To everyone celebrating the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, don’t pop the champagne just yet. According to reporting by Axios, and not too surprisingly, Kyrsten Sinema is gearing up to screw with it.
From comments she made in the past during the back-and-forth on the Build Back Better plan, it’s known she objects to narrowing the carried interest loophole which favors hedge fund and private equity managers (who have been big donors to her campaigns), and to allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug prices (Big Pharma being another of her largest donor sources).
“[Republicans will] also attempt to kill the reconciliation package with poison pills — amendments that make it impossible for Schumer to find 50 votes for final passage.
“Not only is Sinema indicating that she's open to letting Republicans modify the bill, she has given no guarantees she’ll support a final “wrap-around” amendment, which would restore the original Schumer-Manchin deal.”
Narrowing the carried interest loophole is estimated to raise $14 billion. If Sinema makes her support for the bill contingent upon dropping the carried interest provision, she could easily prevail, as most supporters of the bill would agree it’s not worth scuttling the entire bill and all its benefits over $14 billion. I’m more confident the healthcare provisions are a bit more secure, given the significant number of her high propensity voters (i.e. seniors) who would benefit from lower prescription medicine costs. As Axios points out, it doesn’t hurt that Ruben Gallego is almost certainly going to run against her in ‘24. Were she to be the reason the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 doesn’t pass, that would pretty much make Gallego a lock to win the primary, kicking Sinema to the curb and out of the spotlight she so desperately craves.
Hopefully she only ends up posturing a bit before casting her vote in support of the bill. But because she’s demonstrated in the past she’s perfectly willing to side with Republicans on important legislation, I’ll keep the champagne on ice but hold off on popping the cork.