The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act is a major legislative
victory for the Biden ministrations, and it comes after months of
negotiations as we've heard on Capitol Hill. Joining me now to discuss
it all is Brian Deese, chair of the National Economic Council and
the president's top economic adviser, Brian Deese. Welcome back to
the news hour as we've been saying, this is only a fraction maybe
1/4 of what the administration originally
Asked for last year. But at this point What is this going to mean?
If it becomes law for the country and for the bite administration?
Well, thanks for having me This is a truly historic piece of legislation
for decades in this country. We have been talking about doing something
about prescription drug prices. This bill would allow Medicare to
negotiate lower prescription drug prices for the first time for decades.
We've been trying to do something to address climate change in this
bill would make the largest single investment in climate change and
energy security.
Ever and it will do both of those things in a way that actually reduces
the federal deficit, which is what we need right now economically
to try to help reduce inflation as well. So what this is going to
mean for American families is lower prescription drug prices, lower
healthcare costs, lower energy bills across time and the Congress
and the president together acting to try to reduce inflation as well.
That's an impressive list. The title of the bill, though Brian Deese
is the inflation reduction Act, the Congressional Budget Office took
a look at this as you know, and what they came up with is, they say
it's likely to change the inflation rate by less than 1/10 of 1%
over a few years, and they're saying they're not sure whether the
changes up or down, So is it fair. Do you think to call it inflation
reduction?
I think it is. Look. Economists who have looked at this closely,
including former Treasury secretaries from both political parties
have come to the conclusion that this would help on easing price
pressures throughout our economy. But let me explain why that's the
case. First, it will it will lower costs for families, so the families
who are struggling with high prices will face lower costs.
As early as just this fall, 13 million Americans will see their health
insurance premiums come down as a result of this bill, and second
by reducing the federal deficit that is complementary to what the
Fed is trying to accomplish and will help reduce prices and third
and importantly, by increasing the supply supply of energy in particular
in this country while moving us toward clean energy. We're going
to reduce price pressures overall, you know, we had the CEOs of utility
companies here, and they said the principal impact
Of passing These long term tax credits, for example, for clean energy
is that they pass those directly on to ratepayers, meaning a customer
who's getting a utility bill is going to see that benefit on her
utility bill. So I think across the board in practical terms, it
means lower costs for consumers and in economic terms, it's going
to mean reduced price pressures across the economy.
I'm asking you about what this is going to mean for for ordinary
Americans and whether most Americans are going to feel this because
we heard Senator Bernie Sanders say on the floor of the Senate, and
I'm quoting him. This bill does nothing to address the greatest financial
challenges facing families in this country.
Well, look, we're working across the board to address the financial
challenges that families face. And as you know, I've talked about
before the things like gas prices that are front and center for American
families. We've made a lot of progress on that front, seeing gas
prices down by almost a dollar. But in very practical terms, this
piece of legislation will make a big difference for families in areas
that are really consequential to their lives. You know, prescription
drugs and the costs that that
Bases for families. That's a big deal, particularly for families
that face have a member of the family who has a chronic condition.
This bill would cap the out of pocket costs for Medicare recipients
and those with chronic conditions at $2000. That's a big game changing
deal for people who have health insurance and are wondering this
fall, whether they're going to see their premiums jump up in the
affordable care act.
This bill is going to provide us, they said 13 million Americans
the security to know that they're going to be able to keep those
health insurance premiums low and for people who sit around the kitchen
table and think about how to make their monthly bills add up things
like prescription drugs and health care premiums and their utility
bills and energy costs. Those are meaningful in their lives
you and you also mentioned clean energy here, but we know that also
in this legislation is is our provisions that are going to provide
for more oil and gas.
Exploration in the country. I think people are trying to understand
what the balance is here. More fossil fuels but clean energy. How
do you square that?
I think What's most important for people to understand is that this
bill puts the United States on a path to meet its climate commitments
by the end of this decade, And for the first time in decades, the
United States If this bill is signed into law will be in a position
where we can clearly and credibly say that we will meet our climate
commitments. The way it does so is to provide long term incentives
technology neutral incentives to invest in cleaner and lower emissions
technologies across the board from wind and
Solar
Two storage hydrogen carbon capture. These are the technologies that
are going to drive us to
Lower lower emissions economy and also there the economy, the technologies
that if we develop the we innovate here in the United States, we
can export to the world. That means more jobs. It means more manufacturing
capacity here in the United States, But ultimately it means that
we can hit our climate commitments as a nation, and then we can hold
other nations to account to hit theirs as well to other very quick
questions. Brian Dish, You said. This is going to reduce the deficit
of the committee for a responsible federal budget looked at this
and they said yes.
Yes, but only by a very small amount 25 billion over the next five
years, which is they set a drop in the bucket.
Well, look over the next 10 years. This bill will reduce the deficit
by about $300 billion, and just to put that in context that will
come on top of the fact that already this year the deficit is down
$1.7 trillion, So this is deficit reduction that will build on a
record of reducing the deficit. And I wouldn't downplay the significance
of that, particularly at a moment where our economy is facing the
price challenges that we
That we are facing demonstrating that we can continue to make progress
on deficit reduction is important part of this bill.
Finally, the last thing I want to ask you is we know some of the
richest Americans, hedge fund executives, private equity executives
virtually untouched by this because of provisions that were taken
out. But what are some provisions that were in there originally that
the administration that the president would like to come back to
in months to come?
Well on the tax side. Let me start with what's in there. We will.
Now for the first time. I have a minimum tax so that the largest
corporations in the country, those with more than a billion dollars
in income, will have to pay a 15% minimum attacks, which is a matter
of basic fairness and good tax policy, And we will be able to get
that done if this bill is signed into law.
Look, there are other provisions of the president feels strongly
about particularly making sure that the highest income individuals,
the billionaires of this country are also paying a reasonable amount
as well. And we've got a number of proposals on that front still
have work to do on that. That will be work remaining. Once we get
this bill enacted into law, Alright, we're going to leave it there.
Brian Deese, who was the chief economic adviser to the president,
Thank you.