Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., told Newsmax on Monday that he cannot support the Inflation Reduction Act, which he says would not help to improve the economy.
Braun told "National Report" that the bill comes "on top of $4 trillion that we spent back in 2020, a lot of that out of uncertainty. We didn't need to spend near that much. They are political enterprisers and they passed two bills: one for nearly $2 trillion. We throw trillions around like hundreds of billions used to be, and that's what caused inflation."
He continued: "So, yes, this is going to be not even neutral. It's going to be adding more fuel to the fire. One of the comments about how dysfunctional the place is, that vote-a-rama that we did, where everybody stayed at, including some of the older senators, really had trouble probably even doing it.
"The budget committee that I'm on that should be passing a budget, meaning that you look at where you might need more or fewer resources, we don't do it. [Vermont independent Sen.] Bernie Sanders is the chair of the budget committee. At least [former Wyoming Republican Sen.] Mike Enzi, who was there the first two years, wanted to do some things. Sadly, most Republicans [and] all Democrats, their political enterprisers, buy into this more and more."
Braun also criticized the planned allocation of $80 billion to help fund the IRS, including hiring thousands of additional agents.
"The big corporations, they fight through this with their staff that can [act as] a counterweight to any type of audit," Braun said. "This will hit Main Street America, where most businesses are organized as an LLC or a sub-S, that don't have staff, will have to hire CPAs. That is where they'll go because they won't be able to fight it.
"We need to collect and people need to pay what's owed. This again is something that did not need to be done now.”
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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