Despite all Republicans being opposed, the vote was a major victory for President Biden and Democrats. The bill now goes to the House, where it is expected to pass by the end of the week.
www.nytimes.com
WASHINGTON — The Senate passed legislation on Sunday that would make the most significant federal investment in history to counter climate change and lower the cost of prescription drugs, as Democrats banded together to push through major pieces of President Biden's domestic agenda over unified Republican opposition.
The measure, large elements of which appeared dead just weeks ago amid Democratic divisions, would inject nearly $400 billion into climate and energy programs. Altogether, the bill could allow the United States to cut greenhouse gas emissions about 40 percent below 2005 levels by the end of the decade.
It would achieve Democrats' longstanding goal of slashing prescription drug costs by allowing Medicare for the first time to negotiate the prices of medicines directly and capping the amount that recipients pay out of pocket for drugs each year at $2,000. The measure also would extend larger premium subsidies for health coverage for low- and middle-income people under the Affordable Care Act for three years.
And it would be paid for by substantial tax increases, mostly on large corporations, including establishing a 15 percent corporate minimum tax and imposing a new tax on company stock buybacks.
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As part of its landmark climate and energy initiative, which would put the Biden administration within reach of its aim to cut emissions roughly in half by 2030, the bill would offer tax incentives to steer consumers to electric vehicles and lure electric utilities toward renewable energy sources like wind or solar power. It also includes millions of dollars in climate resiliency funding for tribal governments and Native Hawaiians, as well as $60 billion to help disadvantaged areas that are disproportionately affected by climate change.
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But the final package contained a series of proposals that Democrats have labored for decades to push through. If enacted, it would be the most significant climate law ever put in place in the United States, investing hundreds of billions of dollars over 10 years in tax credits for manufacturing facilities for things like electric vehicles, wind turbines and solar panels, and $30 billion for additional production tax credits to accelerate domestic manufacturing of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries and critical minerals processing. It would also impose a fee to penalize excessive emissions of methane, a greenhouse gas.
The legislation would allow Medicare to negotiate the cost of up to 10 prescription drugs initially, beginning in 2026, and give seniors access to free vaccines. Coupled with a three-year extension of expanded health care subsidies first approved last year as part of the $1.9 trillion pandemic aid law, the package amounts to the largest change to national health policy since the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
To finance much of the plan, the measure would institute a new 15 percent corporate minimum tax that would apply to the profits that companies report on their financial statements to shareholders, known as book income. It would impose a new 1 percent tax on corporate stock buybacks beginning in 2023. The measure also would pour $80 billion into the I.R.S. to bulk up the agency's enforcement arm and crack down on wealthy corporations and tax evaders. That provision is estimated to raise $124 billion over a decade.
