August, 12 2022, 05:50pm EDT
![Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)](https://assets.rbl.ms/32012691/origin.png)
CEPR Applauds Real Progress in the Inflation Reduction Act, Optimistic About the Future
The Center for Economic Policy and Research supports today's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) by Congress. This historic legislation will reduce the costs of health care, prescription drugs, and home energy bills while making real progress on climate change, creating millions of good jobs over the next decade, and making the tax code fairer.
WASHINGTON
The Center for Economic Policy and Research supports today's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) by Congress. This historic legislation will reduce the costs of health care, prescription drugs, and home energy bills while making real progress on climate change, creating millions of good jobs over the next decade, and making the tax code fairer.
Even as CEPR supports the passage of the IRA, much more is needed to address the overlapping crises of climate change, care, and inequality. And much more would have been done if the Senate had the two more votes necessary to approve the Build Back Better Act (BBB) passed by the House last year.
Our experts examine the possible impact the IRA will have on these three crises and beyond, while addressing where more action is needed. The passage of the IRA and the otherwise broad support for the earlier Build Back Better Act leaves us guardedly optimistic about the future.
Co-Director Mark Weisbrot sees the work ahead: "Of course, there is still more to be done, and with two more votes in the Senate, it would be. The original Build Back Better Act that passed the House would have produced even larger climate improvements and done much more to increase economic security.
"The historic nature of this moment is also seen in the Republican Party's unanimous opposition to the bill, and their failure to even put forth any alternative, as if the urgent, life-threatening problems addressed by this legislation did not exist. They even blocked the inclusion of a very reasonable cap on the cost of insulin for people with diabetes who have private insurance."
CLIMATE
"There's no doubt that the IRA is historic legislation, certainly the biggest the federal government has ever passed on climate, and will help to reduce carbon emissions in the US by 40 percent in 2030 (from 2005 levels)," said Weisbrot, addressing the impact the act will have on climate change.
"Key climate provisions include rebates, tax credits, and vastly increased government investment that will expand the use of electric vehicles, renewable energy for utilities, and make rooftop solar panels and energy efficiency more affordable. The bill also includes tens of billions of dollars for environmental justice. By 2030, it will save several thousand lives annually from the cleaner air that we will breathe, and will improve the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of people."
Director of Race and Economic Justice, Algernon Austin, highlights how the act increases environmental equity. "With daily news of floods, droughts, forest fires, and extreme heat--all exacerbated by climate change--it should be clear that everyone is at risk from more frequent and worsening natural disasters. It is also the case that climate change will cause disproportionate harm to low-income people and people of color residing in the lower half of the contiguous United States, Alaska, and Hawaii.
"The IRA's historic investments in climate change mitigation efforts will benefit all, but will be particularly important for people of color. The act also has specifically designated funding for disadvantaged communities. Thankfully, some of our elected officials take the climate change threat to people and the planet seriously."
Research Associate Hayley Brown expands on how the IRA's climate provisions will boost the labor market. "The IRA is an important step toward equitably addressing climate change. It will create millions of quality green jobs and substantially reduce economic burdens for working- class people and their families. Future legislators must move quickly to build on the IRA with steeper emissions cuts and additional protections for the most vulnerable during the transition. Lawmakers must also work swiftly to correct some of the IRA's more concerning elements. These include undue investment in additional fossil fuel infrastructure and insufficient protections for frontline and indigenous communities during the scaling up process for renewable energy, among others."
TAX FAIRNESS
"The tax provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act denote a historic turn in tax policy towards greater fairness," said Co-Director Eileen Appelbaum, addressing how the act will rein in Wall Street profiteers. "The near doubling of Internal Revenue Service staff, plus resources to upgrade IT capacity, means the agency will be able to investigate potential tax fraud in complex Wall Street firms. IRS campaigns to crack down on private equity firm's improper use of management fee waivers for investors and monitoring agreements with portfolio companies will no longer be stymied by a lack of resources.
"Unfortunately, the carried interest loophole for private equity billionaires and the exemption from the corporate minimum tax for some private equity-owned companies was blocked by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who got at least $2 million in donations from the securities and investment industry.
"Despite this, the IRA made a historic breakthrough in taxing the wealthy and encouraging good behavior. Top executives of publicly-traded companies will face a one percent tax on stock buybacks when they use company profits to increase the company's share price and enrich themselves instead of investing in technology, training, and raising workers' wages."
Senior Economist Dean Baker also sees increased fairness in the tax provisions of the IRA. "The increased funding for the IRS will reduce tax evasion by wealthy individuals and corporations. We are losing close to $600 billion a year ($6 trillion over a decade) in unpaid taxes. The overwhelming majority of working people in this country pay their taxes when they are deducted from their paycheck. It is time that we stop letting the wealthy get away with not paying the taxes they owe."
Brown applauds the increased IRS funding, but sees the need for increased funding in other departments. "The IRA's increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service will help ensure that wealthy individuals and corporations comply with federal tax law. But it is disappointing that similar, long-needed increases in funding to enforce federal employment standards and labor law weren't provided to the National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Labor."
