Senate Approves Historic Legislation Addressing Climate, Health Care & Taxes

[Webster]

Senate OKs sweeping bill lowering drug prices and promoting clean energy, setting up major Biden win

After a year of negotiations on President Joe Biden's domestic agenda, Democrats passed legislation tackling climate, taxes and health care.

www.usatoday.com

WASHINGTON – Senate Democrats approved sweeping legislation targeting health care, climate and taxes along a party-line vote Sunday, delivering a major win for President Joe Biden and his agenda ahead of the midterm elections.

The Senate to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes record spending on clean energy initiatives, measures to reduce prescription drug prices and a tax overhaul to ensure the large corporations pay income taxes. Every Democrat voted in support and every Republican against the measure.

Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the bill a "defining legislative feat of the 21st century" and "the boldest climate package in U.S. history" on the Senate floor ahead of the final vote. "To those of you who have lost faith that Congress can do big things, this bill is for you," he said.

Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the measure following more than a grueling, overnight session of debate, amendments and negotiation. The 15-hour 'vote-a-rama' that began at 11:30 p.m. ended with Harris deciding vote on final passage. It now heads to a vote in the Democratic-controlled House, where it's expected to pass as early as Friday.

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The bill would allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices – long opposed by the pharmaceutical industry – and extend Affordable Care Act subsidies three more years through 2025.

To address climate change, the bill includes $10 billion in tax credits to build electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines; $7,500 tax credit rebates for consumers to buy electric vehicles; and $9 billion for energy-efficient home retrofits for low-income Americans.

There's also up to $20 billion for loans to support electric vehicle plants, $20 billion to assist farmers and ranchers with climate change, and $30 billion for cities and states to transition utilities to clean electricity.

To pay for these and other measures, the bill would establish a 15% corporate minimum tax and beef up enforcement of the Internal Revenue Service.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Help fuck up America a little more with money we don’t have. Government working hard for a complete collapse of society.

 

[Webster]

Help fuck up America a little more with money we don’t have.

Oh, like how Trump and his lapdogs did during his administration?

 

[Webster]

(The Guardian) The 700-plus-page inflation reduction bill moving through the US Congress would steer significant new funds toward battling wildfires and extreme heat - climate change-related risks that are wreaking havoc across the country this summer, Reuters reports.

The legislation, pared down from earlier versions, would direct approximately $370 billion toward a range of climate and energy initiatives, including renewable energy tax credits, backing for electric cars and heat pumps, and environmental justice. -- This is going to, if passed, be the most action the United States has ever taken on climate. Will there be more that we need to do? Absolutely. But this is just so significant and [it’s] so important that we get this over the finish line,” said Christina DeConcini, director of government affairs at the World Resources Institute, a global research group.

As drought-fueled wildfires spread out of control in the western United States, lawmakers want to direct about $2 billion toward hazardous fuels reduction.

The money in the bill, formally known as the Inflation Reduction Act, could go toward measures like clearing brush through prescribed burns or mechanical thinning so when fires do occur they’re not as intense.

The bill also earmarks funds to combat increasingly extreme heat as the United States – and much of the world – grapples with record-shattering and increasingly deadly temperatures this year. For example, there is $1.5 billion in grant funding through the US Forest Service for initiatives such as helping cities plant trees, which provide natural cooling and can improve air quality.

The bill aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below 2005 levels by the end of the decade through other spending on clean energy tax incentives and electric vehicle credits.

Sponsors of the bill say more than $60 billion in measures included are directed toward “environmental justice” initiatives intended to help communities that have disproportionately borne the brunt of poor air quality and pollution. But that amount isn’t nearly enough, said Anthony Rogers-Wright, director of environmental justice at the nonprofit New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Oh, like how Trump and his lapdogs did during his administration?

They spent to much like every administration but it was shit middle class destroying bills like this that puts more of a federal government on your necks. So no not like Trump.

 

[Webster]

They spent to much like every administration but it was shit middle class destroying bills like this that puts more of a federal government on your necks. So no not like Trump.

Can't have it both ways there....

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Can't have it both ways there....

Sure you can others didn’t directly target the middle class or any class of tax payers for that matter. This does and it’s just one more step to quicker collapse.

 

[Webster]

This does and it’s just one more step to quicker collapse.

People have been saying that ever since the first governments were created and surprisingly civilization, in one shape or another, has survived.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

People have been saying that ever since the first governments were created and surprisingly civilization, in one shape or another, has survived.

Yes, governments usually collapse in a few hundred years and for a new one. It’s about our time the way things are looking.

 

[Webster]

It’s about our time the way things are looking.

Well then, may red state America burn...and if they do, they can stew in it.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Well then, may red state America burn...and if they do, they can stew in it.

It’s going to be a entire nation

 

[Webster]

It’s going to be a entire nation

Lot of blue in all that red....we'll survive; I don't know about y'all.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Lot of blue in all that red....we'll survive; I don't know about y'all.

They say when the infrastructure collapses the big cities will have 90,000 thousand dead in 6 weeks like New York City from starvation and disease. Where do you think all the food is grown and the biggest cities are. I’ll give you two guesses.

Guns and bullets guess where those several trillion rounds are.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

You may disagree but without a daily dose of shipments to keep a big city going it would get real ugly real fast.

 

[Webster]

I’ll give you two guesses.

Guns and bullets guess where those several trillion rounds are.

In other words, you need us because without anywhere to sell outside of your red-state bubble, your side of the ledger would collapse as well.

 

[Webster]

Guns and bullets guess where those several trillion rounds are.

A lot of blue-state Americans live in those areas, they also own firearms and guess what: a lot of them know how to use them.

What are y'all going to do, kill us?
Good luck.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

A lot of blue-state Americans live in those areas, they also own firearms and guess what: a lot of them know how to use them.

What are y'all going to do, kill us?
Good luck.

Yeah not so many do in reality

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

In other words, you need us because without anywhere to sell outside of your red-state bubble, your side of the ledger would collapse as well.

Not really no.