hole, and redesigns medicare part d. three, it ends taxpayer subsidies to big pharma by capping price increases of medicare part b and d drugs at inflation. fourth, it establishes accountability and transparency in the pharmaceutical industry. and five, most important in this body, the bill is bipartisan. now, believe it or not, a bipartisan bill limiting pharmaceutical increases is possible. compare this to what the majority -- the presiding officer: order. mr. grassley: compare this to what the majority has offered us. their partisan bill includes more reckless spending and tax increases. their partisan bill reduces the number of new cures and treatments. their bipartisan bill fails to enact any bipartisan accountability for big pharma

and in particular for pbm's. even while the majority party has decided to pursue a purely partisan bill in secret over the past 20 months, i've 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. they've 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. i've heard some of my colleagues on the other side say this bill's prescription drug provision is what i've described today as grassley-wyden. this is untrue. this is a reckless tax-and-spending bill. it's not bipartisan, and no reporter should accept or repeat that notion. i oppose the partisan bill because it's a long list of reckless tax increases and spending. it's not a bipartisan prescription drug bill that passed out of finance committee 19-9. i will file the prescription drug pricing reduction act as an amendment today. we could strike and replace this reckless tax-and-spending spree with comprehensive drug pricing reform that could garner more

than 60 votes and lower drug prices while holding big pharma and pbm's 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 i'll file that amendment as well. i've 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 tax-and-spending 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 180-degree 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 so-called chips-plus bill, nearly all democrats enthusiastically supported last week. as i pointed out at that time, the chips-plus 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' so-called book minimum tax, large, profitable corporations favored by democrats can still escape paying any federal tax. while they claim their reckless tax-and-spending bill will ensure companies pay their fair share, they include carve-outs 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, democrat-aligned 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, we're 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 suv's. 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 so-called 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 best-case scenario is manufacturers will still see $100 billion increase tax hit. democratic inflation act still throws blue-collar workers overboard for their green new deal. the democrats' war on manufacturing is mind-boggling. 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 wharton's analysis of the democrats' reckless tax-and-spending 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 wharton's 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 tax-and-spending spree is bad for jobs, bad for the economy, and won't 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 nation's 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 record-high 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 can't keep up. the average family can afford less today than they could the day that joe biden took office. much less.

the savings rate hasn't been this low since the great recession. people are having to spend their savings. credit card debt is at an all-time 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 tax-and-spending bill. the american people knew it would be bad, and the bill we're looking at now is worse than expected. of course, the democrats wrote it in secret. they didn't 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 wasn't even available. likely because it wasn't even written yet. i understand it's 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 double-digit inflation. haven't 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. it's bad enough for the murp -- american people today. they can't put up with it for another two years. i'm 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. that's why i say we're looking at the possibility of double-digit inflation. it's 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 doesn't take an economist to tell you that this bill would be a disaster for working families. it's 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 let's take a look at the taxes. tax revenues are already at record highs in this country. not enough for the democrats but record all-time 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 biden's campaign promise when he said he wouldn't raise taxes on middle-class families. the joint tax committee says that this bill will raise taxes on the very people that joe biden said he wasn't 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 it's 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 one-third 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. there's also a new tax on imported oil, and joe biden's 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 number-one producer of coal for decades. coal is still the most affordable, reliable energy known to man. it's 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, i'm from a coal state, senator manchin is from a coal state. he and i work together on the energy committee. he's the chair, i'm the ranking member. here's what the west virginia coal association said about what's in this bill we're going to be voting on starting tonight. joe manchin's 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 manchin-schumer legislation. this is going to punish west virginia directly and it's going to punish the hardworking people of wyoming. it's 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 can't 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. that's 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 they're going to be able to squeeze another $200 billion out of american taxpayers. they're not talking about a couple of rich people here. 86,000 auditors aren't needed to go after a couple of billionaires. they're going after main stream america. they're 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 raised by supersizing the irs would come from those making less than $200,000 a year. that's the joint tax committee. so the billionaires in san francisco and manhattan who run the democrat party, they're going to be just fine. it's working families who always foot the bill for liberal policies. so what are democrats going to do with $500 billion in new taxes? they want to do what they do best, give taxpayer dollars to their closest friends and biggest political contributors. that includes hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars for the big fans of the green new deal. the bill puts american taxpayers on the hook for more than $315 billion in green energy loan guarantees. this would be billions and billions for projects like solyndra that went bankrupt when president obama was in office and joe biden was vice president. you would have thought joe biden would have learned those lessons from the horror stories of money

