The Senate has passed a slimmed-down version of President Biden’s Build Back Better bill. Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Rose Horowitch report at Reuters:
WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Sunday passed a sweeping $430 billion bill intended to fight climate change, lower drug prices and raise some corporate taxes, a major victory for President Joe Biden that Democrats hope will aid their chances of keeping control of Congress in this year’s elections.
After a marathon, 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 Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking ballot.
The action sends the measure to the House of Representatives for a vote, likely Friday when representatives plan to reconvene briefly during a summer recess. They are expected to pass it, which would then send the bill to the White House for Biden’s signature. In a statement, Biden said he looked forward to signing the bill into law.
“The Senate is making history,” an elated Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, after pumping his fists in the air as Democrats cheered and their staff members responded to the vote with a standing ovation.
It’s being portrayed as a victory and it is a political victory of sorts. The Democrats were able to hold their own caucus in the Senate together.
But it really is a gamble. To understand why that’s the case you must first realize that even if it does, as expected, pass the House it will have little to no material effect by the time of the midterm elections. And the CBO and multiple other institutions have found that even when its effects begin to be felt it is unlikely to stem inflation especially in the short term.
Congressional Democrats are betting that the accomplishment of enacting the bill will energize their base sufficiently to blunt the expected Republican victories in November. that inflation, employment, and, of all things, the weather won’t get worse between now and November, and that the effect of the bill in energizing their own base will be greater than the effect of energizing the Republican base.
Maybe they’re right. We’ll see. You’ve got to be an optimist to be a politician.
Where to begin with this unfortunate bill, that will only add even higher inflation and taxation to the middle class and small businesses. A Republican introduced an amendment to this bill, putting some safeguards around targeting these groups, and not one dem supported it. Even carried interest was taken off the table – something Manchin said was crucial in initially obtaining his endorsement. However, Sinema’s vote was contingent on having carried interest being included for dem rich donors etc., so the deck was reshuffled to grab her essential vote, creating a bill passed by a 100% partisan vote.
Even with all the denials from Schumer, Manchin and others, that the name, Inflation Reduction, was representative of it’s effect, the CBO and many economists rejected their claim. Consequently, the emphasis is now subtly changing to be referenced as the climate change and healthcare bill. Of course the legacy media is following the directives of the dem party, applying this new title to their coverage of it, redirecting attention away from the economic pitfalls this bill will surely create for the “little people.â€
This is funny and sad at the same. It’s what you get when bills are written in secret and passed before their effects can be analyzed:
https://reason.com/2022/08/08/the-democrats-new-inflation-bill-includes-tax-credits-for-electric-vehicles-that-dont-exist/
Yes, I plan to link to that piece at Reason in a post.
IMO it’s more than that. It’s an indication of Congress’s inability to do the things they’re trying to do. They have intentions but insufficient knowledge.