Democrats in the House and Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022, said to cost $891 billion at the time, without a single Republican vote. Then-President Joe Biden said the measure would lower inflation, as well as fight climate change, but critics say the opposite has been true.

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, estimates that the energy subsidies in the act will cost between $936 billion and $1.97 trillion over the next 10 years, and between $2.04 trillion and $4.67 trillion by 2050. Those numbers are well above the original estimation.

The Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated the energy-related subsidies in the legislation would cost about $370 billion when Congress passed it. Goldman Sachs later estimated the Inflation Reduction Act’s 10-year cost would be $1.2 trillion. Read More