A budget bill that will restructure the tax code, combat climate change, and reduce drug costs has been given the go-ahead by the parliamentarian of the Senate. This puts the Senate on course to start casting votes on the bill on Saturday.
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer announced on Saturday that the legislation is on track to move this weekend.
According to Schumer, the Senate Parliamentarian has OK'ed the Medicare portions of Democrats' prescription drug reform plan.
"For the first time, Medicare will finally be allowed to negotiate prescription drug prices, seniors will have free vaccines and their costs capped."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 6, 2022
Voting Began on Saturday
He stated their discussions with the lawmaker were mainly completed.
They thanked her and her team for their hard work and diligence on such a major bill in such a short amount of time. He also added they thanked the politician personally for her efforts.
In addition, now that the majority of their talks with the parliamentarian have come to a close, they have a measure in front of them. It has the potential to gain the support of each and every one of the fifty Democrats.
Leader Schumer: "We have a bill before us that can win the support of all 50 Democrats. I'm happy to report to my colleagues that the bill we presented to the parliamentarian remains largely intact. The bill, when passed, will meet all of our goals."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 6, 2022
Schumer stated the “principal components” of the measure are “essentially intact.”
Meanwhile, a clause that would have prevented increases in the cost of prescription drugs from exceeding the rate of inflation was removed by the parliamentarian.
The Senate guidance official permitted the inflation restriction to be applied to Medicare recipients, but barred stretching the cap to commercial health insurance holders.
The head of the Democrats’ caucus said senators should be ready for a vote on Saturday afternoon to start talking about the proposal.
Senator Schumer stated they would officially begin the process of enacting the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 by passing on the motion to advance.
Opposition
Schumer told his colleagues they should be ready to keep voting on the bill until it is finished, which is likely to happen sometime on Sunday.
He said it would be beneficial to almost all of the people living in this country and make the United States a lot nicer. In addition, they are not going to leave until the work is completed.
After Schumer finished speaking, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell took the floor to criticize the plan for including tax increases and irresponsible spending that would amount to hundreds of billions of dollars.
McConnell took aim at the idea of lowering the cost of prescription medications, claiming doing so would reduce the amount of money spent on future work.
He stated it is impossible for the government to make anything cost less just by declaring it unlawful to raise the price of the item. He adds this is the reasoning behind socialism for college sophomores.
He went on to say as a result of the strategy, there would be a significant reduction in the number of new medicines and treatments first developed, since businesses will spend less money on research and development.
This article appeared in Our Patriot and has been published here with permission.
