The more concerning problem is that the climate change initiatives are spending trillions on what amounts to a drop in the bucket. If we could muster the political will to pass carbon pricing legislation, we could actually generate revenue and carbon pricing is a far more effective way to combat climate change, but it's a bridge too far for fossil fuel companies (and their politicians) so we won't get that.
This is not true. Plenty of the $3.5 trillion is aimed at healthcare. Everything is still up for negotiation, but there are lots of provisions focused on health.
- Expanded Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing is in there [1].
- Lowering Medicare age to 60 [2].
- National paid leave [3].
- Negotiated drug prices [4].
[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/08/09/1026104....
[2] https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/03/politics/lower-medicare-eligi...
[3] https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20210617.78983...
[4] https://www.rollcall.com/2021/08/12/biden-sets-drug-pricing-...
> Economists believe that in 2030, the Clean Power Plan could save the country $20 billion in climate-related costs and deliver $14 billion to $34 billion in health benefits. The shift to energy efficiency and cleaner power will also save the average American family $85 on its electricity bills in 2030.
Similar effects are found for various similar things, like the Clean Air Act, and California's auto emission legistlation. https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview/progress-cleaning...
It would allow govt to negotiate drug prices which should ideally save money e.g. less tax increases needed for pay fors.
Perhaps amongst some other things like more obamacare subsidies.
But i'm sadly not super optimistic. I think biden's initial plan was huge knowing it would get negotiated down. But now we're being held hostage and it will probably get small....
I would also argue pre-k, food, expanding child tax credit are key to health too.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2021/08/30/budget-re...
and climate change is too amorphous of a concept to muster enthusiastic support from a broad base of americans. the framing needs to be air and water pollution, the reduction of which (as others have pointed out) has significant health benefits across the board, rather than amorphous arguments about lower the temperature and saving some animal/plant species and habitats (which we should certainly try to save too, but we save them through framing for broad support).
The linked Reason article makes some libertarian arguments against Buy American clauses that if you know anything about libertarianism you can anticipate, but I am not a libertarian and personally think that more things should have Buy American clauses.
https://www.epi.org/publication/the-potential-macroeconomic-...
https://reason.org/transportation-news/analysis-of-the-bipar...
We've literally purchased so much vaccine that its free. We've pumped so much money into COVID19 that its ridiculous. Not only have we purchased free vaccines for everyone, we've also put in millions of orders of $2100 per dose monoclonal antibody treatments. That's billions-of-dollars of treatment.
It happened with a snap of the finger. We noticed we were running low on monoclonal antibodies (and they are a relatively safe and effective treatment for those who are inflicted with COVID19). Since we're running low on supply, Biden allocated money for it, and then billions poured in. A big purchase agreement was made, we'll have millions of doses ready in a month.
This process happened months ago as well (which is why we have monoclonal antibodies even with an unprecedented surge in COVID19 cases occurring across the USA). It probably will happen again as we prepare for the winter surge.
Those are also free, thanks to all the money the government thrown at it.
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The fact of the matter is: free vaccines / free monoclonal antibodies / etc. etc. is not even a debate. Literally everyone agrees on it. So it happens, it happens so quickly no one even notices.
Only when a "debate" comes up will you ever hear about it in the news.
You'll also see it come up when poor planning causes a problem. We famously had the PPE shortage and needle shortage last year. (Can't inject vaccines unless you make more needles), but those were resolved rather quickly and seem to be forgotten about now. Money can't solve poor planning: people need to buy things months in advance so that they're ready in time for the emergency.
Private health insurance has its bribes paid up.
The corporations this bill has a negative impact on are pinning their hopes on Joe Manchin because they can't afford to bribe the entire Democratic party.