AMAC Exclusive – By Shane Harris
In news that sent shockwaves through the political world, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin announced late Wednesday evening that they had reached an agreement on a sweeping reconciliation package, suddenly reviving large portions of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” agenda. Revealed just hours before Q2 GDP data showed Thursday that the U.S. economy is indeed in a recession (despite a desperate scramble by the Biden administration to redefine the term), the new framework increases the tax burden on Americans by hundreds of billions of dollars, likely worsening the nation’s economic outlook – and perhaps sealing Democrats’ electoral fate in the process.
After Manchin killed Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” bill last year, the West Virginia Democrat had repeatedly quashed talk of a “comeback” for Biden’s signature domestic spending plan, insisting that “there’s not a Build Back Better revival.” Conventional wisdom in Washington held that Manchin, Schumer, and Biden would agree to a far narrower package centered on lowering prescription drug costs and expanding Obamacare subsidies. But in a surprise move, Manchin signaled his approval of a far more extensive package officially titled the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.”
The largest spending category in the legislation by far is “energy security and climate change,” coming in at $369 billion. The bill promises to reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, provide subsidies and tax breaks for electric vehicles, and more rigorously enforce environmental regulations – all major provisions of the original Build Back Better Act.
The “trade-off” here, according to Democrats and Manchin specifically, is that the bill supposedly makes investments in domestic energy production, including fossil fuels. But exactly what those investments are is unclear. The legislation does call for “comprehensive Permitting reform legislation to be passed before the end of the fiscal year,” but fails to specify what such reform would look like, or how it would increase domestic energy production. Moreover, with a four-seat Democrat margin in the House, it seems a virtual certainty that the Congressional Progressive Caucus would have the votes to kill legislation perceived as benefitting oil, gas, and coal companies, even if Schumer can keep every Senate Democrat in line.
Of primary concern for most Americans, however, should be the bill’s tax provisions.
A one-page summary of the legislation claims that it includes “no new taxes on families making $400,000 or less and no new taxes on small businesses.” That may be technically true – but as is so often the case with liberal legislation, the devil is in the details. Instead of introducing new taxes, the bill promises to raise hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue (taxes) by “closing loopholes” and “enforcing the tax code.” In other words, while millions of Americans won’t be paying any “new” taxes, the amount that they actually fork over to the federal government at the end of each year will be higher. Democrats believe, for example, they can raise $124 billion solely from “IRS tax enforcement” – government speak for targeting businesses with audits.
The new taxes that the bill imposes on businesses and wealthy individuals – most notably a 15% corporate minimum tax on large companies – are also likely to kill jobs and hamper economic growth. While Schumer and Manchin are hiding behind the now-familiar Democrat talking point of making everyone “pay their fair share,” that sentiment won’t change the fact that when businesses are taxed more, they will cut jobs, particularly with the country entering a recession.
With Schumer aiming for a vote on the bill next week using the budget reconciliation process (which allows Democrats to pass legislation with a simple majority rather than the normal 60 votes) there is little Republicans can do to stop it. Although conservatives have quickly slammed the plan, the announcement appears to have caught GOP leadership largely off guard. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had pledged just weeks ago that Republicans would not help Democrats pass a substantial semiconductor manufacturing bill “as long as Democrats are pursuing a partisan reconciliation bill.” But just hours after 17 Senate Republicans voted with Democrats to pass that legislation on Wednesday, the Inflation Reduction Act was officially introduced.
Nonetheless, passing this legislation would still be a great risk for Democrats. Regardless of how they try and spin it, the bill will increase the tax burden on millions of Americans in the middle of a recession and just months before an election. When Republican President Herbert Hoover made a similar move nearly a century ago by signing the Revenue Act of 1932, it deepened the Great Depression and ushered in two decades of uninterrupted Democrat control of Washington. Now, Joe Biden, Joe Manchin, and the rest of the Democratic Party appear poised to make a similar mistake.
Shane Harris is a writer and political consultant from Southwest Ohio. You can follow him on Twitter @Shane_Harris_
Yea, raising taxes will soften inflation. It coincidentally raises the wealth of the DemocRats and the control of the economy to the DemocRats at their whim. For the life of me, I can’t understand why a huge majority of American citizens are more vocal and ragingly critical of the DemocrRat party and the Biden administration. The DemocRats are shadow Communistic basturds. I feel the Constitutional Democracy of this Nation slipping away. Elections do matter, and rigged elections can and likely will produce severe governance problems. And so it has been with the election of Joe Hidin’ Biden.