being lost and taxpayer projects wasted. the bill would give billions and billions for rich people to buy electric vehicles. unlike other vehicles, electric vehicles, they pay no gas tax which is how, of course, in this country we pay for the roads, the bridges and the highways. democrats want to cut them a big check as well. this is welfare for the wilt. -- witle. the bill includes super sized obamacare policies, also welfare for the wealthy. super sized subsidies on steroids. the subsidies were put in place at the beginning of the pandemic. they were supposed to be temporary, yet democrats want to seem to want them to continue forever. if democrats were to extend these permanently, it would clearly add to the national debt. in other words, democrats are using the same sleight of hand

accounting gimmicks that they tried last year. nine months ago, when democrats tried things like this in their build back better plan that failed, even senator manchin admitted that it was, quote, smoke and mirrors, a shell game and budget gimmicks. democrats are back to their old tricks right now. here we are nine months later. the difference is inflation is a lot, lot higher. the pain people have gone through is felt more deeply. no, not a single republican is going to vote for this monstrosity. no democrat should either. joe biden's economy is already the worst economy that most americans have ever experienced in their lifetime. democrats pass this bill, it's going to get worse. and so i urge my colleagues, don't inflict this kind of pain on the american people in the middle of a recession.

the american people are hurting enough. thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. mr. kaine: madam president. the presiding officer: the senator from virginia. mr. kaine: i rise to speak about a very important provision in the inflation reduction act that combines the three pillars of the act -- health care, energy, and tax reform. that provision is a permanent p funding fix for the black lung benefit program. and i dedicate this floor speech to all my friends who are virginia coal miners, to their retirees, to their families, and i especially dedicate it to my friends at the united mine workers including a dear friend, president cecil roberts. i came to virginia in 1984 never having been to virginia. i grew up in kansas and didn't know too much about the coal industry. i married my wife ann 38 years ago and part of her family is from big stone gap, virginia, in the heart of appalachia, those counties in southwestern

virginia, wise, lee, dickinson, russell, buchanan, scott, that have coal mining as the very heart of their economies. and it's not only coal mines, but it's the miners themselves, many of whom drive across state lines to work in west virginia and kentucky and their families and they have done it for generations. long before i got into politics, once i married my wife from appalachia, i got to know these miners. it's a tough job. it's a scary job. it's a dangerous job. but these miners do it every day because the nation needs power, because our steel mills need steel to build aircraft carriers and submarines and skyscrapers, and they do this, and many of them have done it for generations. i also, in coming to know these miners long before i got into politics, on family visits i realized what a patriotic bunch of people they are. they have a disproportionately high rate of service in the military when they're young, before they undertake this

dangerous, dangerous job. i've been in virginia for about five years, and there was a major strike of these miners, the pitston strike in southwest virginia, 1989. it actually was from april of 1989 all the way to february of 1990. it's a strike that was driven because the pittston coal company wanted to take health benefits away from retirees and widows and disabled miners. and what the mine workers realized is if they allowed this to happen, then every other mining company in the country would do exactly the same thing. and so they went out on a strike, and they struck for ten months, and their salaries were down to nothing, but they weren't going to give up until they got these health care benefits. there was a famous moment about five months into the strike when the then-president of the umw, rich trumka, who got to be a great friend ofous, he passed last year, at that point he was a friend of the mine workers and

he got asked by "the new york times," your people are suffering striking, they're earning some benefits through the union but it's a fraction of their salaries. how long can the mine workers hold out? and he gave one of the best answers ever -- one day longer than the pittston coal company. that's -- and that's what they did and in february of 1990, they reached a deal and the health care benefits of these folks was saved. getting into politics, first at the local level and especially when i ran for lieutenant governor in 2001, i was kind of the big city mayor. people down there gave me a chance because they knew i had family ties in appalachia and the mine workers were so helpful to me and i tried over my time in political life to be helpful to them. i put a union president in my cabinet when i was governor they knew very well.

