While You Were Summering, Democrats Did Something Big
I have no idea if it will matter politically. But it's going to change the country's future.
Following up on my last post, Labor Day weekend seems like a good chance to look back at another big political story I covered over the summer: That sweeping piece of climate and health legislation that Democrats passed and President Joe Biden signed.
If you’re enough of a political junkie to read this newsletter, you may know about this legislation already. But you may not know a ton about what’s in it, or why potentially it’s so important. Or you may not know about it at all.
Which is fine! It’s a busy time, after all, with a lot of national and world developments competing for attention. And it was hard to keep track of what was in this bill, or what it was even all about, as deliberations in Congress dragged on for more than a year.
Its original name was “Build Back Better,” which was the Biden team’s effort to capture the broad array of initiatives they once hoped to enact. It was only near the end of the process, after dramatically downsizing the legislation in order to secure the necessary votes for passage, that Biden and allies changed the bill’s name to the “Inflation Reduction Act.”
But especially with an election coming up in two months, it’s a good time to think about what this law will and won’t do.
And make no mistake: It will do a lot.
The climate provisions represent the largest investment in green energy in our history. The health care provisions mean that, for the first time, the federal government can curb the pricing power of the prescription drug industry.
Climate isn’t my beat. If you want to learn more about what’s in the new legislation and why it’s important, I’d recommend reading this analysis by my superbly talented HuffPost colleague, Chris D’Angelo as well as articles by Coral Davenport and Lisa Friedman in the Times and by Rebecca Leber in Vox. Or, if you prefer podcasts, listen to Dave Roberts.
Health care is my beat and, if you want to know more about the prescription drug reforms, these two articles from HuffPost will give you a pretty good sense. The second one, in particular, flags a provision that’s mostly flown under the radar screen but is going to make a big difference to seniors starting a little more than a year from now.
Now, you may have heard about what the climate and health provisions won’t do. It’s quite a lot! The climate provisions don’t include limits or financial penalties on emissions, for example, and my guess is that we will eventually need some form of those. The federal government’s new power to negotiate pharmaceutical prices applies to only a small number of carefully defined drugs.
And that’s to say nothing of all the other, separate initiatives Democrats once wanted to pass — on child care, home care for elderly and disabled Americans, etc. — that didn’t make the final cut.
In short, the Inflation Reduction Act does a great deal, but not nearly enough to solve the problems it purports to address, let alone all the other problems in our country that need attention right now.
This may sound familiar, especially if you read my book on the Affordable Care Act, The Ten Year War. My assessment of “Obamacare” was essentially the same and, in the book, I explained how its trajectory and final form were ultimately reflections of the way our political process works — for better or worse.
After Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act, I went back and tried to figure out why it ended up looking like it did. The result was a set of three articles that (unintentionally) became a series, exploring not just the legislation itself but also what the legislative saga teaches us about the constraints on action in American politics and the different nature of the two parties today.
Here they are:
“Prescription Drugs Are Going To Get Cheaper Because Dems Played The (Very) Long Game”
This is a look at all the work that went into the prescription drug reforms, going back not years but decades, and why it took so long to get this far. Its reporting includes material from several key players in the debate, including Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, whom I’ve followed for years and is always one of my favorite interviews.
“This Is The Bittersweet Part of the Democrats’ Sweet Legislative Victory” Here I look at why Democrats had to give up on their “caregiving agenda,” including major investments in child care and home care. This article also features interviews with key players, including Rep. Debbie Dingell and Sen. Patty Murray, as well as activist/advocate Ai-jen Poo.
“Why The Trumpified GOP Feels So Hapless At Governing” One weird thing about this debate was how little Republicans had to say about the emerging legislation. Their opposition was nothing like what we saw, say, during the “Obamacare” debate. In this article, I speculate on why — and what it says about the GOP today.
As always, thank you for reading! And now that fall is here, I hope to keep up these posts more frequently.