No, with no 1 working cant pay taxes, save sales tax.
Everyone loses
Here, is what Democrats are good for, Tax, Spend and Regulate Freedom, Tax, Spend and Regulate Freedom, Tax, Spend and Regulate Freedom, Tax, Spend and Regulate Freedoms, On and ON and ON!
God Help America!
I wonder what Joe Manchin received under the table to go along with Schumer.
How about naming all the republicans that voted for this nonsense?
manhin IS NOW ON soros’s PAYROLL; SURPRISED IT TOOK SO LONG
libs=CANCER
There were many who said that they would trust Joe Manchin and cast a vote for him because he stood up to the Left.
Manchin, next to John Kerry, is the poster child for flip-flopping sooner or later. He has quite an extensive history of doing this sort of thing. So, why would anyone actually believe that this guy was going to straighten up and fly right?
It cannot be said enough that as long as one rolls the dice on putting their faith and trust in a Democrat (or RINO) politician, sooner or later one finds themselves in a hole somewhere that is totally undesirable to be in.
Hell never sleeps
Something changed Joe Manchin’s mind. You have to wonder if he was personally threatened in such a way to make him knuckle under. He was the one piece of sanity in that den of vipers. Mark my words, Build Back Better is just the latest term for New World Order. Think about it … to build something back “better” you have to destroy something current first. Looks like it’s our economy that’s the something “current”.
Even Obama stated that raising taxes during a recession makes no sense, however, now the Marxist Democrats are planning to do just that. This is another indication that the Democrats do not care how much Americans suffer. The Democrats are dangerous ideologues who have totally lost their ability to help keep the USA secure and strong.
There is no mistaking the signals are all there for a defeat of the bill. I hope something stops the freight train of bad plans for America.
When will more citizens finally get on board with the Article V Convention of States to keep politicians from raising taxes at their whim, printing more money, and spending as if it already were what they are making our hard earned dollars to be – monopoly money. We need to put some teeth in our Constitution: balanced budget every year or the party that violates it is out, politicians don’t get to vote their own pay raises, politicians should only get paid an extra $5,000past the average U.S. citizens annual income not $175,000, all tax raises should require a national approval election, no more Federal Reserve Bank that causes the steady up and down as well as recessions, major cuts of wholesale government departments of a federal government that has become so large that we can no longer afford it, term limits – one and done, 4 years only so choose if you want to be a representative, senator, or president, no legal immunity, no special benefits, no lifetime pensions, no lobbying income, no insider trading, no getting rich, you serve and go home, and before you leave there will be an audit. No political action committees, and other organizations to run campaigns that serve as strawman organizations for big billionaires to funnel billions into buying themselves an election, while Joe Average ends up in jail like Dinesh D’Souza for exceeding the limit by $2,700; maybe even no parties so the average Joe can afford to run again, and the public will have to vote on character and program instead of nothing meaning party labels that fool us every time because the left owns a good portion of GOP politicians by now. Most of all we need the Stare Decisis Constitution that weighs several hundred pounds by now and SCOTUS is using instead of the actual U,S. Constitution you can fit in your pants back pocket to be retired and the actual U.S. Constitution to be used solely again. It is not the Constitution, or the founders vision that has failed us. it is the creeping greed for power, money, and appetite for corruption of our politicians, parties, and unelected, lifetime appointed, untouchable bureaucrats that has gotten us into this mess, the Article V Convention of States is the peaceful way to fix this.
These fools will never stop. They only play little games with each other and call it making a living and governing.
Once again Mitch McConnell has gotten played by the Democrats. What did McConnell think that Schumer and Manchin were huddled in meetings about for the last two weeks? McConnell gave the go ahead for 16 Republicans in the Senate to vote for the completely unnecessary and inflationary $280 billion dollar Chips Bill, which cleared the way for this $746 billion dollar reconciliation bill (the so-called “skinny” BBB Bill) to be brought up and likely passed by unanimous Democrat support in the Senate. That’s another $1.3 trillion dollar spending extravaganza that will lead to higher inflation, higher taxes, higher national debt, and higher borrowing costs and less business growth in the United States. Which leads to less jobs, higher unemployment, and an overall lower standard of living for Americans going forward. All while Mitch is left looking like a confused deer staring into the headlights of an oncoming 18 wheeler once again.
