Biden Passes Inflation Reduction Act

On Friday, August 12, the House officially passed the Inflation Reduction Act, a massive tax, health, and environmental bill that serves as a step forward in fulfilling a core component of Biden’s presidential agenda. Winning in a 220-207 margin with all republicans voting against the decision, the bill finally made its way to President Joe Biden’s desk, and is now signed into law.

The bill aims to correct and reframe the United States economy and environment in a post-pandemic world, predicted to raise $737 billion over 10 years to reduce the correct economic deficit by $300 billion. Within the plan, a record-breaking $369 billion will be spent on climate and energy policy development and reformation, projected to cut down the United States’ carbon emissions by around 40% by 2030. In addition, the bill allocates $64 billion to reduce insurance costs within the context of an extension of an Affordable Care Act program.

The bill, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, embodies the thrust of the Biden administration’s domestic “Build Back Better” agenda to reshape the state of the U.S. economy that emerged from the coronavirus pandemic.

Along with the aforementioned reformative actions the bill promises, it also ensures that a negotiation on the price tag of over 100 drugs will take place as well in wake of the severe spike in prices of life-preserving medications. The funding for this adjustment is intended to be sourced in part from a 15% corporate alternative minimum tax, where money is taken from affluent corporations that can bear shrinking their tax burden below the regular 21% rate. The bill follows up on corporate accountability through a proposed $80 billion increase in funding for the IRS and their compliance abilities, which is predicted to reach around $124 billion alone in revenue.

Democrats have gone through multiple attempts at modifying and readjusting the bill over the past year in order to finally gain the “yes” vote from some essential democratic holdouts. Without any republican support, the historic bill has officially passed and will take effect immediately.

Commenting on the modified legislation, Colorado Representative Diana DeGette writes in her statement that, “While it’s not everything we wanted, this legislation is a game changer that will provide real relief to millions of families across the country and gives us the tools we need to drastically reduce our emissions to help combat the climate crisis.”

DeGette was one of the democrats to have supported the original drafts of the bill before its modification. She goes on to call the bill “a big, big win for our country and the best part is it’s fully paid for by simply closing tax loopholes to ensure the largest corporations and wealthiest Americans pay their fair share.”