The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) siphons over $200 billion in Medicare prescription drug savings to fund electric cars and other forms of green energy.

Now Medicare Prescription Drug premiums are up 21%.

The IRA’s dirty secret is that its Medicare policies weren’t meant to help seniors. Congress just needed the prescription drug savings to fund the law’s climate spending, which will top $1 trillion.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), almost all the IRA’s $281 billion in Medicare savings will be spent outside the program. One former CBO Director doubts seniors will see a dime of it.

Somehow, Congress couldn’t find room in the law’s 755 pages to require the proceeds from its pharmacy policies to stay in Medicare.

This “Green Loophole” turned the Medicare savings into a slush fund for the Climate Lobby.

That explains why prescription drug premiums skyrocketed 21% this year. The lRA required plans to offer costly, new benefits (like capping co-pays patients pay on insulin) but dedicated no funds to ensure this wouldn’t require higher rates for seniors. 

Media “fact-checkers” dismissed such claims by erroneously saying the law capped hikes at 6% per year. That was quickly disproven when Medicare officials approved plans with 30%, 40% and 50% premium increases.

That’s the story of the IRA. To paraphrase country crooner Jerry Reed, “Greens got the goldmine, Grandpa got the shaft.”

Some say seniors’ costs will come back down as Medicare “negotiates” lower drug prices, but that’s just gaslighting. The “Green Loophole” will divert those savings, too.

Worse, “much, much higher prices” are coming when next year’s Medicare plans are unveiled on October 15^th, just three weeks before the election. Hundreds of thousands are expected to lose their plans altogether.

Those who backed the law in Congress always knew the IRA shortchanged seniors, but none did anything about it.

That includes this year’s Senate candidates in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio.

Here’s a proposal that would clarify where everyone stands today.

Why not return the $281 billion in IRA drug savings to Medicare by cutting it from the law’s unspent climate subsidies?

Very little of the green spending has gone out the door yet, including $390 billion electric vehicle (EV) credits.

Voting on such a proposal would show who thinks fighting climate change is more important than protecting medical care for seniors.