WASHINGTON, DC (WTRF) – U.S. Senator Joe Manchin is on board now, two weeks after walking away from a climate deal.
He is now in favor of a compromise called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
It contains $370 billion in clean energy tax incentives, and $7500 in tax credits for Americans who buy electric cars.
The legislation would allow Medicare to negotiate the price of some prescriptions.
And it would cap out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors at $2,000 a year.
The costs would be offset by a tax on big corporations.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito is opposed to it.
“It is laden with handouts to green and renewable energies,” she said. “That puts our energy markets, our natural gas and coal markets at an even greater disadvantage than they have right now. It incentivizes more electric cars.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio is in favor of it.
“We’re just taking away a little bit of that tax cut that the wealthy got, and putting that money in deficit reduction and putting that money into job creation and helping us fight inflation,” Brown said. So whenever I hear conservatives complain about that, it’s always because they’re protecting the drug industry, they’re protecting the oil companies and they’re protecting their richest contributors.”
Shelley Moore Capito says we should be trying to meet the growing power demand by creating more supply.
On Wednesday, the fed hiked interest rates in order to bring consumer prices back down.