By the end of 2031, the latest Democratic reconciliation bill would shave just .33 percent from the Consumer Price Index, the traditional inflation metric, according to a report from Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. The current CPI is 9.1 percent, the highest in over 40 years.
Zandi and his coauthors say the Inflation Reduction Act will only "nudge the economy and inflation in the right direction." And that conclusion strains the definition of "nudge." Americans will see no change in inflation due to the bill, the report states, until the third quarter of 2023—a .01 percent decrease.
Zandi's analysis is often shared by the White House or the president himself. During a February 2021 speech, Biden cited Zandi's work twice while pitching his economic agenda. In July of last year, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) called on lawmakers to read Zandi's favorable report on the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
