The Senate has passed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, a $740 billion climate change and healthcare spending bill that has been the result of months-long talks within the Democratic Party.
No Republican lawmakers signed onto the bill, though Democrats were able to pass it via a simple majority through the budget reconciliation process.
Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote in the evenly divided chamber.
It’s a major win for Democrats’ agenda, whose prospects in the looming midterm elections had looked dim for months.
Lawmakers had been debating the package since 11 p.m. on Saturday, and continued into late afternoon on Sunday without stopping.
But Republicans have accused Democrats of misleading the American public with the the legislation’s name, claiming it won’t help sky-high inflation and citing a study that says it could increase taxes on every income bracket.
GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida called the bill a ‘war on seniors’ during an interview on CBS News’ Face The Nation and claimed it would raise Medicare costs.
‘Right now, this bill actually ought to be called the war on seniors act. I mean, this is a war on Medicare. If you look at this. This is a $280 billion cut in Medicare,’ Scott said.
Meanwhile Democrat Sen. Chris Coons of Connecticut admitted on ABC News’ This Week that the bill could take ‘a year or more’ to cut inflation.
‘But, look…we’ve seen gas prices come down week after week after week for the last five weeks in a row,’ Coons defended.
The bill passed 50-50 with an amendment by GOP Senator John Thune – who did not vote for the final package
Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote in the evenly divided Senate
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is now leading Democrats through the hours-long vote-a-rama process after finally reaching a deal on a budget bill with West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin
‘Yes, inflation is higher than it should be, but we just got a robust jobs number, more than 500,000 jobs created in this past month. Unemployment’s the lowest it’s been in my lifetime. And I think we’ve got a strong economy, a strong recovery underway.’
Host Margaret Brennan cut Scott off during his CBS interview when he claimed ‘Medicare is gonna get caught and there’s gonna be seniors that don’t get life-saving drugs.’
‘Reducing Medicare cost is not the same as benefits though, you- you know that,’ Brennan said.
Scott replied: ‘Margaret, it’s $280 billion that would have been spent. It was anticipated to be spent. It’s not going to be spent now. And the drug companies that would be doing more research are not going to be able to spend the money on research.’
The climate change and healthcare bill, which includes roughly $433 billion in new spending, was hatched out in secretive talks between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and West Virginia Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin.
The final bill passed with an amendment by Senate GOP Whip John Thune.
Earlier on Sunday, Senate Republicans had successfully forced Democrats to remove a provision in their package that would have capped the price of insulin for all Americans at just $35.
Senators have been inside the US Capitol from Saturday night through Sunday morning voting on dozens of amendments to Democrats’ spending bill, in a lengthy process known as a vote-a-rama.
Democrats had left the insulin cap in the bill despite the Senate parliamentarian ruling that it violates rules of the budget reconciliation process by which the legislation is being passed.
Republicans raised a point-of-order on Sunday, forcing a floor-wide vote on whether to overrule the parliamentarian.
The measure ultimately fell three votes short of the 60-vote threshold needed. Forty-three lawmakers voted to strike the price cap down.
‘3 GOP votes is all it took to cap insulin at $35,’ Progressive Rep. Ruben Gallego wrote on Twitter, lamenting the defeat.
‘The sad part is the GOP could have voted yes on this amendment and voted no on the whole bill and people would have affordable insulin. But let’s be honest they just wanted to be assholes.’
The seven Republican senators who voted to keep the insulin cap are: Susan Collins, Josh Hawley, Cindy Hyde-Smith, John Kennedy, Bill Cassidy, Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan.
‘Republicans just blocked us from capping the price of insulin for all Americans at $35 a month,’ Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wrote on Twitter. ‘We’ve already seen far too many people risk their lives and health by rationing insulin they can’t afford. It’s unconscionable that we’re letting this tragedy continue.’