Republicans Are Rejoicing as They Gut a Bill That Benefits Red States
Republicans have described the “big, beautiful” megabill they’re currently attempting to pass as a way to end “Green New Deal–style waste” and “limit government spending to what actually helps Americans,” according to Brett Guthrie, the House Energy and Commerce Committee chair. The House’s Ways and Means Committee put its plans to ax the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate and energy programs under the heading “Working Families Over Elites.” The class warfare–style language is familiar. Over the last several years, the right has reliably leveraged its faux populism against Biden’s climate and energy measures: Tax cuts for the rich are “pro-growth, pro-family, and pro-America,” while the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, is “corporate welfare for progressive special interests.”
They’re lying about the content of their megabill, and they’re plain wrong that climate and energy spending benefits only the wealthy. The most bizarre thing about the GOP’s war on alleged climate elites getting rich off the IRA, however, is that the main beneficiaries of Joe Biden’s trademark legislative achievement have actually been Republicans. Nearly three-quarters of investments spurred on by that bill have flowed to states that voted to make Trump president; two-thirds of those funds have come in the form of private-sector investments incentivized by the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax breaks for zero-carbon energy, advanced manufacturing, and more. This week, as House Republicans decide how quickly and thoroughly to dismantle the so-called “green new scam,” the results will signal how committed GOP politicians are to snatching from their own constituents.
Top Republicans seem to have wagered that talking points about ending “handouts to Democrats’ climate activist cronies,” as Guthrie put it, could unite the caucus—and, importantly, inspire them to pass the bill quickly. Repealing the IRA—a rallying cry within the GOP—would serve as cover for huge and deeply unpopular cuts to Medicaid and other programs. Some Republicans have said they want to preserve IRA funds that have helped court billions of dollars’ worth of investments to their district. Others have argued that those cuts should go much further.
On Friday, the House Budget Committee voted against advancing the party’s tax-and-spend proposal. Republican hard-liners were demanding that even steeper cuts be made across the board before they were ready to vote for it, cuts that included a fuller, more immediate rollback of the Inflation Reduction Act. Late Sunday night, that bloc eventually relented, voting “present” so that the package could move forward. Still, the group signaled that they’d continue fighting to extract more concessions. It’s not clear exactly what those lawmakers got out of this weekend’s deal or what else they’ll demand, but Republicans appear poised to deal an even more critical hit to IRA incentives than those they’d proposed last week.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/republicans-rejoicing-gut-bill-benefits-185353206.html
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