Though rising inflation has forced Democratic leaders to scale back their ambitions significantly, the various provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act remain largely unaltered from a time when inflation was the least of their concerns.
On April 28, 2021, Joe Biden stood before a joint session of Congress to propose "a once-in-a-generation investment in America." The president promised to "Put engineers and construction workers to work building more energy-efficient buildings and homes" and reward "Farmers planting cover crops so they can reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and get paid for it." Biden pledged federal funds to guarantee affordable childcare and four extra years of public education for every American.
Whereas Biden in 2020 promised to lower the age of Medicare eligibility to 60 and establish a public option for all ages, the Inflation Reduction Act attempts merely to patch cracks in existing coverage options.
While most of last year's proposed Build Back Better Act was discarded, the sections from it that made it into the Inflation Reduction Act remain remarkably unaltered from a time when stoking demand rather than reducing inflationary pressure was the supposed goal.
Rather than acting to reduce the growth of hospital costs, which are the main driver of health-care expenses, the legislation reduces payments for newly developed drugs-even though drug development is the one element of health care that reliably reduces costs over the long run.
The "Energy Security and Climate Change" section, which accounts for the bulk of the bill's enumerated expenditures, was clearly not designed with the objective of reducing inflation.
Tax credits for households, manufacturers, farms, and utilities to purchase cleaner technologies are likely to do similarly little to reduce prices-though they may achieve more success in further reducing carbon emissions.
https://www.city-journal.org/last-years-policies-this-years-packaging?wallit_nosession=1
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