US Vice President Kamala Harris used her casting vote to push through a major package aimed at tackling climate change, reducing the costs of medicine for the elderly, and taxing big corporations. USSC Associate Professor David Smith tells ABC's The World Today the bill tries to get through a lot of the long-term aims of President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.
"The long-term aims include tens of billions of dollars worth of spending to try to incentivise green energy and giving the Government the right to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over Medicare prices. These are two pretty big aims the Democrats have tried to get though for decades," Dr Smith said.
"The bill is trying to get energy companies to invest renewable energies like solar and wind and also encourage American consumers to move towards things like electric cars."