i appointed a mine -- a miner who run my state mining safety agency. that agency had been run by folks from the management side or professional scientists or bureaucrats but never a miner running the state mining safety agency. and i worked with mine terse to build a power plant in virginia city in southwest virginia to try to show that coal can be used much more cleaner than it had been in the past. when i came to the senate in 2013, the economics of mining had changed a lot, natural gas being so much cheaper had hurt mines, we mine about the same amount of coal in virginia as 50 years ago, we do it with one-tenth less miners. and i'm proud to say that my

miners and their leaders, they understand the need for an energy transition and they embrace it. they just ask that as we do it, we don't leave them behind. and that leads me to this bill. we have made promises to our miners that we'll protect their health insurance, that we'll protect their pensions and that we'll have a fully funded black lung benefit program to help the many miners, about one in five in central appalachia, whose day in and day out job inhaling coal dust exposes them to a horrible pulmonary disease. we told them we will have a program for them should they come down with black lung. in 2017 because of bankruptcies of coal companies, many set up shell corporations to evade

responsibility to their retirees, just like in pistons, taking away benefits to them. and in 2017, the miners' health care program for these retirees was on death's door. i cosponsored legislation with many colleagues and we saved the retiree health care program. one of the toughest meetings i had in public life was going into a mining exact office in castlewood, virginia, and sitting down with very nervous people who thought their health care benefits would expire in a matter of weeks. we made a promise to them and because of democrats and we did have some republican votes as well, we saved health care for retirees, widows. in 2017, the same features of these companies in many instances going bankrupt was not

only threatening benefits, it was threatening pensions. these people who worked their lives in coal mines were going to lose their pensions, but in 2019, the american miners act, also bipartisan, and we fixed the pension program for miners, it helped more than 100,000 miners around the country. that's two. well, with the passage of the -- we can fix the black lung benefit program. the proceed -- they -- he didn't tell the public what this was for. we are raising the excise tax on coal so that we can a program that will help miners who get black lung disease. and is this just a horribly --

no, let me tell you what this tax will be. we will raise the coal excise tax for coal mined under ground to $1.10 a ton. these hardworking miners who are underground exposing themselves to life-risking pulmonary disease, we will raise the tax to $1.10 a ton and for coal mined on the surface, we will raise it to 55 cents a ton to keep the promise that we made to these hardworking people. this will provide permanent, sufficient funding to maintain the solvency of the fund and our miners can be assured -- as they're going underground every day, doing that tough job, they can be assured the program will be there for them should they get black lung disease.

i cosponsored all of these bills, promise made, promise kept, i want to thank the virginia coal miners for their friendship, patriotism and for never giving up, and never giving up onus, when we -- on us. i yield the floor. i ask unanimous consent that the previous order be extended for 15 minutes and the majority leader be recognized at that time. the presiding officer: without objection.