By the way, McCarthy hasn’t covered himself in glory with the Chips Bill either. When I last checked, 25 Repubicans in the House voted for that piece of garbage. This is the GOP leadership that is supposed to save the American people from the socialist agenda? I don’t think so. Not if these two RINOs are in charge of Congress.
Oh and yes Manchin got exactly what he wanted to make it appear West Virginia got something substantial out of the BBB Bill he’s now agreed to vote for, so he can go home and tout about “bringing home the bacon”. So the Democrats look like heroes to their voting bas, while the Republicans, at least the RINOs of the group, once again look like the spineless, clueless idiots many of them are.
The middle class, lower middle class, and working poor will pay and pay more; they will NOT get the money from the rich. The middle class is a huge number of taxpayers, but shrinking. Politicians will squeeze until it falls apart. You see we work for them…………………….
“reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030” – isn’t carbon (CO2) the life blood of all things green! The forests, the pastures that neuroses the cattle and other animals..
Does this really surprise anyone that Joe Manchin along with the Rhino Republicans, including Mitch McConnell also supporting this? It’s time to vote them all out of office!
No tax on working folks and small business??? INFLATION is a tax!! Now with this crap, we will once again get screwed by leftist!!! How long is it going to take Democrat voters to realize that Democrats DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU!!! They only care about themselves, their power and how they can keep it!!
This proposed legislation is obviously destructive and cannot stand…we need an AMAC-developed letter that members can e-mail to our respective Senators and Congressperson ASAP urging them to vote against the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. .
Joe Manchin is a TRAITOR!!! He has a black heart and a black tongue…he certainly does a good job of licking Chuckie Schumer’s boots! What a sellout to the American People.Tbh hee
People that make 400 k has ways of tying up their money so they pay very little tax. Blame Congress . They make the ruls. Maby one day the DEMS. subjects will see the truth. Glad I doint make but 380 K a year. I’m just one stepnahead of poverty. Kyle L.
This was the foreign, freaking Communist muslim’s big lie… You can spend your way out of debt, a recession, trouble……etc.
It’s ALWAYS been a lie.
This is the same old same old demonRat Communist playbook:
Tax & Spend.
It never changes.
Manchin did his usual. Talk a good game but ALWAYS vote with leadership.
I don’t believe he’s ever broken this bad habit. Thanks for further damaging the US Manchin……
As far as I’m aware, NOBODY in the Biden administration has REAL experience in the real world. They are all politicians or “eggheads.” Buttgig is a failed mayor of a middle-sized city, Becerra has ZERO healthcare experience, “doctor” Levine is obviously not mentally sound, etc.
The Communists – er, I mean the Democrats – are desperate to extort more money from the working people so they can buy more votes for themselves from those who refuse to work.
We cannot allow ourselves to believe for even a moment there is even one single thing our current communist regime (democrat party) wants to do that will ease the burden on taxpayers or ease the pain ordinary citizens have endured the last 2.5 years. Did Venezuela’s government try to reduce the starvation and destruction of their citizens as they turned socialist? Nope. The Venezuelans ended up using their paper money for toilet paper and ate their cats and dogs. (They became socialist after a stolen election using Dominion voting machines) Sound familiar?
We cannot allow ourselves to believe there will be mercy or mitigation from the biden regime. We already have trucking companies who cannot afford to deliver goods. We have big food production plants mysteriously catching fire. We have massive kill-offs of chickens and apparently cattle. We have crops not being planted because of diesel prices to run farm machinery and a lack of fertilizer we foolishly import instead of making our own.
We have the DC elite screaming about “monkeypox” and the need to lock us down again. Hidden inside some Pfizer documents is a list of “adverse events of special interest”, which means really bad side effects. Surprise! A known adverse effect is “Autoimmune Blistering Disease”! Wow! That sounds like “monkeypox” to me.
To put the cherry on top, we are now being flooded with hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants who bring absolutely nothing and who expect us to provide absolutely everything for them. Ya think having all those hungry mouths to feed doesn’t further damage our food supply? How much of our tax money do you think it takes to put them all in hotels, give them iPhones, provide medical care and housing? We still have US Veterans living on our streets while we put illegals in hotels.
Then again, I am just a crazy old conspiracy-theory spouting madwoman yelling out in the desert.
