Having passed in the House, the Inflation Reduction Act continues to polarize Democrats and Republicans. Sunday evening, a giddy Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL-14) took to Twitter to celebrate by posting a brief video attached to her tweet.
The video is of Castor receiving a call from President Biden congratulating her for her part in passing the act.
??Honored to hear from @POTUS ahead of passage of the historic #InflationReductionAct.
For our climate, our health and our neighbors’ pocketbooks – we are building back better than ever before. pic.twitter.com/oKWVtaYhTu
— US Rep Kathy Castor (@USRepKCastor) August 14, 2022
"Honored to hear from @POTUS ahead of passage of the historic #InflationReductionAct. For our climate, our health and our neighbors’ pocketbooks – we are building back better than ever before," the tweet reads.
The Inflation Reduction Act is easily the most ambitious attempt by Democrats to implement their "Build Back Better" agenda. According to CNBC, a major provision of the Act is to subsidize $369 billion on "Green New Deal" energy policies that intend to cut U.S. carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. Additionally, the Affordable Healthcare Act ("Obamacare") will receive extensions to the tune of $64 billion. Similarly, Medicare will be enabled to negotiate prices on 100 prescription drugs. Finally, the Inflation Reduction Act will impose a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax, and an excise stock buyback tax.
The Act has received intense criticism from Republicans, one provision of the bill calls for expansion of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by 87,000 agents, for which a controversial now-deleted job listing states that new agents could expect to use "deadly force, if necessary."
As reported by The Floridian, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL-6) released a statement on the Inflation Reduction Act over the weekend. Waltz says that "Democrats have yet again failed the American people," and that the Act contains a "laundry list of horrible measures." Waltz claims that the addition of 87,000 IRS agents will result in 710,000 audits on low-income Americans and the tax hikes will end up hurting families and small businesses more than the corporations the alternative minimum tax is designed to target.
It is worth noting that the Inflation Reduction Act passed the Senate through the reconciliation process with zero Republican support.
