And in particular for pbms. Even while the Majority Party has decided to pursue a purely partisan bill in secret over the past 20 months, ive continued to meet with democrats and republicans to advance a bipartisan and negotiated bill. I would prefer a bipartisan bill to pass the United States senate. We could still pass the Prescription Drug pricing reduction act. My colleagues know it. Several of them have thanked me publicly on my bipartisan work to lower Prescription Drug prices. Sadly, the Majority Party has chosen a different route. Chief chosen a bill that con glains zero, zero contains zero, zero pbm accountability. It gives middle men a pass. Theyve chosen a bill that contains none of the 25 accountability and transparency provisions that had bipartisan consensus in my bill. Finally, one last thing i would like to address about my colleagues reckless tax and spending. Ive heard some of my colleagues on the other side say this bills Prescription Drug provision is what ive described today as grassleywyden. This is untrue. This is a reckless taxandspending bill. Its not bipartisan, and no reporter should accept or repeat that notion. I oppose the partisan bill because its a long list of reckless tax increases and spending. Its not a bipartisan Prescription Drug bill that passed out of finance committee 199. I will file the Prescription Drug pricing reduction act as an amendment today. We could strike and replace this reckless taxandspending spree with comprehensive drug pricing reform that could garner more than 60 votes and lower drug prices while Holding Big Pharma and pbms accountable. We could actually enact meaningful accountability and transparency in the pharmaceutical industry. I will file that amendment as well. We could pursue pbm transparency and accountability. And ill file that amendment as well. Ive said throughout this congress i will work with anyone who wants to pass the bipartisan negotiated Prescription Drug pricing reduction act. To continue on the bill today, the democrats most recent reckless taxandspending spree suffers from some serious policy whiplash. Just last week, all by one democrat voted to provide nearly 80 billion in subsidies to some of the largest and most profitable corporations in the world. The goal then was to make america a more favorable business environment, to attract investments from a critical industry. But mere hours later they unveiled a huge tax hike on domestic manufacturing. Democrats tried to justify this 180degree policy turn by claiming their tax hike is necessary to make corporations, quote unquote, pay their fair share. However, this claim is laughable. Given the socalled chipsplus bill, nearly all democrats enthusiastically supported last week. As i pointed out at that time, the chipsplus bill ensures many large, very profitable Semiconductor Manufacturers will pay zero tax, or even receive payments from the irs exceeding any tax liability. Yet senator sanders was the only democrat to express any concern about these Profitable Companies paying nothing in taxes. Under the democrats socalled book minimum tax, large, profitable corporations favored by democrats can still escape paying any federal tax. While they claim their reckless taxandspending bill will ensure Companies Pay their fair share, they include carveouts and expanded subsidies for their favorite industries. For example, business tax credits are carved out from democrats book minimum tax, including a myriad of souped up Green Energy Tax breaks. This is despite the fact that research by the liberal institute on taxation and Economic Policy confirms these credits are a significant reason why seemingly Profitable Companies pay little or no tax. The democrats bill not only carves out certain tax credits, it doubles down with 270 billion in Corporate Tax subsidies in the name of their Green New Deal agenda. Along with a new provision that allows Green Energy Developers to sell their credits to others, a host of businesses and industries will be able to use this new loophole to pay little or no tax. This could include financial institutions, private equity firms, tech firms, and wealthy private investors. Democrats message to the Business Community is very clea, democrataligned green energy industry, you have nothing to worry about. Paying your fair share of taxes is optional. But if you are a domestic techile or textile or electronic manufacturer, prepared to be taxed into submission. This mindset is especially concerning given our increasingly fragile economy. Late last week we learned our economy contracted for the second straight quarter, indicating, as we know, were in a recession. The last thing businesses and families need right now are tax hikes and a rash of poorly vetted policies creating even more confusion and uncertainty in the economy. Nonpartisan analyses by the joint committee on taxation, an outside group, show this is exactly what democrats are offering. During the election, democrats promised not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than 400,000, but the joint committee on taxation confirms their proposal does exactly the opposite. For 2023 alone, democrats propose a 17 billion tax hike on families and individuals making less than 200,000. While democrats tax hike hit americans of all incomes, their proposed benefits are targeted at a privileged few, like helping wealthy americans purchase 80,000 electric suvs. According to joint committee on taxation, the original version of their bill had a whopping 155 billion tax hike on defense manufacturing stemming from