month that the changes would have a “negligible” impact on inflation this year and next.
And the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model concluded that over the next decade, “the impact on inflation is statistically indistinguishable from zero.”
Biden himself, in speaking of the legislation’s effect on inflation, has referred to potentially lower prices in individual categories rather than to lower inflation as a whole.
At the same time, the White House has trumpeted a letter signed by more than 120 economists, including several Nobel Prize winners and former Treasury secretaries, that asserts that the law’s reduction in the government’s budget deficit — by an estimated $300 billion over the next decade, according to the CBO — would put “downward pressure on inflation.”
In theory, lower deficits can reduce inflation.
That’s because reduced government spending or higher taxes, both of which help shrink the deficit, drive down demand in the economy, thereby easing pressure on companies to raise prices.
Yet Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was a top economic adviser to President George W. Bush and later a director of the CBO, noted that the lower deficits won’t kick in until five years from now and won’t be very large over the next decade considering the size of the economy.
“$30 billion a year in a $21 trillion economy isn’t going to move the needle,” Holtz-Eakin said, referring to the estimated amount of deficit reduction spread over 10 years.
He also noted that Congress has recently passed other legislation to subsidize semiconductor production in the U.S. and expand veterans’ health care and said that those laws will spend more than the Inflation Reduction Act will save.
Paul Plante says
Thompson-Reuters
“Final Bill Still No Threat to Inflation, Penn Wharton Scholars Estimate”
Joseph Boris
August 16, 2022
The finalized Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (H.R. 5376) will reduce noninterest cumulative deficits by $264 billion over 10 years, including through tax increases that will mainly affect higher-income Americans, but it will barely touch inflation, the Penn Wharton Budget Model estimated.
The deficit and GDP calculations include the impact of debt reduction, carbon-emissions reduction, and tax incentives on investments and working hours, the three scholars who prepared the estimate wrote.
The Inflation Reduction Act “would have no meaningful effect on inflation in the near term but would reduce inflation by around 0.1 percentage points by the middle of the first decade,” according to the co-authors.
“These point estimates, however, are not statistically different from zero, indicating a low level of confidence that the legislation would have any measurable impact on inflation.”
According to the latest estimate, government spending will increase in order to pay for the legislation’s climate-related provisions, along with an extension of health insurance plan subsidies under the Affordable Care Act that will be greater than the savings realized from changes to how prescription drugs are priced.
Paul Plante says
NEWS FLASH NO. 1:
WASHINGTON, D.C.— Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) voted today to send the Inflation Reduction Act to the President’s desk and lower health care and prescription drug costs, combat climate change, tackle the root causes of inflation, and reduce the deficit.
NEWS FLASH NO. 2:
“New Yorkers facing health insurance rate increases in January – Average increase is 7.9 percent for small company plans, 9.7 percent for individuals”
Larry Rulison, Albany, New York Times Union
Aug. 18, 2022
ALBANY — Many New Yorkers can expect their health insurance rates to rise an average of about 9 percent in January.
For people who work at companies with 100 or fewer employees, the average rate hike will be 7.9 percent, while the individual commercial marketplace increases are slightly higher at 9.7 percent.
Health insurers in the Capital Region and elsewhere in New York were requesting much higher rate increases than what the DFS approved.
For instance, CDPHP, a major local health insurer, requested a 17.4 percent increase for its small company clients but was only approved for an 11.5 percent increase.
MVP, another local health insurer, requested a 14.2 percent increase for its small company plans but was granted an increase of 11.7 percent.
Those increases are for what companies pay so some companies may choose to pass on all the increases to their workers.
Rates on plans for individuals buying insurance directly are generally more expensive, and the rate increases are higher.
For instance, CDPHP requested a 28.4 percent increase in individual plans and received a 16.5 percent increase from DFS.
“Rising medical costs and inflation continue to put upward pressure on premiums,” DFS Superintendent Adrienne Harris said in a statement.
However, the industry was not happy that their requests were watered down and do not reflect the reality of the health insurance industry.
“The rate submissions were reasonable and appropriate, reflecting underlying costs and taking into account the premium reductions the state has imposed the last several years,” Eric Linzer, CEO of the New York Health Plan Association said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the final approved rates do not fully account for the factors driving underlying health care costs.”