Biden says no compromises on IRA

“I have a pen that can veto,” said U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday when asked if he would make any changes to the policies related to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), saying it is not a subject to compromise. With the Republicans claiming back a number of seats in the House, the president expressed his will to reject should the Republicans press ahead with revising the IRA. Concerns are brewing that once the IRA becomes a point of dispute between the Democrats and Republicans after the mid-term elections, it might spell trouble for devising solutions to the discrimination against South Korean electric vehicles.

In a White House speech on the midterm election results, President Biden said he would not support any Republican proposal that will make inflation worse, adding, “I am not going to walk away from the historic commitments we just made to take on the climate crisis. They are not compromisable issues, and I won’t let that happen.” Investments and subsidies for sustainable energy are at the core of the inflation reduction bill, along with its tax break scheme exclusively reserved for EVs made in North America. During the campaign trails for midterm elections, the Republicans denounced the Democrats’ expansion of investments and subsidies for sustainable energy, vowing to proceed with a parliamentary investigation into the IRA while devising a new bill to counter it.

With the votes still being counted, as of Thursday, the Democrats have taken 48 seats and the Republicans 49 out of the 100 Senate seats from the midterm elections, according to CNN. By Saturday, when the vote counting in Arizona and Nevada is finished, it will have been determined more clearly as to which party will take home the majority of the Senate. If the two parties are tied in AZ and NV, it will take a runoff in Georgia on Dec. 2 to decide the fate of the Senate.


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