U.S President Joe Biden has confirmed that he is looking forward to signing a $430 billion bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act 2022 that was passed by the Senate on Sunday, August 7th.
According to the Senate, the bill is intended to fight climate change, lower drug costs, and raise some corporate taxes.
A White house official reported that Biden made calls to senators about the bill over the weekend, and Senior Aide Steve Ricchetti kept an open line with Democratic U.S. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia over the last several months to help move the measure forward.
After all the preparations, in a 27-hour weekend session of debate and Republican efforts to derail the package, the Senate approved the legislation known as the Inflation Reduction Act by a 51-50 party line vote with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking ballot.
In a statement, President Joe Biden assured that he would sign the bill after the House of Representatives had voted, passed the bill, and then sent it to the White House to be ratified.
“It required many compromises,” Biden said in a testament. “Doing important things almost always does.”
According to an elated Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, this is a major victory for President Joe Biden that Democrats hope will aid their chances of retaining control of Congress in this year’s elections.
“The Senate is making history, to Americans who’ve lost faith that Congress can do big things, this bill is for you,” he said.
Schumer says that the bill is going to change America for decades and emphasized that “the legislation contains the boldest clean energy package in American history” to fight climate change while reducing consumer costs for energy and certain medicines.
How the bill will benefit the US
The bill was intended to reduce climate change risks, such as carbon emissions, and make green energy attractive to consumers while cutting prescription drug costs for the elderly and tightening enforcement on taxes for corporations and the wealthy.
Meanwhile, there emerged an argument between the democrats and Republicans concerning the Inflation Reduction Act 2022.
According to Democrats, the legislation will help bring down inflation, an economic liability that has also weighed on their hopes of retaining legislative control in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.
They therefore hope its passage will help the party’s House and Senate candidates in the November 8th midterm elections at a time when President Biden is suffering from anemic public approval ratings amid high inflation.
For Republicans, the bill will not address inflation. Republicans have denounced the measure as a job-killing, left-wing-spending wish list that could undermine growth when the economy is in danger of falling into recession.
The Inflation Reduction bill was approved
The Inflation Reduction bill was approved by the use of a parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation that allows budget-related legislation to avoid the one hundred-seat chamber’s sixty-vote threshold for most bills and pass on a simple majority.
On Saturday, the Senate spent several hours in the debate before beginning a rapid-fire “vote-a-rama” on Democratic and Republican amendments.
Results reveal that Democrats repelled more than thirty Republican amendments and points of order and motions, all intended to derail legislation. Any change in the bill’s contents wrought by an amendment could have unraveled the Democrats’ fifty-senator coalition needed to keep the legislation on track.
Democrats were unable to muster the votes necessary to retain a provision to cap soaring insulin costs at $35 a month on the private health insurance market, which fell outside reconciliation rules. Legislation, however, would continue to limit insulin costs for Medicare recipients.
In a foreshadowing of the coming fall election campaign, Republicans used their amendment defeats to attack vulnerable Democrats seeking re-election in November.
In a statement that identified four Democrat senators who are facing tight contests for re-election, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said that “Democrats vote again to allow chaos on the southern border to continue.”
It should be noted that this bill was eighteen months in the making, as Biden’s original sweeping Build Back Better plan was whittled down in the face of opposition from Republicans and key legislators from his own party.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
