this price tag, the price tag of not acting, makes the cost of passing this legislation look cheap. and this one is my favorite. $1 trillion. this is the cost of not fully funding the irs. and so if we and per year this is the lost money. so if we would do these things, if we take action, bring down the cost of prescription drugs, $8 billion a year savings, take action to address climate change, $145 billion in savings, fully fund our irs so that everyone pays what they already owe. this isn t making any changes to the tax code. it s just making sure we let the irs collect the taxes that are already owed and due. these are the costs of not acting. when we hear people say the bill would cost this much, legislation would cost that much, i think it is really, really important the american people understand what president
i want to talk about what the costs are of not acting. what the cost is of having joe manchin or others block action in the senate. for example, if we do not pass legislation to allow medicare to negotiate drug prices, we are losing $8 billion a year. this is what it costs taxpayers because medicare cannot negotiate drug prices. we have to pass this legislation to get this done. this is a problem even in the strongest economy because essentially we allow drug companies to hold american taxpayers hostage. similar, on climate, if we do not pass meaningful legislation, to address climate change, we are spending right now $145 billion a year cleaning up and dealing with the consequences of climate related disasters, wildfires, floods. $145 billion.
communities $145 billion last year. that is how many we spend because of weather-related crisis. $145 billion. by investing in resilience and clean energy technology, we could do something about that. to give relief to families, and the american rescue plan, we had the childcare tax credit. that did reduce child poverty by 40%. there is no reason it shouldn t continue. and on education. [ applause ] on education, today about half of the 3 and 4-year-olds are enrolled in early childhood education. in german, france, u.k., latvia, the number is more than 90%. where the heck are we. no i m serious. we re falling further and further behind the curve. but we could fix that problem. we could do this and more on health care, nutrition and a
here in pennsylvania we all know best the cost of inaction when it comes to climate. extreme weather cost this state $10 billion oaf the last decade. 10 billion. you all remember last fall when hurricane ida made landfall in the operation now, the former mayor of louisiana when it hit. last year extreme weather cost us $145 billion. that s what it cost the american public. extreme weather is not going to ease up on its on. we have to be ready. that s why we re investing in our resilience.
eight billion dollars a year saved. take action to address climate change, 145 billion dollars in savings. fully fund our irs, so that everybody pays with they already oh. this isn t making any changes to the tax. making sure we let the irs collect the taxes they are already owed in doing. these are the cost of not acting. so when we hear people say that the bill would cause this much, the legislation would cost this much. i think it is very important that the american people understand what president biden is trying to do. will congress is trying to do with these changes. to actually save money. that is what is on the table for year two and it is really important that we take these actions now while we do have a strong economy. and that is what president biden is setting us up to do in year two. as you mentioned, i ve not heard joe manchin and his concerns about inflation ever mentioned prescription drug prices as part of the inflation. no, but it is absolutely true. prescription