Sunday shows preview: Democrats’ climate, tax and health package headed to vote

Democrats’ climate, health care and tax package, which the Senate is set to begin considering later Saturday, is expected to dominate this week’s Sunday shows circuit.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) plans to bring the Inflation Reduction Act to the Senate floor on Saturday as Democrats look to pass the legislation through reconciliation, a process that allows bills to pass by a simple majority without needing to overcome the 60-vote threshold to end a filibuster.

Democrats crafted the bill, a scaled-back version of President Biden’s climate and social spending bill known as Build Back Better, after Schumer reached an agreement on the package with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a centrist who is frequently a key vote for Democrats to secure.

The $740 billion bill is designed to address climate change, lower prescription drug costs and reform the tax code.

The legislation would invest $369 billion in energy and climate programs over 10 years and spend more than $300 billion for deficit reduction. It would also allow Medicare to directly negotiate drug prices to reduce the out-of-pocket costs of prescription drugs and implement a 15 percent corporate minimum tax.

After the bill received support from Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Democrats are attempting to present a united front to pass the bill in an evenly divided Senate, where doing so will require all Democrats’ support.

The Senate will undergo a vote-a-rama, where an unlimited number of amendments can be proposed in an often hours-long session as part of the reconciliation process.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) told The Hill that he does not make much of the pending amendments that will be proposed.

“I’ve been through many of them, and they’re largely meaningless. People know what the result is. Nobody’s paying a lot of attention to it,” said Blumenthal, who will appear on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) told Politico that the amendments process will be long and “painful.” He said the vote-a-rama will “start later than we imagine, it’s going to run longer than we would hope and it’s going to be more painful getting out of here than any of us have any reason to expect.”

Coons will be a guest on ABC’s “This Week.”

A group of Senate Democrats vowed on Twitter to oppose all amendments to the legislation, including Sens. Brian Schatz (Hawaii), Alex Padilla (Calif.) and Cory Booker (N.J.). They said the bill is not perfect and there are add-ons that they would like to see in the legislation, but they recognize the fragility of the agreement and want to ensure the bill passes.

Senate Republicans are expected to be unified in their opposition to the legislation.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who will appear on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said in a release on Tuesday that the Senate Aging Committee should be allowed to hold a hearing on the bill and how it will affect senior citizens before it is voted on.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) vowed to make the vote-a-rama as painful as possible and like “hell,” saying that Senate Democrats “deserve” this.

He said Manchin and Sinema are backing legislation that will make the average person’s life more difficult. Graham will be on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Below is the full list of guests scheduled to appear on this week’s Sunday talk shows:

ABC’s “This Week” — Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.); Bill Richardson, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

NBC’s “Meet the Press” — Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.); Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.); Stacey Abrams, Democratic nominee for governor of Georgia

CBS’s “Face the Nation” — Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.); Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Peter Meijer (R-Mich.); Mary Daly, president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

CNN’s “State of the Union” — Abrams; Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)

“Fox News Sunday” — Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.); Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas); Stephen Miller, America First Legal founder; Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), New York GOP gubernatorial nominee; Alan Dershowitz, author of “The Prince of Principle”

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