Oklahoma Congressman Tom Cole unleashed a tirade against President Biden and his stalled attempts to correct the economy on Monday.
Cole railed on President Biden’s inability to reel in skyrocketing prices as wages have shrunk, damaging not only the U.S. supply chain including the labor force. These factors led to a decline in Gross Domestic Product during the first and second quarters of 2022, which constitutes a recession.
Although Democrats introduced and passed its Inflation Reduction Act in the Senate, the bill will do the exact opposite of its namesake. With a price tag of $728 billion, it would make inflation much worse. Higher taxes would be imposed on manufacturers and businesses during a recession and passed through to buyers in the form of higher prices and smaller paychecks for employees.
The bill also implements a price-fixing scheme for prescription drugs that would negatively impact patients and the United States’ ability to find cures for deadly diseases by limiting them to the top percentage of wealthiest Americans. It is estimated that this approach would kill up to 100 new cures and treatments. As the country that produces the most lifesaving cures and treatments in the world, this would completely devastate the fight around the entire globe against terrible diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s. Not only would this increase the cost of prescription drugs and raise insurance premiums, but it would also increase Medicare Part D costs by $40 billion which would be paid for by American taxpayers. Cole believes this policy would disincentivize generic drug competition, a tried-and-true method of reducing drug prices.
The bill would substantially increase our already unsustainable national debt. Because of our nation’s runaway inflation caused by bad policy since Biden took office, American taxpayers have already put $2.5 trillion worth of new interest payments on the debt. This bill would extend subsidies, including those in programs such as Obamacare through 2025, benefiting the wealthy and subsidizing people who already have insurance. This expands federal spending without enacting any meaningful reform to real drivers of our ever-growing debt.
Cole takes issue with language in the bill that creates a provision to allow the Internal Revenue Service to hire 87,000 new agents to target American families and small businesses. As the IRS previously announced a goal to increase small business audits by 50 percent, this additional funding and staffing will surely be used to audit hardworking small business owners and their small businesses.
“Instead of reversing course from the policies that have already gotten us into this economic mess, (President Biden) and the Democrats are doubling down,” said Cole in his written comments.