Haisten Willis of the Washington Examiner reports on a messaging war between the Biden administration and congressional Republicans.
With the Inflation Reduction Act now signed into law, leaders from both major parties are predicting the bill will boost their success in the fall midterm elections.
President Joe Biden took a brief break from his vacation to hold a signing ceremony for the bill at the White House, where he praised the legislation as a major step forward for his agenda and for the country.
Some GOPers agree it’s a big step, just in the opposite direction.
“With the stroke of a pen, Joe Biden will guarantee congressional Democrats’ careers will come to an end,” Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement released after the signing. “Biden and Democrats raised taxes on hardworking Americans and gave $80 billion to the IRS to hire 87,000 new IRS agents. Americans will never forget that Biden and Democrats raised taxes during a recession.”
Both parties are now sharpening their messaging knives, ready to sell different aspects of the bill to prospective voters.
The IRA aims to reduce inflation, currently at 8.5%, mostly through a 15% minimum corporate income tax and via stricter tax collection at a beefed-up IRS. But it goes far beyond that by including allowances for Medicare to negotiate some drug prices, price caps on insulin for Medicare recipients, and the largest climate provision ever undertaken.
“We’re cutting deficits to fight inflation by having the wealthy and big corporations finally begin to pay part of their fair share,” Biden said at the signing ceremony. “Big corporations will now pay a minimum of 15% tax instead of 55 of them getting away with paying zero dollars in federal income tax on $40 billion in profit. And I’m keeping my campaign commitment: No one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay a penny more in federal taxes.”
