Did someone have something on Joe Manchin, causing him to agree to legislation that will make inflation worse?
Lawmakers react after Manchin, Schumer agree to reconciliation deal: ‘Build Back Broke’
Republicans are not pleased with the prospect of a revived version of Build Back Better after Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced they came to an agreement on a reconciliation package.
While some details of the reconciliation package are unclear, Manchin said in a statement that the bill will contain a minimum 15% tax on companies worth more than $1 billion and will also have investments in energy, which include nuclear, renewables and fossil fuels.
Manchin said the bill will be titled the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.”
“I now propose and will vote for the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Rather than risking more inflation with trillions in new spending, this bill will cut the inflation taxes Americans are paying, lower the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, and ensure our country invests in the energy security and climate change solutions,” Manchin said. “President Biden, Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi have committed to advancing a suite of commonsense permitting reforms this fall.”
In other words, it will increase the price of all
The two senators said the bill will raise $739 billion in revenue by IRS tax enforcement, closing the carried interest loophole and establishing a corporate minimum tax. Roughly $433 billion will be spent on energy and climate provisions, as well as an expansion of the Affordable Care Act.
Companies will either pass on their higher taxation to consumers or move their headquarters out of the U.S. to reduce their tax liability. It almost never works out well when taxes are increased. In fairness, even Donald Trump wanted the carried interest tax provision (there’s almost no such thing as a “loophole”: Congress wrote the tax law, and should have done their research. It’s simply a provision). You can make cases for it and against it
Democrats have already crushed American families with historic inflation.
Now they want to pile on giant tax hikes that will hammer workers and kill many thousands of American jobs.
First they killed your family's budget. Now they want to kill your job too.— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) July 27, 2022
They want to do this via reconciliation, avoiding the need for the 60 vote threshold to move it forward. Will the Congressional parliamentarian deem it legal for reconciliation? Many other Dem bills failed that.
Update on Inflation Reduction Act: This will be the biggest climate action in human history. $370B for investments in clean energy, clean transportation, energy storage, farming, home electrification, and clean tech. The planet is on fire. Let’s get it done.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) July 27, 2022
What’s specifically in the bill? So far, it’s just a talking point. There is no submitted legislation, and only some yammering on Joe Manchin’s webpage. Will it be very specific and targeted, or simply leave most of the details up to unelected bureaucrats?
“I support a plan that will advance a realistic energy and climate policy that lowers prices today and strategically invests in the long game. As the super power of the world, it is vital we not undermine our super power status by removing dependable and affordable fossil fuel energy before new technologies are ready to reliably carry the load. This legislation ensures that the market will take the lead, rather than aspirational political agendas or unrealistic goals, in the energy transition that has been ongoing in our country. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 invests in the technologies needed for all fuel types – from hydrogen, nuclear, renewables, fossil fuels and energy storage – to be produced and used in the cleanest way possible. It is truly all of the above, which means this bill does not arbitrarily shut off our abundant fossil fuels. It invests heavily in technologies to help us reduce our domestic methane and carbon emissions and also helps decarbonize around the world as we displace dirtier products.
You know that there will be no actual investments in fossil fuels and nuclear. Those will either get cut in the final product, or, the Executive Branch will spend zip on them. If Joe thinks this will play well in West Virginia, that’s highly doubtful. And none of it will help with inflation. For one thing, most actions will be years in the making. Second, change the carried interest provision, and companies will simply change the pay structure to something else. Do Manchin and Schumer not think highly paid and very smart tax accounts cannot figure something else out?
When all of these mass layoffs occur, are all of these patriotic companies going to lay off the foreign H1B help first? And you don’t get to say “they’re here to do jobs Americans can’t” after you just had those laid off Americans train those H1B replacements as a condition of their severance package.