If the House of Representatives follows the Senate’s lead and passes the Inflation Reduction Act, it would become the first major piece of legislation to have even a small positive impact on the federal budget deficit since President Barack Obama was in office. But don’t go popping those champagne corks just yet, deficit hawks. The […]
With yea votes from centrist Sens. Joe Manchin (D–W.V.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D–Ariz.), the U.S. Senate narrowly passed the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday before adjourning for its August recess. Manchin had conditioned his support for the bill on a “side deal” that would streamline the federal permitting process for new infrastructure projects. But […]
The U.S. Senate passed the misleadingly named Inflation Reduction Act on Sunday before senators adjourned until September. The bill—which allocates around $740 billion—passed with a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris; it will now head to the House of Representatives, which is expected to vote on it Friday. Democrats say the bill will curb […]
A technical dispute over how to account for spending on veterans’ healthcare in an otherwise popular bipartisan bill has blown up into a high-profile, politicized controversy thanks to the unhelpful intervention of Jon Stewart. The comedian has gone on the warpath against Senate Republicans, in particular Sens. Ted Cruz (R–Texas) and Pat Toomey (R–Pa.), for […]
In this week’s Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Peter Suderman, and Nick Gillespie rail against the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. 1:00: Sens. Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) and Joe Manchin’s (D–W.Va.) Inflation Reduction Act. 29:28: Weekly Listener Question: The New York Times has been running an “I Was Wrong” series by its opinion columnists, […]
Complicated pieces of legislation rarely live up to the glitzy names scrawled across the first page. But even by that familiar standard, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 is going to disappoint anyone excited by its title. The bill, introduced last week after a long-awaited deal was struck between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) […]
The Federal Student Loan Program is often criticized as a source of revenue for the federal government. But a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) shows that the present situation can’t be further from the truth. When the Federal Direct Student Loan Program began in 1994, the Department of Education estimated that it would generate […]
Housing advocates and their Democratic allies in Congress are hopping mad that the reconciliation bill that the White House and congressional leadership have worked out with Sen. Joe Manchin (D–W.Va.) doesn’t include any more federal funds for housing. “The recent information about what has been made available in this deal…is shameful, I’m embarrassed by it. […]
After months of acrimonious infighting, Sen. Joe Manchin (D–W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) have reached a deal on a spending bill, portrayed as a means of fighting inflation, that will devote federal money to climate change initiatives, clean energy, and reducing the deficit. The spending bill, called the Inflation Reduction Act of […]
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–N.Y.) has reportedly brokered a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D–W.Va.) to pass a slimmed-down version of President Joe Biden’s spending plan—now to be marketed as an attempt to curb inflation. In a statement on Wednesday evening, Manchin announced The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a bill that the swing-vote […]