By Talia Rosen ‘26 Congress has passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a $700 billion spending bill that seeks to mitigate the current inflation crisis through investments in infrastructure, green jobs, stimulus checks and tax collection. Many activists and experts believe that this bill could be a landmark in climate legislation and put the United States on track to meet its climate goals. However, others believe that the act will do little to actually tackle inflation.
The IRA is a 700-page document, detailing the Democrats’ many new goals and strategies, as negotiated by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a party stalwart, and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), who for the last couple years had been a dissenter from the Democratic-lead Senate and Biden Administration. “I definitely support the Inflation Reduction Act. I feel it is a necessary step to address the climate crisis,” said senior Daniel Shapiro. “Do I think it has enough funding dedicated to the climate crisis? No. Do I think it’s an important step in the right direction? Yes.” Some, however, feel that Senate Democrats failed to respond promptly when inflation was first ramping up. “I support what they’re trying to accomplish, but I do not support how they are executing it,” said sophomore Josh Raskin. “I just feel the way it was handled could have been better. They could have attacked this problem earlier.” Under the umbrella of climate policy in particular, the IRA focuses on granting money to climate infrastructure and technology projects and on giving tax credits to consumers to incentivize these changes. The act plans to give billions of dollars to help sustain nuclear power plants, which are far cleaner and safer than fossil fuels, while also funding home energy improvements to replace carbon-emitting appliances with environmentally friendly options. “It will help my grandma because it will help negotiate better prices for Medicare,” said sophomore Rachel Nadelmann. “It will also help [fight] global warming which will help my future and everyone’s.” The law also reforms tax collection by directing new funding to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), such that they can hire more employees. The IRA also implemented new taxes specifically on corporations that make over $1 billion in profit. With these new taxation policies, Senate Democrats hope to curb corporate profits at a time when many Americans are struggling to get by. A study examining 100 major corporations in the United States found that corporations saw a median 49% increase in profits from late 2021 to early 2022, during this period of peak inflation. Senators Schumer and Manchin hope that curbing excess profits for these companies will prevent price-gouging, lowering prices across the board and reducing inflation. President Biden has called the IRA “the single most important legislation passed in the congress to combat inflation.” However, many right-wing economic analysts argue that the law will have a very minor impact on current inflation rates. While every Congressional Democrat voted in favor of the IRA, it received no votes from the Republican senators. President Biden also recognized this polarity in his remarks, saying, "[A]ll the House and Senate Democrats who stood together and never, ever, ever gave up. This could not have happened without every single one of you — and that is in the literal sense — in the Senate. Every single one was required because the other team did not want to play." The Inflation Reduction Act will be hugely influential in both the US climate and economic policy for years to come, despite the intense partisan split in both the House and the Senate. Experts add that given the increasingly-catastrophic climate crisis and the highest inflation rates in 20 years, the law will likely put the United States on a safer track.
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