Take your minds off everything else that's happening in the World right now - the Inflation Reduction Act is going back to the United States House of Representatives this week...even Progressive Democrat Bernie Sanders says it won't reduce inflation!
.png)
.png)
What could the Inflation Reduction Act mean for you? - Vox
Sanders on Saturday stepped on Democrats’ messaging by echoing GOP complaints that the bill would not rein in inflation. He labeled it “the so-called ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’” to the delight of the Republican National Committee.
Republicans were backed up Thursday by the head of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, Phillip Swagel. At the request of Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.), the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, Swagel offered his opinion of the inflation-fighting impact of the bill and said it would be “negligible” in 2022. In 2023, it would result in inflation being only 0.1 percentage point lower or higher than under current law, he said.
Senate Democrats Pass Sweeping Climate And Health Care Bill
WASHINGTON ― After a year of painstaking negotiations that seemed for a time to be going nowhere, Senate Democrats on Sunday approved sweeping legislation aiming to reduce the nation’s output of greenhouse gases and make health care more affordable.
The vote was split 50-50 along party lines, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaker after a marathon session of votes on amendments. The House is expected to take up the legislation and pass it on Friday.
Democrats celebrated after the bill passed by roaring in applause and hugging one another on the Senate floor. Aides who were intimately involved in negotiations wiped away tears in jubilation.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the bill would endure as “one of the defining legislative feats of the 21st century.”
The Inflation Reduction Act ― while substantially narrowed from prior versions ― is now poised to give President Joe Biden another major legislative victory ahead of November’s midterm elections. Its given name is a reflection of the shaky politics for his party at the moment, with rising costs of food, gasoline and energy at the top of voters’ minds.
The bill would make broad changes in energy, drug and tax policies. Prior to some last-minute changes caused by procedural issues, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the bill would cut the budget deficit by a little more than $90 billion over 10 years.
Democrats also claim another $200 billion in deficit reduction from the revenues that the government would collect from tougher IRS enforcement.
The bill sets aside hundreds of billions of dollars to fight climate change, including through incentivizing clean energy technology. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said $260 billion would go toward clean energy tax credits that he called “transformational.”
The bill would also enact a change Democrats have sought for more than a decade ― to allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies over the prices of prescription drugs. That kind of haggling was outlawed in the 2003 Part D prescription drug benefit bill passed by Republicans.
A separate provision of the legislation would extend a temporary set of subsidies for the Affordable Care Act that reduce the price of insurance that people buy directly through HealthCare.gov, or through state-run insurance exchanges like Pennsylvania’s “Pennie” and Connect for Health Care Colorado. For some insurance buyers, the subsidies lead to savings of hundreds or even thousands of dollars a year.
The subsidies, which Democrats enacted in 2021 as part of their pandemic relief package, were set to expire this year. The Inflation Reduction Act has them staying in place through 2025.
On taxes, the bill would put in place a 15% minimum corporate tax and beef up IRS enforcement to the tune of $80 billion over the next 10 years.
Democrats had initially hoped to pass a much broader social policy bill, but couldn’t get Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on board.
No comments:
Post a Comment