{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=0C0D2345-4C02-4AEA-83D3-BF27457AB1E5", "Thune: Two Years Since Democrats\u2019 \u201cInflation Reduction Act\u201d Deception", "2024-08-01", "2024", "2024-08", "Republican", "Senate", "SD", "John Thune", "T000250", "www.thune.senate.gov", "thune", "https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here to watch the video.\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) today spoke on the Senate floor about the two-year anniversary of the deceptively named Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s signature climate legislation. Thune noted that the law, made possible by Vice President Harris\u2019 tie-breaking vote, has added to the deficit and done nothing to mitigate inflation.\n\nThune\u2019s remarks below (as prepared for delivery):\n\n\u201cMr. President, in a couple of weeks we will mark the second anniversary of one of President Biden\u2019s signature measures \u2013 the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m sure the White House will be celebrating.\n\n\u201cBut Americans shouldn\u2019t be.\n\n\u201cBecause Democrats did the country no favors with this legislation.\n\n\u201cIn fact, the bill reads like a roster of bad Democrat policies.\n\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to know where to even begin.\n\n\u201cPerhaps with the bill\u2019s misleading \u2013 really, outright deceptive \u2013 title.\n\n\u201cDemocrats called the bill the Inflation Reduction Act \u2013 yet even before the bill had been signed into law, the nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model was noting that the bill\u2019s impact on inflation was, quote, \u2018statistically indistinguishable from zero.\u2019\n\n\u201cIn other words, the Inflation Reduction Act \u2026 would do nothing to reduce inflation.\n\n\u201cAnd President Biden confirmed this fact a year later when he noted, and I quote, \u2018Well, we\u2019ve put ourselves in a position where we passed the most comprehensive environmental piece of \u2014 it\u2019s called the \u201cInflation Reduction Act.\u201d \u2026 It has nothing to do with inflation.\u2019\n\n\u201cLet me just repeat that, Mr. President.\n\n\u201c\u2018[I]t\u2019s called the \u201cInflation Reduction Act.\u201d \u2026 It has nothing to do with inflation.\u2019\n\n\u201cPresident Biden\u2019s own words.\n\n\u201cWhy Democrats chose to name it that, when it had nothing to do with reducing inflation, is a good question.\n\n\u201cPerhaps it was to try to convince the American people \u2013 falsely \u2013 that Democrats were doing something to stem the historic inflation crisis they\u2019d created.\n\n\u201cOr perhaps it was to disguise the substance of what Democrats thought might otherwise be an unpopular bill.\n\n\u201cBut moving on, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cAnother Democrat selling point for the bill was its claim that it would reduce the deficit.\n\n\u201cBut that claim has proved to be just as hollow as the bill\u2019s title.\n\n\u201cThe cost of the bill\u2019s Green New Deal provisions has grown to such an extent that the bill will not only not reduce the deficit, it\u2019s now on track to add to it.\n\n\u201cThat\u2019s right.\n\n\u201cA bill Democrats touted for its deficit reduction is now predicted to actually add to the deficit.\n\n\u201cAnd speaking of the bill\u2019s Green New Deal provisions.\n\n\u201cAs the president himself admitted last year, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act was really a chance for Democrats to impose their Green New Deal fantasies.\n\n\u201cAnd so the bill contains things like $1.5 billion \u2013 billion \u2013 for a grant program to plant trees.\n\n\u201c$1 billion for zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles like garbage trucks.\n\n\u201c$3 billion for the U.S. Postal Service for zero-emission delivery vehicles.\n\n\u201c$1.9 billion for things like road equity and identifying gaps in tree canopy coverage.\n\n\u201cAnd at least $30 billion in climate slush funds \u2013 part of which was allocated for, among other things, climate-related political activity.\n\n\u201cYes, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cClimate-related political activity.\n\n\u201cBecause clearly families struggling with high grocery prices and high energy prices in the Biden-Harris economy are eager to see their tax dollars going to Green New Deal activism.\n\n\u201cThen of course there are the tax credits the bill provides for well-off Americans to purchase new electric vehicles.\n\n\u201cAnd much, much more.\n\n\u201cAll told, the climate- and energy-related provisions of the bill are now projected to cost American taxpayers in excess of $1 trillion.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I mentioned tax credits for electric vehicles.\n\n\u201cPerhaps the Biden administration\u2019s signature environmental measure has been attempting to force the widespread adoption of electric vehicles.\n\n\u201cThe Inflation Reduction Act tax credits are one part of this crusade.\n\n\u201cOthers include the final emissions rules the Biden administration released this spring that will have the practical effect of forcing car and truck companies to electrify a huge portion of their sales lots.\n\n\u201cAnd the big problem here, Mr. President, is that the president is attempting to force the adoption of his electric-vehicle fantasy at a time when our electric grid is barely keeping up with current demand.\n\n\u201cAn article in the Washington Post this March \u2013 entitled \u2018Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power\u2019 \u2013 noted, and I quote, \u2018Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation\u2019s creaking power grid.\u2019\n\n\u201cAnd that\u2019s our situation right now, Mr. President, without the incredible burden that would be added to our grid by a vast increase in the number of electric cars and trucks on the road.\n\n\u201cIf the president is successful in imposing a rapid and widespread increase in the number of electric vehicles, we are likely to be facing a situation where there is simply not enough power available to keep up with demand \u2013 with higher prices, electricity rationing, blackouts, and brownouts as the inevitable result.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I could go on for a while here about the strain the president is attempting to place on our electric grid \u2013 even as he seeks to weaken our already creaky grid even further with burdensome new regulations.\n\n\u201cAnd I could go on about the Inflation Reduction Act.\n\n\u201cI haven\u2019t even talked about the incredible amount of money Democrats funneled to the IRS through this legislation \u2013 the majority of it earmarked for increased audits and enforcement to help fund Democrats\u2019 Green New Deal fantasies.\n\n\u201cNor have I talked about the tax hikes the bill levies on conventional energy \u2013 which are doing no favors for Americans already beset by high energy bills in the Biden-Harris economy.\n\n\u201cAnd then there are the bill\u2019s price controls for prescription drugs, which will curtail medical innovation and the development of new medications.\n\n\u201cWhen the Biden administration originally proposed this policy, research from the University of Chicago projected that price controls on prescription drugs in Medicare would result in 135 fewer new drugs available to patients.\n\n\u201cAnd we have already seen those projections beginning to come to fruition, as multiple drug companies have halted research into new treatments as a result of the Inflation Reduction Act.\n\n\u201cBut I\u2019ll stop here, Mr. President.\n\n\u201cSuffice it to say that Democrats\u2019 so-called Inflation Reduction Act is a catalog of bad Democrat policies \u2013 from unrealistic Green New Deal measures to costly tax hikes to irresponsible spending.\n\n\u201cAnd unfortunately, if we end up with a President Harris next year, this legislation is likely a grim preview of more bad bills to come.\n\n\u201cMr. President, I yield the floor.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:41:32Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.thune.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=0C0D2345-4C02-4AEA-83D3-BF27457AB1E5"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 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