"We strongly recommend Congress act decisively to build a stronger economy by passing the Inflation Reduction Act as soon as possible."
Dear Senate Majority Leader Schumer, Senate Minority Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, and House Minority Leader McCarthy,
We write to strongly urge you and your colleagues in Congress to swiftly pass the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. This historic legislation makes crucial investments in energy, health care, and in shoring up the nation’s tax system. These investments will fight inflation and lower costs for American families while setting the stage for strong, stable, and broadly-shared long-term economic growth.
This legislation represents the single biggest step to date in tackling the climate crisis. It makes key investments to incentivize the transition to cleaner energy sources and greater efficiency. It also invests in the current energy distribution system to make it more resilient, lowers energy costs for families, and helps protect U.S. family budgets against future shocks.
This legislation will quickly and noticeably bring down health care costs for families. It allows Medicare to negotiate lower prices with pharmaceutical companies, reduces Medicare out-of-pocket costs for drugs, and reduces insurance costs for 13 million Americans by building on provisions in the Affordable Care Act.
These investments would be more than fully paid for. The revenue raised to finance them would come exclusively from wealthy individuals and corporations. Further, the revenue stems from enhanced tax enforcement and closing some of the most distortionary loopholes in the tax code.
This proposal addresses some of the country’s biggest challenges at a significant scale. And because it is deficit-reducing, it does so while putting downward pressure on inflation. We strongly recommend Congress act decisively to build a stronger economy by passing the Inflation Reduction Act as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Joseph Stiglitz, Columbia University
Robert Solow, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peter Diamond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Oliver Hart, Harvard University
Eric Maskin, Harvard University
Edmund Phelps, Columbia University
Robert Rubin, Council on Foreign Relations
Jacob Lew, Columbia University
Jason Furman, Harvard University
Martin Neil Baily, Brookings Institution
Doug Elmendorf, Harvard Kennedy School
Roger Ferguson, TIAA (formerly)
Alan Blinder, Princeton University
Louise Sheiner, Brookings Institution
Tara Watson, Brookings Institution
Mark Paul, Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
Matthew Rabin, Harvard Economics Department and Business School
Katharine Abraham, University of Maryland
Byron Auguste, Opportunity@Work
Brad DeLong, University of California-Berkeley
Jesse Rothstein, University of California-Berkeley
Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute
Betsey Stevenson, University of Michigan
Dean Baker, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Mark Zandi, Moody’s Analytics
Josh Gotbaum, Brookings Institution
David Johnson, University of Michigan
Hilary Hoynes, University of California-Berkeley
Larry Katz, Harvard University
Karen Dynan, Harvard University
Richard Schmalensee, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Maurice Obstfeld, University of California-Berkeley
Carl Shapiro, University of California-Berkeley
William Spriggs, AFL-CIO & Howard University
Prasannan Parthasarathi, Boston College
Robert Blecker, American University
Anna Stansbury, MIT Sloan
Robert B. Williams, Guilford College
Paula Voos, Rutgers University
Emily Hoffman, Western Michigan University
Michael Reich, University of California, Berkeley
Rob Wassmer, California state university, sacramento
Yana Rodgers, Rutgers University
Barry Bluestone, Northeastern University
Josh Bivens, Economic Policy Institute
John Schmitt , Economic Policy Institute
Juliet Schor, Boston College
Eileen Appelbaum, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Robert G. Williams, Guilford College
Barry Bosworth, Brookings Institution
Douglas Kruse, Rutgers Professor
Michael Ash, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Richard Murnane, Harvard University
Ben Zipperer, Economic Policy Institute
Janet Knoedler, Bucknell University
Daron Acemoglu, MIT
Robert Murphy, Boston College
Michael Garvey, Washington Center of Equitable Growth
David Cutler, Harvard University
Lisa Lynch, Brandeis University
Robert Pollin, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Ebru Kongar, Dickinson College
Sheldon Danziger , University of Michigan
Teresa Ghilarducci, The New School
Bernard E. Anderson, University of Pennsylvania
Peter Matthews, Middlebury College
Adam Hersh, Economic Policy Institute
Alan Aja, Brooklyn College (City University of New York)
Clair Brown, University of California-Berkeley
Younghwan Song, Union College
Aaron Sojourner, Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
Krishna Dasaratha, Boston University
Larry Chimerine, Chase Econometrics and the Wefa Group (formerly)
Arindrajit Dube, UMass Amherst
Valerie Wilson, Economic Policy Institute
Carolyn Craven, Middlebury College
Chris Tilly, UCLA
John Shea, University of Maryland at College Park
Sarah Wilhelm, Western Governors University
Xavier Jaravel, London School of Economics
Jacob Robbins, University of Illinois at Chicago
Gernot Wagner, Columbia Business School
Jonathan Colmer, University of Virginia
Christopher Ruhm, University of Virginia
Joya Misra, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Peter Schaeffer, West Virginia University
Nina Banks, Bucknell University
David Weil, Brandeis University
Gail Blattenberger, University of Utah
Dania Francis, University of Massachusetts Boston
Jeannette Wicks-Lim, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Emmanuel Saez, University of California
Manuel Pastor, University of Southern California
Kate Bahn, Washington Center for Equitable Growth
Sean Reardon, Stanford University
Randy Albelda, University of Massachusetts Boston
Tim Smeeding, University of Wisconsin
Kenneth Peres, Communications Workers of America (retired)
David Alexander, Illinois Action for Children
Monique Morrissey, Economic Policy Institute
Trevon Logan, The Ohio State University
Geoffrey Schneider, Bucknell University
Kimberly Clausing, UCLA School of Law
Paulette Olson, Wright State University
Henry Levin, Emeritus Professor at Stanford and Columbia
Frank Stricker, CSU Dominguez Hills
Laura Giuliano, UC Santa Cruz
Christopher Magee, Bucknell University
Gabriel Mathy, American University
Laura Tyson, UC Berkeley
Robert M. Anderson, UC Berkeley
James Stewart, New School
Siavash Radpour, The New School for Social Research, Schwartz Center for Economic Policy
Analysis
Ignacio Gonzalez, American University
Esteban J. Quiñones, Mathematica
Sylvia Allegretto, Economic Policy Institute
Rene Rosenbaum
Roger Myerson, University of Chicago
Paul Leigh, UC Davis
Lawrence Mishel, Economic Policy Institute
Robert Scott Economic Policy Institute
Peter Eaton, UMKC
Candace Howes, Connecticut College
Gerald Epstein, University of Massachusetts Amherst
William Darity Jr., Duke University
Eva Paus, Mount Holyoke College
Full letter, via “First on CNN: Top economists say Democrats’ health care and climate package will put ‘downward pressure on inflation’” by Betsy Klein, CNN (2 August 2022).