Democrats in the United States Senate, uniformly overwhelmed by the Republican opposition, voted Sunday to fight climate change, cut healthcare costs, and invest in profitable businesses. We are poised to approve sweeping legislation to raise taxes.
This bill is a scaled-down version of President Joe Biden's economic legislative plan and is his biggest move yet to combat the effects of global warming and promote the use of clean energy. seeks $370 billion of U.S. investment.
The law also allows the US government, for the first time, to negotiate the cost of some medicines with pharmaceutical companies, potentially lowering costs. Boost sales of medicines for older Americans, extend health insurance subsidies to millions, and tax at least 15% for billion dollar businesses that currently pay nothing impose. The measure would also add more than 87,000 federal tax officials to further scrutinize individual and corporate tax returns, catch tax fraudsters, and reduce chronic U.S. budget debt by about $300 billion. .
The bill narrowly survived Saturday's main test vote by a margin of 51 to 50. After all 50 Senate Democrats supported the bill and the 50-member Republican caucus uniformly opposed it, Vice President Kamala Harris tied the ballot. that.
Democrats have spent months arguing bitterly over what was originally her $2 trillion measure. US consumers are now worried about the sharpest rise in consumer prices in 40 years (up 9.1% annualized in June), and Democrats are calling the act the Inflation Reduction Act.
However, a review of the bill by the bipartisan Congressional Budget Office found that the bill's provisions would have a "negligible" impact on inflation for the rest of his 2022 and little impact next year. Said he wouldn't give.
Senate Democratic Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, with Biden's approval, appointed two centrists, Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senators Kirsten Sinema of Arizona. The whole bill seemed doomed until a recent deal was reached with Democrats on taxes. and climate control clauses in proposals they accept.
When the debate began on Saturday, before lawmakers from both parties put forward a series of rejected amendments, Schumer said: Forward.
Debates in the Senate on the bill continued on Sunday, but Democrats hope to approve the bill later in the day, almost certainly by the same 51-to-50 party-line margin. If the Senate approves it, the House of Representatives will pass it on Friday and the White House will vote for Biden's signature.
The debate was also played on Sunday's television talk show.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who supports the bill, said: , on CNN's "State of the Union" program, said passing the bill would allow the Internal Revenue Service, which collects taxes, to "significantly increase the manpower needed to pursue it." Tax fraud and the “biggest earners”.
He also pointed out that Americans 'overwhelmingly want to bring down drug prices.' This could be achieved with some drugs prescribed to older Americans under the national Medicare health insurance program.
However, South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsay Graham objected to Blumenthal's analysis of the bill, saying the tax authorities were "targeting Uber drivers and nurses. They're chasing everyone."
It will make everything worse.It will not help [reduce] inflation."
