The Inflation Reduction Act is an enormous and hugely consequential bill that tackles climate change in a serious way, allows Medicare to negotiate with drug companies, and might — just might — turn Joe Biden’s presidency around. There’s only one problem …
Here’s Matt Yglesias, doing some news analysis:
I think it’s instructive to consider the success of the IRA negotiations through the lens of the Green New Deal construct.
Here’s an energy-sector trade journal on the bill’s carbon-capture tax credits:
Under the IRA policies, a point-source operation would need to capture just 12,500 tons/yr to qualify.
And here’s some confused fearmongering from Paul Manafort:
The trouble (or Troubles) is that you likely already have strong mental associations for phrases such as “IRA negotiations,” “IRA policies” and “IRA agents.” Each headline about the Biden presidency’s signature policy achievement can’t help but summon fantasies of Kyrsten Sinema on hunger strike in Long Kesh prison or Joe Manchin brandishing an Armalite rifle and sporting a menacing balaclava.
To make matters worse, until the Inflation Reduction Act passes both houses of Congress, it is entirely accurate to call it “the provisional IRA.” Once it does, it will then become “the official IRA” or perhaps even “the real IRA.”
A galaxy-brain take is that this reference might be intentional, either thanks to the president’s affinity for the Irish republican cause or, as with the “Dark Brandon” meme, a way to subtly rebrand mainstream Democrats as revolutionary and aggressive rather than doddering and weak. But still, we all can agree it’s pretty confusing.
Fortunately, I’m not the kind of journalist who diagnoses problems without providing solutions. For the sake of differentiating the green agenda from the green-white-and-orange one, I have come up with a few new names for the Inflation Reduction Act, all of which I’m sure will be far less controversial:
• Inflation Negation in the Long-term Act
• Inflation Reform for the Long-term Act
• Inflation Pruning Legislative Order
• Upgrading Ventilation Forever Act
• Renewable Homes Defense Act
• Officially Negotiating Healthcare Act
• Reducing Anxiety Around the Deficit Act
Whatever the name, one thing is clear: Democratic hopes for the midterms haven’t gone away, you know.
