Capitol Hill was adjourned by Vice President Kamala Harris on August 7th, as the Inflation Reduction Act was passed by the Senate. The act experienced heavy hardship, especially with bi-partisan lines being crossed, making it harder and harder for the bill to pass through the Senate. Sen Joe Manchin from West Virginia was a major factor in getting this bill passed, even after his earlier decision to toss the Build Back Better Bill, which shocked many crowds in the political sphere. This push from heavy negotiations from Machin and New York’s Sen. Chuck Schumur will lead to the finalizing of a major bill that will change households.

Now that it’s almost predestined to get passed, the Inflation Reduction Act is going to help across the country with tackling climate change, health care and major taxation reform.

The Inflation Reduction Act started off with a bang coming out of the ground with major negotiations across the Democratic Party. Senator Joe Manchin became the major tie to lead in a charge to tackle major issues across the country. A major back and forth became climate change and tax credits that were almost jeopardized in the plan multiple times during negotiations. As the final bill goes through it is evident how the bill has changed over time as lowered funding in some areas are seen while focusing on other areas. A major portion that this bill is focusing on is climate change and how it gives tax credits to households willing to improve its energy efficiency and usage. The bill is also giving heavy research benefits and more tax credits towards looking at more home solutions with households having renewable energy or batteries gaining tax credits. There are also tax credits in reducing carbon emissions, possibly a good way to get major corporations and businesses to start reducing their carbon footprint in the future. Another major factor is looking towards the agriculture businesses and making tax credits/fines to start reducing carbon and methane emissions from animals.

Another facet of the Inflation Reduction Act is the overhaul to the healthcare system. This is a major part of the former Build Back Better bill that was denied late last year, with tackling the healthcare system and its place within America. While not a major overhaul on healthcare, the Inflation Reduction Act does set major plans in the future for how to sell prescriptions and regulate their price caps. Medicare will now have the ability to negotiate prices and is capped on how much it can actually sell prescription drugs. This in tandem with capping how much companies can make off of out of pocket prescription drug sales means that Americans will be getting better pricing on prescription drugs and other needed prescription items at a cheaper cost. This is great for families who require these much needed medications and families who have multiple people under their care. With these new prescriptions having better prices, there will not be a reason to worry about inflation increasing these prices slowly over time, as the bill also caps how much the prescriptions can be increased in price based on inflation. This means that while inflation is growing now, there will not be huge price gaps in prescription drugs, instead there will be much smaller changes with this bill in effect.

When people hear tax increases, their first thought is probably that their family is going to be taking on more hardship and suffering to benefit others, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth with this bill. The Inflation Reduction Act is focusing on taxing major corporations and reforming the IRS. The major importance here is the 15% tax on companies that are making $1 billion in income, which would bring in major benefits to the US treasury that can start paying off debts to the American people. This is also going to really help shape how the government can tax more than just the people, instead they can tax more heavily on businesses and use that money to reinvest back into the economy and the population as a whole. While this taxation on bigger businesses does set back these businesses from expanding and moving forward, the US is offering many tax breaks and ways of expanding more aggressively as they fight growing inflation, allowing businesses to stay in the fold even while taxation is increasing. This new taxation also comes with the modernization of the IRS systems and how they operate, which they will be gaining new training and modernization of their computer software. This could be amazing for the millions of Americans that file their taxes online, especially younger generations that will find it easier and easier to file their taxes properly with new systems in place.