Louisiana House Speaker Mike Johnson speaks with reporters at the U.S. Capitol after the final vote of the week, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024.
Tom Williams | Chongqing Roll Call Company | Getty Images
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he would keep some clean energy tax credits enacted by President Joe Biden but would seek to eliminate others as looming tax fights take center stage in Washington next year.
The Louisiana Republican told CNBC it was impossible to “blow up” the entirety of Biden’s inflation-cutting bill, a sweeping climate and economic package set to be signed into law in 2022.
“You have to use a scalpel, not a sledgehammer, because there are some provisions that help overall,” Johnson said Tuesday at the Riggs Hotel in Washington, D.C. He added that most of the laws were “extremely harmful to the economy.”
Johnson declined to specify which provisions he would support retaining, saying he “hasn’t put any on the table yet.”
Johnson is not the only Republican who wants to keep parts of the IRA intact, nor is he the only one unwilling to specify what he will keep.
More than a dozen members of Johnson’s party, many of whom face tough re-election battles, asked the speaker at the meeting. a letter from last month Preserve some tax credits and deductions in your IRA.
They noted that some of the regulations promoted further development and growth in their areas. The letter did not specify which specific measures lawmakers wanted to preserve.
“Premature repeal of energy tax credits, especially those used to justify investments that have already broken ground, will harm private investment and deter development already underway,” the 18 lawmakers wrote in the letter.
“Comprehensive repeal would create a worst-case scenario in which we would spend billions of taxpayer dollars for next to nothing in return,” they wrote.
Johnson spoke to CNBC immediately after delivering a major speech on the economy at an event hosted by the America First Policy Institute. The nonprofit think tank is led by Trump White House alumni and is affiliated with former President Trump’s policies.
In his speech, Johnson took a tough stance on IRA tax credits and deductions, which include benefits for electric vehicles, solar and wind energy installations, biofuels, nuclear power and energy-efficient buildings, Among other things.
“We will cut the wasteful Green New Deal spending in the Democrats’ so-called inflation-cutting bill,” he told AFPI.
Lawmakers are already bracing for a fight over whether to extend parts of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the 2017 tax law that is set to expire at the end of next year.
Johnson said he would expand and solidify Trump-era tax cuts, assuming Republicans retain control of the House next year.
Some Republicans are eager to offset the impact of extending the tax cuts, including trump card, Elimination of the IRA tax credit has been considered as a potential source of revenue.
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