Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., is on board with what Democrats have dubbed an “inflation reduction act” that was hammered out last week with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., fellow moderate Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Sunday.
In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” Manchin said Sinema “has an awful lot in this legislation.”
“She’s extremely bright and works very, very hard,” Manchin said, noting her input on the new agreement came in “the way it’s been designed as far as the reduction of Medicare, letting Medicare go ahead and negotiate for lower drug prices. She’s very involved in that and I appreciate that.”
“Also, basically, when she said taxes, we’re not going to raise taxes, I agree with that, and I made sure we scrubbed this. There’s not a tax increase,” he continued.
“The tax rate used to be at 35% in 2017, the corporate tax rate. It went to 21,” he noted. “A 14% reduction. … unbeknownst to me that there was people not paying any taxes whatsoever. These are the largest corporations in America, of a billion dollars of value or greater, and we just said, it should be a floor of a 15% minimum. I think that everybody in West Virginia, and most people in America that have corporations and pay their taxes believe that everyone would be paying at least 21. So, we made sure that we did not raise taxes. We closed loopholes.”
The $740 billion reconciliation deal between Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin came Wednesday, when they announced they’d reached an agreement on health care, energy and climate issues, taxes on higher earners and corporations, and trimming of the federal debt.
But it all could come down to support from Sinema, Axios reported. Democrats are planning to pass the legislation using budget reconciliation, which requires a simple majority. Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, could deliver the tie-breaking vote.
For Manchin, the negotiations with Schumer could have gone either way,
“I didn't know if we could get a deal, I didn't know if we could come to an agreement, why would I put people through all this drama; I've been through this for eight months, I tried, I kept trying, I couldn't get to where they wanted to go to in my caucus,” he recounted.
“We came back and we started making adjustments to make sure it wasn't inflammatory, this isn't adding to inflation, this will take us to a place of prosperity, more energy produced, help our geo-political partners around the world,” he said. “We'll be energy independent. And we're going be able to invest in energy of the future.”
“This type of legislation wouldn't happen if the President of the United States was involved. I can assure you of that,” he added.
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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