This level of consensus on almost anything is extremely rare in today’s politically divided United States.
Three-quarters of voters support giving Medicare the authority to negotiate lower prescription prices with pharmaceutical companies and placing an annual ceiling of $2,000 on the amount that older Americans will spend on their medication.
A comparable share of respondents in the same Morning Consult/Politico poll expressed support for bringing the federal deficit down by up to $300 billion.
Approximately three out of every five voters are in favour of imposing a minimum tax rate on corporations, extending healthcare subsidies for low-income individuals, and providing tax credits to promote the use of renewable energy.
All of this and many more is included in the Inflation Reduction Act. So, what’s not to like, if you’re a Republican?
The inflation promise implied by the Democrats’ politically self-serving title for it may or may not be delivered by the 730-page package, but the measure would do enough that Americans, including Republican voters, enjoy a lot, and surveys show that the measure would be well received.
However, on Sunday not a single Republican senator voted in favour of the deal. Absolutely not.
You shouldn’t have too high of hopes for a much different outcome on Friday, when the bill is expected to be approved by the Democratically-controlled House and sent to President Biden to be signed into law.
It is another another sad reflection of the condition of American politics and, in especially, of the Republican Party that Congress would pass a package that is so full of people-pleasers on a vote that was completely along party lines.
How is a country with 330 million people supposed to find solutions to its issues when one of the two major parties is unable to compromise and is afraid of implementing new policies?
Whatever the benefits may be to their constituents, Republicans simply don’t want to let Democrats score points by enacting a signature piece of Biden’s domestic agenda, especially this close to the midterm elections.
This is especially the case because Republicans don’t want to let Democrats score points.
In addition, in a party where compromise is frequently considered a dismissable sin, Republican MPs who break party norms and support a Democratic agenda have strong reason to worry that they may face opposition in the subsequent primary election for the Republican party.
People who subscribe to the whataboutism and bothsidesism schools of thought can argue that throughout the Trump administration, Democrats unitedly opposed the Republicans’ signature achievement, which was a law passed in 2017 that reduced taxes for corporations and affluent individuals.
When it was passed, however, the majority of Americans voted against it by a margin of two to one, and it continues to be unpopular today.
(Republicans, who are currently condemning the plan that Democrats have proposed as a budget-buster despite the fact that this is not the case, won’t admit this: It is estimated that their tax cuts in 2017 will add up to $2 trillion to the national debt by the time 2025 rolls around.
Because of my age, I can recall a time when Republicans referred to themselves as the “party of ideas.” At this point, the most of them are culture warriors.
It is no longer one of their strong suits, to say the least, to propose policies that aid people and solve chronic problems in the domestic environment.
What do they intend to do if they are successful in taking control of Congress? The investigations into the Justice Department and the FBI, as well as those into Hunter Biden and Anthony Fauci, all of which promise to be as time-consuming, expensive, and fruitless as their investigations into Benghazi during the Obama years.
When the information that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade leaked three months ago, jubilant conservatives promised a new phase of their “pro-life” advocacy, in which they would push for more government assistance for needy mothers and children.
This phase of their advocacy would begin immediately.
However, it has come to light that the majority of Republicans serving in Congress are not particularly interested, especially when the proposals originate from their own side.
According to a statement that was given to the Washington Post by a spokeswoman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, “There are actually a lot of resources for expecting and new Moms” under the federal programmes that are already in place.
“We see a chance… to really move on it,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida who frequently discusses domestic policies that are family-friendly, told the Post that with the loss of a federal right to abortion, “We see an opportunity… to really act on it.
” Nevertheless, when he had the opportunity during the debate in the Senate to amend the Inflation Reduction Act, Marco Rubio proposed not constructive family policy but rather a cheap-shot volley in the culture wars.
This amendment was an anti-transgender amendment that stipulated that only “biological” women could receive benefits from federal maternal and infant programmes.
Rubio’s proposal was a cheap-shot volley in the culture wars.
The one and only triumph for Republicans in the process of amending the Senate? removing from the bill the provision that would have capped out-of-pocket payments for insulin at $35 per month.
Are you pleased with yourselves?
Concerning the issue of climate change, the debate illustrated that Republicans not only do not have any plans to stop the unsustainable warming of the globe, but that they also label Democrats who have such plans as elitists.
Nevertheless, even while the Senate discussion dragged on, it wasn’t the country’s elites who were suffering from the more obvious effects of climate change, such as catastrophic and devastating storms, heat waves, and droughts.
It was the common man and lady, the people who made up their constituency.
A significant number of Republicans have voiced their vehement opposition to what one of their senators, Michael D. Crapo of Idaho, referred to as “an army of IRS officers” that the Democrats’ package would unleash with an influx of $80 billion for the tax department.
The unpopular Internal Revenue Service has had its budget slashed so drastically that it is only conducting audits of tax evaders on an extremely infrequent basis, and its technology is still rooted in the paper-processing era.
More money meant more agents, more audits, fewer tax evaders, and lower deficits.
During the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Republicans routinely supported providing more money for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in deficit reduction bills.
This was due to the fact that the nonpartisan scorekeepers in Congress correctly ruled that such spending was a revenue raiser.
The section about the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the one component of the Democrats’ measure that does not fare well in public opinion polls, which is not surprising considering the demonization of tax collectors since biblical times.
However, the rest of it comes together to form a popular whole, a major achievement that most likely will be of assistance to the Democrats, who are considered to be the underdog party in the next midterm elections.
Because of this and other good news in recent times, Democrats are in such a good mood that they have started using the offensive meme “Let’s go, Brandon” that Republicans have been applying to the president.
They have manifested the supervillain known as “Dark Brandon.” This Joe Biden is a slayer of Republicans and terrorists, a brandisher of mighty pens to sign major legislation, and a keeper of (most of) his campaign promises.
All of these things describe him perfectly.
Read more:-
- Joe Biden experienced the necessary shift in energy to move forward. Now that he has the chance, he wants to make the most of it.
- Inflation Reduction Act May Have Little Impact
- The Inflation Reduction Act Can Save and Reimburse Consumers $10,000
Some of the Democratic Party’s most controversial senators, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, demanded that certain popular pledges be omitted in order to win their support.
These pledges included an increase in the child tax credit, universal prekindergarten, and higher taxes on the wealthy.
Another topic on which the majority of Americans can reach a consensus is this: in life as much as in politics, you have to take what you can get.
