M/r Speaker, I rise today to support the Inflation Reduction Act.
I stood before you nearly a year ago, reciting the wisdom inscribed above you. The words of a son of Massachusetts.
"Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered."
The Inflation Reduction Act is something worthy of being remembered.
This transformative legislation is a historic win for families’ pocketbooks, for Americans’ health, and for our future climate security. And we fund these gains by ensuring that large, hugely profitable corporations will finally pay their fair share, just like American families do.
The Inflation Reduction Act will lower costs. For the first time, Medicare will negotiate drug prices, and there will be a cap on what comes out of Seniors' pockets for their life-saving prescriptions. No more rationing, or forgoing medicine.
We are also lowering health care costs for millions of low and middle-income Americans by extending the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credit enhancements through 2025. These enhanced premium tax credits, first enacted by the American Rescue Plan, have made way for record-low uninsured rates, and will continue to put hundreds of dollars back into the pockets of low- and middle-income families.
This legislation will also make the largest investment in tackling climate change our nation has ever seen. EVER. The investments in clean energy, energy efficiency and clean manufacturing will generate 9 million good paying jobs.
And these historic wins are achieved with sensible and responsible multiyear investment in the IRS and a down payment on tax fairness. We are finally undoing the consequences of Republican-funding levels and making way for a new era. One of better service for ALL Americans. One that ushers in tax fairness and holds the wealthiest taxpayers accountable.
We do this by simply asking the most profitable corporations to pay their fair share. This is what a full and fair tax administration is all about.
The American people have been through unthinkable hardship over the last two and a half years. But they entrusted President Biden and congressional Democrats to keep them safe and rebuild our economy.
We’ve bounced back faster than we ever could’ve imagined. All of the jobs lost have returned. Gas prices have fallen. Supply chains have been shored up, and retailers are starting to slash prices. Democrats have done this alone.
Today, you’ll hear a lot of Washington-speak from folks on the other side that would rather play politics than cap the cost of insulin for their constituents. They’d rather protect the pocketbooks of price-gouging prescription drug companies than cut costs for workers and their families. You’ll hear a lot of spin on a bill that has garnered widespread endorsements-even from bipartisan former Treasury Secretaries. But that’s because the opponents are out of options.
The Inflation Reduction Act sets our nation on a healthier, fairer, and more prosperous path.
We’ve heard the calls of the American people, and with the Inflation Reduction Act, we continue to win the moment for them.
I urge my colleagues to support this legislation and I reserve the balance of my time.
