Lawmakers are racing toward the August recess, as President Biden prepares to sign a bill Tuesday that invests nearly $52 billion into the semiconductor chip manufacturing sector.
Meanwhile, the House is expected to vote this week on a roughly $430 billion spending package aimed at improving health care, addressing climate change, and making corporations pay their fair share of taxes. The Senate approved the measure over the weekend.
We’re also slated to see new inflation data on Wednesday, as US Rep. Liz Cheney makes a final sprint in her campaign to retain her Republican seat in a race against a Donald Trump-backed opponent.
Here’s more on the three big politics stories we’re watching this week:
INFLATION REDUCTION ACT
The House is expected to vote Friday on a massive spending package that Democrats say will help to curb inflation. It comes after Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote on Sunday in a party-line 51-50 vote. The package — brokered by centrist Senator Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer — is one of the most significant spending bills to move through the upper chamber since the start of the pandemic.
The bill includes $390 billion to combat climate change, while encouraging consumers to transition to electric vehicles. Democrats say the legislation will reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030. The legislation also sets the corporate minimum tax rate at 15% for companies that book profits of more than $1 billion but use various deductions to pay less than the legal corporate tax rate of twenty-one%. The bill authorizes roughly $430 billion in new spending, and its proponents say it will create $740 in revenue.
INFLATION DATA
President Biden is facing low approval ratings for his handling of the economy, according to an ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday. Only 29% of polled voters approve of Biden’s handling of inflation, and 69% think the economy is getting worse.
The government is set to release new data on the Consumer Price Index on Wednesday, potentially hurting Biden’s approval rating if it shows inflation is still creeping up. Inflation hit 9.1 in the month of June, a new 40-year high. The report comes as the White House is trying to seize on momentum from Friday’s massive jobs report — a whopping 528,000 jobs that were added to the US economy in the month of July.
FINAL SPRINT FOR CHENEY PRIMARY
It’s the final sprint to the primary for US Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who faces her primary challenger Trump-backed Harriet Hageman next week. A Casper-Star Tribune poll performed from July 7 through July 11 has Hageman, an energy attorney, beating Cheney 52% to 30%.
Former-Vice President Dick Cheney recorded an ad for his daughter, who has built a national profile for herself given her position on the committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. A loss for Cheney would be a victory for Trump’s political machine, as it would unseat one of the most prominent Republicans in Congress. The primary is on Tuesday, Aug. 16.
Kevin Cirilli is a contributor to Yahoo Finance and a visiting media fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub. Follow Kevin on Twitter @kevcirilli
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