Fact Check: Mark Kelly Misleadingly Claims Inflation Reduction Act Would Cut Deficit

CLAIM: Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) said during a debate on Thursday night that the Inflation Reduction Act would cut the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars.

VERDICT: FALSE. The bill uses many arbitrary policy offsets and gimmicks to hide the true cost of the bill, but it would actually increase the deficit.

“We’ve got to get our debt and deficit under control. That’s why the Inflation Reduction Act reduces the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars,” Kelly claimed during a debate with Arizona Senate Republican candidate Blake Masters.

Despite his claim, and the bill’s moniker, the Inflation Reduction Act does not reduce the deficit nor does it make a significant dent in inflation.

Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), the ranking member of the House Budget Committee, detailed how the bill uses budget gimmicks and false sunsets to hide the true cost of Manchin’s alleged deficit reduction bill.

Breitbart News reported in August:

For instance, the Inflation Reduction Act would extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies for three years, which would cost $64 billion; however, if the program were extended to a ten-year window, the provision would cost $248 billion.

The legislation would also create $369 billion in climate change- and energy security-related programs. The House Budget Committee Republicans found that the bill would cost well over $400 billion if the two-year sunsets were eliminated.

Smith said when accounting for these gimmicks and false offsets, the bill would create $114 billion in new debt.

Further, multiple studies have shown that the bill would not reduce the historic levels of inflation that Americans continue to face under President Joe Biden.

 

A Penn Wharton Budget Model analysis found that the bill would only reduce inflation by 0.1 percent over five years. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) found similar results.

Further, even assuming Kelly were correct, the Biden administration continues to spend well beyond any of the alleged deficit-reducing measures in the Inflation Reduction Act. For instance, the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan is projected to cost well beyond $400 billion, in itself well beyond the $300 billion in supposed deficit reduction in the Inflation Reduction Act.