Jesse Lee, a senior communications adviser to the National Economic Council, has no clue.
I say that because Lee jumped all over an assessment that is actually the complete opposite of everything that Democrats are touting about the new legislation put on the floor by Senators Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Manchin (D-W.V.).
Critics jumped all over it.
Dummy
Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi broke down the legislation that has been dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act.
Zandi stated, “Through the middle of this decade the impact of the legislation on inflation is marginal, but it becomes more meaningful later in the decade.”
Lee jumped all over this and added, “This is actually the overwhelming consensus.”
I am not sure if Lee realizes this, but that is not a good thing when the bill is being touted as an immediate inflation buster.
Not only that, but it is also far from the consensus, as most reports I have seen found that the bill will actually increase inflation over the next two years.
Andrew Quinn, a speechwriter for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wrote, “White House officials’ own rosiest, best-case-scenario spin is that their ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ will have taken one-third of one percentage point off inflation by nine years from now?”
Heritage Foundation’s spokesperson Jon Cooper added, “White House comms spiking the ball over a bill that doesn’t reduce inflation until 9 years from now.
“And keep in mind, this is obviously the best number they could come up with.”
Alex Muresianu, a federal policy analyst with the Tax Foundation stated that the bill would “reduce supply in the long-run by reducing incentives to invest, particularly for manufacturing firms.”
What happens when supply goes down? Prices go up.
He continued, “Meanwhile, on the demand-side, by taking money out of the economy, tax increases in excess of the spending attached could reduce inflation incrementally, but there are a couple problems.
“First, in the first couple years, the bill does not net reduce the deficit — most of the net reduction in the deficit over the ten-year window comes in later years.
“And second, the tax increases like the book minimum tax are not focused on taxpayers with high marginal propensity to consume, meaning the tax increase does not come with a particularly large reduction in aggregate demand.
“So, on the whole, we should expect the bill to have a negligible impact on inflation.
“The Federal Reserve’s choices will play a much bigger role in whether or not inflation subsides than whether or not this bill passes.”
Levon Galstyan, a Certified Public Accountant with Jersey City-based Oak View Law Group, concurred, stating, “A deterrent to output would be that manufacturers would pay around half of all new levies.
“The legislation would subject small businesses to a horde of tax enforcers, driving up prices and limiting their capacity to serve customers.”
Peter Morici, an economist and professor emeritus at the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, blasted the legislation and the Fed.
He stated, “One of the Fed bank presidents [Neel Kashkari of Minneapolis] came out [Sunday] morning … saying we’re going to get inflation down at 2%.
“If you believe that, then I want you to go to Yankee Stadium on Sunday afternoon and look for me playing shortstop.
“I’m 73 years old. I was a pretty damn good middle infielder, but I didn’t have much of a career because I never could hit the breaking ball.
“I mean, that’s as credible as I’m gonna play shortstop for the New York Yankees.”
We have two senators with a collective 12 years of business experience writing this legislation.
That 12 years all belongs to Manchin, who was a coal broker before entering politics.
So, let me ask you… just how much do you trust that “experience” to fix inflation when every decision they have made over the last 18 months, and for most of their careers, has been the wrong one?
Source: New York Post