Can ths bill be shot down?
This legislation also includes $124 billion to IRS ENFORCEMENT! And $64 Billion for ACA subsidies extension. It will devastate Small pass through businesses as well as the 15% minimum Corporate tax which will be passed onto consumers during inflation and a Recession! DEMOCRAT STUPIDLY GONE WILD ONCE AGAIN!
We must all vow and teach our offspring never again to allow the Demrats to control all three at the same time, or ideally any one of House, Senate and Presidency. We’ve seen their ultimate agenda and know it’s totally destructive.
The DemocRats always want to raise taxes …. they never push cutting government spending (a large fraction of which is inefficient, politically self-serving, and unConstitutional).
Schumer shut down Manchins independence and whip him into line. WV needs better. Someone who will stand for the people and stop needlessly pissing away taxpayers money.
But…we were promised NO new taxes if you make under $400,000.00. Joeblow is a f-ing LIAR.
It appears that Manchin’s flip comes as a surprise to more than a few. This is not a completely done deal yet and many provisions are over a 10 year period – things can change.
Manchin turned out to be just another FRIGGING dumb Democrat!!
Regarding taxes; can you spell D-U-M-B-A-S-S-E-S?
I’m waiting to hear how they explain it when we hit 15% inflation, a major recession, and 15% unemployment along with how we handle the costs of a few extra million people.
Do you believe Bowser asking for FEDERAL help with illegals? LMAO squared.
Tax and Spend, this is and has been the Federal government officials model since I started voting in 1979.
democrats teach our kids how to Lie and Cheat….
Ok, Schumer, just try raising our taxes. What goes around comes around and it will hit your Democrats like a brick wall.
The American public are partly to blame for allowing the democraptic party to destroy our Constitution, Bill of Rights, Rule of Law, our Sovereignty, and our Freedoms. Stop
Manchin must be planning to retire because after this traitorous vote, he will be toast to his constituents. Unfortunately he isn’t up for re-election this year but will be in 2024. Watch, he will not run again.
When they whisper and turn their back on us… LOOK OUT!!
I was censored by AMAC yesterday, so we are unable to truthfully speak about our corrupt nation and what a Patriot should do to stop this nonsense.
One thing about these scumbag dems/libs – they are very creative!!! brandon said no new taxes but then it caused the price of everything to skyrocket which is just as good as a tax increase. Now the idiots are going to raise corporate taxes. Someone please explain to these morons, corporations do not pay taxes!!! They simply pass the tax off as a tax increase on everyone!!!!!
There goes our energy bills!
Republicans are surprised? Why? Manchin is a DEMOCRAT… What’s to trust? Its the old joke: “how do you know a Democrat is lying? Their lips are moving…”
My question is who do the ocare subsidies benefit? Americans or illegals?
My only question is, why can’t the so called educated die hard democrats see that their party is deliberately destroying America? How can they think that this will be a benefit to us or the world. I know about the one-world system that is coming, but the supporters of the “new world order” won’t like what they get and our nation will be no more.
Joe Manchin exact word in 2010:”I don’t think during a time of recession you mess with any of the taxes or increase any taxes.”
He’s a traitor all right, not just to the hard working people of West Virginia, but to the entire nation. How much was he paid for his vote, and what about Sinema.
There is no need to continue redistributing the tax dollars of working American citizens to those who are not contributing to society. What we need is to greatly reduce how much an over bloated government spends and reduce its size.
Inflation Reduction Act of 2022? BALONEY! Just like every other monstrosity passed by democrats in Congress (the community reinvestment act of 2009 and the Affordable Care Act are just two examples of this), this bill will NOT do what Congress says it will. This bill will make inflation worse because whatever costs corporations won’t be able to lower by cutting jobs will be passed down to the consumers in the form of higher prices than we’re currently paying. As for the claim that this bill will force the wealthy to “pay their fair share”, what exactly does Congress consider the wealthy’s “fair share” to be? The tax hikes in this bill could not come at a worse time because (despite the denials of the Biden administration), this country has just entered into a recession. The democrats used to say that you don’t raise taxes during a recession and this bill does exactly that. The so-called “investments” in clean energy that this bill provides for will only result in even higher energy costs than we currently have at a time when we can least afford them. This bill, in addition to being a tax and spend monstrosity, which is bad enough, is also a green new deal boondoggle which rips off this country’s taxpayers.