By Joan McCarter for Daily Kos
Daily Kos Staff
Jan 8, 2024
REPUBLISHED BY:
In just 10 months, the Republican House voted more than two dozen times to repeal varying parts of the Inflation Reduction Act, which makes the IRA the Affordable Care Act of the 2020s. By the time former Sen. John McCain took one of his final stands on the Senate floor, acting as the deciding vote to kill the last Obamacare repeal effort, Republicans had taken well over 50 votes to kill some or all of President Barack Obama’s crowning achievement.
But Republicans are on track to surpass that record on behalf of the fossil fuel industry and wealthy tax cheats in trying to undo President Joe Biden’s climate achievement. The very first vote the GOP House took this year (once they finally settled on what proved to be a temporary speaker) was to repeal the IRA’s new funding for the IRS, money that was targeted in large part at hiring more agents to go after rich tax evaders.
That remains a constant target, along with many of the measures included in the IRA to combat climate change. Among their repeal efforts: the fee for methane emissions from oil and gas producers and pipeline operators; the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund; homeowner rebates and training for energy-efficient appliances; the $4.5 billion High-Efficiency Electric Home Rebate Program; $200 million in State-Based Home Efficiency Contractor Training Grants; and $1 billion for Technical Assistance for Building Energy Codes.
Those are programs that will directly help Americans save money, save energy, and do a little bit to save the planet, not to mention making the air cleaner and maybe even slowing climate change.
But just as they did with Obamacare, they’re putting corporate and individual greed above regular Americans, with the same life and death consequences—this time with even bigger stakes, because it’s about the future of the planet.
No comments:
Post a Comment