By Glynn Wilson –

President Joe Biden triumphantly signed the signature Inflation Reduction Act on Tuesday in the State Dining Room of the White House, praising the legislation as among the most significant legislative achievements in the history of the country.

The ambitious package of bills takes direct aim at tackling global warming and climate change, while also lowering prescription drug prices which could reduce inflation, and imposes taxes on the profits of the largest corporations which will also help reduce the deficit.

“With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost,” Biden said. Saying his administration began amid “a dark time in America,” with coronavirus pandemic still raging, widespread unemployment and threats to democracy from the previous administration.

“And yet we’ve not wavered, we’ve not flinched and we’ve not given in,” Biden said. “Instead, we’re delivering results for the American people. We didn’t tear down. We built up. We didn’t look back. We look forward. And today … offers further proof that the soul of America is vibrant, the future of America is bright, and the promise of America is real.”

The House approved the $370 billion bill on Friday in a vote of 220-207, a week after the Senate narrowly passed it on a party-line vote, with Vice President Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.

A larger $2 trillion spending and tax package known as the Build Back Better Act stalled in Congress after opposition from moderate Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

It’s not clear exactly what prompted Manchin to come back to the table, but he recently announced that he had reached a surprise deal with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York. He received concessions for his state and the coal industry, from which he profits.

Although smaller than the Build Back Better plan, the new legislation aimed to achieve many of the same goals, including spending about $370 billion on climate change and clean-energy production.

During the signing ceremony, Biden glanced at Manchin and offered an inside joke hinting at something about the deal.

“Joe, I never had a doubt,” he said to laughter in the room.

Schumer proclaimed, “It’s now law!” and the president handed the pen he used to Manchin and shook his hand.

On Tuesday, Schumer personally thanked Manchin “for working hard to get this done,” and credited Biden and the Democratic caucus for their persistence. The president, Schumer added, knew precisely when to step in and when to let negotiations play out.

“I am confident this bill will endure as one of the greatest legislative feats in decades: it will lower costs, create millions of good-paying jobs, and is the boldest climate bill ever,” Schumer said. “Now in normal times, getting these bills done would be a huge achievement, but to do it now, with only 50 Democratic votes in the Senate, over an intransigent Republican minority, is nothing short of amazing.”

In a dig at former president Donald Trump, Schumer also thanked Biden for restoring “dignity, respect and a sense of action back to the Oval Office.”

“After four years of a president who relished creating chaos, Americans are seeing what it looks like to have a president and a Congress that’s focused on delivering results that make their lives better,” Schumer said.

According to the White House, Biden will in the coming weeks hold a Cabinet meeting focused on implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, as well as travel across the country to promote the ways the new law is expected to help Americans. The White House is also planning an event Sept. 6 to celebrate the bill’s enactment.

How the law will impact Americans

The law will invest about $370 billion into combating climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels for energy and transportation, in part with incentives for public agencies and private companies to produce more renewable energy and for households to transform their energy use and consumption.

The bill would also allow Medicare to negotiate the price of prescription drugs and extend health insurance subsidies for millions of Americans.

To pay for the spending, the bill would raise hundreds of billions in revenue through new tax provisions — the biggest of which will fall on the country’s large corporations. It would also give the badly underfunded Internal Revenue Service its biggest budget increase in its history — a provision House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, criticized as one that would result in “an army of IRS agents to spy on your bank accounts.”

But the direction from this administration is to go after big money tax cheaters, not poor or middle class Americans who cannot hire accounts to prepare their taxes. That’s in contrast to the approach taken by Trump and former President George W. Bush, who charged the IRS to go after small time tax evaders and leave the rich and corporations alone.

As White House officials have repeatedly said over the last week, Biden emphasized again Tuesday that no one making under $400,000 a year would pay “a penny more” in taxes. He also made an implicit pitch for Democrats in November’s midterm elections, noting that no Republicans had voted for the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Let’s be clear: In this historic moment, Democrats sided with the American people and every single Republican in the Congress sided with the special interests,” Biden said. “Every single Republican in Congress voted against lowering prescription drug prices, against lowering health-care costs, against the fair tax system. Every single Republican, every single one, voted against tackling the climate crisis, against lowering our energy costs, against creating good-paying jobs.

“My fellow Americans, that’s the choice we face,” he added. “We can protect the already powerful or show the courage to build a future where everybody has an even shot.”

At a bill enrollment ceremony for the Inflation Reduction Act on Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called it “a glorious day” and noted the bill’s passage was coming on the heels of Biden signing several other key pieces of legislation into law, including one aimed at expanding aid to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their military service. She also criticized Republicans for uniting in opposition to the bill and said Democrats would continue to fight for provisions that had been dropped as a compromise, such as Medicare expansion and free universal prekindergarten.

“This legislation is historic, it’s transformative, and it is really a cause for celebration,” Pelosi said.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer of Greenbelt, Maryland also released a statement after Biden signed the law:

“Today, with President Biden’s signature, the Inflation Reduction Act will take the next step to help us lower costs for Americans by making health care and prescription drugs more affordable and by lowering energy costs while meeting the challenge of the climate crisis,” he said. “This historic accomplishment is the product of Democrats’ relentless efforts to put people over politics in both the House and Senate over the past year. Moreover, we are doing it in a fiscally responsible way, reducing the deficit without raising taxes on any American earning less than $400,000 a year. Instead, this law will ensure that the wealthiest corporations can no longer avoid paying their fair share in taxes to support our growing economy and Americans’ access to opportunity.”

“The Inflation Reduction Act is the most recent example of Democrats honoring our commitment to govern responsibly,” Hoyer said. “This bill represents the fourth leg of a table of opportunity that we have been building for Americans since President Biden took office in 2021. First, we enacted the American Rescue Plan to put 200 million shots in arms and to make it safe for businesses and schools to open and get Americans back to work. We then enacted the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to create millions of jobs repairing and expanding our roads, bridges, ports, and critical utilities while connecting those in underserved communities to high-speed internet. Just a few weeks ago, we enacted the CHIPS and Science Act to strengthen supply chains in critical semiconductors and to ensure that America is the leader in innovation in the twenty-first century global economy. Now, we fulfill another promise to the American people with the signing of the Inflation Reduction Act.

“This legislation will bring energy costs down by investing in cleaner technologies and addressing the climate crisis. It will bring health care costs down by allowing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, cap the price of insulin at $35 a month in Medicare and overall prescription drug prices for seniors at $2,000 annually, and it will also expand coverage under the Affordable Care Act by lowering the cost of premiums. Although these four history-making bills satisfied a diverse set of goals, they all shared one objective: to ensure that everyone in our country can Make It In America. In the months and years ahead, Democrats will continue to put people over politics and deliver results.”

___

If you support truth in reporting with no paywall, and fearless writing with no popup ads or sponsored content, consider making a contribution today with GoFundMe or Patreon or PayPal.