The state of Wisconsin is home to several labour unions and interest groups that are petitioning Congress to take action regarding rising prices.
They are attempting to persuade their fellow senators in the United States Senate to support the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
The legislation was presented for consideration one week ago by Senator Joe Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
It is considered to be a watered-down version of the Build Back Better Act, which was unable to pass through the Senate as a result of opposition from Manchin.
The goal of the new legislation, as suggested by its name, is to reduce recent inflation, which, according to the Department of Labor in the United States, is currently 9.1 per cent.
Morgan Grunow is a part of the liberal advocacy group For Our Future Wisconsin, which has its headquarters in Madison. During his remarks at a press conference held today at the Madison Labor Temple, Grunow emphasized that the bill would make healthcare more affordable.
According to Grunow, “With this bill, residents of Wisconsin will finally have access to the healthcare they need to keep themselves alive and healthy.”
“By extending for an additional three years the healthcare tax credits that were included in the American Rescue Plan for the Affordable Care Act, the bill lowers the premiums for medical insurance.
In addition, the Medicare program will finally be able to negotiate lower drug prices, which is something that it has not been able to do for the past twenty years. This will result in a reduction in the cost of prescription medications.
Dr Laurel Mark is a physician who has just recently retired and is currently serving as the co-chair of the Wisconsin chapter of the organization Physicians for a National Health Program. She described cases in which patients were unable to seek treatment because they could not afford it.
Dr Mark shared his experience, saying, “I had to deal with the consequences of this almost every day during my forty years of working in clinical practice when patients couldn’t afford the care that they needed.”
“It’s really frustrating to know what the appropriate treatment is but not be able to provide it due to a lack of financial resources.”
When I consider the policies that have resulted in the current high cost of medications, I can’t help but think about the patients I’ve had who have been unable to afford the treatments that could have helped them.
Additionally, Grunow, of For Our Future Wisconsin, discussed the bill’s commitment to investing in renewable sources of energy.
This bill will provide tax credits and investments for energy projects, in addition to creating thousands of new jobs and lowering future energy costs; all of these things will improve our energy security, help us address the climate crisis we are facing, and boost our clean energy economy.
Sarah Godlewski, the state treasurer of Wisconsin and a former candidate in the crowded Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate who announced last week that she would not seek reelection, also spoke today. She provided an in-depth analysis of the bill’s funding.
“And then the final major component of this whole thing is, well, how are we going to pay for it? How we ought to have been paying for this from the very beginning is by ensuring that corporations pay their fair share and closing the inevitable tax loopholes that exist.
So, how does this appear exactly? To begin, we are finally going to be taxing major corporations with sales of more than a billion dollars at the rate of fifteen per cent. And these are companies that are typically getting away scot-free, and we haven’t been doing anything about it.”
Godlewski also advocated for another part of the bill that would strengthen the Internal Revenue Service’s capacity as well as its resources to enforce tax codes.
“We have been aware for a very long time that the IRS’s enforcement has been significantly reduced. Because of this, wealthy individuals and corporations have not been held accountable for the back taxes that they owe. Because of this change, we expect to recoup more than two hundred billion dollars.
When Godlewski was asked about the amount of time it would take for Americans to see the decrease in inflation that the bill promises, she responded by saying that she anticipates mixed results.
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“Some of these things can be activated by flipping a switch, while others are going to require a little bit more effort on your part.
But if we really want to get down to brass tacks, I think the most important thing is that, after so much time spent debating the issue, Congress is finally taking action on it.
And this, at a time when inflation is running at almost 9 per cent, which is higher than, I mean, it hasn’t been this high since before I was even born. And we have to be taking action in response to it.”
Senator Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, issued a statement yesterday announcing her support for the bill. During an interview that day on Fox Business, Republican Senator Ron Johnson expressed his opposition to the measure and explained why.
