With Republicans unanimously opposed to the package, Democrats used the fast-track budget reconciliation process to push the legislation through both chambers, as they did last year with the $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package. Shut out of the process entirely, Republicans fumed that the bill did little to address inflation and criticized plans for tax increases and more federal spending. (Many economists agree that it is likely to reduce inflation, albeit modestly and not immediately.)
“Having been left with a take-it-or-leave-it proposal by Senate Democrats with no opportunity to provide input or amend the bill, I am appalled that the majority is once again choosing to simply pass it,” Congressman Tom Cole of Oklahoma, the best a Republican on the House Rules Committee, said at a hearing Wednesday. He added, “It should come as no surprise that no Republicans will vote for this bill, just as no Republicans voted for the last reconciliation bill.”
Republicans were venting their anger in part on a proposal to invest $80 billion in the Internal Revenue Service. Democrats say it will shore up the historically underfunded agency and help crack down on wealthy tax dodgers and corporations, but Republicans have called it a vicious attack on lower- and middle-class taxpayers. In response to criticism, Janet L. Yellen, the Treasury secretary, instructed the agency this week to ensure there would be no spike in audits for small businesses or families making less than $400,000.
Others scoffed at the fact that the entire chamber would not be present to vote on the legislation. As of Friday morning, more than a third of lawmakers in the House of Representatives had filed the necessary paperwork needed to vote by proxy, a practice put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which cited the “ongoing public health emergency” as the reason they could not vote in person.
“This proxy ‘vote’ – under the lie of most involved (signing that it is related to COVID) will be used (illegally) to pass tax increases, harmful energy regulations, funding of IRS agents to harass citizens and a huge increase in cronyism in “big health care,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said on Twitter.
The package will help the Biden administration meet its commitment to cut emissions roughly in half by 2030, although scientists and climate activists warn that more action by Congress and the executive branch will be needed to meet that goal. It aims to use the tax code to incentivize consumers and companies to buy and invest in electric vehicles, solar panels and other renewable energy sources such as wind or solar, and the facilities needed to build more of these items in the country.
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