WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Democrats pushed their\u00a0election-year economic package\u00a0to Senate passage Sunday, a hard-fought compromise less ambitious than\u00a0President Joe Biden\u2019s original domestic vision\u00a0but one that still meets deep-rooted party goals of\u00a0slowing global warming,\u00a0moderating pharmaceutical costs\u00a0and\u00a0taxing immense corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The estimated $740 billion package heads next to the House, where lawmakers are poised to deliver on Biden\u2019s priorities, a stunning turnaround of what had seemed a lost and doomed effort that suddenly roared back to political life. Cheers broke out as Senate Democrats held united, 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote after an all-night session.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cToday, Senate Democrats sided with American families over special interests,\u201d President Joe Biden said in a statement from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. \u201cI ran for President promising to make government work for working families again, and that is what this bill does \u2014 period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden, who had his share of long nights during his three decades as a senator, called into the Senate cloakroom during the vote on speakerphone to personally thank the staff for their hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president urged the House to pass the bill as soon as possible. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her chamber would \u201cmove swiftly to send this bill to the president\u2019s desk.\u201d House votes are expected Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long, tough and winding road, but at last, at last we have arrived,\u201d said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ahead of final votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Senate is making history. I am confident the Inflation Reduction Act will endure as one of the defining legislative feats of the 21st century,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senators engaged in a round-the-clock marathon of voting that began Saturday and stretched late into Sunday afternoon. Democrats swatted down some three dozen Republican amendments designed to torpedo the legislation. Confronting\u00a0unanimous GOP opposition,\u00a0Democratic unity in the 50-50 chamber held, keeping the party on track for a morale-boosting victory three months from elections when congressional control is at stake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bill ran into trouble midday over objections to the new 15% corporate minimum tax that private equity firms and other industries disliked, forcing last-minute changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the momentary setback, the \u201cInflation Reduction Act\u201d gives Democrats a\u00a0campaign-season showcase\u00a0for action on coveted goals. It includes the largest-ever federal effort on climate change \u2014 close to $400 billion \u2014 caps out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors on Medicare to $2,000 a year and extends expiring subsidies that help 13 million people afford health insurance. By raising corporate taxes and reaping savings from the long-sought goal of allowing the government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare, the whole package is paid for, with some $300 billion extra revenue for deficit reduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Barely more than one-tenth the size of Biden\u2019s initial 10-year, $3.5 trillion Build Back Better initiative, the new package abandons earlier proposals for universal preschool, paid family leave and expanded child care aid. That plan collapsed after conservative Sen. Joe. Manchin, D-W.Va., opposed it, saying it was too costly and would fuel inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonpartisan analysts have said the 755-page \u201cInflation Reduction Act\u201d would have a minor effect on surging consumer prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Republicans said the new measure would undermine an economy that policymakers are struggling to keep from plummeting into recession. They said the bill\u2019s business taxes would hurt job creation and force prices skyward, making it harder for people to cope with the nation\u2019s\u00a0worst inflation\u00a0since the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDemocrats have already robbed American families once through inflation, and now their solution is to rob American families a second time,\u201d Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., argued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an ordeal imposed on most budget bills like this one, the Senate had to endure an overnight \u201cvote-a-rama\u201d of rapid-fire amendments. Each tested Democrats\u2019 ability to hold together the\u00a0compromise bill negotiated by Schumer, progressives, Manchin\u00a0and the\u00a0inscrutable centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., criticized the bill\u2019s shortcomings and offered amendments to further expand the legislation\u2019s health benefits, but those efforts were defeated. Republicans forced their own votes designed to make Democrats look soft on U.S.-Mexico border security and gasoline and energy costs, and like bullies for wanting to strengthen IRS tax law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before debate began, the bill\u2019s prescription drug price curbs were diluted by the Senate\u2019s nonpartisan parliamentarian who said a provision should fall that would impose costly penalties on drug makers whose price increases for private insurers exceed inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was the bill\u2019s chief protection for the 180 million people with private health coverage they get through work or purchase themselves. Under special procedures that will let Democrats pass their bill by simple majority without the usual 60-vote margin, its provisions must be focused more on dollar-and-cents budget numbers than policy changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the thrust of Democrats\u2019 pharmaceutical price language remained. That included letting Medicare negotiate what it pays for drugs for its 64 million elderly recipients, penalizing manufacturers for exceeding inflation for pharmaceuticals sold to Medicare and limiting beneficiaries out-of-pocket drug costs to $2,000 annually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bill also caps Medicare patients\u2019 costs for\u00a0insulin, the expensive diabetes medication, at $35 monthly. Democrats wanted to extend the $35 cap to private insurers but it ran afoul of Senate rules. Most Republicans voted to strip it from the package, though in a sign of the political potency of health costs seven GOP senators joined Democrats trying to preserve it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The measure\u2019s final costs were being recalculated to reflect late changes, but overall it would raise more than $700 billion over a decade. The money would come from a 15% minimum tax on a handful of corporations with yearly profits above $1 billion, a 1% tax on companies that repurchase their own stock,\u00a0bolstered IRS tax collections\u00a0and government savings from lower drug costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sinema forced Democrats to drop a plan to prevent wealthy hedge fund managers from paying less than individual income tax rates for their earnings. She also joined with other Western senators to win $4 billion to combat the region\u2019s drought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several Democratic senators joined the GOP-led effort to exclude some firms from the new corporate minimum tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The package keeps to Biden\u2019s pledge not to raise taxes on those earning less than $400,000 a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was on the energy and environment side that compromise was most evident between progressives and Manchin, a champion of fossil fuels and his state\u2019s coal industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clean energy would be fostered with tax credits for buying electric vehicles and manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines. There would be home energy rebates, funds for constructing factories building clean energy technology and money to promote climate-friendly farm practices and reduce pollution in minority communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Manchin won billions to help power plants lower carbon emissions plus language requiring more government auctions for oil drilling on federal land and waters. Party leaders also promised to push separate legislation this fall to accelerate permits for energy projects, which Manchin wants to include a nearly completed natural gas pipeline in his state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, environmental groups hailed the passage as a milestone. \u201cTremendous progress,\u201d said Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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