Democrats in the US Senate: Agreement after months of dispute

Von Sebastian Hesse, ARD-Studio Washington

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Recently, nobody in Washington would have expected that: Joe Manchin, the perennial dissident within the Democrats, is swinging in and is initially on the party line in climate protection and social policy. Specifically, the pugnacious senator from the coal state of West Virginia will support an extensive legislative package that has both social and climate aspects.

Now that the majority is in place, it should pass Congress in August. The package of measures, which is prestigious for Biden, envisages, among other things, reducing CO2 emissions in the USA by around 40 percent by 2030, for example through tax incentives for the purchase of electric cars. In the social part, the package is intended, among other things, to reduce the horrendous drug prices in the USA.

A year-long argument

For a year, the Democrats have bitterly feuded with the conservative senator, who, along with his Arizona counterpart Kyrsten Sinema, has come to personify internal Democrat strife. The Republicans have repeatedly tried to persuade Manchin, who is popular in West Virginia, to change parties.

In order to win Manchin over for the climate and social package, measures to combat inflation have recently been taken. The enormous rate of inflation is currently the problem that burns most under the nails in the USA.

Important success for Biden

Extensive legislative packages that bring together a wide variety of projects from different policy areas are quite common in the USA. The package, which is now majority-capable and slimmed down at Manchin’s instigation, envisages spending a good 430 billion dollars – for example on energy and health care and for climate protection measures – counter-financed, among other things, by higher taxes for the super-rich and corporations.

For President Joe Biden, the breakthrough in his reform agenda is an important success, also in view of the midterms general elections in November. His Democratic Party is in danger of losing its majority in both chambers of Congress. The approval rating for Biden and his policies had recently fallen to an all-time low.