By Michael Shepherd - Aug. 8, 2022
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📷 Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, speaks during a Senate committee hearing on Aug. 3, 2022, in Washington. (AP photo by Mariam Zuhaib)

Good morning from Augusta. There are 92 days until Maine's November elections.

What we're watching today

Democrats pushed their $740 billion climate, tax and health care overhaul through the Senate on Sunday. The deal, brokered largely by Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, came over unified Republican opposition and after the minority party forced a long series of votes on the package.

Here is how the Maine delegation has positioned itself on the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, from champions to a challenger.

One senator emerged quickly as a champion of the legislation. Democrats needed all 50 members to get the measure through the Senate, including Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with them. His support for the package was never in doubt, with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, wielding influence at the end of negotiations before signing on.

On Friday, he defended the bill in a CNN interview and waved away Republican concerns. King has chiefly singled out two elements of the package: a 15 percent minimum tax for roughly the 200 biggest U.S. corporations and a provision allowing Medicare to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs.

"I think not only is this good policy, it's going to be very popular in the country," he said.

Overall, the proposal looks popular. A Morning Consult poll found supermajority support for drug-pricing reforms, tax credits for Americans who use renewable energy and the new corporate minimum tax. The only major part not supported by a majority was $80 billion to the IRS for improved enforcement, a change designed to only apply to higher income levels. Analyses have generally found that the bill may not reduce inflation, however.

Maine's other senator voted to keep one provision in, but opposed the package as a whole. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine joined her fellow Republicans to vote against the act. She has not said much about the policy implications of the measure so far, but she played a dual role in the long series of votes that preceded Senate passage by voting with Democrats to unsuccessfully keep one provision in and trying in vain to make a change.

That bipartisan provision was a $35 monthly cap on insulin prices similar to a Collins-led bill that was struck from the deal by rule, since partisan bills are supposed to stick to fiscal issues and not change policies. It meant 60 votes were needed to get the provision into the bill. Collins voted with the Democrats on that, but the item only got 57 votes.

Collins offered an amendment to the package as well that would block the hiring of 87,000 new IRS agents under the new law until 90 percent of the current workforce is working in person, something she blamed for dropped calls and slow refund processing. A federal report credited a quick move to telework for maintaining service during the COVID-19 pandemic and boosting recruiting and blamed a bump in calls and an understaffed service desk for that problem.

House passage is virtually assured despite some pause from a Maine Democrat. The Democratic-led lower chamber must now take up the bill and the path looks less dicey for it there. Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-New Jersey, supported it on Sunday despite his push for the restoration of a tax break that generally applies to high-income people in high-tax states.

Rep. Jared Golden of Maine's 2nd District has not supported the bill yet, but he praised many of its provisions in an interview last week and looks like a yes, while his Republican opponent in a hard-fought 2022 election, former Rep. Bruce Poliquin, opposes it. In the 1st District, Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat, is a resounding yes. Things seem to be on track for Democrats.

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News and notes

Maine has not seen divides among interest groups on the inflation bill.

— A Friday letter from a coalition led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce lobbying senators to vote against the Inflation Reduction Act included no Maine groups in what was perhaps a nod to the state's Democratic control.

— The Maine State Chamber of Commerce is a conservative-leaning group, but it has worked closely with Gov. Janet Mills alongside other aligned groups on top-tier economic issues before the Legislature over the last three years. Its leader, Dana Connors, led King's transition team when he became governor.

A theme continues in the 2nd District race.

— In Friday's Daily Brief, we noted Poliquin's "not a moderate" criticism of Golden in the swing-district race while Republicans try to link the congressman to more unpopular national Democrats.

— The Maine Republican Party continued this in a Monday email sharing a Breitbart News article about Poliquin's campaign: "Everyone: in a few short months you'll be heading to the voting booth. When you do, remember one thing: a vote for Jared Golden is a vote for Joe Biden."

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What we're reading

— Monkeypox vaccines came as a relief to the LGBTQ men among the first to get them at an Ogunquit clinic on Friday. One was on vacation there and got the shot after not being able to find one at home in Manhattan.

— Bar Harbor's crackdown on short-term rentals helped push them into neighboring towns without restrictions.

— Maine's most COVID-cautious parents are relaxing a bit with the first day of school closing in.

— A colorful Woolwich junk shop is selling to a marijuana store in another sign of a changing U.S. Route 1. Here's your since-closed store soundtrack.

— New Hampshire, like Maine, is seeing a shortage of lawyers willing to defend low-income clients.

Photo of the day

📷 Lindsay Anderson clears a jump riding her horse Praise the Kitty during the New England Jumpers' Association LLC Jumper Speed Derby on Sunday at Sassy Strides Equestrian in Lisbon. (Sun Journal photo by Russ Dillingham via AP)

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