The US Congress finally adopted Joe Biden’s vast climate and health investment plan on Friday, a major political victory for the US president, with less than three months to go before a decisive legislative election.
With their slim majority, Democrats in the House of Representatives pushed through the more than $430 billion plan, following a similar vote in the Senate a few days ago.
The text, which should put the country on the right track to achieve its greenhouse gas reduction goals, will be signed into law by Joe Biden next week, the president said in a tweet.
“Today the American people won,” Joe Biden wrote. With this law, “families will see lower prices on drugs, health care and energy costs.”
“A Day of Celebration”
Welcomed by most of the associations that fight against climate change, this reform includes 370,000 million dollars allocated to the environment and 64,000 million dollars to health.
Called the “Inflation Reduction Law”, it aims at the same time to reduce the public deficit with a new minimum tax of 15% for all companies whose profits exceed one billion dollars.
“Today is a day of celebration,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said just before the vote. This law will allow American families to “thrive and our planet to survive.”
degraded ambitions
The Republican camp, for its part, accuses the text of generating unnecessary public spending, and criticizes the use of US tax authorities to finance them. Former President Donald Trump had called on his social network social truth all Republicans to vote against.
Coming to power with huge reform bills, Joe Biden originally advocated an even bigger investment plan. But elected Democrats have had to gradually revise their ambitions downward, in particular to satisfy Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a state known for its coal mines. His support was essential to pass the Senate stage.
Despite everything, the text remains the largest investment ever made in the United States for the climate. It must allow greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced by 40% by 2030. The goal set by Joe Biden is a reduction of at least 50% by this date, but other measures, in particular regulatory ones, could fill the gap in part, according to experts. .
“This law is a game changer and a source of hope,” said Johanna Chao Kreilick, president of the “Union of Concerned Scientists.”
“Strong incentives” for solar and wind energy
The steps taken “will encourage other countries to step up their commitments,” Dan Lashof, director of the US World Resources Institute, said on Friday.
“By creating strong incentives to invest in solar and wind energy, (the text) will dry up, so to speak, the market for electricity produced from coal for the next decade,” he summarized this week.
Under this reform, an American will receive up to $7,500 in tax credits for the purchase of an electric car. The installation of solar panels on your roof will be covered at 30%.
Investments are also planned for the development of CO2 capture, the resilience of forests to fires and the renovation of housing for the most modest households.
Several billion dollars in tax credits will also be offered to the most polluting industries to help them in their energy transition, a measure strongly criticized by the left of the party, which despite everything had to line up behind this text.
Lower the price of medicines
The second part of this major investment plan is intended in part to correct the huge inequalities in access to care in the United States, particularly by lowering drug prices.
Medicare, a public health insurance aimed, among others, at those over 65 years of age, will for the first time be able to negotiate the prices of certain drugs directly with pharmaceutical companies, and thus obtain more competitive rates. Seniors will also be guaranteed to pay no more than $2,000 a year for their medications, beginning in 2025.
The bill also provides for expanding the protections of the “Affordable Care Act”, the emblematic health insurance better known as “Obamacare”, which contained measures that facilitated access to health insurance through subsidies to help families pay for health coverage.
Source: BFM TV
