White House Chief Economist Cecilia Rouse was pressed about the so-called “Inflation Reduction Act” during an interview on CNN, in which she was unable to explain how the bill will actually reduce inflation.
Speaking to anchor Kate Bolduan on Wednesday, Rouse explained why Democrats named the bill as if it did.
“So this bill represents really important investments we know we need to make that help to expand our economic capacity. Inflation happens when we have too much demand for the supply, and we know we need to be investing in the supply supports so that we are better able as a country to address issues like inflation going forward,” Rouse responded.
Bolduan then followed up on the chief economist’s answer, asking how the newly passed reconciliation bill would offset soaring inflation numbers.
“Should voters measure the success of this bill on how much you reduce inflation in the next couple of years?” the anchor asked.
To which Rouse answered: “So this bill spins out over several years and so the tax provisions, for example, some of the tax revenue will happen immediately, some of the benefits in terms of deficit reduction will materialize over time. So, again, this is really an investment in our economy,” said Rouse, claiming the bill’s impact will occur in the future.”
Bolduan ended the interview by noting Democrats could have named this bill a number of other things that would have not been misleading.
Economic experts such as Steve H. Hanke are claiming that the Democrats’ plan will only raise taxes for years to come.
“The idea that it’s going to do anything with inflation is ridiculous… It will change the relative prices of different things — exactly how, I don’t know, because I haven’t gone through the 10,000-page thing. And it looks to me like it’s a tax increase bill,” Hanke said.
Over 200 economic experts also sent a letter to the House and Senate leadership, warning that the bill will fuel inflation, leaving Americans worse off than they were.
“[The act] inaptly named ‘Inflation Reduction Act of 2022’ would do nothing of the sort and instead would perpetuate the same fiscal policy errors that have helped precipitate the current troubling economic climate,” the letter read.
Additionally, a recent poll from the Economist/YouGov revealed that 36 percent of respondents believe that the bill would worsen current inflation numbers, while only 12 percent think that it will help lower costs.
