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Reflecting Democrats’ calls for tax equity, there would be a new 15% minimum tax on some corporations with annual profits exceeding $1 billion but that pay well below the 21% corporate tax. It seemed possible that language could be weakened or removed during debate. A new provision would create a $35 monthly cap for insulin, the expensive diabetes medication, for Medicare and private insurance patients starting next year. But in a bow to Manchin, whose state is a leading fossil fuel producer, there is also money to reduce coal plant carbon emissions and language requiring the government to open more federal land and waters to oil drilling.Įxpiring subsidies that help millions of people afford private insurance premiums would be extended for three years, and there is $4 billion to help Western states combat drought. The bill offers spending and tax incentives favored by progressives for buying electric vehicles and making buildings more energy efficient. The current bill, barely over one-tenth that size, became much narrower as Democratic leaders sought to win the votes of the centrists Manchin and Sinema, yet it has unified a party eager to declare victory and show voters they are addressing their problems. The measure is a shadow of Biden’s initial 10-year, $3.5 trillion proposal, which funded a rainbow of progressive dreams including paid family leave, universal preschool, child care and bigger tax breaks for families with children. In rapid-fire deals with Democrats’ two most unpredictable senators - first conservative Joe Manchin of West Virginia, then Arizona centrist Kyrsten Sinema - Schumer pieced together a package that would give the party an achievement against the backdrop of this fall’s congressional elections. The weekend debate capped a startling 10-day turnabout that saw Democrats resurrect top components of Biden’s agenda that had seemed dead. To do that, they must abide by rules that include a requirement that provisions be chiefly aimed at affecting the federal budget, not imposing new policy.

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Penalties on manufacturers for exceeding inflation would apply to drugs sold to Medicare, and there is a $2,000 annual out-of-pocket cap on drug costs and free vaccines for Medicare beneficiaries.ĭemocrats are using special procedures that would let them pass the measure without having to reach the 60-vote majority that legislation often needs in the Senate. Other pharmaceutical provisions were left intact, including giving Medicare the power to negotiate what it pays for drugs for its 64 million elderly recipients, a longtime Democratic aspiration. Those were the bill’s chief drug pricing protections for the roughly 180 million people whose health coverage comes from private insurance, either through work or bought on their own. MacDonough said Democrats violated Senate budget rules with language imposing hefty penalties on pharmaceutical companies that boost prices beyond inflation for drugs sold in the private insurance market. But Elizabeth MacDonough, the chamber’s nonpartisan rules arbiter, said Democrats had to drop a significant part of its plan for curbing drug prices. Republicans said Democrats’ proposal would boost gasoline prices, a sore point for voters after this summer’s record pump prices.Įarlier, the Senate parliamentarian gave a thumbs-up to most of Democrats’ revised 755-page bill. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to require Medicare to pay the same lower prescription drug prices paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs.Īnother, by Graham, was defeated it would have erased a fee Democrats want to renew on barrels of oil that raises money for hazardous waste cleanups. In early votes, the chamber rejected an effort by progressive Sen. “This historic bill will reduce inflation, lower costs, fight climate change. “The time is now to move forward with a big, bold package for the American people,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. The House, where Democrats have a slender majority, could give the legislation final approval next Friday.

A dwindled version of earlier multitrillion-dollar measures that Democrats failed to advance, the package has become a partisan battleground over inflation, gasoline prices and other issues that polls show are driving voters. The evenly divided Senate voted Saturday to begin debating the legislation 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking the tie and overcoming unanimous Republican opposition.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats pushed their election-year economic bill toward Senate approval early Sunday, starting the sprawling collection of President Joe Biden’s priorities on climate, energy, health and taxes on a pathway that the party hopes will end in final congressional passage by the end of this week.