Kudos to bill passage
Kudos to President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and rank-and-file Senate Democrats for the narrow passage of a multi-faceted bill (The Inflation Reduction Act), which holds many benefits for the American people!
Against all odds and the irrational unanimous opposition of Republicans, we are on the verge of enacting legislation that will enormously benefit the climate, foster clean energy programs, expand access to the Affordable Care Act, slash the financial burden of prescription medication for many Medicare beneficiaries, and enable Medicare to negotiate what are currently outlandish prices for drugs. The measure would also provide a massive funding influx to the Internal Revenue Service to enable it to pursue high-income tax cheats. The icing on the cake is that the measure is paid for! If it were going to incur red ink or if it were to increase inflation, conservative Democrat Joe Manchin, who held out against agreeing to a deal until now, would not have finally gotten on board.
The bill is far from perfect as it includes provisions to boost Manchin’s fossil fuel industry friends, but Senate Democrats’ unanimous approval served to indicate that the perfect must not be the enemy of the good.
The tax increases to fund this bill will fall on profitable corporations, which will no longer be able to find the means to avoid paying a fair share of their revenue to facilitate the operation of government. This was the apparent sticking point for Republicans who seek to protect their corporate benefactors rather than to serve the people.
When the House approves this legislation, champagne corks should pop throughout the country.
Oren Spiegler
Peters Township聽