Menendez Statement on Senate Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) today released the following statement after the Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022:
“It is a historic day for New Jersey families and Americans all across the country. The Inflation Reduction Act will transform the lives of millions by lowering the cost of prescription drugs to help seniors struggling to make ends meet, including provisions I authored like the $2,000 out-of-pocket cap and smoothing provision for Medicare beneficiaries, and strengthening health care access for millions of working-class families by extending subsidies under the Affordable Care Act for three years. Despite the obstruction of the fossil fuel industry, passing this bill is also a historic victory in our fight against climate change, marking the most impactful legislation Congress has ever passed to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and putting us on a path to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030. This legislation will also close tax loopholes abused by the largest corporations, create millions of good-paying jobs, and cut costs for American families.
“While Republicans tried every obstructionist tactic in their playbook to undermine and weaken this bill at every turn, Democrats stood united and remained singularly focused on delivering a once-in-a-generation investment in American families. This is not a perfect bill – it does not repeal the Republican-imposed SALT cap or reform our broken immigration system – but the benefits of this legislation for New Jersey families cannot be understated.
“Today, Democrats proved yet again we can deliver results for the American people, from our seniors to our small business owners to everyone in between. I will continue working to find a path forward for repealing the SALT cap for hard-working middle-class families and building a more humane and inclusive immigration system for all. My Democratic colleagues and I will never stop working to deliver real substantive solutions to address the most pressing challenges facing our nation.”
So much for his promise “I can be Joe Manchin” to not approve any legislation unless it repealed or at least raised the SALT deduction limit.
Why couldn’t the SALT cap at least have been increased if it couldn’t be repealed? I have been waiting for this since 2017 and hoped the middle class would finally get a break on this. I live in a state with such high taxes and I’m hardly considered rich with a $200,000 income. I am SO DISAPPOINTED you all couldn’t get this through. This has cost me thousands of dollars in paying taxes solely because of the SALT cap. What a huge let down.
Yet you voted to extend the salt cap.
Interesting – rather than address the complexity of the IRS code, we add more agents to enforce this complexity. We don’t look at the route cause of tax receipts rather add more government bodies. Seems other state representatives have more influence as NJ SALT still not addressed by Senators Booker and Menendez.