WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today is the second anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaking vote and signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Patrice Onwuka, director of the Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO), issued the following statement:
“On the two-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, Americans now know that the IRA was a farce. It was never intended to bring down grocery bills, energy prices, or food costs. Instead, the IRA is a costly, radical green agenda that adds a trillion dollars to our national debt.
“The IRA burdens middle-class families and hamstrings small businesses while padding the pockets of elites. The average price of gasoline was $3.09 at the start of 2023, and it is now $3.44. Gas prices are still high due to the IRA’s war on domestic energy production. The IRA granted $80 billion to hire 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents to target middle-class Americans, Venmo users, and small businesses with new tax crackdowns. Kamala Harris’s plan to eliminate taxes on tips is skeptical when this administration just sicked the IRS on service workers for those tips.
“Funding the green tax provisions will mean $1 trillion—more than three times what the law’s supporters claimed it would cost—taken from the American people to finance a green agenda with almost no impact on global temperatures. Meanwhile, poor and working-class families don’t even benefit. Green tax credits are gifts to wealthier families who can afford pricey EVs. Americans lost out with the IRA and only gained higher prices, less affordability, and stalled economic mobility.”
Carrie Sheffield, senior policy analyst for the CEO, added,
“The IRA is supposedly the Biden-Harris administration’s signature legislative achievement, and it was paid for exorbitant, luxury new “green energy” and electric vehicles subsidies by raiding Medicare Part D Prescription drug savings fund. Meanwhile, the Social Security and Medicare Trustees annual reports released in May describe the perilous financial constraints for the future of the Social Security and Medicare programs that millions of seniors depend on. All this while America’s national debt balloons to $35 trillion under Biden-Harris.
“Kamala Harris is directly responsible for impeding the financial stability of America’s vulnerable seniors through the poorly-designed IRA.
“She and Biden are also responsible for cumulative inflation of 20% since entering the White House. This inflation is a regressive tax, hitting poor and middle-class families hardest, eroding wages and buying power. Americans deserve better.”