Biden cements early economic legacy with long-awaited Bill

WASHINGTON • US President Joe Biden signed a long-awaited Bill on Tuesday meant to reduce health costs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and raise taxes on corporations and wealthy investors, capping more than a year of on-again, off-again negotiations and cementing his early economic legacy.

"This Bill is the biggest step forward on climate ever," Mr Biden said, after drawing a standing ovation from a White House crowd.

The Bill, which Democrats named the Inflation Reduction Act, invests US$370 billion (S$511 billion) in spending and tax credits in low-emission forms of energy to fight climate change.

It extends federal health insurance subsidies, allows the government to negotiate prescription drug prices for seniors on Medicare and is expected to reduce the federal budget deficit by about US$300 billion over 10 years.

The legislation would increase taxes by about US$300 billion, largely by imposing new levies on big corporations.

The law includes a new tax on certain corporate stock repurchases and a minimum tax on large companies that use deductions and other methods to reduce their tax bills.

It also bolsters funding for the Internal Revenue Service in an effort to crack down on tax evasion and collect potentially hundreds of billions of dollars owed to the government but not paid by high earners and corporations.

It passed the House and Senate earlier this month entirely along party lines, as Democrats employed a legislative process to bypass a Republican filibuster.

The Bill represents the United States' largest investment to fight climate change. It is aimed at helping the US cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030. That would put the country within striking distance of Mr Biden's goal of cutting emissions at least 50 per cent over that time period.

For months, it appeared Mr Biden might not have any such Bill to sign.

Despite winning bipartisan victories on funding for infrastructure and an industrial policy Bill meant to counter China, the President had been unable to bring his party together on a final Bill to carry as much as possible of the rest of his economic agenda using only Democratic votes.

But a last-hour compromise struck between Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, and holdout centrist Democrat Senator Joe Manchin paved the way for the agreement to go forward.

Mr Manchin, Mr Schumer and other lawmakers joined Mr Biden at the signing on Tuesday.

NYTIMES