mr. wyden: madam president. the presiding officer: the senior senator from oregon. mr. wyden: madam president, public service is about making people's lives better, and here is what is on offer this afternoon to make people's lives better in our country, reduced health care costs for seniors. reduced carbon emissions, reduced energy costs, and reduced cheating by wealthy tax cheats. that's just a part of what is on offer this afternoon. let me just briefly touch on each of them. we all know that medicines are way too expensive in our country. people always come back from trips and they say, why is it so much cheaper overseas? it's because these big

pharmaceutical companies are under absolutely no restraibts to hold -- restraints to hold down the prices, and that's what we're beginning to change today. what we're beginning to change today is to say for those seniors who count on medicare for the first time the program they love, medicare, is going to have the power to negotiate lower drug prices for them. the fact is the senate is lifting a curse with this legislation. that's how seniors feel when they hear that medicare can't even go to bat for them, and of course, big pharma has protected this ban on medicare negotiating like it was the holy grail. even today, madam president, they're warning when we pass

this, they will try to tie it up in the courts, in the state agencies, but we're not going to let that happen. the prediction on independent medical authorities said because of the compounding benefits of our bill with more drugs being negotiated on a regular basis, we're looking at the possibility of a trillion dollars in savings before too long. now, if a drug company refuses to negotiate, they're going to face a steep excise tax on the sale of their products until they come to the table if they are price gouging, if they're rising the prices above the rate of inflation, they will pay a penalty and then we will have new significant relief for

seniors who when they get mugged at the pharmacy counter come home and say they can't pay for the pills, so we will have a new part c so seniors no longer have to choose between paying for medicine and paying for food. those are all important, important benefits, madam president. and the fact is that penalty for price gouging, that's going into effect in a couple of months in november. so seniors are going to be able to say we're seeing real relief from this legislation. now, there are other steps that we would have liked to take. i understand that. i pushed for them. the president of the senate has pushed for them, but let's understand the bottom line here. every one of the policies i've outlined on their own is going to be life changing for millions

of senior citizens and it is going to lay the groundwork for doing more. i would like to move briefly from health care to climate. because the inflation reduction act includes the biggest effort in history to save our climate and invest in clean energy and jobs. and because we all work together, those are going to be jobs here in america. they're going to be clean-energy jobs in our country because of the black letter text that we wrote into the bill. now the old system was a joke. it picked winners and losers and anybody who was powerful could probably figure out how to get a tax break. and there were permanent breaks, madam president, for oil and gas but only temporary incentives for clean energy. the system was broken, it was out of date a long time ago. we put that old system into the

dustbin of history and we put in place clean energy, clean transportation and energy conservation. our new plan is going to reduce the typical american household's energy costs by $500 per year and it's going to create 600,000 new jobs from portland, oregon to portland, maine. now, as the president of the senate knows, we pay for this bill with a few important changes in our tax law. for example, we just showed a couple of days ago that of 100 companies, these are companies with billions of dollars in profits, they're paying, many of them, more than 100, an effective tax rate of 1.1%. let me say that again. more than 100 hugely profitable companies that are going to pay

under this legislation, and the president of the senate did very important work on this, they're paying on average 1 point #% -- 1.1% in taxes. now it's no surprise that those companies that are paying 1.1% think that somehow making them pay a minimum rate by the way which is far less than a firefighter or nurse pays, my goodness we won't have jobs or businesses if they do. and we make it clear that we're not raising taxes on anybody, anybody making less than $400,000 are not going to pay any additional taxes under this bill. i know there are some of our colleagues on the other side who have always subscribed to this trickle-down theory of economics and say that, well, if those at the very top, say those corporations paying 1.1%

actually pay some taxes, that means that nurses and firefighters are going to pay more taxes, the nurses and firefighters don't buy that for a second. we also pay for the legislation in an important way that was proposed by our colleague from ohio, senator brown, that i was proud to join him on, and that is a 1% tax on stock buybacks. corporations have spent trillions of dollars on stock buybacks in recent years. it set a record in 2018, broken again in 2021 right in the middle of a global pandemic, and i just noticed the profits of some of the biggest oil companies here in the last few weeks, madam president. and, again, they're kind of leading the league in stock buybacks. stock buybacks make a lot of wealthy people even wealthier on paper, but they do very little to strengthen the economy, drive innovation, or improve the well-being of american workers.

