After months of negotiations, the US Senate appears poised to pass Joe Biden’s grand climate and health plan, which will allocate billions to ambitious clean energy targets in a hard-fought presidential victory ahead of the midterm elections.
“I think it will pass,” the Democratic president, who recently recovered from a second bout of Covid-19, told reporters during a brief appearance on the White House lawn on Sunday morning.
The $430 billion plan, hammered out in arduous talks with members of the right wing of his Democratic Party, would include the largest ever US investment in climate action – $370 billion aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 40 percent reduction.
That would give Biden a clear victory on one of his key agenda items and help restore US leadership in tackling the global climate challenge.
Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate — just enough to pass spending bills like this without Republican support.
If the package is passed, likely within days, it will move into the House of Representatives on Friday, where a majority of Democrats expect to pass it. It would then go to Biden’s desk to get his signature.
– Electric cars –
The bill would give ordinary Americans a tax credit of up to $7,500 when they buy an electric car, as well as a 30 percent rebate when installing solar panels on their roofs.
It would also provide millions to protect and preserve forests – which in recent years have been increasingly devastated by wildfires during record heatwaves that scientists say are linked to global warming.
Billions of dollars in tax credits would also go to some of the country’s most polluting industries to help them transition to greener practices — a measure bitterly opposed by some liberal Democrats but who after months have accepted it as the least bad alternative have of frustration.
Biden, who came into office with promises of far-reaching — and expensive — reforms, has seen his hopes dashed, then revived, then dashed again.
The narrow edge of Senate Democrats has effectively vetoed moderates like West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, who had previously used that power to block Biden’s much expansionary Build Back Better plan.
But in late July, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer managed to negotiate a compromise with West Virginian, whose economy is heavily dependent on coal mining.
And on Saturday, the senators finally opened their debate on the text.
– ‘Vote a rama’ –
Late in the day, senators launched a marathon process known as “vote-a-rama,” in which members can propose dozens of amendments and demand a vote on each.
That has allowed both Republicans, who see Biden’s plan as too costly, and Liberal Democrats, who say it doesn’t go far enough, to make their opposition clear.
Influential progressive Senator Bernie Sanders used this platform throughout the evening to propose several changes aimed at strengthening the social elements in the legislation, which have been significantly weakened during months of negotiations.
By the looks of it, the law would allocate $64 billion to health initiatives and ensure reductions in some drug costs — which can be 10 times more expensive in the US than in some other rich countries.
But progressive Democrats have long since abandoned their ambitions for free preschools and community colleges and expanded health care for the elderly.
“Millions of seniors will continue to have decayed teeth and lack the dentures, hearing aids or glasses they deserve,” Senate Sanders said.
“This bill, as currently written, does nothing about it.”
But other Democrats, anxious to pass the law well ahead of November’s midterm elections when control of Congress is severely at stake, have opposed any change to the text.
To offset the plan’s massive spending, he would reduce the US deficit through a new minimum tax of 15 percent on companies with profits of $1 billion or more — a move targeting some who now pay far less.
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