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501 views • August 8, 2022

Senate Passes Democrats' Health and Climate Bill

NTD News
NTD News
The Senate voted Sunday afternoon to pass the Democrats' sweeping health care and climate bill in a 51–50 vote, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. The estimated $740 billion package will go to the House now. “It’s been a long, tough and winding road, but at last, at last we have arrived,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday. “The Senate is making history. I am confident the Inflation Reduction Act will endure as one of the defining legislative measures of the 21st century.” Senators engaged in a round-the-clock marathon of voting that began Saturday and stretched late into Sunday afternoon. Democrats voted against some three dozen Republican amendments designed to torpedo the legislation. The bill ran into trouble midday over objections to the new 15 percent corporate minimum tax that private equity firms and other industries disliked, forcing last-minute changes. "It will close tax loopholes and it will reduce and reduce the deficit," Schumer claimed. "It will help every citizen in this country and make America a much better place." Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), a U.S. advocacy group, stated that the measure will increase taxes on thousands of mid-sized small businesses across the United States. John Kartch, a spokesman for ATR, wrote on Twitter, “Any business that has [private equity] in its capital structure is now considered a subsidiary of that firm and thus subject to 15 percent book tax.” "As written, the provision now appears restructured to define any company with private equity in its capital structure to be considered a subsidiary of that private equity firm for purposes of the tax," according to the group in a statement. "This means that these companies would now be swept up in the new 15 percent tax on book income. This provision would greatly expand the reach of the book minimum tax to apply to small and midsize companies that require capital investment to grow their business." Concerns over objections to that 15 percent corporate minimum tax on private equity firms and other industries threatened to slow the progress. Sen. John Thune, of South Dakota, the second-ranking Republican, was working on an amendment that would strip the tax for certain sectors. He was trying to draw support from Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), two holdouts who have bucked their party before. Thune predicted several more hours of negotiations and debate. “Hopefully we’ll have a solution to land the plane,” he told reporters at the Capitol. Republicans said the measure would undermine an economy that policymakers are struggling to keep from plummeting into recession. They said the bill's business taxes would hurt job creation and force prices skyward, making it harder for people to cope with the nation's worst inflation since the 1980s. "Democrats have already robbed American families once through inflation, and now their solution is to rob American families a second time," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the floor. Spending and tax increases in the legislation would eliminate jobs while having an insignificant impact on inflation and climate change, the Kentucky Republican leader said. Starting on Saturday night, the Senate began its so-called "vote-a-rama" that comes before the final passage in the Senate's budget reconciliation process. Democrats are using the process to pass the bill along party lines so as to avoid the 60-vote filibuster, and throughout the night, Vice President Harris served as a tie-breaker for Democrats on several amendments in the 50–50 Senate. More Details The bill came to the floor about a week after Manchin announced he came to an agreement with Schumer in what is believed to be an attempt to boost Democrats' and Biden's chances during the 2022 midterms amid months of negative polling. Biden’s original climate and social measure collapsed after Manchin opposed it, saying it was too costly and would fuel inflation. "The Inflation Reduction Act is the product of years of bipartisan
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