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Poison Pill? Why Dems' Inflation Reduction Act May Become GOP Headache Ahead of 2024 Election_我的网站

一 |     DETROIT -- United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain is expected to update members Friday afternoon on progress in contract talks with Detroit's three automakers as movement was reported with General Motors.Fain is scheduled to do a live video appearance, where he could call on more workers to walk off their jobs, joining the 34,000 already on strike at six vehicle assembly plants and 38 parts distribution warehouses. The union's strikes at targeted plants at each company began on Sept. 15 and are nearing the start of their sixth week.A person briefed on the talks says the union is exchanging offers with GM and will meet again Friday with the company. The person didn't want to be identified because they’re not authorized to speak on the record about the bargaining. There also were meetings on Thursday with Jeep maker Stellantis.On Thursday, GM posted a video indicating that bargainers are still some distance apart. Gerald Johnson, the company's global head of manufacturing, said GM has offered a total wage and benefit package that averages $150,000 per worker. It includes a 20% pay increase over four years and a company contribution of 8% per year in 401(k) accounts, cost-of-living increases, and it brings most workers to a top wage of $39.24 per hour by September of 2027, the company said.GM already has agreed to pull new electric vehicle battery plants into the national UAW contract, essentially making them unionized, a key point for Fain and the union. The UAW is seeking 36% wages, restoration of defined benefit pensions that workers gave up in the Great Recession, pension increases for retirees, an end to varying tiers of wages for workers and other items.“You might might be asking yourselves why can't General Motors meet every demand Shawn Fain is asking for?” Johnson said on the video. “Simple answer is we need profits to invest in our future.”He goes on to say that during the past decade, GM had net income of $65 billion but invested $77 billion in the business. “If we don't have those profits to continue our investments in our plants, our people and our products, we will be facing declining market share, an inability to fund the EV transition, and an inability to compete with a growing number of competitors right here in America,” Johnson said.Ford and Stellantis have made similar comments, with Ford saying it has reached the limit on how much it can spend to settle the strike. The union, however, says labor expenses are only about 5% of a vehicle's costs, and the companies can divert money from profits and stock buybacks to pay for raises that cover inflation and make up for years of contracts without significant increases. The strikes started with one assembly plant from each company after contracts expired at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14. The union later added the parts warehouses, then one assembly plant each from Ford and GM.Last week the union made a surprise move, escalating the strikes by adding a huge Ford pickup truck and SUV plant in Louisville, Kentucky. But Fain told workers Friday that the union added the Kentucky plant after Ford presented an economic offer with no more money than a proposal from two weeks ago.About 23% of the union's 146,000 members employed by the three automakers are on strike.Stellantis said Friday that it canceled displays and presentations at the upcoming Specialty Equipment Market Association show and the Los Angeles Auto Show as strike costs continue to grow. Earlier this week the company pulled out of the CES gadget show in January.。    "It’s pretty clear that no one on either side of the aisle think the name-switch to 'Inflation Reduction Act' has anything to do with the idea that the legislation is designed to reduce inflation," explained Michael R. Englund, principal director and chief economist for Action Economics.,"I think US politicians are increasingly resigned to the view that neither side is able to change public opinion, so the goal is simply to push through their agendas and raise funds for elections. The title change made Manchin’s vote a smidgeon easier, and maybe that tipped the scales.",The newly signed law levies a 15% minimum tax on large corporations and offers tax credits and discounts on everything from electric cars to solar energy. It also looks to cap out-of-pocket drug costs and reduce the federal deficit by $305 billion over roughly the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). However, despite its name, it does not offer an immediate curb on inflation which still stays at a 40-year high in the US.,When asked by Fox News reporter Hillary Vaughn whether the bill will immediately have an impact on galloping prices, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin responded, "Well, immediately it’s not. We've never [said] anything would happen immediately, like turn the switch on and off.",Americas‘Addicted to Spending Your Money’: US Republican Slams Democrats Over Inflation Reduction ActYesterday, 15:26 GMT,The bill was passed by the Senate on August 7 in a party-line vote using budget reconciliation, which allowed the Dems to ram the legislation through the upper chamber with a simple majority rather than needing to meet a 60-vote threshold. None of GOP lawmakers voted for the bill and remain highly skeptical about it.,"It does nothing to bring the economy out of stagnation and recession, but rather, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 gives us higher taxes, more spending, higher prices and an army of IRS agents,” said Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, as quoted by National Review.,The media outlet further cites an independent analysis performed by the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School which stated that despite its name, the bill’s impact on inflation is "expected to be statistically indistinguishable from zero.",Furthermore, GOP lawmakers have repeatedly warned that the Biden administration's spending spree may further facilitate already soaring inflation. Meanwhile, the latest $739 billion measure comes after the passage of the Democratic Party's $1.9 trillion spending bill in March 2021 and a $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure spending bill in November 2021.,"Raising taxes and spending is doing the exact opposite of how to truly curb price inflation," said Tom Luongo, a financial and political commentator. "All they did was mandate a bunch of price controls (on drugs, for example) which will ultimately create shortages for things with inelastic demand, further exasperating existent cost-push inflation pressures. Price floors and price ceilings create shortages. The net effect will be higher prices. With the government now more openly subsidizing specific sectors of the economy, they will ensure an increase in demand while capping the supply.",GOP Lawmakers Blast Biden’s ‘Inflation Reduction Act’, Say It Will Make Inflation Worse7 August, 19:05 GMT,Dems Need the Law to Campaign in Midterm Elections,According to the observers, the bill's major purpose is to reinvigorate the Democratic Party's base ahead of the November midterm election and stop Joe Biden's approval rating slide. A Politico-Morning Consult poll released on Wednesday indicated that the US president's approval rating ticked up 3 percentage points after the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. At the same time, the number of registered voters who disapproved of Biden's job performance dropped from 59% to 56%.,"[The law] will give the Democrats something to campaign on," said Luongo. "They can now point to this act and say, 'See! We care about your drug prices but pay no attention to the insane rise in price of food, rent, gas and taxes… or those 87,000 armed IRS agents now being trained to take your couch money'.",However, "the net impact of the bill is that it may modestly boost Democrat turnout in November, and it may modestly boost Democratic fundraising," projected Englund, adding that "this comes at the risk of some modest boost for Republican turnout and fundraising that negates the benefit.","I’m not sure that, overall, the legislation is impactful enough to ultimately change the likely November electoral outcome," the economist said.,Still, there is more to the Inflation Reduction Act than meets the eye, according to Luongo: the financial commentator believes that "in the long run, this bill is a poison pill.","[The law] is designed to ensure inflation returns with a vengeance while the GOP is in power so that they can campaign on that in 2024. Honestly, it’s just so tiresome," Luongo concluded.。

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