By
The Inflation Reduction Act may have cost President Joe Biden the greatest expenditure of his political capital of any of his legislative accomplishments. Now, his administration is hoping to use the law’s one-year milestone to build it back.
Biden advisers see the anniversary not just as a chance to mark the significance of the climate and health care law, but to dig into what it ultimately represented: the culmination of two years of significant legislative heavy lifting that they view as key to the country’s — and Biden’s — future success.
“This is where the president’s superpower resides. It’s in legislating and getting things done,” Steve Ricchetti, one of the president’s chief advisers, said in an interview. “This is a historic level of legislative accomplishment.”
Over the next two weeks, Biden and other administration officials will build up to the Aug. 16 signing anniversary with events all over the country highlighting specific components of the legislation. The goal of Biden’s team is to convince a still-skeptical public that the sum of his legislative successes will result in lasting economic benefits.
“The potential for this economy in the next 12 months — and to be honest with you the next 10 years — is quite promising when you compare the U.S. economy with any economy in the world,” Ricchetti said. “It just looks like we’ve placed a strong bet on ourselves. We’ve invested in our workers and our economy.”
The stops will come in settings both ordinary and grand — literally. Biden will stop Tuesday in Arizona to designate a new national monument near the Grand Canyon, drawing attention to its climate and conservation provisions which include $44 million for the National Parks System.
In New Mexico on Wednesday, he’ll spotlight a company that was on the brink of closing its doors just years ago but now, because of the IRA’s tax incentives for green energy, will be holding a ribbon-cutting on an expansion of its operations.
On Thursday, Biden will tout a bipartisan legislative victory close to his heart: the PACT Act, which expanded eligibility for veterans health care to servicemembers who were exposed to toxic chemicals in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was 10 years ago this month that Biden’s eldest son, Beau, was diagnosed with a Stage 4 glioblastoma — essentially a death sentence — which he has connected to Beau’s service in Iraq years earlier.
And next Wednesday, Biden will host a major event at the White House to mark the actual anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act’s signing.
Last year, there was a collective sigh of relief among Democrats in the months before the midterm elections, after agonizing that prolonged sausage-making in Washington would depress enthusiasm they needed at the ballot box. The law was the product of months of tireless negotiations between key moderates and progressives that hit numerous roadblocks and saw its grander ambitions trimmed before a compromise measure passed with only Democratic votes.
To many in the White House, the journey of what began as the Build Back Better bill is emblematic of the man who signed it — its future constantly questioned, but resilient to the end. Part of the story they hope to tell is that Biden’s unique experience is what made it all possible.
“It wasn’t easy. But the president’s experience in this and his patience and understanding of the process itself is what enabled us to get there,” Ricchetti said.
The Biden team continues to place political bets on the economic vision and agenda the president has executed, hoping that will eventually matter more to swing voters than what Republican presidential candidates have been focusing on — particularly the frontrunner, Donald Trump.
The tour from administration officials and Biden’s travel through the fall will at times highlight just how much Republican-dominated locales are benefitting from both bipartisan and Democratic-only legislation.
“There’s a lot of Republican governors and mayors and members of Congress who are happily showing up and participating, and trying to take credit, for a number of things that they didn’t support, but that have provided investments that they know we needed,” Ricchetti said. “The reason for doing these things was because they needed to be done.”