US lawmakers pass massive climate, health bill in big win for Biden

Democratic-led House of Representatives approves $430 billion bill that is seen as biggest climate package in US history, delivering a major legislative victory for President Biden ahead of November 8 midterm elections.

The House voted 220-207 along party lines to pass the measure titled "Inflation Reduction Act" and send it on to Biden to sign into law. (Reuters)

US lawmakers have adopted President Joe Biden's sprawling climate, tax and health care plan –– a major win for the veteran Democrat that includes the biggest ever American investment in the battle against global warming.

The House of Representatives on Friday approved the measure by a 220-207 vote along party lines following its adoption in the Senate on Sunday by a razor-thin margin, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote.

The legislation to fight the climate crisis and lower prescription drug prices aim to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions. 

It will also allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices for the elderly and ensure that corporations and the wealthy pay the taxes they owe. 

Democrats say it will help combat inflation by reducing the federal deficit.

Democrats hope the legislation will help them at the polls in November, when voters decide the balance of power in Congress ahead of the 2024 presidential election. 

Republicans are favoured to win a majority in the House and could also take control of the Senate.

Biden quickly hailed the adoption of his plan, which includes a $370 billion investment aimed at bringing about a 40 percent drop in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.

"Today, the American people won. Special interests lost," the president tweeted in the minutes after the vote.

Republicans say 'it will kill jobs'

The bill's main revenue source is a 15 percent corporate minimum tax aimed at stopping large, profitable companies from gaming the Internal Revenue Service code to slash their tax bills to zero, which has led to mixed reactions from business groups to the legislation.

Republicans oppose the legislation, warning it will kill jobs by raising corporate tax bills, further fuel inflation with government spending and inhibit the development of new drugs.

"Democrats more than any other majority in history are addicted to spending other people's money, regardless of what we as a country can afford," House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said in a floor speech.

But the bill does not leave the US fossil fuels industry out in the cold. 

Some provisions allow the federal government to authorise new wind and solar energy developments on federal land only when it is also auctioning rights to drill for oil and natural gas.

The fossil fuel protections disappointed progressives but posed no barrier to Democratic support.

About half of Americans support the climate and drug pricing legislation, including 69 percent of Democrats and 34 percent of Republicans, according to a Reuters news agency/Ipsos poll conducted on August 3 and 4.

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

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Switzerland's mountain pass set to lose all ice within weeks

Since at least the Roman era, the pass between Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron glaciers has remained iced but it will be completely ice-free before summer is out, claims Glacier 3000 ski resort.

"No one has set foot here for over 2,000 years; that's very moving," says Glacier 3000. (AFP Archive)

The thick layer of ice that has covered a Swiss mountain pass for centuries will melt away completely within a few weeks, a ski resort has warned.

While the ice measured around 50 feet thick in 2012, the ground underneath "will have completely resurfaced by the end of September," the Glacier 3000 ski resort said in a statement on Thursday.

Following a dry winter, the summer heat waves hitting Europe have been catastrophic for the Alpine glaciers, which have been melting at an accelerated rate.

But as both, the Scex Rouge and Tsanfleuron, glaciers have retreated, the bare rock of the ridge between the two is beginning to emerge –– and will be completely ice-free before the summer is out.

"The pass will be entirely in the open air in a few weeks," the ski resort said.

The pass between both glaciers has remained iced at least since the Roman era. 

The ridge is at an altitude of 9,186 feet in the Glacier 3000 ski domain and effectively marks the border between the Vaud and Wallis cantons in western Switzerland.

Covers put on sections of Tsanfleuron glacier

Skiers could glide over the top from one glacier to the other. But now a strip of rock between them has emerged, with just the last remaining bit of ice left.

"No one has set foot here for over 2,000 years; that's very moving," said Glacier 3000 chief executive Bernhard Tschannen.

The Scex Rouge glacier is likely to turn into a lake within the next 10 to 15 years. 

