During a Wednesday interview on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) voiced his opposition to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) Inflation Reduction Act.
The bill, which experts have said will do little to curb inflation, includes $369 billion aimed at climate spending and has Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) support.
Hagerty disagreed with the notion that the slimmed-down version of the Build Back Better bill would not result in increased taxes. He argued the package should instead be called the “Income Reduction Act.”
“They should call this the Income Reduction Act — not the Inflation Reduction Act,” Hagerty emphasized. “It’s absolutely going to cause prices to go up because … when you raise costs on manufacturers by increasing their taxes, those costs are going to have to be passed on to consumers. That will be borne by the middle class, the lower class. It’s going to be inherently inflationary, and that’s the most pernicious tax of all.”
“The Biden administration seems to be more than happy to create and precipitate more and more inflation,” he continued. “We’re also going to have something happen that is the last thing you do when you enter a recession. And you’ve seen Joe Manchin say this in the past; you’ve seen Chuck Schumer say this in the past — the last thing you do is raise taxes as you go into a recession. What they want to do is increase the tax burden on manufacturers. That will have the impact of reducing capital investment. That means economic growth slows or reverses; that means fewer jobs — again, the last thing you do as you enter into a recession.”
Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent
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