What companies are most exposed to the Inflation Reduction Act?
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After more than 15 hours of amendments and a "vote-a-rama" session that stretched into Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Senate narrowly passed the Inflation Reduction Act following a year of Democratic infighting. The measure - which aims to cut government deficits and consumer medical bills while boosting climate spending - passed by a margin of 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote in the evenly divided Senate. The bill now goes to the House for a vote, which will likely take place this Friday, as representatives briefly reconvene during the Congressional summer recess.
Quote: "Today, Senate Democrats sided with American families over special interests, voting to lower the cost of prescription drugs, health insurance, and everyday energy costs and reduce the deficit, while making the wealthiest corporations finally pay their fair share," announced President Biden following the measure's passage. "I ran for president promising to make government work for working families again, and that is what this bill does - period."
The Inflation Reduction Act somewhat embodies earlier incarnations of the Build Back Better plan, albeit with a price tag of around $430B (in place of $3.5T, and a revised version of $2.2T). It also gives Biden a major legislative achievement ahead of midterm elections, and another win for his economic agenda, after Congress pulled through on the Chips for America Act. While both sides of the aisle agreed to semiconductor spending, Republicans slammed the latest bill as "another reckless taxing and spending spree" in an era of "runaway inflation."
The price tag: Democrats argue that the Inflation Reduction Act will help tame inflation because it dampens medical and energy costs while paying for itself. According to initial estimates, the measure would raise a total of $739B in revenue, and spend a total of $433B, reducing the budget deficit by roughly $300B over a decade. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office also found that the package would reduce the deficit by about $102B over the next 10 years, and would be in-line with the deficit reductions claimed by Sens. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin if revenue from tax enforcement was included in the calculations.
Healthcare policies: The measure will cap Medicare recipients' out-of-pocket prescription-drug costs at $2,000 a year, while subsidies to so-called Obamacare will reduce 13M Americansâ annual medical-insurance premiums by $800. The measure also grants Medicare the ability for the first time to negotiate some bulk discounts with drug companies for pharmaceuticals â something many private companies currently do. Meanwhile, the $35 insulin cap for Medicare beneficiaries remains in place, but GOP lawmakers were successful in removing the provision from the private market, which could have impacts for top insulin makers Eli Lilly (LLY), Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Sanofi (SNY).
Tax legislation: The bill will impose a 15% corporate minimum tax on large corporations - some of which report significant profits but pay little or nothing in income taxes due to credits and deductions - such as Amazon (AMZN), Nike (NKE) and FedEx (FDX). It would also impose a new 1% tax on corporate stock buybacks, though plans to tax the wealthy were removed, as well as taxing "carried interest" payments of private equity fund managers. $80B of funding was still earmarked to the Internal Revenue Service, with the aim at improving customer service, increasing the number of audits and modernizing technology.
Climate investment: Incentives like a $4,000 tax credit for the purchase of used EVs, and $7,500 for new ones, will drive up interest in companies like Tesla (TSLA) and Ford (F) that are assembling vehicles in the U.S. The new credits would apply to trucks, vans and SUVs priced under $80,000 and cars up to $55,000 (only families with adjusted gross incomes of up to $300,000 would be eligible). There are also energy rebates for heat pumps, rooftop solar, electric HVAC and water heaters, as the U.S. aims to lower carbon emissions by about 40% by 2030.
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