Biden signs climate, health and tax law to “reduce inflation”

US President Joe Biden signed legislation on Tuesday designed to combat climate change, lower prescription drug costs and raise taxes on large corporations.

The “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022”, promoted by the Democrats and approved by their majorities in both houses of Congress, is, according to Biden, “the final piece” of his national agenda, although it is a reduced version of his economic project that was stalled for a long time in the legislature.

Still, the $430 billion legislation is seen as the largest climate package in US history and comes as Democrats seek to strengthen their party’s standing with voters less than three months before the election. mid term.

In addition to allocating funds to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit prescription drug costs to $2,000 a year for Medicare beneficiaries, the law would also help an estimated 13 million people pay for health insurance by extending subsidies granted during the coronavirus pandemic.

The measure is financed with new taxes on large companies and greater attention from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in meeting the tax obligations of wealthy individuals and entities, where the additional funds would be used to reduce the federal deficit.

Biden used the event to criticize Republicans and promote a series of legislative victories led by Democrats.

“In this historic moment, the Democrats sided with the American people and all Republicans sided with the special interests,” Biden said. “Every Republican in Congress voted against this bill.”

However, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell warned that the new law will have the opposite impact to that desired.

“The Democrats stole from Americans last year by spending our economy on record inflation. This year, their solution is to do it a second time. The partisan bill President Biden signed into law today means higher taxes, lower energy bills.” discharges and aggressive IRS audits,” he said.

[Con información de Associated Press y Reuters]

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