WASHINGTON – On Sunday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) released the following statement after voting against the Democrats’ latest big-government spending package.
“The Orwellian named ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ will do no such thing, as a number of prominent experts and economic policy groups have indicated. Over 230 economists wrote to Congress saying the bill would increase inflation. The Penn Wharton Budget Model, the Tax Foundation, and the Congressional Budget Office all found the bill won’t lower inflation and may make it worse. The IRS would more than double in size, unleashing 87,000 new enforcement agents on American families. This massive increase of government intrusion would result in the IRS employing more bureaucrats than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI and Border Patrol combined. Last year, the IRS audited Americans earning less than $25,000 a year at five times the rate of other groups. The nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation says that 78% to 90% of the revenue raised from misreported income would likely come from those making under $200,000.
“This bill will not only raise the burden Americans will bear from business tax increases but it will also supercharge the IRS to go after American families at a time when many are simply struggling to pay their bills. Democrats also imposed a new natural gas tax, which could potentially lead to a 17 percent increase in monthly natural gas bills while the Consumer Price Index for energy already rose 41.6 percent since last year. This is a Green Energy Fantasy that will more likely drive the cost of energy up rather than down.
“It’s hard to overstate the damage and destructive impact of the self-inflicted wounds imposed on the American economy by the Biden administration and its Democrat enablers in Congress. They are as detached from economic reality as they are from the truth. Giving bad policies a nice name will not prevent the harm they will inflict on us all.”