The ski resort is working out how to adapt to the new reality if people cannot ski between the two glaciers.

"We are planning to renew the facilities in this area in the coming years, and one idea would be to shift the route of the current chairlift to allow more direct access to the Tsanfleuron glacier," said Tschannen.

Covers have been put on sections of the Tsanfleuron glacier near the pass to protect them from the heat.

Glaciologist Mauro Fischer, a researcher at Bern University, said the loss of thickness of the glaciers in the region will be on average three times higher this year compared to the last 10 summers.

In the past two weeks, two human skeletons were found on glaciers in Wallis.

Work is under way to try to identify the remains. According to the Swiss news agency ATS, the Wallis police have a list of some 300 people who have gone missing since 1925.

Source: AFP

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Senate Democrats pass $740B 'Inflation Reduction Act' package in US

The package aims to confront climate crisis, control health care costs, and tax corporations.

Vice President Kamala Harris waves as she departs the Senate after passage of the Inflation Reduction Act at the U.S. Capitol August 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. (AFP)

Democrats pushed their election-year economic package to Senate passage, a hard-fought compromise less ambitious than President Joe Biden’s original domestic vision but one that still meets deep-rooted party goals of slowing global warming, moderating pharmaceutical costs and taxing immense corporations.

The estimated $740 billion package heads next to the House, where lawmakers are poised to deliver on Biden's priorities, a stunning turnaround of what had seemed a lost and doomed effort that suddenly roared back to political life. Cheers broke out as Senate Democrats held united, 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote after an all-night session.

Senators engaged in a round-the-clock marathon of voting that began on Saturday and stretched late into Sunday afternoon. Democrats swatted down some three dozen Republican amendments designed to torpedo the legislation.

The bill ran into trouble midday over objections to the new 15 percent corporate minimum tax that private equity firms and other industries disliked, forcing last-minute changes.

Despite the momentary setback, the “Inflation Reduction Act” gives Democrats a campaign-season showcase for action on coveted goals. It includes the largest-ever federal effort on climate change — close to $400 billion — caps out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors on Medicare to $2,000 a year and extends expiring subsidies that help 13 million people afford health insurance. By raising corporate taxes and reaping savings from the long-sought goal of allowing the government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare, the whole package is paid for, with some $300 billion extra revenue for deficit reduction.

Barely more than one-tenth the size of Biden’s initial 10-year, $3.5 trillion Build Back Better initiative, the new package abandons earlier proposals for universal preschool, paid family leave and expanded child care aid. That plan collapsed after conservative Sen. Joe. Manchin, D-W.Va., opposed it, saying it was too costly and would fuel inflation.

Inflation Reduction Act

Nonpartisan analysts have said the 755-page “Inflation Reduction Act” would have a minor effect on surging consumer prices.

Republicans said the new measure would undermine an economy that policymakers are struggling to keep from plummeting into recession. They said the bill's business taxes would hurt job creation and force prices skyward, making it harder for people to cope with the nation's worst inflation since the 1980s.

In an ordeal imposed on most budget bills like this one, the Senate had to endure an overnight “vote-a-rama” of rapid-fire amendments. 

It was the bill's chief protection for the 180 million people with private health coverage they get through work or purchase themselves. Under special procedures that will let Democrats pass their bill by simple majority without the usual 60-vote margin, its provisions must be focused more on dollar-and-cents budget numbers than policy changes.

But the thrust of Democrats' pharmaceutical price language remained. That included letting Medicare negotiate what it pays for drugs for its 64 million elderly recipients, penalizing manufacturers for exceeding inflation for pharmaceuticals sold to Medicare and limiting beneficiaries out-of-pocket drug costs to $2,000 annually.

The bill also caps Medicare patients' costs for insulin, the expensive diabetes medication, at $35 monthly. Democrats wanted to extend the $35 cap to private insurers but it ran afoul of Senate rules. Most Republicans voted to strip it from the package, though in a sign of the political potency of health costs seven GOP senators joined Democrats trying to preserve it.