our 1% tax is is not only going to help pay to prevent the worst effects of climate change, it's also going to encourage companies to invest in their workers and researchers instead of more handouts to the top. final i will i just with aens to emphasize this question finally, i just want to emphasize this question of tougher irs enforcement. we have heard some of our colleagues on the other side say that somehow this is going to target the working person. i see our good friend from delaware, another member of the committee. that's just not going to happen. and the reason it's not, as my colleagues on the finance committee know so well, working people are not the problem here. they pay taxes with every single paycheck. it's right there on their paycheck. everybody knows what taxes they pay, and should they be engaging

in any questionable activity, it would end up showing up on these forms. they're not the problem. but, as we have been told again and again by independent experts -- democrats, republicans, and independents -- we do have a problem with big, wealthy tax cheats, big, wealthy tax cheats don't pay taxes with every single paycheck like firefighters and nurses. and after a decade of republican budget cuts, we're now in a very difficult position to go after these wealthy tax cheats who rip off the american people for billions of dollars every year. the current commissioner, who joins many democratic commissioners and republican commissioners in the past, the current one is a republican appointee, estimated that the number of taxes owed that are not collected could be as much as a trillion dollars per year.

we believe that the agency ought to have the resources it needs to go after sophisticated, low-breaking tax cheats at the top. and i know -- law-breaking tax cheats at the top. and i know my colleagues on the finance committee join me in saying that we're going to watchdog the agency very carefully and make sure the focus is on these wealthy tax cheats and not the typical working person, as my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have talked about. so there you have it, folks. here's what's on offer, what's on offer are lower costs for seniors, reduced climate emissions, help for working families, cracking down on wealthy tax cheats. that's what this is all about today. that's why this legislation, i believe, is going to give public service a good name. madam president, with that, i know we're headed for --

i put in a quorum call. and i yield back the balance of my time. mr. carper: madam president, i ask that the quorum call be vitiated. i want one minute to respond to what he said. the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. carper: almost everything he just talked about came out of the finance committee. terrific leadership. thank you. i suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call:

quorum call:

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: may we please have order. are we in a quorum, madam president? the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. mr. schumer: i ask unanimous consent the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. schumer: madam president, in a moment i will move to proceed to the inflation reduction act of 2022. the time has come for the senate to begin debate on this historic piece of legislation. the inflation reduction act is a groundbreaking bill for the american people. for families struggling to pay the bills, for seniors struggling to pay for medication, for kids struggling with asthma. this bill is for them. i thank all of my colleagues who have deadity -- dedicated their blood, sweat, and tears towards

shaping this outstanding legislation. this is one of the most comprehensive and impactful bills congress has seen in decades. it will reduce inflation. it will lower prescription drug costs. it will fight climate change. it will close tax loopholes. and it are reduce, reduce the deficit. it will help every citizen in this country and make america a much better place. the time is now to move forward with big, bold package for the american people. to fight inflation and make it easier for people to afford everything from trips to the doctor's office to trips to the pharmacy. to hold drug companies accountable and empower medicare to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs. to help families pay their utilities with the boldest clean energy package in american history.

to make sure that nurses and teachers and firefighters and middle-class families don't pay more in taxes than the billion-dollar corporations. to reduce pollution, restore our coast lines, protect our forests, and deliver to our children and grandchildren the planet they deserve. again, the time is now to move forward with a big, bold package for the american people. and again, this historic bill, this historic bill will reduce inflation, lower costs, fight climate change. it's time to move this nation forward. senate democrats began this majority by promising to tackle the biggest challenges facing our countries. the inflation reduction act will make good on that promise and serve as the capstone to one of

the most productive stretches the senate has seen in a very long time. and in the end it will be the american people who benefit from the work we do here and now. and so, madam president, i move to proceed to calendar number 464 h.r. 5376. the presiding officer: clerk will report. the clerk: motion to proceed to calendar number 464 h.r. 5376, an act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title 2 of s. con. res. 14. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. mr. schumer: i ask for the yeas and nays. the presiding officer: is there a sufficient second? there appears to be.

