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After a year of negotiations and false starts, Senate Democrats won Joe Manchin’s agreement to a plan to spend $385 billion to speed the U.S. transition toward cleaner fuels and $100 billion to expand subsidies for Medicare drug coverage and for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” for three years.
The proposed legislation also would enable the federal government to negotiate lower drug prices under Medicare, cap drug prices under Medicare, impose a minimum 15-percent corporate tax, close some tax loopholes, and give the Internal Revenue Service more resources to collect unpaid taxes.
Proponents claim the measures would reduce the deficit by $790 billion and net the government $305 billion over 10 years, leading legislators to name the proposal “The Inflation Reduction Act.”
If enacted, the law would be the most forceful action Congress has taken on green energy and greenhouse gas abatement.
The proposal is not guaranteed to pass the Senate. Not all Democrats have agreed to it, most notably Kyrsten Sinema (D- AZ), who, like Manchin, has been a notable holdout on other Democratic proposals.
Republicans in the Senate have all but sworn to oppose the plan. However, the proposal is part of a budget reconciliation measure, which is not subject to a veto.
Therefore, if all Democrats and vice-president Kamala Harris vote for the proposal, it would pass to the House of Representatives, where Republican leaders have instructed their members to oppose it, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Currently included in the Inflation Reduction Act:
Energy and Climate -$385 billion
- $313 billion in new revenue by charging minimum taxes on large corporations that use exemptions to drop their income tax liability below the current 31-percent rate, sometimes to zero;
- $14 billion in additional taxes by scaling back breaks for venture capital and private equity firms;
- $30 billion in tax credits for the manufacture of solar panels, wind energy systems, and batteries, as well as processing of crucial industrial minerals;
- $10 billion in tax credits for construction of clean energy manufacturing plants;
- $500 million through the Defense Production Act for manufacturing heat pumps and processing crucial industrial minerals;
- $60 billion to mitigate the disproportionate impact of pollution in low-income neighborhoods;
- $20 billion for programs that will cut emissions from agriculture;
- $27 billion for a “green bank” to fund clean energy projects.
TREND FORECAST: As with all federal legislation, we forecast the bill will create more damage than good with the bulk of the assets funneled into the revolving door of those businesses who control the government.
Furthermore, despite the forecast that if the Obamacare subsidy is made permanent after the three years specified in the bill, the government’s net gain would shrink to $150 billion over ten years, according to the nonprofit Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, we dispute their assessment. Indeed, Obama care has enriched the big medical corporations while imposing taxation without representation on the plantation workers of Slavelandia U.S.S.A.