Speaker 1: Well, COVID quarantine has been an extraordinary productive period for President
Joe Biden.
And I'm not kidding around.
I mean, think back to when Donald Trump had COVID and he was stuck in a hospital at one
point receiving supplemental oxygen, sending lie laced tweets at the time, going out and
exposing his Secret Service detail to COVID when he made them drive him around the block
in his SUV.
I mean, just a pathetically globally humiliating COVID period for Donald Trump.
We can't even really call it COVID quarantine because he wasn't properly isolating.
Joe Biden, on the other hand, we already knew had overseen and authorized the killing of
al Qaeda terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Legitimate questions about the legal framework for these killings.
You know, I'm right there with you, but an accomplishment by international standards,
an extraordinarily strong jobs report late last week, which we will get to later.
But the big news.
Oh, and gas prices declining 54 days in a row.
And I'm kind of kidding because, as you know, I don't actually think presidents have much
to do with gas prices, but by their standards, another accomplishment.
And now the really, really big news over the weekend, the Senate approving a bill to fight
climate change and cut drug costs, not insulin, unfortunately, thanks to Republicans.
But we will get to that as well.
But we are really racking up major accomplishments here for Joe Biden and it couldn't come as
a better time as Democrats are surging in midterm election polls.
Tomorrow, we will talk about could this be one of the worst midterms for Republicans
after a Democrat takes the White House?
The answer is yes, it could be, but we will get to that tomorrow.
Reuters reporting the U.S. Senate Sunday passed a sweeping $430 billion bill intended to fight
climate change.
Lower drug prices raise some corporate taxes in a major victory for Joe Biden, which Democrats
hope will help them in November after a marathon 27 hour weekend session of debate and Republican
efforts to derail the package, the Senate approved the legislation known as the Inflation
Reduction Act by a 51 to 50 party line vote.
Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tiebreaking ballot.
This sends the measure to the House of Representatives for a vote probably Friday.
They're expected to pass it, send it to the White House for Joe Biden's signature.
The Senate is making history, said an elated Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer.
To Americans who have lost faith that Congress can do big things, this bill is for you.
Schumer says the legislation contains the boldest clean energy package in American history
to fight climate change while reducing consumer costs for energy and some medicines.
The legislation is aimed at reducing carbon emissions and shifting consumers to green
energy, cutting prescription drug costs for the elderly, and tightening enforcement on
taxes for corporations and the wealthy.
The measure pays for itself and reduces the federal deficit over time.
Democrats contend it will help down bring down inflation.
Economists have, generally speaking, agreed with that from the Washington Post.
Senate Approves Inflation Reduction Act Clinching Long Delayed Health and Climate Bill.
The party line vote marks a major achievement for Democrats after more than a year of wrangling
over the centerpiece of President Biden's economic agenda.
This is a really, really big deal.
And zoom out for a moment and think about the last two weeks for Joe Biden, understanding
that I am giving you a public analysis, understanding, as you and I have talked about before, that
not all of the things I'm about to mention directly relate to Joe Biden.
We have essentially full employment right now, more than 500,000 new jobs in the latest
job jobs report.
Unemployment down to 3.5%.
This is an extraordinary jobs report, an unemployment situation by any measure.
Ayman al Zawahiri, major Al Qaida terrorist killed.
Now, we might say that was illegal.
Okay.
Well, I'm not disagreeing with that.
But from the point of view of the accomplishments Biden can now claim in terms of saying reward
Democrats in November, Inflation Reduction Act, with major advances in a number of different
areas, doing a number of good things.
And, by the way, expected to push down inflation, which I believe tomorrow.
Tomorrow we are get it or no?
On Wednesday we are getting the July inflation numbers.
I believe they are going to look much better and I believe it is going to bump up the market,
etc..
And now in addition, gas prices coming down about 20%.
I mean, again, it's sort of a joke.
I don't think Biden had anything to do with them going up nor coming down.
But when we say it's.
The economy, stupid.
And people look at certain indicators to determine are things going well?
They're not going well.
That's one of the things that they look at now.
Fox News and right wing media are calling this bill a social bill spending spree as
if health care is some kind of frivolous pet project or social issue.
When it's not like it's going to be for gay marriage or who the hell knows what.
Republicans are saying Democrats are going to pay the price for this bill.
I don't believe that that's the case, but we will know in under three months.
Now, one other thing.
Diabetics should remember when it's time to vote.
And really, everybody should remember that one of the amendments that Republican senators
killed was a $35 cap on insulin.
Senate Republicans yesterday stripped a proposed $35 a month cap on out-of-pocket spending
on insulin for patients enrolled in private insurance.
The Senate parliamentarian earlier ruled the provision is not primarily related to the
federal budget, so it's not eligible to be passed by 50 votes.
They needed 60 votes.
Only seven Republicans voted for it.
So the insulin amendment failed by three votes.
These people are disgusting.
They truly are.
And we will see in November.
Speaker 2: Who.
Speaker 1: This is all good or bad for.
Let's just leave
it there.