Biden scores victory with passage of his massive climate and health plan
Pelosi with a group of lawmakers after the plan was approved.
AFP
The US Congress, in a final vote, approved President Joe Biden's massive plan to invest in climate and health, in a major political victory for the Democratic president less than three months before a crucial legislative election.
The Democrats, with their slim majority in the House of Representatives, allowed the approval of the plan, which is worth more than 430 billion dollars, after a similar vote in the Senate a few days ago.
Biden announced in a tweet that he would issue the text soon to become an effective law aimed at putting the country on the right track to achieve its goals in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“The American people have won,” Biden wrote, adding that with this plan, families would see lower drug, health care and energy costs.
The plan, which won the support of most organizations fighting climate change, provides for allocating 370 billion dollars to the environment and 64 billion dollars to health.
At the same time, the plan, dubbed the "Inflation Reduction Act", aims to reduce the public budget deficit by imposing a new tax of 15% as a minimum tax on companies that reap profits of more than one billion dollars.
“Today is a day of celebration,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before the vote, stressing that this law would allow American families to “prosper, and our planet to survive.”
On the other hand, the Republican camp considers that the text will generate unnecessary public expenditures, denouncing the use of taxes to finance it.
Biden, who came to the White House on huge reform plans, was essentially calling for a broader investment plan, but Democratic members of Congress have had to gradually reduce their ambitions.
Under this reform, the American citizen will get about $7,500 in tax credits when he buys an electric car, and he will get financing that covers 30% of the costs when installing solar panels on his roof.
The plan grants billions of dollars in tax credits to the most polluting industries to help them transition into energy, a measure that drew heavy criticism from the Democratic left before it endorsed the text despite its reservations.
The second investment plan aims to correct the stark disparity in access to medical care in the United States, particularly by lowering drug prices.
Medicare, the health insurance system that benefits people over 65 for the first time, will be able to directly negotiate prices for some drugs with laboratories to obtain more competitive prices, and the elderly will not spend more than $2,000 a year for their drugs as of from 2025.
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