their socalled book minimum tax. The National Association of manufacturers estimated this tax hike would cost more than 200,000 jobs, reduce labor income by 17 billion, and reduce gdp by nearly 70 billion. Now, i understand senator sinema has since secured changes to the book minimum tax that may lessen the burden on defense manufacturing. However, even if we assume all the relief secured by senator sinema accrues to manufacturers, the bestcase scenario is manufacturers will still see 100 billion increase tax hit. Democratic inflation act still throws bluecollar workers overboard for their Green New Deal. The democrats war on manufacturing is mindboggling. Members of both parties have stressed a need to reshore manufacturing to address supply chain i did ruptions and de disruptions and delink from china for National Security reasons. Saddling manufacturers with a giant tax bill will hurt, not help, our efforts. Targeting manufacturers for tax hikes makes even less sense in the face of our surging inflation. Democrat tax hikes will curtail investment necessary to increase the supply of goods needed to meet consumer demands. This mi match between supply ann supply and demand is what is actually driving our inflation. The potential harm to our economy is underscored by penn whartons analysis of the democrats reckless taxandspending spree. They called out the novelty and uncertainty surrounding democrats book minimum tax, saying more work is needed to understand its impact on Capital Market efficiency in the economy. Penn whartons analysis also shows democrats proposals will do nothing to bring down inflation and is more likely to make inflation worse in the near term. Essentially, democrats are gambling on untested and unproven policies, while our economy is in recession, real wages are falling, and inflation is soaring. The truth is democrats reckless taxandspending spree is bad for jobs, bad for the economy, and wont do anything to address what iowans care about most, the rising cost of inflation. I urge my democrats to rethink your approach. Stop gambling with our nations economy. I yield the floor. A senator madam president. The presiding officer the senator from minnesota. Ms. Smith madam president , i ask unanimous consent that there be a period of morning business for debate only until 4 30 p. M. With senators permitted to speak therein for up to ten minutes each, and senator schumer be recognized at 4 30 p. M. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Barrasso madam president. The presiding officer the senator from wyoming. Mr. Barrasso thank you, mr. President. Madam president , last year democrats in this body passed a party line spending bill, and they spent us into recordhigh inflation. Ever since then, this is nothing but bad news for the working families of this country. We have seen the worst inflation in 40 years. Prices have gone up faster than wages, month after month after month, 15 months in a row now. Prices up faster than wages. Now democrats inflation has caused a recession. As a result, working families are finding it much harder to get by. They cant keep up. The average family can afford less today than they could the day that joe biden took office. Much less. The savings rate hasnt been this low since the great recession. People are having to spend their savings. Credit card debt is at an alltime high. But the worst gut punch is about to happen right now, making all the pain the americans have suffered now extend for a longer period of time. Democrats pass this bill on the floor today, this inflation crisis is going to get worse. For weeks there have been rumors that democrats were working, hidden behind closed doors, on another reckless taxandspending bill. The American People knew it would be bad, and the bill were looking at now is worse than expected. Of course, the democrats wrote it in secret. They didnt want the American People to know what was inside it. Now here we are, late on a saturday afternoon, the democrats are trying to cram it through before people even get to read it. Members of my party were wanting to read it earlier today. It wasnt even available. Likely because it wasnt even written yet. I understand its over 700 pages long. An earlier version i saw 725 pages with a cost of over 1 billion a page. Democrats call it their bill that they intend to try to use to reduce inflation, but the more likelihood is that it will lead to doubledigit inflation. Havent seen that since jimmy carter was in the white house. The Wharton School of business does a budget model. It says that this bill, from everything they read so far, will actually increase inflation for the next two years. Its bad enough for the murp American People today. They cant put up with it for another two years. Im told the wharton analysis is usually the Economic Analysis that the senator from West Virginia, joe manchin, uses. Well, i hope that senator manchin and every member of this body Pay Attention to that wharton study. A chorus of economists is saying the exact same thing as the experts are telling us from wharton. There is a Nonpartisan Group called the tax foundation, and it says, quote, this bill may actually worsen inflation. Worsen inflation. Thats why i say were looking at the possibility of doubledigit inflation. Its 9. 