With the House of Representatives poised to approve Democrats’ signature climate, health care and tax legislation, the White House is preparing a massive messaging blitz to accompany the expected passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Their hope is to make the case for Democrats to remain in full control of both the House and Senate.
On Friday, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on party lines to approve the budget package. The package contains a laundry list of long-held Democratic priorities, including a 15 per cent corporate minimum tax, $433 billion in new spending on programs to fight climate change and an extension of health care subsidies for Americans who purchase insurance through Affordable Care Act exchanges, and an end to the 2003 law which banned Medicare from negotiating the cost of prescription drugs for seniors.
Passage of the budget reconciliation legislation will cap a remarkably productive period that has seen President Joe Biden sign into law the first new gun safety legislation in three decades, a massive bipartisan infrastructure package, a bipartisan bill providing for more than $50bn in investments to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to American shores, and a bipartisan bill directing $277bn towards new health care programs for veterans exposed to toxic substances during their military service.
And with this latest legislative success in the bag, the president and his team are gearing up for a full-court press to hammer home the benefits Americans will see from enactment of the IRA’s climate, corporate tax, and health care provisions. White House officials also plan to use the victory lap following the extension of Mr Biden’s legislative winning streak to contrast the unified Democratic support for the most popular parts of his agenda with Republicans’ opposition to the same.
“When the President signs the inflation Reduction Act into law, the President, the Vice President, and the cabinet are going to travel across the country with this message: President Biden and congressional Democrats took on and defeated the special interests — President Biden and congressional Democrats have delivered for America, Congressional Republicans sided with the special interests,” said a senior administration official who detailed the plans on condition of anonymity.
“For decades, special interests have blocked progress and gotten what was best for them. Not this year — with President Biden’s leadership and hard work, the American people won and the special interests lost”.
The official said White House messaging will hammer home the point that the Inflation Reduction Act fulfills Mr Biden’s campaign promise to create both “a tax code that rewards work and not just wealth” and “an economy that works for working people.” It’ll do so by establishing a corporate minimum tax that will help pay for much of the investments the IRA makes in climate and health care programs.
Another senior White House official said the president and his cabinet will also work to highlight ways the IRA will have an impact on the lives of everyday Americans. It will bring an end to the decades-long battle Democrats have fought to give Medicare the ability to negotiate with drug companies for better prices on the medications seniors purchase with their prescription drug benefit.
“I’m sure it’s well into 100 plus million dollars spent by the pharmaceutical industry to stop this. Where in the past they prevailed, they didn’t prevail this time,” the official said, adding later that lower prescription drug costs have long been “at the very top of the charts” when voters have been asked about their own priorities.
The official continued and said that the climate provisions of the IRA will be promoted as “an historic investment and step forward” and yet another instance in which the “special interests” and their GOP allies failed to block progress.
“There is a real contrast here, and that contrast will be in front of the country this fall as it looks towards who will lead going forward,” the official said.
A memorandum from White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield and longtime Biden adviser Anita Dunn — obtained by The Independent — also lays out the case for hitting out at Republicans. There’s special emphasis on a proposal floated by National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Rick Scott, that would sunset all legislation, including popular programs such as social security and medicare, and force Congress to re-approve them every five years.
“This is the choice before the American people: President Biden and Congressional Democrats taking on special interests for you and your family. Or Congressional Republicans’ extreme, MAGA agenda that serves the wealthiest, corporations and themselves,” the memo reads.
