'With This Law, the American People Won'

In a move that many would have considered highly unlikely less than a month ago, President Biden signed a sweeping bill to tackle climate change and other issues into law in a White House ceremony Tuesday. The Inflation Reduction Act made it through the House and Senate after Sen. Joe Manchin reached a deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. There was laughter after Biden said, "Joe, I never had a doubt," the Hill reports. After signing the bill, the president handed the pen to Manchin and shook his hand.

The bill—a slimmed-down version of the Build Back Better Act that Manchin and other moderates rejected last year—contains the biggest-ever US measure to combat climate change as well as provisions to lower prescription drug costs, help pay for health insurance, and, as the name suggests, reduce inflation, the AP reports. The $740 billion package, which includes $300 billion toward reducing deficits, also includes a new 15% minimum tax on corporations that make more than $1 billion in profits per year. It also gives the Internal Revenue Service a major budget increase. Biden stressed that nobody making under $400,000 a year would pay "a penny more" in taxes.

Biden said Tuesday that he had been looking forward to signing the bill for 18 months, the Washington Post reports. "Let me say from the start: With this law, the American people won and the special interests lost," the president said. "We're delivering results for the American people," he said. "We didn’t tear down. We built up. We didn’t look back. We look forward." Schumer said the bill, which passed the House and Senate along party lines, with no Republicans in favor, "will endure as one of the greatest legislative feats in decades: it will lower costs, create millions of good-paying jobs, and is the boldest climate bill ever." (More President Biden stories.)