- 09.26.2022
Havre Daily News: Tester touts Inflation Reduction Act
Sen. Jon Tester said in a press conference last week that Congress has passed some of the most significant legislation in decades, legislation he said will benefit people and their children and grandchildren “literally” for generations to come.
Tester said the “Inflation Reduction Act” will pay down the national debt and lower costs across the board, provide working families with real relief, and ease inflationary pressures for the long term.
“This bill cuts our national debt by hundreds of billions of dollars and saves Montana seniors thousands of dollars of yearly out-of-pocket prescription drug costs,” he said. “And it is fully paid for by closing tax loopholes for the biggest corporations in America – not working Montanans.”
Tester said the bill requires Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices and the law will save Montana seniors thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket expenses, which will ultimately lower the costs for people across the board.
He said it also caps insulin costs for Medicare patients at $35 a month, so people will no longer be forced to choose between lifesaving medications or putting food on the table.
“I might add that, initially, when we put this bill up, it was a $35 a month cap for everybody,” Tester said. “It’s just a Medicare cap now. I’m going to try to get that cap to apply to everybody because diabetes is a huge issue, insulin hasn’t changed since it was invented, to speak of, and these costs are important for everybody to keep under control.”
He said the bill also caps out-of-pocket prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year for Medicare patients, so people living on fixed incomes are going to finally have certainty and flexibility that they need to be able to plan for the future.
“The bottom line is this,” Tester said, “the Inflation Reduction Act is fiscally responsible legislation and it will directly, tangibly benefit Montanans now, and well into the future.”
And he said it is fully paid for, including deficit reduction, without increasing taxes on average people in Montana or the rest of the country.
“It’s going to be paid for by eliminating loopholes for millionaires or billionaires,” Tester said. “If you’re a millionaire or billionaire it could potentially raise your taxes – if you aren’t paying your taxes.
“But the truth is, we’ve got a number of billion-dollar companies in this country that pay zero, nada, caput in taxes, and so that’s not really right,” he continued. “This is just going to hold folks accountable, and I just think it’s the right thing to do. We’re all in this thing together. This is the greatest country on earth because everybody’s worked together to make it that way, and so you pay your fair share not too much but not too little either and that’s what this is about.”
“You might say to yourself, ‘Wow, there’s that much out there in uncollected taxes?'” he added. “Sorry to say, there is.”
And Tester said people don’t have to take his word for the benefits of the bill.
“Nonpartisan groups like the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Moody’s Analytics both agree that the Inflation Reduction Act will lower costs, ease inflationary pressures in both the short and long term,” he said. “This legislation is good for Montana, good for America, and I’m looking forward to making sure that it’s implemented correctly.”