Man, if only we had a news media which did their job before massive, citizen behavior changing, IRS enforcement and tax increasing, energy killing legislation is passed
One thing the Inflation Reduction Act may not do: Lower inflation
The Inflation Reduction Act is aimed at tackling a host of problems, from climate change to catching tax cheats, but there’s one issue it may not solve: reducing inflation.
That’s the conclusion of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, a group of economists and data scientists at University of Pennsylvania who analyze public policies to predict their economic and fiscal impacts. Its analysis, published Friday, comes as inflation remains near a 40-year high, crimping the budgets of consumers and businesses alike.
The Inflation Reduction Act would invest nearly $400 billion in energy security and climate change proposals, aimed at reducing carbon emissions by approximately 40% by 2030. It also would allow Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers on prescription prices, and would limit out-of-pocket drug expenses for seniors to $2,000 annually. The bill also directs $80 billion in funding to the IRS, aimed at helping the underfunded agency hire more auditors and beef up its customer service and technology.
Yeah, see, that’s the problem, all anyone, from the Credentialed Media to those who voted for it (and most didn’t read it), can talk about are things that have nothing to do with inflation reduction
But the impact on inflation “is statistically indistinguishable from zero,” the Penn Wharton Budget Model said on Friday.
The article could pretty much end right there. That’s really all you need to know.
The legislation, which passed the House of Representatives on Friday and is headed to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law, has wide-ranging goals yet does little to directly tackle the underlying causes of inflationary pressures pushing up the cost of everything from food to housing, the economists predict. Still, the bill could help some Americans lower their health care costs, through its provisions for seniors’ prescriptions and another item that would lower what consumers pay for some Affordable Care Act plans.
In other words, the bill had nothing to do with reducing inflation. It didn’t even try. Not even some lip service.
