Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s approval, Wyoming primary: The top political stories this week
Yahoo Finance’s Kevin Cirilli joins the Live show to discuss the Senate passing the Inflation Reduction Act, Wyoming primary elections, and Biden’s approval rating.
Video Transcript
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BRAD SMITH: Welcome back, everyone. Washington, DC in focus today after Senate Democrats narrowly voted to pass the Inflation Reduction Act 51 to 50, sending the legislation to the House. Yahoo Finance contributor Kevin Cirilli joins us now with the latest. Kevin.
KEVIN CIRILLI: Well, it was a dizzying weekend for lawmakers, especially in the Senate where Vice President Kamala Harris cast that deciding vote in order to get the Inflation Reduction Act over the finish line. Now, we're expecting that the House of Representatives will vote on this legislation on Friday.
$385 nearly billion, by most estimates, is wrapped up in this massive piece of legislation, something that Republicans are adamantly against and that Democrats say would reduce the cost of inflation. You've got part of the bill that will go to climate investments. Think electric vehicles, wind, solar. And it's also going to put that corporate minimum tax rate at 15%.
Now, Senator Sinema, who was one of the key drivers behind this legislation getting across the finish line in the Senate, was able to pull out $4 billion for drought relief in Western states. But what's not in this bill is the lowering of the carried interest tax break. There was a lot of last minute lobbying over the weekend by some private equity firms in order to keep that piece of policy in. And they were able to be successful on that.
BRIAN SOZZI: And Kevin, you're also watching President Biden's approval rating.
KEVIN CIRILLI: Yes, a new ABC News poll, Ipsos poll out today that has some bad news in terms of how most Americans are viewing President Biden. More than 2/3 of Americans think that the nation's economy is getting worse. This is the highest that that measure has reached since 2008.
But even go a little bit deeper into this poll, and you'll find that the president's rating on inflation is just 29% of Americans say that they feel that the president is doing a good job in combating inflation. We're going to get new inflationary data report on Wednesday.
Remember, inflation at 9.1%, the highest that that's been in nearly four decades since 1981. So a lot of new economic inflationary data, not just here in the United States. We're also going to track in China, as well as other countries that are releasing some inflationary data this week as well.
JULIE HYMAN: Yeah, it's really interesting that the numbers are still like that, even though gasoline prices have come down so much in terms of those approval ratings. And finally, in Wyoming, you are watching the race for the state's lone House seat because it's a big one.
KEVIN CIRILLI: Oh, it's a big one. It's Trump-backed Harriet Hageman against Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who, of course, has really become the de facto leader for Republicans who are against the former president, given her role within the January 6 committee. There was a poll that was released by the local newspaper there that has Hageman out in front by a lot, 30% for Liz Cheney, 52% for HAgeman.
But regardless of what happens here, what we all remember the ads that were cut just last week. You got Don Jr. releasing ads for Hageman, and you've got the former vice president, Dick Cheney, releasing an ad for his daughter. Both factions of the conservative movement will try to claim victory in terms of what this means for their future.
Should Congresswoman Cheney not be able to win this primary this week, she becomes the leader of that never-Trump movement, and her political future will be carefully watched. And she becomes the leader of this movement, Julie, even outside of her state, as the most name-recognized, notable figure, given, again, her perch within the January 6 committee.
JULIE HYMAN: Yes, going to be very interesting to watch her next chapter. Kevin Cirilli, Yahoo Finance contributor, thank you so much. Good to see you.
