Hoyer on Inflation Reduction Act: Federal Reserve ‘Is Really How You Deal with Inflation’ — But Bill Lowers Health Costs

On Friday’s “CNN Newsroom,” House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) stated that the Inflation Reduction Act will help deal with inflation right now by reducing healthcare costs, but the Federal Reserve “making judgments on interest rates…is really how you deal with inflation.”

Hoyer stated that the bill will have an impact on 8.5% inflation right now because “healthcare costs are a significant cost to the American consumer, and this, unarguably, is going to bring down costs of health care for people. Some, in the short term, as I just said, we’ll maintain the subsidies that we give so that people’s insurance rates will not go up from their standpoint, in terms of the costs that they have to incur. Making vaccines free will bring down costs. We’ve passed other pieces of legislation like the food and fuel legislation to try to bring down — make sure that prices aren’t — price gouging does not occur in terms of gasoline prices. We’ve seen gasoline prices come down over a dollar since that legislation. Now, whether that legislation caused it or not is problematic and questionable, obviously. But the — we want to bring the food supply chain back. So, what we’re doing is, with this bill is, we are bringing some of the most significant costs to Americans down, and we’re bringing them down, in many respects, now, so that I think it’s appropriate to call it an inflationary reduction act because one of the biggest inflations has been in drug prices.”

He added, “We need to be very concerned about, not only gasoline prices, but prices at the grocery stores, and also the supply chain. The fact that — we — baby formula was not available and still is in short supply, not acceptable. We need to deal with that, we have dealt with it, and we’re going to continue to deal with it. But, yes, I think it’s not — there are a lot of economists — you’ve quoted some — but a lot of economists who believe that, in fact, this will bring down inflation now. All of us know that the Federal Reserve is trying to deal with this inflation, making judgments on interest rates, which is really how you deal with inflation. That’s how Reagan dealt with inflation. That’s how Chairman Powell is trying to deal with inflation. So, are we going to snap our fingers and overnight and tomorrow we pass this bill and prices come down dramatically? No, but will drug prices come down? Yes, they will.”

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