Bernie Sanders Exposes the “So-Called Inflation Reduction Act” Live on the Senate Floor

After spending over 35 minutes on the Senate floor pointing out a few good aspects and exposing the myriad abject failures of the improperly monikered ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’ Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders voted yes for it anyway

 

On Saturday afternoon, August 6th, less than a day before the US Senate would vote along party lines to approve the $739 billion dollar House Resolution 5376, also inappropriately dubbed ‘The Inflation reduction Act,’ Senator Bernie Sanders spent over 35 minutes breaking the bill down on the floor of the US Senate.

In his diatribe, the Democratic Senator from Vermont broke down the key points, both good and bad, of the 725-page bill before most of the body of the Senate. What he pointed out, was nothing short of mind-boggling.

You can watch Bernie’s entire, uninterrupted address right here: Bernie Sanders’ Address to the US Senate regarding H.R. 5376 on August 6, 2021.

The Key Points

• Bernie explains that recent polling by Gallup shows that only 16% of the American voters (Democrats or Republicans) believe Congress is doing a good job.
• He explains that a University of Chicago poll has shown that many Americans believe their government is out to get them.
• But perhaps most telling, Bernie says that “an alarming number of Ameicans believe they actually need to take up arms against their government.” He goes on to explain that what occurred on January 6th is a perfect example of this. (Ironically, this would also absolve former President Trump of any responsibility for those events).
• He refers to the bill a couple of times as “the so-called inflation reduction act”  because he believes it will do nothing to stifle the current inflation issues plaguing the country.
• In an attempt to aggrandize the “Build Back Better” plan, Bernie offers this report as a way of highlighting the glaring deficiencies in this legislation and as an attempt to urge the Senate to amend the bill in several key ways for the following reasons:
• It does nothing to extend last year’s $30 per month child tax credit.
• Does nothing to expand Medicare, to cover dental, vision, or hearing loss, nor does it address home care for the elderly.
• Does nothing about homelessness nor reduces the cost of housing.
• Lowers the prices of 10 drugs, including insulin, but only for people currently enrolled in medicare. There is no benefit for any other American except for a diabetic’s cost for insulin.
• Caps co-pays for insulin at $35, but this is only for people with existing insurance. There is no assistance for any American not covered by insurance, they still pay full price.
• Bill allows medicare to finally negotiate the cost of prescriptions but only for the aforementioned 10 specific drugs and those renegotiated prices don’t take effect until 2026.
• Bernie notes that the Veterans Administration (VA) has been negotiating drug prices for decades and all that would be required to allow medicare to do the same would be to type it into a piece of legislation, which he and Senator Amy Klobuchar did, but was rejected by Democrats and never brought to a vote.
• Bernie explains that prices for all other drugs not included in the 10 will increase proportionately to compensate the drug companies financially for the losses of the profits for the 10.
• Bill caps Senior drug expenditures to a max of $2,000 per year, however, the difference will be made up by the drug companies through higher premiums to everyone else.
• Affordable Care Act premiums get capped but the $64 billion the bill pays to do that goes directly into the pockets of private health care CEOs.
• The issues regarding the climate change parts of the bill are even worse but too extensive to highlight here. To understand those, In the way Bernie explains them best, we suggest you watch the video.

What is most intriguing to us, however, is that despite this scathing rebuke of the bill, and after Democrats unanimously voted to block any amendments to the bill the following day, before the official vote, (a suggestion Bernie himself pleads with Democrats to do right in this video), Bernie Sanders still voted yes to pass the bill as is.

Also extremely telling, is that at no time does Bernie reference the additional 87,000 IRS agents that this bill will fund or the fact that the 15% mandatory corporate tax will be devastating to mom and pop small business owners.

Compiled by Chief Political Correspondent Kurt Dillon – Because the Truth Matters!