Local, national leaders react to inflation reduction bill

(WNDU) - Democrats are billing the inflation reduction legislation as a gamechanger for cutting costs, after the Senate vote split party lines on Sunday.

Vice President Kamala Harris broke the tie with her vote to advance the bill to the House.

“Democrats pass this bill that’s on the floor today, this inflation crisis is going to get worse,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wy.).

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) argued the proposal would particularly help American seniors.

“Anyone who’s on prescription drugs right now, particularly our seniors on fixed incomes, will tell you number one, for them, is trying to figure out whether they’re paying the rent, buying their food, or getting their medicine. And so we directly go at that,” said Stabenow.

For the first time in program history, Medicare would be allowed to negotiate prescription costs with drug companies.

“The second thing we do is that it caps the total amount of out-of-pocket expenses for seniors on the Medicare program at $2,000 a year, nobody’s gonna pay more than $2,000 a year for drugs,” said Bharat Ramaruti, director of the White House National Economic Council.

Ramaruti added the bill “makes historic levels of investment in U.S. energy production, both clean energy production, and fossil fuel fuel production. And the combination of those two things means that energy is going to be less expensive.”

Of the bill’s passage, South Bend Mayor James Mueller said: “Over the weekend, you see a bill that has a lot of investments in our future and also in our economy.”

16 News Now reached out to Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) who was unavailable for an interview on Monday. Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) could not be reached.

The House is expected to vote on the bill this Friday.