It is a bill called the "Inflation Reduction Act", the result of difficult negotiations with the right wing of the Democratic Party. This "will change America for decades to come," according to Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer. After 18 months of negotiations and a marathon night of debates, the US Senate adopted Joe Biden's big plan on climate and health on Sunday August 7, offering a significant milestone victory for the president, less than 100 days away. crucial elections.
By their votes alone, the Democrats have approved this plan of more than 430 billion dollars of investments, which takes the road to the House of Representatives for a final vote next week, before being signed into law by Joe Biden. All Republican senators voted against the text, which they accuse on the contrary of generating unnecessary public expenditure.
"Inflation Reduction Act" is the largest investment ever seen in the United States in the fight against climate change: 370 billion dollars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030.
Rather than penalties for polluters, the bill provides a series of financial incentives intended to shift the US economy toward non-fossil energy sources. A series of tax credits for producers and consumers of wind, solar and nuclear energy have been provided. With this reform, an American will be able to receive up to 7,500 dollars in tax credits for the purchase of an electric car. The installation of solar panels on its roof would be covered at 30%.
Some 60 billion dollars are also planned for the construction of wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles in the United States. The same sum is allocated to a series of programs to assist the most modest households in their energy transition, in particular by renovating their homes. Massive investments to strengthen the resilience of forests to the fires that are ravaging the country and to protect coastal areas from hurricanes are also included in this reform.
The second part of this major investment plan intends to partially correct the huge inequalities in access to care in the United States: 64 billion dollars of investment in health is planned, in particular the gradual reduction in the price of certain drugs. , up to ten times more expensive than in other rich countries. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act", Medicare, a public health insurance system intended for those over 65 and those with the lowest incomes, can thus for the first time negotiate the prices of certain drugs directly with the laboratories. pharmaceutical companies, and thus obtain more competitive prices. The plan also obliges pharmaceutical companies to offer discounts to consumers for certain drugs whose prices are rising faster than inflation. The bill also plans to extend until 2025 the protections of the "Affordable Care Act", the emblematic health insurance better known as "Obamacare", Barack Obama's flagship law.
In parallel with these massive investments, the "Inflation Reduction Act" intends to reduce the public deficit by adopting a minimum tax rate of 15% for all companies whose profits exceed one billion dollars. This new tax aims to prevent certain large companies from using the tax loopholes which have allowed them to pay far less than the theoretical rate. It is estimated that this measure could generate more than $258 billion in US federal revenue over the next 10 years.
The initial plan, which provided for 3,500 billion dollars in spending, then 2,220 billion, however lost many measures along the way. It is no longer a question, in particular, of financing direct financial aid to families, childcare or school at three years old. Extending access to sickness or maternity leave is also no longer relevant. Progressives also had to abandon their ambitions to provide better care for the elderly. “Millions of retirees will continue to have rotten teeth and not receive the dentures, hearing aids or glasses they deserve,” criticized former Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders from the hemicycle.
Coming to power with immense reform projects, Joe Biden saw them buried, resurrected, then buried again by a very moderate senator from his camp, Joe Manchin. The very thin Democratic majority in the Senate offers the elected representative of West Virginia, a state known for its coal mines, a quasi-right of veto. At the end of July, the leader of the Democrats in the Senate Chuck Schumera finally succeeded in wresting a compromise from Joe Manchin.
Saturday August 6, the senators finally began to debate the text in the hemicycle. In the evening, they entered a marathon procedure called "vote-a-rama", during which, with drawn features, they for fifteen hours in a row proposed dozens of amendments and demanded a vote on each.
The opportunity for the Republican opposition, which considers the Biden plan too expensive, and for the Democratic left wing, which wanted it wider, to present their grievances. Influential senator on the left, Bernie Sanders has presented several amendments supposed to strengthen the social aspect of the text, considerably trimmed in recent months.
Coming to power with immense reform ambitions, Joe Biden assured that “this bill would radically change the situation for American households and our economy”. “We had to make many compromises. Doing important things almost always requires them,” said the American president in a press release published in the wake of the adoption of the text, urging the House of Representatives to adopt it without delay. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell accused the Democrats of wanting to "double down on their economic disaster".
“The Senate is finally on the same wavelength as the public to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis”, but, “in the future, more actions are necessary”, for its part reacted in a press release Johanna Kreilick, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), an NGO dealing in particular with environmental issues.
Automakers meanwhile hail measures that 'will help accelerate the conversion' of the country's industry, but lament that 'tax credit requirements' render most models 'ineligible', according to John Bozzella , CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a group of American and foreign manufacturers representing nearly all the cars sold in the United States. "This is a missed opportunity at a crucial time" which puts "in jeopardy our collective goal of 40 to 50% sales of electric vehicles by 2030", he regretted.
In addition, the employers' organization Business Roundtable criticized the adoption of a minimum tax rate of 15% for all companies whose profits exceed one billion dollars, as spotted by Les Echos. “The U.S. economy has seen two straight quarters of declining GDP and is at risk of a prolonged economic decline. Imposing tax increases of more than $300 billion during an economic downturn is the wrong policy at the wrong time” , lamented the employers' organization in a press release on Saturday.
