Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., on Sunday blasted the Democrats’ claim that their proposed Inflation Reduction Act will be a boon to the economy and consumers — saying it’ll wind up a “boondoggle.”
In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” Rounds said “this is not the time to raise taxes.”
“He should have said boondoggle,” Rounds said countering the defense of the bill by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. “We're still going to have problems with inflation. At the same time they're going to be collecting about $740 billion in new tax revenue over the next supposedly five to 10 years.”
“This is not the time to rise taxes,” he asserted. “We hope we're building our way out of a recession but you don't do that by raising taxes.”
“What you're going to see is normal American families actually see the impact of what happens when you put new taxes on our economy,” he added.
“[Democrats] talk about it being on big corporations, they raise prices, they pass it all down,” Rounds declared. “From our perspective we'll see those tax increases coming down the line and Americans are going to feel it. …Things [Democrats] want to do primarily on climate change, this is not the time to be experimenting in that area.”
Rounds also took issue with lowering of drug prices, saying the move would be “taking dollars out of Medicare that would otherwise go to normal prescription drug prices and putting it into subsidize Obamacare.”
“At the same time, they're going to tell the drug companies that you have to sell it for less to the federal government,” he said. “It doesn't start for four years and … once it does start what do you think the drug companies are going to be doing when they start being dictated to? … It's not healthy.”
As for the 2024 presidential contest, Rounds said he’s “keeping my powder dry.”
“I most certainly think it's going to be a wide-open field,” he said. “In the Republican Party we're going to be talking about the ideals and principles moving forward. Democrats would like to see [former President] Donald Trump announce before… draw attention from the 2022 election and the candidates they've got.”
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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