VP Harris' tiebreaker votes in Senate were key to inflation-boosting Biden policies: expert
When giving a farewell speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, President Joe Biden referenced Vice President Kamala Harris’s role in the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
"Guess who cast the tie-breaking vote? Vice President soon-to-be President Kamala Harris, and now it’s the law of the land," Biden said of the $739 billion spending bill that passed the Senate by 51-50 thanks to the Harris vote in August 2022.
However, since Harris – now the Democratic presidential nominee – cast the tie-breaking vote as president of the Senate, the cost of rent has climbed 13%. In comparison, the cost of new mortgages climbed 36% in those two years, according to estimates assembled by Americans for Tax Reform.
Further, the cost of baby food shot up by 13%, while frozen vegetables increased by 14%. The ATR, a conservative-leaning group, crunched numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve. The cost of transportation, butter, bread, flour, and breakfast cereal all increased by single digits since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.
Over the last two years, some prices such as gas, transportation, energy, chicken, and milk declined, according to the ATR’s numbers.
However, since Biden and Harris took office in January 2021, prices for every sector measured by ATR’s stats leaped by at least double digits. New mortgage rates since Biden-Harris came into office skyrocketed by 156% and rent shot up by 22%.
Gas has gone up by 35%, energy has gone up by 33%, and transportation increased by 28%.
The cost of eggs has increased by 53%, baby food has gone up by 30%, frozen vegetables are up 28%, bread is up by 24% and the cost of milk is up by 17%.
Shortly after becoming vice president in March 2021, Harris also cast the tie-breaking vote on the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which also led to printing more money amid rising inflation.
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"Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote on the two biggest legislative drivers of inflation: the American Rescue Plan and the Inflation Reduction Act. She also supported the Biden-Harris regulatory regime which imposed additional costs on households," Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, told Fox News Digital.
"And now she vows to make matters worse by imposing a long list of tax increases," Norquist continued. "She has endorsed a carbon tax, a 44.6% capital gains tax, and a 28% federal corporate tax rate, higher than China’s 25% and the EU [European Union] average of 21%. Americans will have even less take-home pay."
The Harris campaign didn’t respond to inquiries for this story, but the Democratic National Committee responded by pointing to former President Donald Trump’s economic record during his last year in office during the COVID-19 pandemic.
DNC spokesperson Alex Floyd said Trump would give a tax cut to billionaires if elected, and said he "left office with the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover."
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Floyd referred to a statement in June by 16 Nobel economists that endorsed then candidate Biden’s economic plan, and argued Trump’s proposals would lead to inflation.
"Economists have called Donald Trump's plan an inflation bomb that would sell out working families to double down on tax giveaways for the ultra-wealthy," Floyd told Fox News Digital.