In Washington, it’s often joked that the vice president has only two duties: checking in on the president’s well-being and breaking ties in the Senate.
The first responsibility seems irrelevant now, as Democrats have maneuvered to replace President Joe Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris for the upcoming election. And as for the second, Harris might prefer to keep her involvement under wraps rather than flaunt it.
Two years ago, Harris cast the deciding vote on the “Inflation Reduction Act” (IRA), a cornerstone of the Biden-Harris administration’s “Investing in America” agenda. Despite her recent attempts to distance herself from Biden, the IRA is undeniably linked to her. The White House recently issued a fact sheet touting the act’s role in combating the “climate crisis.”
Even some left-leaning sources admit that the legislation
has failed to curb inflation, which has tripled since Biden took office and remains higher than during Trump’s or Obama’s terms—despite Obama’s continued influence.
Under Biden and Harris, Americans have seen rising costs across the board—gas, groceries, housing. However, one of the most significant impacts of the IRA has been the dramatic spike in Medicare Part D premiums, disrupting a program that had relied on market competition to control costs. The shift to government-imposed price controls has had devastating effects.
For the 50 million Americans enrolled in Medicare Part D, premiums rose by over 20 percent in 2024 and are expected to nearly double by 2025.
Recently, to offset these premium hikes before the election, the Biden-Harris administration is using billions in taxpayer dollars to bail out Part D insurers. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has termed this a “premium stabilization” for prescription drug plans, a move thoroughly analyzed in a report by the Paragon Health Institute.
The Wall Street Journal criticized this action as “a back-door way for Democrats to ration access to costly drugs,” and pointed out that the CMS’s actions could cause the IRA to exceed its projected costs, with no clear oversight due to the lack of a formal rule-making process requiring a cost analysis.
In response, leading Republican lawmakers have requested that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) conduct an evaluation.
This week, several key Republicans, including House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) and Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-IA), sent a letter demanding more transparency about the CMS bailout—what Democrats refer to as a “demonstration program.”
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