Joe Manchin, the Unlikely Thorn Now in Mitch McConnell's Side, Surprises Everyone
Washington, D.C. lit up last night with news of a breakthrough budget bill, smartly renamed the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” which had been negotiated in secret between Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) and announced publicly by the latter. Other leaders on Capitol Hill were caught off-guard by the news, and by the end of the night progressives and climate activists were cheering while the GOP was left reeling.
“Holy shit,” said Tiernan Sittenfield of the League of Conservation Voters. “This deal is coming not a moment too soon.” Within the bill are $369 billion in long sought-after subsidies and tax credits for clean energy (e.g. solar, wind, hydrogen, small-scale nuclear and carbon capture) along with $7,500 for new / $4,000 for used electric vehicle credits that Manchin had long opposed. It also includes a whopping $60 billion earmarked for low-income areas and communities of color that suffered inequitably from environmental pollution. The figure is roughly in line with earlier proposals that had called for $300 billion in tax credits for clean energy tech. Experts predict that, if implemented, it could lower U.S. carbon emissions by 40 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2030.
Given Manchin’s about-faces in the past, many of his colleagues were careful not to get too excited. But as details began to emerge, praise for the proposed bill has grown. Progressives got very good news with the inclusion of the ability for Medicare to regulate prescription drug prices starting next year, which will lower costs for many elderly Americans, and an extension of ACA premium subsidies for another three years. It also raises new tax revenue of $313 billion by imposing a minimum corporate tax of 15 percent and closing the “carried interest” loophole used by venture capitalists to count their earnings as capital gains instead of ordinary income. And for budget hawks, the use of raised revenue to actually pay down the deficit by $300 billion is a great selling point.
The bill, if passed, will give President Biden and the Democratic Party a solid win to run on for the upcoming midterms. Many in Washington were so stunned by the developments that they were left wondering how all this happened so quickly and whether to trust it. After all, two weeks ago, things were looking very bleak for Democrats. Manchin, through a different highly public announcement, had seemingly ended all hope of action on climate change before the midterms. Because the GOP looked poised to retake at least the House in November, this meant he likely had doomed its chances forever.
https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/joe-manchin-the-unlikely-thorn-now
= new reply since forum marked as read
