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August 16, 2022 03:38 PM UTC

President Biden Signs The BFD Act

  • 14 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Don’t take our word for it:

—–

Sens. John Hickenlooper, Michael Bennet.

As the Washington Post reports, the hard-won long-sought reconciliation spending package once known as the Build Back Better Plan and officially now known as the banal-sounding Inflation Reduction Act, was signed into law this afternoon by President Joe Biden, capping off a dramatic turn of political fortune for Democrats in recent weeks:

At a bill signing ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House, Biden praised the legislation as among the most significant measures in the history of the country.

“Let me say from the start: With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost,” Biden said.

His administration had begun amid “a dark time in America,” Biden added, citing the coronavirus pandemic, joblessness and threats to democracy.

“And yet we’ve not wavered, we’ve not flinched and we’ve not given in,” Biden said. “Instead, we’re delivering results for the American people. We didn’t tear down. We built up. We didn’t look back. We look forward. And today — today offers further proof that the soul of America is vibrant, the future of America is bright, and the promise of America is real.”

With signing of this overwhelmingly popular spending package into law, Democrats have the opportunity to put closure on two years of struggle in which much more was achieved than the Biden administration gets popular credit for, such as the infrastructure bill passed right after the 2021 midterms–a win that didn’t resonate politically in the moment after being delinked under pressure from the passage of the larger spending plan on health care and climate change known as Build Back Better. What America got today, thanks in significant part to the patient work of Colorado’s U.S. Senators, was enough of Build Back Better for Democrats to return to their districts with a long list of campaign promises they thought were unattainable kept.

In light of all of this, we will henceforth refer to the so-called Inflation Reduction Act as the BFD Act. It’s not all of Build Back Better, but it’s still, as Joe Biden once said famously about Obamacare, “a big f—ing deal.”

Partisan Republicans will disagree of course–and the one in Colorado who might have benefited politically from crossing over to the winning side, U.S. Senate candidate Joe O’Dea, felt obliged to put party and Mitch McConnell first. So while the majority of Americans celebrate having a government once more capable of minimally getting stuff done, O’Dea is left to sulk with his party of fringe naysayers and dismal poll numbers.

Them’s the breaks when you bet against America.

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14 thoughts on “President Biden Signs The BFD Act”

  1. Congratulations liberals. You broke the Senate but passed your spending bill.

    In a few years when the IRS stormtroopers show up at your door but your prescription drugs are no cheaper and climate change no closer to a solution because China doesn't care how much we spend, will you finally admit you were wrong about everything?

    2. "Congratulations liberals. You broke the Senate but passed your spending bill."

      HEHEHEHEHEHEHE 

      Liberals broke the Senate. You never cease to make us laugh, Moddy.

    5. but your prescription drugs are no cheaper and climate change no closer to a solution

      Well, I can tell you who is at fault for insulin still being expensive.  Their your heroes.  Kept the Insulin price cap of $35 out of this bill.

      And if climate change is no closer to a solution, then it's because y'all insist on "drill baby drill" and hate renewable energy.

      will you finally admit you were wrong about everything?

      Here's the thing if we're wrong about everything, you're MORE wrong.  I'll take my chances with the party that does NOT want to turn us into a theocracy.  Such as a functionally illiterate moron suggesting a "Biblical literacy test".  I'd take being the party of Biden over the party of Boebert every day.

    6. Moldy here is yet another republican fascist that is detached from reality.

      Passing the IRA via reconciliation is completely within the senate rules you putz.

      FYI, it was Moscow Mitch and the republicans fascists that broke the senate.

  2. IRS stormtroopers at my door … yeah, that's pretty funny, as few of the IRS personnel slated to be hired are going to be doing enforcement.  IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig said the resources won’t increase “audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans.”

    In the course of the debate, one Senator suggested NOT ONE of the new hires will be devoted to households with incomes under $400,000 a year.  Enforcement personnel will be augmented for corporations and the wealthy — current stats suggest "those making $400,000 or more in income belong to a rarified group. They represent the top 1.8% of taxpayers" (and about 25% of the income).

    That will push the IRS back to where it was about 10 years ago —

    "Overall, IRS audits plunged by 44% between fiscal years 2015 and 2019, according to a 2021 Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report.

    While audits dropped by 75% for Americans making $1 million or more, the percentage fell by 33% for low-to-moderate income filers claiming the earned income tax credit, known as EITC, the report found."

    And also in the course of debate … the new hires are expected to cut hold times for callers substantially.  For the 2022 tax season, "When you call the IRS, prepare to wait. And wait. And wait. You can make some coffee and even do a load of laundry while on hold. The average time a taxpayer spent waiting on hold increased from 20 minutes to 29 minutes, Collins said in her report. But that doesn’t capture the many people who just gave up and hung up." About 9 in 10 calls were abandoned before a human answered. Some of those no doubt were also using a search and found internet resources to answer their question.  Some may have had their questions answered by the recorded advice. 

    I worked with a company concerned about callers seeking assistance not getting to a human in a minute, and not getting to even the most sophisticated level of support within 2 calls and a combined on-phone time of 10 minutes.  Front line abandon rates of 5% for a week or more brought LOTS of attention from executives.

    IRS needs more people, better technology, and better priorities.  They don't have and won't have stormtroopers.

    1. With all the added funding for the IRS, maybe they can finally complete that perpetual audit that purportedly kept former President Trump from releasing his 2016 tax returns. (Said with heavy sarcasm)

  3. As someone who pays a lot of taxes – damn right I want better enforcement of the rich. I have no tax shelters, etc. and keep my taxes as simple as possible. It’s clean and I pay my fair share.

    And I’d love to see others who make as much as I do and more also pay their fair share. It’s bullshit that many of the rich unfairly avoid paying their fair share.

    1. Agreed.  I had the IRS audit me about 15 years ago.  It was unpleasant, but the appeals agent was a reasonable, decent person that I could work with to resolve a difficult situation.  

  4. The Clown Prince of Pennsylvania Avenue is getting skewered in today’s NYT

    "This book is like a tour of a once majestic 18th-century wooden house, now burned to its foundations, that focuses solely on, and rejoices in, what’s left amid the ashes: the two singed bathtubs, the gravel driveway and the mailbox," Garner writes. "Kushner’s fealty to Trump remains absolute. Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo."

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