The measure's final costs were being recalculated to reflect late changes, but overall it would raise more than $700 billion over a decade. 

The money would come from a 15 percent minimum tax on a handful of corporations with yearly profits above $1 billion, a 1 percent tax on companies that repurchase their own stock, bolstered IRS tax collections and government savings from lower drug costs.

Source: AP

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Senate Democrats pass climate, tax and health care bill after marathon voting session

The Senate on Sunday passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) along party lines, 51-50, handing Democrats a crucial legislative win as the midterm cycle ramps up.

Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote with all Democrats in support of the legislation and all Republicans opposed. The proposal was passed via the budget reconciliation process, which allows it to be passed with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes typically needed to overcome a filibuster.

The passage of the sprawling climate, tax and health care legislation now sets up a vote in the Democratic-controlled House, where the bill is expected to pass before President Joe Biden signs it into law.

Included in the bill, supporters say, are measures to support job creation, raise taxes on large corporations and the wealthy, allow Medicare to negotiate down some prescription drug costs, expand the Affordable Care Act health care program and invest in combating climate change by implementing tax credits for clean energy initiatives, among other things.

The legislation's tax provisions, prescription drug-pricing reform, as well as boosted IRS tax enforcement measures, are anticipated to raise an estimated revenue of $739 billion -- $300 billion of which Democrats say would go toward reducing the deficit.

The plan would reduce federal budget deficits by $102 billion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The bill passed the Senate after a punishing, approximately 16-hour "vote-a-rama," in which any senator could introduce an amendment to the bill as part of the budget reconciliation process.

The amendment process fueled painful votes for each party.

Vulnerable Democratic incumbents up for reelection this year had to dance around a vote on the Biden administration's decision to scrap Title 42, a Trump-era order using coronavirus concerns to prevent migrants from entering the country while seeking asylum. Republicans, meanwhile, mostly voted against a Democratic amendment that would have capped out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 a month for people with private health insurance.

The IRA passage marks the culmination of grueling negotiations between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who had been a consistent obstacle to cobbling together a Democrats-only social spending bill via reconciliation.

The pathway for a successful vote was cemented late last week when Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., another key centrist, signed on after winning some tweaks to the bill.

Senator Patrick Leahy is wheeled to an elevator from the Senate floor during amendment votes, also called the "vote-a-rama", on the Inflation Reduct Act 2022, at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, Aug. 7, 2022.

Ken Cedeno/Reuters

Among the changes Sinema won were the eliminations of tax provisions targeting wealthy hedge fund managers and private equity executives. The Senate rules official also scrapped a provision intended to reprimand drug companies that raise the prices of some prescription drugs faster than inflation for patients with private insurance.

Still, the bill's passage marks a major step toward President Biden's campaign promises to tackle climate change, reform prescription drug pricing and other issues; and it gives Democrats a new legislative win to run on heading into the November midterms, in an environment where many voters have soured on Biden's handling of the economy and historic inflation.

The IRA also extends a streak of achievements for Biden and congressional Democrats, including passage of a bipartisan anti-gun violence bill and legislation to boost the domestic semiconductor industry.

"This bill is going to change America for decades," Schumer crowed after final passage.

"This vote crystalizes the contrast of the midterms. Senate Democrats have taken a historic step to lower costs like prescription drug prices, tackle inflation and address working families' most pressing concerns. Every Republican voted against the bill because it holds Big Oil, Big Pharma and other corporations that have been jacking up prices accountable, and finally makes them pay their fair share," added Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., the chair of Senate Democrats' campaign arm.

Republicans have already forecasted that they'll paint Democrats as uncaring about Americans' financial burdens at a time of rapid price hikes while passing billions of dollars in new spending.

"This idea that this massive tax increase will just somehow be absorbed by corporate America when they will pass those costs along to consumers, and it will make inflation worse," Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said last week.

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