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the vice president: on this vote the yeas are 50, the nays are 50, the senate being equally divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative and the motion to proceed is greed to. the clerk will report the bill. the clerk: h.r. 5376, an act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title 2 of s. con. res. 14.

mr. schumer: madam president. the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. schumer: schumer i call up 5594. the presiding officer: without objection, the clerk will report. the clerk: the senator from new york, from schumer, proposes number 5154, as modified. mr. sanders: madam president. the presiding officer: the junior senator from vermont. mr. sanders: i call up my amendment numbered 5210. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: senator from vermont, plb sanders, for -- mr. sanders, for himself an mr. merrick proposes -- merkley proposes numbered 5510. mr. sanders: i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the

reading of the amendment. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. sanders: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that for the consideration of h.r. 5376, the inflation reduction act of 2022, the republican majority be permitted to deliver floor remarks, retrieve review and send e-mail displayed on wireless personal assistant devices and tablet devices, i further ask unanimous consent that the use of it further, that the staff be permitted to make technical and conforming changes with the bill during senate consideration and the following staff members from my staff and senator graham's staff be given all-access floor passes for consideration of the bill,

majority staff, michael smith, melissa kaplan and billy shendel, nick meyers, matthew joe keelie and craig abelle. the presiding officer: without objection. sanld sand thank you, mr. president -- mr. sanders: thank you, madam president. madam president, i wanted to take a moment to say a few words about the so-called inflation reduction act that we are debating this evening. and i say so-called, by the way, because according to the cbo and other economic organizations that have studied this bill, it will have a minimal impact on inflation. madam president, let me put this reconciliation bill into the context of where we are as a

nation politically and economically. and the answer to that as to where we are is we are not in a good place. according to the most recent gallup poll, the approval rate for congress is at 16%, with 82% of the american people disapproving of the work we are doing here. further, according to a recent university of chicago poll, a strong majority of americans, and this is extremely important, and i hope members of congress hear this, the majority of americans believe that the government is, quote, corrupt and rigged against me. end of quote. people believe the government is corrupt and rigged against them.

further, according to a zais ac. today poll, the american people don't believe the republican or democratic party are responding to their needs and we need to move to a multiparty system. i think in terms of where the american people are today, is that there is actually a growing number of americans who believe that they may have to take up arms -- take up arms against their own government in order to accomplish what they think needs to be done. madam president, all of this speaks to a very, very dangerous moment for american democracy and in a number of ways it resembles the conditions that existed in europe in the 1920's and early 1930's which led to

fascism and totalitarianism. in other words, at a time when so many of our people are hurting, many of them no longer believe that in our democratic system government is capable of responding to their needs. and they are losing faith in our democracy. the people of this country believe, and in my view correctly, that we have a corrupt political system dominated by the wealthy and the powerful and that we have a rigged economy in which large corporations are seeing huge profits, in some cases heaviest profits ever while the middle class and working families see a decline in their standard of

living. let me give you one small example of what is going on, and that is within the last few weeks while americans continued to pay high gas prices at the pump, prices are going down, but they are still a lot higher than they were a year ago, two years ago, and while people pay high prices, exxon, mobile, shell and b.p. had a record-breaking $46 billion, people pay more at the gas pump, the gas companies are seeing large profits. three pharmaceutical companies, pfizer,. mr. jjohnson and johnsonincreasa 90% increase in their profits

while so many of our people cannot afford the high cost of prescription drugs. madam president, that is what a rigged economy is all about. huge corporate profits while working people cannot afford the basic necessities of life. madam president, let us be clear about where we are as a nation, and that is the american people are tired of press releases, they're tired of 30-second ads, they're tired of speeches. they are hurting and they are begging their elected officials to respond to their needs. and if you want to know why there is so much anger and so much frustration and so much disillusionment within our

