“According to [Congressional Budget Office] and other financial organizations that have studied this bill, will have minimal impact on inflation,” Sanders told the Senate to open debate on the 755-page bill, which would raise corporate taxes, fight climate change and will reduce some prescription. drug costs.
The line of criticism echoed what Senate Republicans have said for days, pointing to a Penn Wharton analysis that said the bill would have a negligible impact on inflation.
Sanders argued that the Democratic bill falls far short of what is needed when Americans are increasingly disillusioned with government and a small fraction of wealthy individuals and families own a grossly disproportionate share of the nation’s wealth.
He pointed to the lower standard of living that many younger people know they can expect compared to their parents’ generation, the daunting housing costs for people starting out in the working world and stagnant wages. “This legislation doesn’t address any of their needs,” Sanders said. “This legislation does not address the reality that we have more income and wealth inequality today than at any time in the last hundred years.”
He complained that the bill doesn’t address the fact that CEOs of big companies make 350 times more than their workers or do more to improve a health care system. “This bill does nothing to address the systemic dysfunction of the American health care system,” he said. He also noted that the bill “as currently written does nothing” to address the nation’s child poverty rate, a pointed reference to Sen. Joe Manchin’s (DW.Va.) opposition to including an expansion of the expanded child tax credit. children — which expired at the end of last year — in the bill.
He said the bill also fails to address the country’s economic crisis in housing affordability.
“Yes, you guessed it. This bill does nothing to address the major housing crisis we face or to build a safe and affordable housing stock. Another issue we’re putting aside,” he grumbled.
But Sanders’ biggest complaint is that the legislation doesn’t give Medicare enough power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.
He said “the good news” is that the bill will allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices with the pharmaceutical industry, but the “bad news” is that the provision doesn’t go into effect for four years, so only 10 drugs will be covered .
“This provision will have no effect on prices for Americans and not on Medicare. These prices will continue to rise uncontrollably,” he said.
Sanders announced he would offer an amendment that would require Medicare not to pay more for prescription drugs than the Department of Veterans Affairs.
He said this proposal would save Medicare $900 billion over the next decade. In a speech Wednesday, he said he would use that money to lower the Medicare eligibility age to 60 and expand Medicare benefits to cover vision, hearing and dental care.
Sanders told reporters earlier Saturday that he plans to offer three other amendments to the bill related to prescription drugs and Medicare.
One amendment would expand Medicare to provide dental, vision and hearing benefits, another would provide $30 billion to create a Civilian Conservation Corps to fight climate change, and a fourth would extend the $300 per month tax credit for the next five years. His arguments, however, have largely been undermined by Democratic senators who say they will not vote on amendments that could jeopardize the support of Manchin and fellow centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).
One Democratic senator said Schumer urged colleagues not to propose changes to the bill that could upend the carefully crafted compromise he reached with Manchin and Sinema after weeks of negotiations.
A Democratic adviser said Sanders’ insistence on voting on his amendments would delay the final passage of the bill.
But Schumer has limited leverage over Sanders, who, as chairman of the Budget Committee, has the official role of managing debate on the bill, which moves under special budget reconciliation rules to circumvent a GOP philosophy.
Read the full text: Senate climate, tax bill grows to 755 pages, passes key CBO test Trump wins CPAC poll with more than two-thirds of vote Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who was instrumental in crafting the prescription drug settlement with Sinema, pushed back against Sanders’ criticism.
He hailed it as an important victory because it would set an important precedent for the government’s authority to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry.
“I think there’s a reason the big PhRMA is fighting this so hard. They know that once the negotiation is enshrined in law, there will be no going back. That’s all it is,” he said, referring to the pharmaceutical industry’s trade association. “This is a seismic shift between the government and this lobby.”