Senate nears passage of climate and health bill in marathon session

Washington — Democrats Pushing an election-year economic package toward Senate approval early on Sunday, a less ambitious than President Biden's original domestic vision for global warming debated a bill that touched on a deep-seated Party dream of delaying Ease drug costs and tax giant corporations.

The debate began on Saturday, and by sunrise on Sunday, Democrats had smashed 12 Republican efforts to block legislation with no clear end in sight. Despite unanimous Republican opposition, Democrats' solidarity in Congress, 50-50, bolstered by Vice President Kamala Harris's tie-breaking vote, is three points out of an election in which congressional control is at stake. A month later, he suggested the party was on track for a morale-boosting victory.

The House planned a temporary return from summer vacation on Friday as Democrats hope to gain final approval from Congress.

Mr Biden told reportersas he left the White House early that he would pass. I think so," he said. On Sunday, I went to Rehoboth Beach, Delaware to finish my COVID-19 quarantine. The House of Representatives was expected to give final congressional approval when it returns from summer vacation on Friday.

"It keeps inflation down. It lowers the cost of prescription drugs. It fights climate change. It closes tax loopholes and cuts and reduces deficits," New Democrat Chuck Schumer said in the Senate. General Affairs York said about the package. "It will help every citizen of this country and make America a better place."

Republicans say the measures will undermine an economy where policymakers are struggling to prevent a plunge into recession. said it would. They said the bill's business tax would stifle job creation, send prices skyrocketing and make it harder for people to cope with the worst inflation since the 1980s.

"Democrats have already raised prices and robbed American homes, and now their solution is to rob American homes again," Kentucky Senate said. General Secretary Mitch McConnell argued. He said the bill's spending and tax hikes would eliminate jobs while having a modest impact on inflation and climate change.

Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott also said the plan would raise taxes and hurt the economy.

"Medicare shouldn't be cut like this," Scott said in an interview with "Face the Nation". "We shouldn't be raising taxes, but especially in a recession. And why should we raise gas taxes now when they're $2 more than they were when Joe Biden took office? This is making us It will continue to make things difficult, a bigger recession than ours.”

Bipartisan analysts say Democrats' "inflation-cutting bill" will have little impact on consumer price spikes. . The bill is just under a tenth the size of Biden's rainbow of $3.5 trillion progressive ambitions in his first decade, and a universal preschool. It abandons proposals such as education, paid family leave and expanded childcare assistance.

Still, this new bill will give Democrats a showcase for a campaign season to show action on coveted goals. It includes the largest federal commitment to climate change ever (nearly $400 billion), empowering Medicare to negotiate drug prices, and providing health insurance for 13 million people. Extend the validity period of subsidies to

But Scott predicted that the plan would benefit Republican candidates on his November ballot.

"This bill doesn't help Democrats. It helps Republicans," he told Face the Nation. “$700 billion in taxes, $280 billion in Medicare cuts, higher gas taxes, 87,000 more IRS agents. Do you know how happy people are with more IRS agents? will not be popular nationwide."

Mr. Biden's original bill was criticized by conservative Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia as being too costly and causing inflation. After objecting to accelerate it, it collapsed.

In the test of all such budget bills, the Senate plunged into hours-long "rama votes" of rapid amendments. Each tested the Democrats' ability to work out a compromise negotiated by Schumer, Progressive Manchin, and enigmatic centrist Arizona Democratic Senator Kirsten Cinema.

Vermont Progressive Senator Bernie Sanders introduced amendments to further expand the health benefits of the law, but those efforts failed. But most of the proposed changes were made to help Republicans figure out bills or force Democrats to vote in dangerous political situations.

If the Republican proposal is one of his, the Biden administration will be forced to continue pandemic-cited Trump-era restrictions to reduce the flow of immigrants across the Southwest border. I lost it.

Earlier this year, Democrats facing a tough re-election backed such an extension, and once Republicans linked her two issues, the party stopped pushing for her COVID-19 spending. I had to. This time, with much greater economic legislation at stake and elections looming, Democrats rallied against border controls.

Other Republican amendments required more gas and oil leases on federal land and prevented renewal of oil tariffs to fund cleanup of toxic waste. . All were rejected in internal ballots. Republicans accused Democrats of complacency in border security and opening the door to rising energy and gas costs.

The bill's prescription drug price controls were diluted by Senate independents before the debate began on Saturday. Elisabeth McDonough, refereeing questions on the Chamber's proceedings, said the clause that imposes hefty fines on pharmaceutical companies whose price increases at private insurers outweigh inflation should be abolished.

This was the bill's primary protection for her 180 million people with private health insurance, either earned through work or purchased for themselves. Under a special procedure that allows Democrats to pass bills with a simple majority without the usual margin of 60 votes, that provision should focus more on budget figures in dollars and cents than on policy changes.

However, the pharmaceutical companies' pricing claims remained. This includes negotiating how much Medicare pays its 64 million elderly beneficiaries for medicines, imposing penalties on manufacturers who exceed inflation on drugs sold to Medicare, It included a cap of $2,000 annually.

Democrats left a provision in the bill that caps the cost of insulin, an expensive diabetes drug, to $35 a month for patients. But the proposal violated a lawmaker's decision that it could not be included, and Democrats failed to get the 60 votes needed to ignore the rule on Sunday morning, by a vote of 57 to 43. . The final cost of the

bill had been recalculated to reflect recent changes, but overall, over a decade, he would have raised more than $700 billion. The funds will impose a 15% minimum tax on a small number of companies with more than $1 billion in annual profits, a 1% tax on companies that buy back their own shares, strengthen IRS tax collection, and help the government reduce drug costs. can be obtained by reducing the tax.

Cinema forced Democrats to drop plans to prevent wealthy hedge fund managers from paying incomes below their personal income tax rate. She also worked with other Western senators to help combat drought in the region, earning her $4 billion.

Where the compromise between the progressives and Manchin, champion of the fossil fuel and coal industries in his state, was most evident was on the energy and environmental aspects.

Clean energy is promoted through tax credits for the purchase of electric vehicles and the manufacture of solar panels and wind turbines. Funds will be provided for home energy rebates, to build factories that build clean energy technologies, and to promote climate-friendly farming practices and reduce pollution in minority communities.

Manchin wins billions to help power plants cut carbon emissions, calls for more government auctions for oil drilling on federal land and waters stated that it will Party leaders have also pledged to push for another law this fall to accelerate the approval of energy projects. Manchin wants his state to include a nearly completed natural gas pipeline.

In:
• Congress
• Economy
• Kamala Harris
• Inflation