society today, it's important to understand that real weekly wages for the average american worker are lower today than they were 49 years ago. and clearly the inflation of today is pushing the average person even further behind. not so many years ago when i was a kid, it was possible for one worker in a family like my father, never made mu much moneo earn enough money to take care of his kids and the family. today that is a rarity. today it is necessary almost in all cases for two workers in a family to have to go out to work. today, madam president, despite the huge increases in our economy, despite the tremendous explosion of technology,

everything being equal, our younger generation will have a lower standard of living than their parents, have a harder time finding a home, having a harder time affording -- being able to have a family. imagine that, our younger generation having a lower standard of living than their parents. madam president, half of our people today live paycheck to paycheck, and many millions are working for starvation wages, nine, 10, 11 bucks an hour. further, workers around the country who want to join a union and engage in collective bar bargaining in companies like starbucks, amazon, and other places r facing -- places are facing fierce and illegal anty unionry cyst tans. and i -- antiunion resistance. and i have to say, madam

president, that this legislation does not address any of their needs. this legislation does not address the reality that we have more income and wealth inequality today than at any time in the last hundred years with three people on more wealth tan the bottom half of america. doesn't address the fact that 95% of income is going to the top 1%. doesn't address the reality that ceo's of major corporations are making 350 times what their workers are making. madam president, i think everybody knows that we have a completely dysfunctional health care system. we now spend over $12,000 a year per person, more than double what other countries spend. today over 70 million americans

are uninsured or underinsured, and there are studies out there that say that some 60,000 people a year die because they're uninsured or underinsured and they don't get to a doctor on time. meanwhile, every year the insurance companies make tens of bills of dollars in profit -- bills of dollars in profit. so we have a system in which the cost is outrageously high. people are dying because they don't get to a doctor on time. this bill does nothing to address the systemic dysfunctionality of the american health care system. does nothing. madam president, in terms of our kids, the future of our nation, shamefully we have the highest rate of childhood poverty of almost any major nation on earth. this bill as currently written

does nothing to address that. madam president, our child care system is dysfunctional. if a working family is lucky enough to find a slot for their young one, on average they will pay about $15,000 a year for child care and possibly -- imagine that, $15,000 a year for child care if you're making $40,000 or 50,000 bucks. that is an absurd sum of money. yet this bill turns its back on the working parents of this country and our children. does not begin to address the child care or pre-k crisis that we face. madam president, a nation will be as great and competitive as is educational system is.

and yet today hundreds of thousands of bright young kids all across this country are unable to afford a higher education. imagine that. in the richest country in the history of the world, when we need the best educated workforce possible, got hundreds of thousands of young people cannot afford a higher education, and we have 45 million americans who are struggling with student debt. sometimes outrageous levels of student debt. this bill as currently written does nothing to address it. madam president, today millions of elderly americans and half of our senior citizens are trying to survive on $25,000 a year or less. millions of senior citizens are unable to afford to go to a

dentist. imagine that. in the richest country on earth, elderly people can't afford to go to a dentist, their teeth are rotting in their mouths. they can't afford hearing aids in order to hear what their kids, grandchildren have to say. they can't afford eyeglasses. this bill ignores that issue, does nothing to expand medicare to cover those very basic health care needs. the result? millions of seniors will continue to have rotten teeth and lack the dentures, hearing aids, or eyeglasses they deserve. madam president -- and i hear this all of the time in vermont and i expect my colleagues hear it as well. so many, so many of our elderly and disabled people would much prefer to stay in their homes rather than be forced into nursing homes. they need someone to come to their home to help them with their basic needs.

i don't think anyone denies that we have a major crisis in home health care. and the people who are doing home health care now -- and god bless them all -- are usually overworked and underpaid. this bill as currently written, does nothing to address that crisis. madam president, again, no debate. everybody agrees that we have a major housing crisis in america. some 600,000 people are homeless sleeping out on the streets in every state in this country. in addition, the homeless issue, nearly 18 million households are paying 50% or more of their limited incomes for housing.

