Washington, Aug. 8 (BUS) – Democrats pushed their election-year economic package into the Senate on Sunday, a hard-to-achieve compromise that is less ambitious than President Joe Biden’s original domestic vision but still meets the party’s deep-rooted goals of slowing global warming. , reducing drug costs and taxing large companies.
The estimated $740 billion package heads to the House of Representatives, as lawmakers prepare to fulfill Biden’s priorities, a stunning turnaround of what appeared to be a wasted and doomed effort that has suddenly returned to political life. Cheers broke out with the Senate Democratic Union, 51-50, as Vice President Kamala Harris cast the vote after an all-night session, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
“Today, Democratic senators have stood by American families at the expense of special interests,” President Joe Biden said in a statement from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. “I ran for president and promised to make government work for working families again, and that’s what this law does — period.”
Biden, who has had his share of long nights during his three decades as a senator, summoned the Senate restroom during a loudspeaker vote to personally thank the staff for their hard work.
The president urged the House of Representatives to pass the bill as soon as possible. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her House “will move quickly to send this bill to the president’s office.” A vote in the House of Representatives is expected on Friday.
“It’s been a long, hard and winding road, but we’re finally here,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said before the final vote.
“The Senate makes history. I am confident that the Inflation Reduction Act will continue as one of the defining legislative achievements of the twenty-first century.
Senators participated in a voting marathon around the clock that began on Saturday and extended into the late afternoon of Sunday. Democrats scrapped about 30 Republican amendments aimed at torpedoing the legislation. In the face of unanimous GOP opposition, Democratic Unity convened in Chamber 50-50, keeping the party on track for a morale win three months after the election when congressional control is at stake.
The bill got into trouble in the middle of the day over objections to the new minimum corporate tax rate of 15% that private equity firms and other industries did not like, leading to last-minute changes.
Despite the momentary setback, the Inflation Cut Act gives Democrats a bid for the campaign season to work toward their desired goals. It includes the largest-ever federal effort on climate change — nearly $400 billion — that limits out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors in Medicare to $2,000 a year and extends expiring benefits that help 13 million people afford health insurance. By raising corporate taxes and reaping savings from the long-awaited goal of letting the government negotiate drug prices for Medicare, the entire package is being paid for, with about $300 billion in additional revenue to reduce the deficit.
Barely more than a tenth of the size of Biden’s initial $3.5 trillion 10-year initiative, the new package abandons previous proposals for universal preschool, paid family leave and expanded childcare assistance. That plan collapsed after conservative Senator Joe. Model Manchin, DW.Va. , saying it was too expensive and would fuel inflation.
Nonpartisan analysts said the 755-page “Inflation Cut Act” would have little effect on rising consumer prices.
Republicans said the new measure would undermine the economy, which policymakers are struggling to prevent from sliding into recession. They said the business taxes in the bill would hurt job creation and drive up prices, making it difficult for people to deal with the country’s worst inflation since the 1980s.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky, argued, “Democrats already robbed American families once through inflation, and now their solution is to rob American families again.”
In an ordeal imposed on most budget bills like this, the Senate had to endure an overnight “quick vote” to make quick amendments. Each tested the Democrats’ ability to keep the compromise bill negotiated by Schumer, the Progressives, Manchin and the shadowy centrist Senator Kirsten Senema, an Ariz Democrat.
Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. , criticized the bill’s flaws and offered amendments to expand the health benefits of the legislation, but these efforts were unsuccessful. Republicans forced their own voices designed to make Democrats look lenient on US-Mexico border security and gasoline and energy costs, as bullies for their desire to advance the IRS’ enforcement of the IRS.
Before the debate began, the price controls for prescription drugs were eased by a nonpartisan senator who said a provision should be dropped that would impose heavy penalties on drugmakers whose prices for private insurers are above inflation.
This was the bill’s main protection for the 180 million people with private health coverage they get by working or buying themselves. Under special procedures that would allow Democrats to pass their bill by a simple majority without the usual 60-vote margin, its provisions should focus more on budget dollar and cent numbers than policy changes.
But the trend toward drug-price language for Democrats has remained. This included allowing Medicare to negotiate what it pays for drugs to its 64 million elderly beneficiaries, penalizing manufacturers for bypassing the inflation of drugs sold to Medicare and limiting out-of-pocket drug costs to beneficiaries to $2,000 annually.
The bill also caps Medicare patients’ costs for insulin, an expensive diabetes drug, at $35 per month. Democrats wanted to extend the $35 cap for private insurance companies, but it was against Senate rules. Most Republicans voted to strip him of the package, although in a nod to the political efficacy of the health costs, seven GOP senators have joined Democrats trying to keep it.
The final costs of the procedure have been recalculated to reflect the overdue changes, but overall will raise more than $700 billion over a decade. The money will come from a 15% minimum tax on a handful of companies with more than $1 billion in annual profits, a 1% tax on companies that buy back their stock, IRS tax collections and state savings bolstering lower drug costs.
Sinema has forced Democrats to abandon a plan to prevent wealthy hedge fund managers from paying below individual income tax rates on their earnings. She also joined with other Western senators to earn $4 billion to fight drought in the region.
Several Democratic senators have joined the Republican-led effort to exclude some companies from the new minimum corporate tax.
The package maintains Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on those who earn less than $400,000 a year.
The concession was most pronounced on the energy and environmental side between the Progressives and Mansion, the fossil fuel and coal industry champion in his state.
Clean energy will be promoted through tax credits for the purchase of electric cars and the manufacture of solar panels and wind turbines. There will be discounts on household energy, money to build clean energy technology plants, and money to promote climate-friendly agricultural practices and reduce pollution in minority communities.
Manchin won billions to help power plants cut carbon emissions as well as language requiring more government auctions to drill for oil on federal lands and waters. Party leaders also promised to push separate legislation this fall to speed up permitting for energy projects, which Manchin wants to include in his state’s nearly completed natural gas pipeline.
However, environmental groups welcomed the passage as a milestone. “Tremendous progress,” said Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement.
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