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WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (AP) — A divided Senate voted Saturday to begin debate on Democrats’ election-year economic bills, pushing President Joe Biden’s broad collection on climate, energy, health and taxes to pass initial test. Congress.
In a preview of expected votes on a slew of amendments, united Democrats passed the tie House by a vote of 51 to 50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie and defeating the unanimous Republican opposition.
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The plan, a scaled-down version of an earlier multi-trillion-dollar measure that Democrats failed to advance, has become a partisan battleground over inflation, gas prices and other issues that polls show are driving voters.
The House, with a narrow Democratic majority, is likely to give final approval next Friday when lawmakers plan to return to Washington.
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The vote comes after Senate lawmakers gave a majority of Democrats the thumbs up of the revised 755-page bill. But Elizabeth MacDonald, the chamber’s nonpartisan rules arbiter, said Democrats had to give up an important part of their plan to curb drug prices.
McDonough said Democrats violated Senate budget rules by imposing heavy fines on drugmakers who push prices above inflation in the private insurance market.
These are the Act’s primary pricing protections for the roughly 180 million people whose health insurance comes from private insurance, whether through work or by buying it themselves.
Other drug provisions remain unchanged, including giving Medicare the power to negotiate what it pays for the drugs it receives for 64 million seniors, a longstanding Democratic desire.
Penalties for manufacturers to exceed inflation will apply to drugs sold to Medicare, with Medicare beneficiaries capped at $2,000 in annual out-of-pocket costs for drug costs and free vaccines.
“It’s time for a big, bold package for the American people,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“This historic bill will lower inflation, lower costs, and tackle climate change. Now is the time to move this country forward.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said Democrats “misread the anger of the American people as an order for another reckless taxation and spending binge.”
Democrats “have robbed American families once with inflation, and now their solution is to rob American families again,” he said.
Saturday’s vote capped an astonishing 10 days as Democrats restarted a major part of Biden’s agenda that appeared to be dead. In a quick deal with the Democrats’ two most unpredictable senators — first conservative Joe Manchin of West Virginia and then centrist Kirsten Sinema of Arizona — Schumer Piecing together a package that will allow the party to achieve success in the context of this fall’s congressional elections.
The White House statement said the legislation “will help address today’s most pressing economic challenges, make our economy stronger for decades to come, and make America the world leader in clean energy.”
Assuming Democrats resist the unbroken “Vote Rama” amendments — many of which Republicans have designed to undermine the measure — they should be able to push the measure through the Senate.
“What will the vote look like? It’s going to be like hell,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said of the upcoming GOP amendment.
In supporting the Democrats’ bill, Manchin and Sinema “are authorizing legislation that will make life more difficult for ordinary people,” by raising taxes to force higher energy costs and making it harder for companies to hire workers, he said.
The bill provides spending and tax incentives favored by progressives for buying electric vehicles and making buildings more energy efficient. But in a nod to Manchin, the state is a leading producer of fossil fuels, has money to reduce carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, and is asking the government to open up more federal lands and waters for oil drilling.
Expiring subsidies to help millions pay private insurance premiums will be extended for three years, and $4 billion will go toward helping Western nations fight drought.
A new rule will cap insulin, an expensive diabetes drug, of $35 a month for Medicare and privately insured patients starting next year. During the debate, it seems likely that language will be weakened or deleted.
Reflecting Democrats’ calls for tax fairness, a new minimum tax of 15% will be imposed on some companies that make more than $1 billion in annual revenue but pay far less than the current corporate tax of 21%.
Companies repurchasing their own shares will be subject to a 1% transaction tax after Sinema declined to support higher taxes on private equity firm executives and hedge fund managers. The IRS’s budget will be boosted to strengthen its taxes.
While the final cost of the bill is still being determined, overall it would cost nearly $400 billion over 10 years to slow climate change, which analysts say would be the country’s largest investment in the effort, plus There are billions of dollars in healthcare.
It will raise more than $700 billion in taxes and government drug cost savings, reducing the deficit by about $300 billion over the next decade—a blip compared to the projected $16 trillion budget shortfall for that period.
Democrats are using a special process to let them pass the measure without having to reach the 60-vote majority that legislation usually requires in the Senate.
Lawmakers decide whether parts of the legislation must be revoked for violating the rules, which include a requirement that provisions primarily aim to affect the federal budget rather than implement new policies. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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