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REP LIEU PRAISES HISTORIC CLIMATE INVESTMENTS IN INFLATION REDUCTION ACT

August 12, 2022

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) issued the following statement after the House passed the Inflation Reduction Act.The Inflation Reduction Act is a historic victory for America's families and for protecting our planet by taking aim at reducing the deficit through taxes on the largest corporations and lowering health-care costs on prescription drugs. At the same time, it is the most expansive legislation to combat climate change that Congress has passed.

"This has been a monumental term in Congress and I'm pleased that we've added historic climate investments to our list of accomplishments. The Inflation Reduction Act tackles cost of living and healthcare challenges while also creating $396 billion in clean energy incentives. This bill is the largest action Congress has taken on climate. It is truly a remarkable accomplishment. As someone who came to Congress with the goal of tackling climate change, I am pleased that Democrats have put people over politics to get this bill done. It is disappointing, albeit not surprising, that not a single Republican in Congress voted in favor of this bill to mitigate inflation and reduce the national deficit. Democrats in Congress are delivering on lowering costs for American families and protecting hard-won freedoms while Republicans are busy trying to criminalize abortion, end Social Security and Medicare, and undermine free elections. Thank goodness Democrats are fighting for Americans."

The Inflation Reduction Act will lower costs for families, combat the climate crisis, reduce the deficit, and finally ask the largest corporations to pay their fair share. President Biden and Congressional Democrats are on track to deliver an historic legislative achievement that defeats special interests, delivers for American families, and grows the economy from the bottom up and middle out.

  1. It will lower energy costs by hundreds of dollars per year for families by making clean energy more affordable and accessible; spur an unprecedented expansion in clean energy deployment and manufacturing with more than 950 million solar panels, 120,000 wind turbines, and 2,300 grid-scale battery plants powering our homes, businesses, and communities by 2030; and position America to achieve the President's climate goals through the most significant legislative step forward to cut carbon pollution in history. And, it will create good paying jobs, advance environmental justice at an historic scale, and strengthen American energy security.
  2. After almost three decades of attempts, it lowers prescription drug costs for millions of Americans by hundreds – or in some cases thousands – of dollars per year, by allowing Medicare to negotiate prices for high-cost drugs, requiring Medicare rebates from drug manufacturers increasing prices faster than inflation, capping annual out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses for Medicare beneficiaries, and capping the cost of insulin for Medicare beneficiaries at no more than $35 a month.
  3. It saves about 13 million Americans an average of about $800 per year on their health care premiums, by continuing the improvements to Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits enacted in the American Rescue Plan (ARP). By making health care more affordable, these improvements have expanded coverage to millions of people, helping bring the uninsured rate to an all-time low. Extending them will build on this progress and help reduce health disparities.
  4. It makes our tax code fairer, raising revenue by cracking down on wealthy millionaires and billionaires and large corporations that evade their obligation to pay tax and on large, profitable corporations that currently get away without paying a dollar in federal income tax and by imposing a 1% surcharge on corporate stock buybacks that will encourage businesses to invest. No family making less than $400,000 per year will see their taxes go up.
  5. It fights inflation by achieving hundreds of billions in deficit reduction—on top of the more than $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction achieved this year and the more than $350 billion achieved last year, following years of fiscal recklessness and mismanagement under the prior Administration.

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