Biden signs $473 billion Inflation Reduction Act and jokes it was ‘never in doubt’

President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act at the White House on Tuesday, injecting $473billion of new spending on climate and healthcare amid concerns it will do little to reduce inflation.

Biden thanked Joe Manchin, the moderate Democratic senator who killed his initial Build Back Better package and finally signed on to the new legislation after months of negotiations – including the guarantee of a gas pipeline in his home state of West Virginia. 

Republicans have criticized the bill, claiming it will lead to taxes on middle class Americans and will do little to help reduce soaring costs. 

‘Joe, I never had a doubt,’ he told the Democrat at a signing ceremony, where Biden hailed the measure as a tool to take on the special interests.

Biden, who wore a mask after first lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID, called it a ‘historic moment’ and bashed Republicans for voting in unison against it.

‘For a while, people doubted whether any of it would happen,’ he told Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, who helped forge the final deal with Manchin. 

Schumer himself called it the ‘most important’ thing Congress had done ‘in a long time.’ He also hailed ‘one of the most productive stretches in Senate history,’ and oddly told the president: ‘We wouldn’t be here without you.’

Biden returned to the White House from vacation Tuesday to sign the bill that party leaders snatched from the jaws of defeat – only to jet home to Delaware after a very brief victory lap.

The House passed the bill Friday 220-207 on a party-line vote after it squeaked through the Senate 51-50 with all Democrats and Vice President Kamala Harris voting for it under the reconciliation process, which protected it from a Republican filibuster.

It ranks as one of Biden’s top legislative achievements, and the president scheduled a bill signing in the State Dining Room of the White House to champion.

It comes after a rested Biden returns from vacation on Kiawah Island, South Carolina at the home of a Democratic donor following a bout with covid and a subsequent rebound case.

According to the White House schedule, Biden will be at the building for barely more than five hours.

The Bidens got more bad health news on Tuesday, when the White House announced that first lady Jill Biden had tested positive for covid on a PCR test.

She will remain in South Carolina, whereas Biden will jet to the couple’s Wilmington home shortly after signing the bill. 

Biden tested negative Tuesday morning on an antigen test, and will mask in indoor settings for 10 days when he is close to other people, according to the White House. 

He will be back on the road soon, as he seeks to sell the legislation and give Democrats a boost as they try to cling to control of the House and Senate, where the party has seen poll gains in some key Senate races of late. 

‘In the coming weeks, the President will host a Cabinet meeting focused on implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, will travel across the country to highlight how the bill will help the American people, and will host an event to celebrate the enactment of the bill at the White House on September 6,’ according to the White House.

The bill includes $430 billion in spending, raises $737 billion over a decade in revenue, and is projected to shave about $300 billion off the deficit. It raises $265 billion by allowing the government to negotiate with drug companies for lower Medicare prescription drug costs.

Its climate provisions, totaling $369 billion, are projected to cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent from earlier levels, and it includes extensions of Affordable Care Act subsidies totaling $64 billion. 

The new excise tax on stock buybacks came at the insistence of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), after she nixed a provision to close the ‘carried interest loophole.’ Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) had negotiated that provision with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer when the two reached a deal that suddenly revived the stalled legislation.

It jettisoned many of the key social programs from Biden’s original Build Back Better proposal, but gave Democrats a piece of legislation to run on as the parties start the push before the fall elections.