On the recordAugust 12, 2022
I thank the ranking member for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to what the Democrats call the Inflation Reduction Act which is really the inflation expansion act. Americans are grappling with an economy in recession and the highest inflation that we have seen in 40 years. We are experiencing worker shortages, empty grocery shelves, and higher energy prices. Now Congressional Democrats are doubling down on this out-of-control spending that led to this economic crisis. This package that we are voting on today will raise taxes on hardworking, middle-class families. It will authorize 87,000 new IRS agents to target individuals and small businesses. It will reduce lifesaving healthcare innovation by allowing the government to impose price controls on drugs. It will hurt energy producers. And it will certainly worsen inflation. I am voting against this fundamentally flawed and defective package because families, farmers, and small businesses across west Tennessee and across the Nation need real solutions to these problems, not more taxes and not more government spending.
