Sen. Bernie Sanders (I. Vermont) addressed the Senate floor Tuesday to highlight the glaring inadequacies and problems with the Inflation Reduction Act. (IRA) was announced by Democratic leaders after months of negotiations between Sen. Joe Manchin (D. West Virginia), and Democratic leaders.
Warning about the dangers of runaway capitalism and fascism in the U.S. Sanders harshly criticized Manchin and Democrats for excluding crucial provisions in the bill that were part of last year’s Build Back Better Act (BBBA), while inserting massive handouts to the fossil fuel industry in the face of a worsening climate crisis.
The roughly $433 billion bill, which was crafted from the framework of the BBBA, is much smaller than its predecessor – which, even at its lowest negotiated value, was Around $1.75 Trillion. Sanders was there when Manchin killed last year’s bill. Heavily criticized the move at the time, and similarly said on Tuesday that the presumed death of the BBBA is “a disaster for the working families of our country who, today, are desperately trying to survive.”
While pointing out that polls have found that the BBBA and its various proposals were popular, Sanders noted that many of its provisions were carved out of this year’s reconciliation bill. Provisions like PaidMedical and family leave, Child tax credit expandedSanders stated that universal pre-kindergarten would have been a lifesaver for families in the COVID economy. He said that the BBBA could have addressed national issues like soaring fuel prices. College tuition prescription drug prices, skimpy MedicareCoverage The housing crisis.
Manchin and other lawmakers have reduced or eliminated these provisions. Although the new bill does contain some provisions regarding prescription drug prices, it will not address all of them. allow Medicare to negotiate the price of some prescription drugs – not all drugs, as Versions in the early stagesBBBA would have done. Sanders noted that while it would set a $35 per month price cap on insulin for people with insurance, it would not affect those without insurance.
Although he did not praise the IRA provisions that would extend and broaden the Affordable Care Act, the Vermont senator stated that the proposed health-care provisions are not sufficient to address the major U.S. health care shortages.
“This bill does nothing – absolutely nothing – to reform a dysfunctional, broken health care system which is based on the greed of the insurance industry, does nothing to address the fundamental crisis of the United States paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for health care, while over 70 million of us are uninsured or underinsured,” he said. “Doesn’t even touch that.”
Sanders said that while there are laudable clean-energy provisions in the bill it is still far less than what the BBBA had suggested to tackle climate change. Worse, The bill containsClimate advocates claim that large concessions to fossil fuel industry would almost completely negate the provisions for reducing emissions.
“The very bad news that very few people in the media or in Congress want to talk about is that this proposed legislation includes a huge giveaway to the fossil fuel industry – both in the reconciliation bill itself and in a side deal that was just made public yesterday,” Sanders emphasized.
The proposed bill is so friendly towards the fossil fuel sector that corporate executives at companies like Exxon have signed it. Have said that they’re pleased with the bill. Another concession is the bill’s inclusion of It is a mandateInterior Department to continue selling oil-and-gas leases annually for the next decade, provided officials approve new wind and solar projects.
“Under this legislation the fossil fuel industry will receive billions of dollars in new tax breaks and subsidies over the next ten years on top of the $15 billion in tax breaks and corporate welfare that they are already receiving,” Sanders said. “In my view, if we are going to make our planet healthy and habitable for future generations, we cannot provide billions of dollars of tax breaks to the very same fossil fuel companies that are destroying the planet.”
The senator concluded by saying that, after months of secret negotiations between Democratic leaders and Manchin, “now is the time for every member of the Senate to study this bill thoroughly and to come up with amendments and suggestions as to how we can improve it,” he said. “I look forward to being part of that process.”
