During an August 3rd appearance on Fox News’ “America Reports,” Republican Sen. John Kennedy shared some quips and harsh criticisms of Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s “Inflation Reduction Act,” labeling the legislation coined as a means to combat inflation as instead being “inflation machine.”
Democrats are in the process of trying to push through a bill labeled as a means to curb inflation, with West Virginia Sen. Manchin having gone on a press tour [1] in recent days touting the potential of the Inflation Reduction Act.
However, despite Sen. Manchin’s best efforts to talk a good game around the bill, there is some speculation that the Inflation Reduction Act is nothing more than a “mini-Build Back Better proposal [2],” with one of those critics being Republican Sen. Kennedy.
In light of non-partisan reports claiming Sen. Manchin’s bill will wind up increasing taxes “for Americans who earn less than $200,000 a year,” the Louisiana senator first pointed out, “At some point, we need to stop asking who needs to pay more taxes, and start asking what the hell happened to all the money that we had.”
After briefly remarking on the aforementioned sentiment, Sen. Kennedy redirected to addressing Sen. Manchin’s proposed bill, noting how the increased taxes on oil and gas will wind up getting passed down to everyday consumers.
“Because of inflation, which was made in Washington by President Biden, more and more Americans are getting really good at barely getting by in the wealthiest country in all of human history. And that’s because of inflation. I don’t hate anybody, but Senator Manchin’s bill is an inflation machine. If he passes his bill, Joeflation, as some call it, will refer to Joe Manchin, not Joe Biden.
“I’ll give you a couple of examples. Number one, Senator Manchin’s bill is a massive tax increase on oil and gas. Now, when you tax something, you get less of it. Duh. And his bill is going to make prices go up. Now, Senator Manchin and the White House may say, well, here’s what you ought to do because you can’t afford gas: You need to go buy a $75,000 Tesla. That might work in West Virginia; that doesn’t work in Louisiana.”
After referencing how the Joint Committee on Taxation has already come out and asserted Sen. Manchin’s bill will result in “every American” feeling “the financial burden” of the act, Sen. Kennedy tossed in some of his trademark wit in complementing Sen. Manchin’s skills as being a good talker – but added that talking a good game about a bill doesn’t change its real-world impacts.
“I like Joe, he’s very clever. I’ve listened to his interviews, he can talk a dog off a meat wagon, but he can’t change the facts of…the impartial, nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation. And final point, Joe’s Bill’s gonna raise money, raise taxes on corporations, and corporations don’t pay taxes – people do. It is a special kind of stupid to raise taxes on businesses during a recession.”
This piece was written by Gregory Hoyt on August 3, 2022. It originally appeared in RedVoiceMedia.com [3] and is used by permission.