Democrats, Sinema reach deal on new taxes in Inflation Reduction Act

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., said she would “move forward” on a revised version of Senate Democrats’ health care, climate and deficit-reduction package after party leaders agreed to scale back some of their original tax proposals.

The new approach - along with other changes to the proposal known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 - satisfied Sinema’s chief concerns and helped set in motion a plan to approve it as soon as this weekend.

In a statement, Sinema said Democrats had “agreed to remove” a key tax targeting wealthy investors and had made changes to a second provision that aims to impose a new minimum tax on corporations that currently pay nothing to the U.S. government. From here, Sinema said she would await a final review from the chamber’s parliamentarian - a critical step in the process that allows Democrats to move their spending bill - at which point she would “move forward.”

The changes in total appear to have helped Democratic leaders thread a narrow needle, satisfying Sinema while still preserving the thrust of the deal that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., worked out with another moderate - Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.

In recent days, Manchin had remained steadfast in his support for the deal he struck, which is expected to generate more than $768 billion in revenue over the next decade. Any change to assuage Sinema threatened to reduce the roughly $300 billion expected to be available for deficit reduction, a major issue for Manchin.