HEALTH CARE
Baker calls the IRA "an important breakthrough in negotiating prescription drug prices in Medicare. The United States pays more than twice as much for prescription drugs as people in other wealthy countries. This is a step towards ending it."
Shawn Fremstad, Senior Policy Fellow, highlights the importance of provisions that will "lock in reductions in the cost of health insurance for more than 10 million people who purchase it through Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges."
CARE
Appelbaum, widely cited in discussions of national paid family and medical leave policy, was especially disappointed when the paid leave provisions of the act were dropped: "A disappointment is that the IRA omits the care economy. The US came very close to joining the rest of the industrialized world by enacting a national paid family and medical leave program. Not including a robust paid leave program as the nation continues to struggle with public health crises and in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade places unreasonable burdens on all workers and especially on low-income workers unlikely to have access to benefits through their jobs."
Fremstad shared that disappointment. "The IRA is a huge win for the planet and for America's diverse working class. At the same time, it is disappointing that the IRA does not include any expansion of social insurance, outside of the legislation's important health care reforms."
"The United States has lagged far behind other wealthy countries when it comes to providing essential family benefits like universal child allowances, paid leave, housing assistance, and home and community-based long-term care services. Benefits like unemployment insurance and Supplemental Security Income need to be modernized and improved. The failed Clinton-Gingrich "welfare reform" block grant (TANF) needs to be repealed and replaced. Going forward, Congress and the President need to build a comprehensive social security system that increases security, opportunity, and freedom for all of us."
Economist Julie Cai shares this view and notes that not including the BBB's universal childcare provision will "continue to depress US mothers' employment rates, and leave working-class mothers particularly vulnerable to economic insecurity."
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. In order for citizens to effectively exercise their voices in a democracy, they should be informed about the problems and choices that they face. CEPR is committed to presenting issues in an accurate and understandable manner, so that the public is better prepared to choose among the various policy options.
(202) 293-5380LATEST NEWS
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"This administration has chosen to uphold the status quo instead of listening to the diverse voices of staff urgently demanding freedom and justice for Palestinians."
Jul 02, 2024
A political appointee at the U.S. Interior Department on Tuesday became the youngest—and first Muslim American—appointee of President Joe Biden's to resign as his administration continues to "fund and enable Israel's genocide of Palestinians."
"Marginalized communities in our country have long been denied the justice they deserve. I joined the Biden-Harris administration with the belief that my voice and diverse perspective would lend a hand in the pursuit of that justice," Special Assistant and Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Maryam Hassanein, 24, said in a statement.
"However, over the past nine months of Israel's genocide in Gaza, this administration has chosen to uphold the status quo instead of listening to the diverse voices of staff urgently demanding freedom and justice for Palestinians," she added. "I am resigning today from my position as a Biden administration appointee in the Department of the Interior."
Hassanein toldHuffPost that she decided to resign because "I came to understand that even if the agency I'm working at is not producing foreign policy, serving in the administration in any capacity does essentially make you complicit in the genocide of the Palestinians."
Palestine defenders applauded Hassanein's resignation—which made her at least the 11th American official to step down over U.S. support for Israel's war on Gaza, according to HuffPost.
"We welcome this principled resignation by another Biden administration official who took up their post believing they could help the nation, but instead realized they were becoming complicit in the administration's enabling of the far-right Israeli government's genocide in Gaza," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
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The Biden administration has been Israel's staunchest supporter, even after 270 days of what United Nations officials, human rights experts, and countries led by South Africa in an International Court of Justice case all call a genocidal assault on Gaza's 2.3 million people. Despite this, Biden has approved billions of dollars in military assistance and provided diplomatic support for Israel.
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Breaking with many of his fellow Democrats, Maine Congressman Jared Golden suggested Tuesday that former Republican President Donald Trump's return to the White House wouldn't threaten U.S. democracy—and was sharply ridiculed for that take.
"After the first presidential debate, lots of Democrats are panicking about whether President Joe Biden should step down as the party's nominee," Golden wrote in a Bangor Daily News op-ed. "Biden's poor performance in the debate was not a surprise. It also didn't rattle me as it has others, because the outcome of this election has been clear to me for months: While I don't plan to vote for him, Donald Trump is going to win. And I'm OK with that."
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The backlash to Golden's op-ed was swift and strong, with Fordham University assistant political science professor Jacob Smith calling it "one of the most irresponsible things a Democratic member of Congress has written in recent memory."
Veteran journalist Mark Jacob said on social media that "Congressman Jared Golden, an alleged Democrat from Maine, waves the white flag against Trump in an unconscionable surrender to fascism. Maybe he thinks he can cut a deal. The cowards and quislings are making themselves known."
Some critics highlighted that the U.S. Supreme Court's right-wing supermajority—which includes three Trump appointees—ruled Monday that Trump, and anyone else who occupies the Oval Office, has absolute immunity for "official acts." In her dissent, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that "the president is now a king above the law."
