U.S. Senate Democrats, over uniform Republican opposition, Sunday approved sweeping legislation to combat climate change, trim health care costs and raise taxes on highly profitable corporations.<\/p>\n
The measure, a scaled-down version of President Joe Biden\u2019s long-stalled economic legislative plan, was narrowly approved 51-50, with the tie-breaking vote cast by Vice President Kamala Harris after hours of debate through Saturday night and then extended into a rare Sunday afternoon session.<\/p>\n
After casting the deciding vote, she stood and applauded cheering Democrats for passing the legislation. Many of the Republicans, knowing they had lost, had already left the chamber.<\/p>\n
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called it \u201cone of the defining legislative fetes of the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Senate is making history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The legislation calls for the biggest U.S. investment ever in attacking the effects of global warming, $370 billion to boost the use of clean energy, encourage Americans to buy electric vehicles and reduce plant-warming emissions 40% by 2030.<\/p>\n
The legislation would also for the first time authorize the U.S. government to negotiate the cost of some drugs with pharmaceutical companies to potentially lower the cost of medicines for older Americans, extend health insurance subsidies for millions of people and impose a 15% minimum tax on billion-dollar companies that now pay nothing. The bill would also add 87,000 more federal tax agents to further scrutinize individual and corporate tax returns to catch tax cheaters and cut the chronic U.S. budget deficit by about $300 billion.<\/p>\n
The measure narrowly survived a key test vote Saturday by a 51-50 margin, also with Harris casting the tie-breaking vote after all 50 Senate Democrats supported the legislation and the 50-member Republican caucus uniformly opposed it. Lawmakers then offered numerous amendments over hours of debate that often failed on predictable 50-50 votes, with neither party budging to support the others proposed changes.<\/p>\n
In a statement released Sunday, President Biden said, \u201cI want to thank Leader Schumer and every member of the Senate Democratic caucus for supporting this bill. It required many compromises. Doing important things almost always does.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe House should pass this as soon as possible and I look forward to signing it into law,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Democrats engaged in months of rancorous debate over what was originally a $2 trillion measure, what Biden called his Build Back Better plan. Now, with U.S. consumers worried about the sharpest increase in consumer prices in four decades \u2014 a 9.1% annualized surge in June \u2014 Democrats called the pared-down legislation the Inflation Reduction Act.<\/p>\n
However, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office\u2019s review of the legislation said the bill\u2019s provisions would have a \u201cnegligible effect\u201d on inflation during the remainder of 2022 and little effect next year either.<\/p>\n
The entirety of the legislation appeared doomed until Schumer, with Biden\u2019s approval, was recently able to reach agreement with two centrist Democrats, Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, on tax and climate control provisions in the proposal that they would accept.<\/p>\n
As debate opened Saturday, before lawmakers from both parties offered their array of amendments that ultimately failed, Schumer said, \u201cThis historic bill will reduce inflation, lower costs, fight climate change, and it\u2019s time to move this nation forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that the Senate has approved the measure, the House of Representatives is expected to interrupt its summer recess and pass it Friday and send it to the White House for Biden\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n
The debate also played out on Sunday television talk shows.<\/p>\n
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who supported the legislation, told CNN\u2019s \u201cState of the Union\u201d show that its passage would give the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service agency the greatly expanded staff it needs to \u201cgo after\u201d tax cheats and \u201cthe biggest earners.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also noted that Americans \u201coverwhelmingly want to cut the cost of their medicine,\u201d a provision that could be achieved for some drugs prescribed for older Americans under the country\u2019s Medicare health insurance program.<\/p>\n
But Republican Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, who opposed the bill, balked at Blumenthal\u2019s analysis of the measure, saying that tax agents are \u201cgoing after Uber drivers and nurses. They\u2019re going after everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the legislation is \u201cgoing to make everything worse. It\u2019s not going to help [cut] inflation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Source: Voice of America<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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