John Kerry calls Inflation Reduction Act a ‘completely misnamed piece of legislation’

John Kerry, who is the Presidential envoy for climate change, acknowledged on Thursday that the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has little to do with inflation reduction and is not likely to make a sizeable dent in inflation.

“We’re running around saying, ‘I support the IRA.’ That’s tricky in politics, but here we are,” Kerry mused, apparently referring to the Irish Republican Army. “And I’m not sure how much it has to do with inflation, but that’s OK.”

Kerry made these remarks during a speech at the International Energy Agency’s Global Clean Energy Action Forum, which was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

Kerry said that the Inflation Reduction Act is a “completely misnamed piece of legislation,” and added that he was “not sure how much it has to do with inflation.”

Kerry did offer some positivity towards the bill by saying it was “amazing” for raising awareness about climate change.

“The most important parts of the IRA are very simple. Production and investment tax credits. That, I think, is going to do more than almost anything else in the bill. We don’t have to have government making choices about winners and losers. The marketplace is going to choose. You, inventors and investors, are going to help move that along, and we’re going to get there,” Kerry said, per Fox News.

“We don’t have to have government making choices about winners and losers. The marketplace is going to choose,” he added. “You, inventors and investors, are going to help move that along, and we’re going to get there.”

Kerry spoke of his admiration for Biden’s attempts to combat climate change, however he accepted that “no government is going to solve this problem” because it simply doesn’t have enough money to do so.

The Congressional Budget Office said last month that they don’t anticipate the bill reducing inflation in the near future. An analysis by the Penn Wharton budget model concluded the “impact on inflation is statistically indistinguishable from zero.”

“In calendar year 2022, enacting the bill would have a negligible effect on inflation, in CBO’s assessment,” the agency’s director, Phillip Swagel, wrote in a letter on August 4th to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. 

The Inflation Reduction Act cleared the Senate 51-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie.