The legislation was an unexpected revival of some pieces of Biden’s agenda, crafted in a stunning deal by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin, DW.Va., the most conservative member of the Democratic caucus. The bill moved quickly: A deal was announced on July 27, it passed the Senate on August 7 and cleared the House just days later. President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi watch as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks during a signing ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, August 9, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images) With four House Republicans not voting, the bill passed with unanimous support from House Democrats, but no Republican votes. The Senate vote was also split along party lines 50-50, with all Republicans in opposition and Vice President Kamala Harris giving the tie. The Inflation Reduction Act would allocate $369 billion over 10 years to mitigate climate change by making electric vehicles more affordable, developing clean energy and improving energy efficiency in everything from household appliances to industrial processes. It also fulfills a longtime Democratic campaign promise to lower prescription drug prices by allowing Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies, which would limit out-of-pocket drug costs for older Americans. It would also provide subsidies for expiring Obamacare premiums, lowering health care costs for many Americans. IRS headquarters in Washington, D.C. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Funding for the bill would come from raising taxes on certain companies that make more than $1 billion a year in profits, taxing corporate stock buybacks and funding the Internal Revenue Service to better deal with tax fraud. The overall legislative package is projected to reduce the federal deficit by up to $300 billion over the next decade. By reducing the deficit and reducing the cost of energy and prescription drugs, Democrats hope the bill will also reduce inflation. The story continues Because of Republican opposition, Democrats were unable to include a cap on insulin prices for Americans with private insurance. Sen. Bernie Sanders tried to add an extension of the expanded child tax credit — which lifted millions of children out of poverty in 2021 — and provide Medicare recipients with dental, vision and hearing coverage, but was voted down. Other plans dropped from the original Biden proposal included paid family leave and free preschool. In order to win the vote of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., her fellow Democrats rejected a change that would have made hedge fund and private equity managers pay the same tax rate on their income as other workers, closing a loophole that currently allows them to pay a lower rate of capital gains tax. Workers prepare to install solar panels on the roof of a home in Hayward, California (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images) The Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, is the first major climate change legislation ever passed by the United States, which is the world’s largest cumulative emitter of global warming greenhouse gases. It will attempt to reduce emissions through various means, the biggest of which will be a heavy investment in tax credits for consumers who buy electric vehicles, solar panels and more efficient appliances that can replace gas or oil burners. Most of these programs target low- and moderate-income households. A family taking advantage of every possible rebate and credit could enjoy a total of $28,500 in incentives to reduce their carbon footprint and save an average of $1,800 a year in reduced gas, energy and heating costs. There will also be billions of dollars in grants to state and local governments to convert their fleets to electric vehicles and help utilities switch from natural gas or coal-fired power plants to clean energy such as wind or solar. In order to gain Sinema’s support, there will also be $4 billion for projects to help Southwest residents conserve water to address the ongoing climate change-related megadrought in that region. Senator Joe Manchin leaves the Capitol building on August 7 after a series of votes to amend the Inflation Reduction Act. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images) The IRA will spend $20 billion to promote climate-smart farming practices and $5 billion to conserve forests and urban tree planting. However, all these victories came at a cost. To win the support of Manchin, who hails from a state rich in coal and natural gas, Democrats agreed to require the Interior Department to lease 2 million acres of federal land and 60 million acres of offshore land annually for oil and natural gas extraction. gas. That would violate Biden’s campaign promise to end the new federal fossil fuel lease. Manchin also secured a commitment from Schumer to try to pass legislation that would speed up the federal permitting process for energy development projects. Most environmental experts and activists supported the bill, saying the offset is acceptable on balance. Former vice president Al Gore, who has been outspoken on the issue for four decades, called the IRA “transformational” and said it was “a long time coming”. But some activists more focused on opposing fossil fuel production — including many indigenous activists from communities near oil and gas wells and pipelines — were angered by the fossil fuel extraction provisions. But at a time when gasoline prices have soared and there are concerns that money spent on oil is benefiting petro-dictators like Russian President Vladimir Putin, the bill is expected to reduce oil dependence and the U.S.’s vulnerability to shocks in oil and gas supply like this. caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Emissions are emitted from smokestacks at a coal-fired power plant near Emmett, Kan. (Charlie Riedel/AP) Overall, the IRA is expected to help annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fall between 37% and 41% from 2005 levels by 2030 and prevent between 3,700 and 3,900 premature deaths annually thanks to reduced air pollution, according to the model developed by the Energy Innovation think tank. The group also found that every ton of emissions created by the new oil and gas lease would be offset by at least 24 tons of emissions reduced by provisions in the other bill. Still, the bill alone would fall short of Biden’s pledge to cut emissions by 50 percent by 2030. Climate activists continue to call on Biden to help close the gap between the emissions target and what it will achieve. the IRA by issuing new regulations on pollution caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Some Republicans say the bill would result in nearly 100,000 new IRS agents targeting middle-class Americans, but there is nothing in the bill’s language to say that, according to audit evidence, some of the funding would also go to the renewal of the organization’s outdated technology. Republicans also argued that the bill includes a tax increase for working-class Americans, but no one making less than $400,000 would be directly affected. However, the new 15% minimum tax on many larger companies could increase costs for consumers. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll released earlier this month found the bill broadly popular, particularly on the part that lowers Medicare prescription drug costs. Democrats will now return to the campaign trail in a bid to retain control of Congress, hoping that the IRA provisions, combined with backlash to the Supreme Court’s abortion ruling and lower gas prices, can help tempering the typical midterm backlash against the party’s control of the White House. In a memo released on Capitol Hill earlier this month, Biden pollsters wrote of the IRA that “Democrats should confidently support these measures and campaign against them aggressively, putting Republicans on the defensive.”