1 now. Democrats favorite economist, mark zandi, says that the bill would almost have no effect on inflation. How is it going to lower inflation if it has no effect on inflation, and that from a favorite of the democrats. The Congressional Budget Office says the bill would have a negligible effect on inflation. Clearly there is broad agreement among experts that the bill will not lower inflation. Democrats were warned the last time, march of 2021, democrats are being warned again this time, and they are ignoring the warnings. But it doesnt take an economist to tell you that this bill would be a disaster for working families. Its going to mean more taxes, more spending, higher prices right in the middle of a combination of an inflation time and a time of recession. The costly burdens of this bill are going to be borne by the working families of this country. Now this bill is going to hit working families from all sides. First lets take a look at the taxes. Tax revenues are already at record highs in this country. Not enough for the democrats but record alltime highs of tax revenue. Democrats want more, a lot more. The democrats inflation bill would increase taxes by nearly 500 billion. Now this includes a blatant violation of joe bidens Campaign Promise when he said he wouldnt raise taxes on middleclass families. The joint Tax Committee says that this bill will raise taxes on the very people that joe biden said he wasnt going to come after. Joint Tax Committee actually said the bill will raise taxes on people at nearly every level of income. It will affect you, every one of it, all across this country. Democrats of course want to raise taxes on American Energy, and its been their claim since day one, when joe biden basically put a target on the back of American Energy and pulled the trigger. And amazingly, they want to do it in the middle of an Energy Crisis. Remember, this is the Energy Crisis that the democrats have created. When joe biden declared war on American Energy, American Families started paying the price and have been paying the price ever since then. The bill does nothing to open up exploration for energy and american oil on American Properties on federal lands. No. It includes a new tax on american oil and gas production. This tax alone will raise the cost of energy for half of the households in america. Now this is at a time when onethird of the inflation in this country is driven by the cost of energy. And when you take a look at the cost of food, energy is a component of that. Growing food, getting food to market, all of those things are related to energy. That tax alone is going to shrink the economy and cost jobs. Theres also a new tax on imported oil, and joe Bidens Energy policy has been basically please send us some oil. That was his policy last year when he went to glass could you and he glasgow and he asked Vladimir Putin for oil. He was trying to cut a deal with iran to get iranian oil. Venezuela, he sent emissaries to venezuela asking for oil. And he went hat in hand last month to saudi arabia saying please send us more oil, and then the democrats put in their bill an excise tax on that oil that the president is begging to have sent to america, and then to add insummit insult to injury, they indexed the tax to inflation. High inflation begetting more inflation. It means the more inflation the democrats cause, the higher the prices go up. More taxes, more inflation. This is a vicious cycle of democrat taxes and democrat inflation. As a result, the pain at the pump is going to get worse. Wyoming has been the numberone producer of coal for decades. Coal is still the most affordable, Reliable Energy known to man. Its used all over the world. Yet in this bill the democrats want to raise taxes on Coal Companies by up to 16 of their income. Well, im from a coal state, senator manchin is from a coal state. He and i Work Together on the energy committee. Hes the chair, im the ranking member. Heres what the West VirginiaCoal Association said about whats in this bill were going to be voting on starting tonight. Joe manchins home state Coal Association said, why support anything Chuck Schumer, joe biden, nancy pelosi, or john kerry want for coal . They go on to say it is incomprehensible why any miner, coal miner would support the manchinschumer legislation. This is going to punish West Virginia directly and its going to punish the hardworking people of wyoming. Its also going to punish their customers who rely on affordable energy. These taxes are clearly going to get passed on to the consumer. In other words, higher prices, more inflation, economics 101. The democrats also want to raise taxes on savings and investment at a time when seniors are hurting. Seniors are already watching their savings go down and their taxes go up. Inflation is so bad that there are reports that seniors are moving in together because they cant afford to pay the rent. Yet, Chuck Schumer and joe biden want to raid their 401 k s. This bill also contains a hidden tax increase. Thats because the bill would nearly double the size of the irs. Democrats think that giving the irs 80 billion additional to hire additional auditors, tens of thousands, over 80,000 more auditors to the irs, an army of auditors, that theyre going to be able to squeeze another 200 billion out of american taxpayers. Theyre not talking about a couple of rich people here. 86,000 auditors arent needed to go after a couple of billionaires. Theyre going after main stream america. Theyre going after families, farmers, after small businesses. The irs is already one of the most powerful and unaccountable bureaucracies in the federal government. But the democrats say not enough, we want to put you on steroids so you can squeeze more money out of the families of this country. The joint Tax Committee says almost all of the money