Surprise deal on ‘anti-inflation’ plan brings back optimism among Democrats

A word has made a comeback in the language of American Democrats: optimism. For the first time in months, Joe Biden’s camp is smiling. A divine surprise returned theirs on July 27, when Charles Schumer and Joe Manchin, the two tenors of the Senate who had been negotiating for months to save from clinical death the president’s Build Back Better plan, the central building of his mandate, announced that they had reached an agreement – ​​103 days before the general election on November 8.

If passed by Congress, this plan, appropriately renamed the Inflation Reduction Act, will allow Democrats to tell voters that they have fulfilled their campaign promises to reduce the cost of health care. health, tax the rich and invest heavily in the fight against climate change.

The announcement of the agreement by Charles Schumer, the leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate, took the political class by surprise. Until then, Joe Manchin, the centrist senator from West Virginia, the “president by”, as the left had dubbed it, exasperated by its obstructionism, opposed the plan, which was too progressive on climate or energy. With Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema, also opposed to raising taxes, he had in fact ” kill “ Build Back Better.

Compromise

Just two weeks ago Joe Manchin, elected from a state that Donald Trump won with a 40-point lead in 2020, once again backed down from the obstacle, saying that he remained ” unequivocal opposed to the increase in taxes provided for by the text.

No one knows what made him change his mind. The senator assured that his demands had been partly met and that the plan had been transformed into an anti-inflation tool. He won deficit reduction and defense measures. all sources of energy », including coal, oil and gas. Progressive activists, who had published the amount of his fortune and demanded that he be removed from the presidency of the energy commission, took credit for this reversal. The interested party indeed said « ostracized ». For the website Politicohe offered another explanation: With Democrats threatened with losing a majority in Congress in November — and therefore any hope of reform — he felt compelled to find a compromise.

The press evoked torturous scenarios. A secret agreement between the two senators – one fresh out of Covid-19, the other diagnosed positive during negotiations – would have allowed them to succeed in circumventing the vigilance of Republican leader Mitch McConnell, yet a master in the procedural alchemy of the Senate.

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