During remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. John Thune (R-SD) slammed Democrats over the Inflation Reduction Act.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Mr. President.
00:02Mr. President, in a couple of weeks, we will mark the second anniversary of one of President Biden's signature measures, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.
00:10I'm sure the White House will be celebrating, but Americans shouldn't be.
00:15Because Democrats did the country no favors with this legislation.
00:19In fact, the bill reads like a roster of bad Democrat policies.
00:23It's hard to know where to even begin.
00:27Perhaps with the bill's misleading, really outright deceptive title.
00:34Democrats called the bill the Inflation Reduction Act, yet even before the bill had been signed into law,
00:39the nonpartisan Penn-Wharton budget model was noting that the bill's impact on inflation was, quote,
00:44statistically indistinguishable from zero, end quote.
00:51In other words, the Inflation Reduction Act would do nothing, nothing to reduce inflation.
00:59And President Biden confirmed this fact a year later when he noted, and I quote, this is President Biden speaking,
01:05well, we've put ourselves in a position where we pass the most comprehensive environmental piece of,
01:10it's called the Inflation Reduction Act, it has nothing to do with inflation, end quote.
01:18That's President Biden. Let me just repeat that, Mr. President.
01:23It's called the Inflation Reduction Act, it has nothing to do with inflation.
01:30President Biden's own words.
01:33Why Democrats chose to name it that, when it had nothing to do with reducing inflation, is a good question.
01:39Perhaps it was to try to convince the American people falsely that Democrats were doing something to stem
01:46the historic inflation crisis they'd created.
01:49Or perhaps it was to disguise the substance of what Democrats thought might be otherwise an unpopular bill.
01:56But moving on, Mr. President, another Democrat selling point for the bill was its claim that it would reduce the deficit.
02:04But that claim has proved to be just as hollow as the bill's title.
02:09The cost of the bill's Green New Deal provisions has grown to such an extent
02:14that the bill will not only not reduce the deficit, it's now on track to add to it.
02:20That's right. A bill Democrats touted for its deficit reduction is now predicted to actually add to the deficit.
02:32And speaking of the bill's Green New Deal provisions,
02:36as the President himself admitted last year, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act
02:40was really a chance for Democrats to impose their Green New Deal fantasies.
02:45And so the bill contains things like $1.5 billion.
02:49Billion, I might add, for a grant program to plant trees.
02:55$1 billion for zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles like garbage trucks.
03:02$3 billion. $3 billion for the U.S. Postal Service for zero-emission delivery vehicles.
03:10$1.9 billion for things like road equity, whatever that is.
03:15And identifying gaps in tree canopy coverage.
03:22And at least $30 billion in climate slush funds, part of which was allocated for, among other things,
03:27climate-related political activity.
03:31Yes, Mr. President, climate-related political activity.
03:38Because clearly families struggling with high grocery prices and high energy prices in the Biden-Harris economy
03:43are eager to see their tax dollars going to Green New Deal activism.
03:50Then, of course, there are the tax credits the bill provides for well-off Americans to purchase new electric vehicles.
03:57And there's much, much more.
03:59All told, the climate and energy-related provisions of the bill are now projected to cost American taxpayers
04:06in excess of $1 trillion.
04:12Mr. President, I mentioned tax credits for electric vehicles.
04:17Perhaps the Biden administration's signature environmental measure
04:22has been attempting to force the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.
04:27The Inflation Reduction Act tax credits are one part of this crusade.
04:34Others include the final emissions rules the Biden administration released this spring
04:39that will have the practical effect of forcing car and truck companies
04:42to electrify a huge portion of their sales lots.
04:47And the big problem here, Mr. President,
04:50is that the President is attempting to force the adoption of his electric vehicle fantasy
04:55at a time when our electric grid is barely keeping up with current demand.
05:00An article in the Washington Post this March entitled
05:03Amid Explosive Demand, America is Running Out of Power
05:07noted, and I quote,
05:09vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power
05:13as electricity-hungry data centers and clean technology factories
05:17proliferate around the country,
05:19leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans
05:23to expand the nation's creaking power grid, end quote.
05:31And that's our situation right now as we speak.
05:36This present without the incredible burden that would be added to our grid
05:41by a vast increase in the number of electric cars and trucks on the road.
05:47If the President is successful in imposing a rapid and widespread increase
05:52in the number of electric vehicles, we're likely to be facing a situation
05:56where there is simply not enough power available to keep up with demand
06:01with higher prices, electricity rationing, blackouts and brownouts
06:06as the inevitable result.
06:10Mr. President, I could go on for a while here about the strain
06:13the President is attempting to place on our electric grid,
06:15even as he seeks to weaken the already creaky grid even further
06:20with burdensome new regulations.
06:23And I could go on about the Inflation Reduction Act.
06:27I haven't even talked about the incredible amount of money
06:29Democrats funneled to the IRS through this legislation.
06:31The majority of it earmarked for increased audits and enforcement
06:35to help fund Democrats' Green New Deal fantasies.
06:38Nor have I talked about the tax hikes the bill levies on conventional energy,
06:41which are doing no favors for Americans already beset
06:45by high-energy bills in the Biden-Harris economy.
06:50And then there are the bill's price controls for prescription drugs,
06:54which will curtail medical innovation and the development of new medications.
07:00When the Biden Administration originally proposed this policy,
07:04research from the University of Chicago projected that price controls
07:08on prescription drugs and Medicare would result in 135 fewer new drugs
07:13available to patients.
07:17And we've already seen those projections beginning to come to fruition
07:22as multiple drug companies have halted research into new treatments
07:26as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act.
07:31I'll stop here, Mr. President.
07:34Suffice it to say that Democrats' so-called Inflation Reduction Act
07:39is a catalog of bad Democrat policies,
07:43from unrealistic Green New Deal measures to costly tax hikes
07:47to irresponsible spending.
07:51Unfortunately, if we end up with a President Harris next year,
07:55this legislation is likely a grim preview of more bad bills to come.
08:01Mr. President, I yield the floor.