imagine that. imagine what it means. you don't have any money to do anything else when you're paying 15% for housing yet this bill does nothing to address the major housing crisis that we face or build one unit of safe and affordable housing. just another issue that we push aside. and i would say, madam pres president, and every working person understands this, that while ordinary people are struggling with child care, with health care, with housing, with the basic necessities of life, the people on top today are doing phenomenally well. during the pandemic alone, the billionaire class saw an almost $2 trillion increase in their wealth. so that in a snapshot is where

we are as a nation today, working people are hurting. in many ways their standard of living is in decline. people on top are doing phenomenally well. and that takes us to where we are this evening. the importance of the bill that we are considering this evening is that it is not a normal -- not a regular piece of legislation. it is a reconciliation bill. and i know that anybody outside of the beltway, that doesn't mean much. but what it does mean that unlike regular legislation here in the senate, this bill does not require 60 votes to get passed. all we need to get this bill passed are 50 votes plus the

vice president, if it is a tie. now, i say this in all honesty that it is extremely sad to me, and i think the american people, that up to this point we have not had one republican come forward and say you know what? i want to work on the housing crisis, on the health care crisis, on the education crisis, on the home health care crisis. sadly we have not had one republican come forward who is prepared to stand up for working families, for the children, for the elderly, or for the environment. that is a sad state of affairs. but here is the truth. if all 50 members of the democratic caucus were to stand together today, we could pass some enormously important

amendments which would have a profound impact on improving the lives of working people in our country and maybe, just maybe could begin the process of restoring faith in our demo democracy. poll after poll makes it clear not only are the american people hurting, they want congress to take bold action to improve their lives. and under the budget reck simmation pro -- under the budget reconciliation process, we have the opportunity to do that. and if we don't do it now, when all we need are 50 votes, it is quite questionable as to when in fact we will ever do that. in other words, what i am asking today is for all 50 members of the democratic caucus to come

together and begin the process of addressing some, not all, some of the major crises facing working families. it is absolutely emper tif -- it is absolutely imperative that we show the american people that we are capable of representing the needs of ordinary people, not just billionaire campaign contributors, not just lobbyists, but ordinary people who are hurting today. and if we cannot do that, not only will people continue to hurt and suffer, but to my mind it is questionable for how long we remain a democracy. madam president, let me say a few words about what is in this legislation. a bill which has some good features but also in my view has some very bad features. this bill deals with three major

areas. prescription drugs, climate, and taxation. let me deal with at least two of them. prescription drugs. now, i know that in vermont and i suspect in wisconsin and all over this country, people are outraged at the fact that they are paying so much for prescription drugs. they are outraged that in some cases we pay ten times more than canada and other countries for the same exact product. now, the good news is, madam president, that this bill, this reconciliation bill, will do what should have been done many years ago, something that many of us called for many years ago, and that it will allow medicare to begin negotiating prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry. now, that is not a radical idea.

that is an idea that exists in probably every other major country on earth. and that is why their prices are so much lower. they don't let the drug companies charge any price that they want. so it's the good news. but here, madam president, is the bad news, and we must be honest about it. at a time when so many of our people cannot afford the prescription drugs they need and one out of four americans can't even fill the prescription their doctors' write, this medicare negotiating provision will not go into effect for four years at which time only ten drugs will be negotiated with more to come in later years. so if anybody thinks that as a result of this bill we're suddenly going to see lower prices for medicare, you are mistaken. aintsz going to -- ain't going to happen next year, the year

after, the year after. and by the way, given the incredible power of the pharmaceutical industry, i would suspect even money that they will figure out a way to get around this provision if it takes four years to implement. so this provision will have no impact on the prices for those americans -- furthermore, this provision will have no impact on the prices for those americans who are not on medicare. so if if you're under 65, this bill will not impact you at all, and the drug companies will be able to continue to go on their merry way and raise prices to whatever level they want. madam president, under this bill, at a time when the drug companies are enjoying huge profits, the pharmaceutical industry will still be allowed to charge the american people by far the highest prices in the