“While we are heartbroken to see several essential pieces on the care economy, housing and immigration left on the cutting room floor — as well as a successful Republican effort to remove insulin price caps for those with private insurance — we know that the Inflation Reduction Act takes real steps forward on key progressive priorities,” Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington, the chairwoman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said in a statement after Senate passage of the measure.
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Some centrist Democrats, notably those from high-income states who had threatened to withhold their votes if the legislation did not address a cap on how much families can deduct in state and local taxes, also announced their support.
“Because this legislation does not raise taxes on families in my district, but in fact significantly lowers their costs, I will be voting for it,” said Representative Mikie Sherrill, Democrat of New Jersey.
Its passage will come just days after Mr. Biden signed both a $280 billion industrial policy bill that will shore up America’s chip manufacturing in an effort to better compete with China and legislation that will expand medical benefits for veterans exposed to trash fires that burned on military bases, the latest in a string of legislative successes.
With Republicans unanimously opposed to the package, Democrats used the fast-track budget reconciliation process to navigate the legislation through both chambers, as they did last year with the $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package. Cut entirely out of the process, Republicans fumed that the bill did little to address inflation and criticized the plans for tax increases and more federal spending. (Many economists agree it is likely to dampen inflation, though modestly and not immediately.)
“Having been left with a ‘take it or leave it’ offer from the Senate Democrats, with no opportunity to provide input or to amend the bill, I am appalled that the majority is once again choosing to simply take it,” Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the House Rules Committee, said at a hearing on Wednesday. He added, “It should come as no surprise that not a single Republican will vote for this bill, just as not a single Republican voted for the last reconciliation bill.”
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/12/us/politics/house-climate-tax-bill.html
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