(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed the Democratic
spending bill on tax policy, health care and climate change, a few
days after the Senate approval, Trend reports citing Xinhua .
The bill, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, is scaled down
from the massive 'Build Back Better' package President Joe Biden
and many Democrats envisioned last year.
The bill cleared the lower chamber by a vote of 220 to 207 along
party lines. On Sunday, the evenly-divided Senate approved the bill
by a vote of 51 to 50 also along party lines, with Vice President
Kamala Harris presiding to break the tie.
The bill now heads to Biden's desk for his signature.
Democrats had been eager to push through their domestic policy
ambitions before the mid-term elections, but Republicans strongly
opposed the bill, arguing that tax increases would impose burdens
on U.S. businesses and workers and hurt the economy.
'You can't tax and spend your way out of an inflation crisis,'
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, blaming the Biden
administration's policies for the worst inflation in four
decades.
The bill includes a roughly 400-billion-dollar investment in
fighting climate change, measures to make prescription drugs more
affordable, and a 15-percent minimum tax on most corporations that
make more than 1 billion dollars per year, which will bring in more
than 300 billion dollars in new revenue, according to
Democrats.
The new bill is much smaller than the 3.5-trillion-dollar 'Build
Back Better' social spending bill Democrats initially attempted to
advance last year.
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