Bloomberg News reported yesterday that President Joe Biden will hold a celebration event for the Inflation Reduction Act (“IRA”) on September 6 at the White House, followed by a tour across the country to tout the IRA’s benefits. Here is the tweet from Bloomberg White House reporter Jenny Leonard showing the memo from White House Chief of Staff Ronald Klain which outlines the plans for the IRA celebration:
Per new WH memo: Biden will host a celebration event for the Inflation Reduction Act at the White House on September 6 and travel across the country to highlight its benefits. @POTUS will also attend the groundbreaking of @intel’s Ohio semiconductor fab. pic.twitter.com/SCXDZjWul9
— Jenny Leonard (@jendeben) August 15, 2022
The U.S. Senate passed the Inflation Reduction Act on August 7. The U.S. House passed it last Friday. In both cases, the IRA received no Republican votes. Vice President Kamala Harris had to cast the tie-breaking 51st vote for the IRA in the Senate. President Biden is expected to sign the IRA later today.
The IRA is another major achievement for President Biden’s agenda. Some of the bill’s highlights are:
–Reducing climate change with investments in curbing harmful emissions and promoting green technology, such as extending tax credits for electric vehicles and residential and commercial solar energy installations.
–$35/month cap on insulin cost for Medicare recipients.
–The ability of the government to negotiate lower drug prices for those on Medicare
–15 percent corporate minimum tax
–1 percent tax on corporate stock buybacks
–$300 billion in deficit reduction
According to Chief of Staff Klain’s memo, these provisions are very popular with voters. As Klain also notes, the IRA is the latest in a string of victories for President Biden, including “gas prices back under $4, Sweden and Finland’s ascension to NATO,” passage of the CHIPS and Science Act, passage of the FORMULA Act, passage of the PACT Act, historically high job creation and low unemployment, killing al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, and more. It’s quite an impressive record by President Biden and Congressional Democrats, on which the Democratic Party can run in the upcoming midterm elections. As we always say, it’s best to go on offense, and doing so is much easier with such impressive achievements to highlight.
Photo by Palácio do Planalto, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/5rRdon