(Washington) After 18 months of negotiations, the end seems close: The US Congress began debating on Saturday a new version of Joe Biden’s major social and climate reform, which could deliver a major victory for the US president.
Posted at 8:50 am yesterday.
The Democratic president, who came to power with ambitious reform ambitions, promised that “this bill will radically change the state of American families and our economy.”
The massive plan — the result of several compromises with the right wing of his party — includes $370 billion to honor Joe Biden’s more ambitious greenhouse gas emissions goals and $64 billion for health.
solar power
The investment, the largest investment ever made in the United States for climate, was “historic,” the president promised.
Because every year the United States suffers from deadly floods and devastating fires, the climate crisis is very low on the list of concerns of American families, behind inflation or unemployment.
To make sure these expenditures get the support of Americans, Democrats have decided to hit them directly in the wallet: A portion of the funds will be used to provide tax credits for wind energy, solar and nuclear power producers and consumers.
Billions of dollars in tax breaks will be given to the most polluting industries to help them transition, which has been heavily criticized by the left wing of the party. An ambitious deal after months of negotiations.
The envelope should also make it possible to strengthen forest resilience in the face of wildfires ravaging the American West, which are directly responsible for global warming.
Cheap drugs
l’Inflation ActAs it is called, it also wants to tackle the exorbitant cost of drugs like insulin, thereby partially erasing the enormous disparities in access to care in the United States.
“The suffering of people who cannot pay for life-saving drugs will be significantly reduced,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
For the first time, the major reform will allow Medicare, the public health insurance system, to negotiate directly with drug companies on the prices of certain drugs, allowing them to obtain more competitive prices.
Joe Biden’s camp strongly condemns the prohibitive cost of some treatments, which can be ten times higher than in other rich countries.
An anger that is far from unanimously shared in America is that some believe that responding to life’s vicissitudes is a matter of individual vision, in which the state should not interfere.
“failure”
The major spending plan, popular among Americans according to many polls, has been sharply criticized by Republican opposition, which accuses Joe Biden of adding fuel to the fire in the face of record-setting inflation.
“Democrats have already robbed American families once with inflation, and now their solution is to rob them a second time,” blasted Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
But the conservative camp’s means of blocking are actually limited: Democrats need only their votes to pass the text as an exception. However, the opposition is expected to try to slow down the legislative process by tabling amendments in a chain during debates that last late into the night.
Alongside these massive investments, the bill wants to reduce the public deficit with a new minimum tax of 15% for all companies making over a billion dollars in profits. It aims to prevent some large companies from exploiting tax loopholes that have allowed them to pay much less than the theoretical rate.
The text should be submitted for a vote by senators early next week. After that, he will move on to the House of Representatives, where Joe Biden’s camp has a narrow majority.
The US president, who desperately needs a political victory within 100 days of dangerous midterm legislative elections, is urging Congress to pass them without delay.
