Senate Majority Leader Schumer calls on Senate to pass deal with Manchin before August recess

Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reportedly told Democrats during a private meeting that he is optimistic of agreeing a deal with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) regarding Biden’s climate and health care spending bill.

According to CNN, the bill will involve investments into making essential drugs affordable along with several measures to address taxation on the wealthy along with climate change. Schumer said these are issues that the Democrats “have been fighting to do for decades.”

Both Schumer and Manchin made a statement on the bill saying that not only would it work to make healthcare more affordable and accessible, but it would also “make a historic down payment on deficit reduction to fight inflation, invest in domestic energy production and manufacturing, and reduce carbon emissions by roughly 40% by 2030.”

President Biden acknowledged that the bill wasn’t perfect, but he did stress the need for it to be passed with a degree of urgency.

“This bill is far from perfect. It’s a compromise. But it’s often how progress is made, by compromises. The fact is that my message to Congress is this: This is the strongest bill you can pass to lower inflation, cut the deficit, reduce health care costs, tackle the climate crises, and promote energy security — all the time while reducing the burdens facing working-class and middle-class families,” Biden said during a speech at the White House the day after the deal was announced. “So, pass it. Pass it for the American people. Pass it for America.”

“Simply put: The bill will lower health care costs for millions of Americans, and it will be the most important investment we’ve ever made in our energy security and developing cost savings and job-creating clean energy solutions for the future,” Biden went onto say.

On Thursday Manchin said that the bill should be agreeable with both parties as it doesn’t “truly” raise taxes and it also doesn’t worsen the current inflation and will also benefit the environment. He also clarified that Biden was “not involved”

“This is a bill for the country,” Manchin said. “It’s not a bill for Democrats. And it’s not a bill that Republicans should be concerned about.”