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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement after voting against the Democrats’ reckless tax and spending bill, the Inflation Enhancement Act, which passed the Senate today on a party-line vote:
“The United States is experiencing a recession and, instead of taking active steps to fix the economic crisis, the Biden Administration and the Democrats are doubling down on the dumb policies that created this mess. Acting alone, Senate Democrats’ reckless bill raises taxes, mandates new regulations, and institutes price hikes, all of which will only worsen inflation. This bill is fiscally irresponsible, needlessly bureaucratic, and damaging to every sector of the American economy from energy to agriculture to pharmaceuticals and manufacturing. It’s going to put a dent in every American’s bottom line while hiring 80,000 IRS agents to make it as painful as possible. Democrats must be held accountable for single-handedly passing the Inflation Enhancement Act.”
The Democrats’ 755-page Inflation Enhancement Act includes the following inflationary funding:
- $369 billion for Green New Deal policies
- $1.5 billion to plant trees
- $27 billion for a green bank
- $60 billion for environmental justice
- Tax credits to subsidize the purchase of luxury electric vehicles for high-income earners
- $900 - $1500 fee per metric ton on methane emissions from oil and natural gas
- $64 billion to extend Obamacare subsidies
- $80 billion to supersize the IRS
The bill also includes nearly $20 billion in Farm Bill conservation program funding outside of the Farm Bill process. Production agriculture accounts for just 9% of baseline spending heading into upcoming Farm Bill negotiations. These conservation program increases further disadvantage production agriculture and extends green bank spending into agriculture.
The Inflation Enhancement Act includes a brand new 15% book minimum tax to businesses with less than $1 billion in income. This is a $35 billion tax on small- and medium-sized businesses according to the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT). The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says the net effect is “less capital investment, making America poorer and reducing future economic growth.” Further, Democrats voted down amendments that would extend the cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, clearing the way for a return to a massive tax break for the rich in liberal states.
Analysis from the JCT finds average tax rates will increase for nearly every income category in 2023 under the bill. For Americans earning less than $200,000 a year, taxes will rise by $16.7 billion in 2023.
According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, the Democrats’ Inflation Enhancement Act does not contain any net deficit reductions in the next 5 years, let alone any statistically significant impact on reducing inflation in the ten-year window. In fact, analysis from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office shows inflation may rise in 2023 due to this reckless tax and spending bill.
To oppose this irresponsible legislation, Senate Republicans offered amendments to the bill during what is known as a vote-a-rama, where they forced several votes aimed at either changing or removing provisions in the underlying bill. Republican amendments focused on fighting inflation, unleashing American energy, and ending the crisis at the southern border.
Senator Cramer offered several amendments to the bill, including:
- An amendment to strike funding for the Environmental Protection Agency to implement requirements forcing the restriction of generation and use of electricity.
- An amendment requiring the Department of the Interior to establish a royalty rate for renewable projects on federal lands equal to the royalties paid by fossil fuel projects.
- An amendment requiring the Department of the Interior to establish a royalty rate for renewable projects on federal offshore projects equal to the royalties paid by offshore fossil fuel projects.
- An amendment to direct the use of the Defense Production Act in the Inflation Enhancement Act to increase oil refinery capacity of American crude to reduce gas prices.
- An amendment to strike $2.2 billion for the purchase of more federal land and urban tree planting and redirect $1.6 billion for the Forest Service to perform much-needed deferred maintenance at Forest Service recreation areas, campgrounds, roads, and trails.
- An amendment to streamline permitting for hard rock minerals on Forest Service land with a two-year time goal and align them with Bureau of Land Management regulations.
- An amendment to prohibit $500 million of funds from being used to purchase or acquire uranium or other nuclear fuel from Vladimir Putin or Russia.
- An amendment to strike a section of the Inflation Enhancement Act which provides EPA with $5 million to track corporate climate commitments.
- An amendment to strike two sections of the Inflation Enhance Act which provide $62.5 million to the White House Council on Environmental Quality which recently withdrew the Trump administration’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) streamlining in favor of expansive and obstructive NEPA proposed rules.
- Amendments to exclude electric vehicle (EV) tax credits from going to high-income Americans, including:
- An amendment to change the income threshold for the new EV tax credit to $100,000 for joint filers or surviving spouses and $50,000 for all other filers.
- An amendment to change the income threshold for the used EV credit to $100,000 for joint filers or surviving spouses and $50,000 for all other filers. It also changes the eligible value of the used EV, the used vehicle price must be below $20,000 for all categories of used EVs to be eligible for the credit.
- An amendment to ensure all critical mineral components in electric vehicle batteries are subject to the same procurement timeline. It would align the underlying critical mineral procurement date with the battery component placed in service date specified in the bill.
- An amendment to add electric motors and their components to the same critical mineral requirements for EV batteries. It would also add electric motors to the battery manufacturing and assembly requirements in the underlying bill.
- An amendment to require Congress to fund the completion of the southern border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
- An amendment to prohibit the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from spending any of the new $80 billion in funding until its tax refund backlog has been eliminated.
- An amendment to redirect funding for the IRS to address the paper tax return backlog, which currently sits at approximately 21.3 million unprocessed paper tax returns.
- An amendment to authorize Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) recreation sites to retain 80% of fees at the point of collection for the site operations and facility maintenance. This aligns the Army Corps with other federal land management agencies’ practices, allowing Army Corps districts to plan local maintenance and repair projects without approval from bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
- An amendment requiring the General Services Administration (GSA) to identify federal buildings with underutilized space and to initiate a sale of such buildings within one year to ensure efficient use of taxpayer dollars. In addition, this amendment encourages GSA to consider telework policies when determining the appropriate utilization of federally managed office space.
- An amendment to remove the restrictions in the Drug Price Negotiation Program which forcefully coerce drug manufacturers’ compliance without any path for recourse in the negotiation process.
- An amendment to remove restrictive language in the Drug Pricing Negotiation Program which forcefully coerces drug manufacturers’ compliance without any path for recourse in the negotiation process.
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