Arizona Chamber of Commerce & Industry President and CEO Danny Seiden was among business and political leaders to respond to the party-line passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, saying the measure won't help the inflation crisis in America.
“This bill will not reduce inflation, and it will not make the U.S. economy more competitive," Seiden said in a Chamber Business News article. "Renaming a massive tax and spending bill the Inflation Reduction Act does not improve it. Arizona job creators oppose the vast majority of the provisions in this bill.”
The Inflation Reduction Act was passed in July and includes an estimated $740 billion in new revenue coming from tax and drug-pricing reform, $433 billion in new spending for energy and climate change, and an extension of the Affordable Care Act.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-A.Z., agreed with the passage of the bill.
“We have agreed to remove the carried interest tax provision, protect advanced manufacturing, and boost our clean energy economy in the Senate’s budget reconciliation legislation,” Sinema said in the article. “Subject to the Parliamentarian’s review, I’ll move forward.”
Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, criticized the bill.
“This legislation will stifle manufacturing investment in America, undermining the very businesses that saved humanity during a pandemic and kept our economy afloat during the worst period of economic uncertainty in our lifetimes,” Timmons said on Twitter.
Timmons, however, did give Sinema credit for revisions to the bill.
"To be sure, it was worse before Sen. Sinema worked to protect some areas of manufacturing investment. But the final bill is still bad policy and will harm our ability to compete in a global economy," he said.
Seiden also expressed gratitude for Sinema while still saying the bill would do more harm than good.
“We appreciate Sen. Sinema for taking the time to listen to Arizona business community feedback on this legislation while it was being crafted. She kept an open line of communication throughout," he said.
"We thank her for her successful effort to blunt the bill’s harm to small-and medium-sized businesses, and for her desire to improve the legislation in a way that protects advanced manufacturing, encourages continued business investment, spurs the production of American-made clean energy, and provides significant drought resiliency funding to promote a water-secure future. Despite the bill’s positive aspects, however, the overall bill leaves much to be desired,” he said.
PhRMA President and CEO Stephen Ubl said that the drug pricing reform portion of the bill sets a bad precedent in terms of government power.
“This drug pricing plan is based on a litany of false promises," Ubl said. "They say they’re fighting inflation, but the Biden administration’s own data show that prescription medicines are not fueling inflation. They say this is ‘negotiation,’ but the bill gives the government unchecked authority to set the price of medicines.
"And they say the bill won’t harm innovation, but various experts, biotech investors and patient advocates agree that this bill will lead to fewer new cures and treatments for patients battling cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases.”