Trump celebrated the ruling and reportedly is prepared to embrace his expanded powers if he wins in November. The high court decision also jeopardizes Trump's recent felony conviction and three pending cases against him, including two that stem from his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
"Jared Golden's op-ed today may be one of the worst takes we've seen so far, particularly in light of the Supreme Court's decision yesterday," declared Young Democrats of America president Quentin Wathum-Ocama. "I'm astounded that the congressman has such an absurdly bad take and is apparently ready to give up on an election five months out."
Some journalists and Republicans suggested that Golden's op-ed may be politically motivated, considering the makeup of his district. His GOP challenger, former NASCAR driver Austin Theriault, said: "This is a very phony attempt to avoid accountability. Simple questions for Jared Golden: Does he support Joe Biden for president or not? Does Golden believe Biden is mentally competent or not? He won't say, because he puts politics ahead of Mainers."
Golden, who co-chairs the Blue Dog Coalition, has a history of voting with Republicans on various climate, military, and student debt relief policies. His new opinion piece provoked calls for members of his own party to identify and rally around a write-in candidate "so Maine Democrats have an actual Democratic option in November."
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If elected this year, Trump is also expected to pursue the policy agenda of the Heritage Foundation-led 2025 Presidential Transition Project—or Project 2025—which the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism has described as a "far-right playbook for American authoritarianism."
Congressman Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) said Tuesday that "Project 2025 is a threat to our nation. The conservative radical plan rolls back rights for everyone and allows blatant discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community. It's sickening, and we must do everything to prevent this destructive plan and Donald Trump at all costs."
Biden's poor performance in the debate with Trump last week has prompted some supporters to reaffirm the importance of his reelection, given the alternative, and others to suggest that he should be replaced ahead of the Democratic convention next month.
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas became the first Democrat in Congress to suggest that Biden should step aside.
"Too much is at stake to risk a Trump victory—too great a risk to assume that what could not be turned around in a year, what could not be turned around in the debate, can be turned around now," Doggett said. "President Biden saved our democracy by delivering us from Trump in 2021. He must not deliver us to Trump in 2024."
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The Juneau ice field is melting at a rate of 50,000 gallons per second and is possibly heading "beyond a dynamic tipping point," a new study says.
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The melting of Alaska's Juneau ice field—which contains more than 1,000 glaciers—is accelerating and could reach a tipping point much sooner than predicted, according to research published Tuesday.
The study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that ice loss from the Juneau ice field began accelerating rapidly after 2005.
The paper's authors found that "rates of area shrinkage were five times faster from 2015-2019 than from 1979-1990," while glacier volume loss—which had remained relatively consistent from 1770-1979—doubled after 2010.
"Forty years from now, what is it going to look like? I do think by then the Juneau ice field will be past the tipping point."
"Thinning has become pervasive across the icefield plateau since 2005, accompanied by glacier recession and fragmentation," the study states. "As glacier thinning on the plateau continues, a mass balance-elevation feedback is likely to inhibit future glacier regrowth, potentially pushing glaciers beyond a dynamic tipping point."
Study lead author Bethan Davies, a glaciologist at Newcastle University in England, said in a statement, "It's incredibly worrying that our research found a rapid acceleration since the early 21st century in the rate of glacier loss across the Juneau ice field."
"Alaskan icefields—which are predominantly flat, plateau icefields—are particularly vulnerable to accelerated melt as the climate warms since ice loss happens across the whole surface, meaning a much greater area is affected," Davies continued. "Additionally, flatter ice caps and icefields cannot retreat to higher elevations and find a new equilibrium."
"As glacier thinning on the Juneau plateau continues and ice retreats to lower levels and warmer air, the feedback processes this sets in motion is likely to prevent future glacier regrowth, potentially pushing glaciers beyond a tipping point into irreversible recession," she added.
Study co-author Mauri Pelto, a professor of environmental science at Nichols College in Massachusetts, toldThe Associated Press that the Juneau ice field is melting at a rate of about 50,000 gallons per second.
"When you go there the changes from year to year are so dramatic that it just hits you over the head," Pelto said. "In 1981, it wasn't too hard to get on and off the glaciers. You just hike up and you could you could ski to the bottom or hike right off the end of these glaciers. But now they've got lakes on the edges from melted snow and crevasses opening up that makes it difficult to ski."
As the AP reported:
Only four Juneau ice field glaciers melted out of existence between 1948 and 2005. But 64 of them disappeared between 2005 and 2019, the study said. Many of the glaciers were too small to name, but one larger one, Antler glacier, "is totally gone," Pelto said.
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Pelto said that "the tipping point is when that snow line goes above your entire ice field, ice sheet, ice glacier, whichever one."
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It's not just Alaska. Glaciers around the world—from Greenland to Switzerland to Africa and the Himalayas—are melting at an alarming rate. The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization warned in 2022 that glaciers in one-third of the 50 UNESCO World Heritage sites where they are found are on pace to disappear by 2050—even if planet-heating emissions are curbed.
Another study published last year by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Alaska found that even if humanity manages to limit planetary heating to 1.5°C above preindustrial temperatures—the more ambitious goal of the Paris agreement—half of Earth's glaciers are expected to melt by the end of the century.
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