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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
... as usual you post the headlines but not the details.
But Democrats are objecting to the GOP’s assertions, with a spokesperson for Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) stating families “will not pay one penny in additional taxes under this bill,” according to Politico.
The spokesperson, Ashley Schapitl, also said the Joint Committee on Taxes analysis isn’t complete because “it doesn’t include the benefits to middle-class families of making health insurance premiums and prescription drugs more affordable. The same goes for clean energy incentives for families,” Politico reported.
...families earning under $200k per year (the vast majority of Americans) will not pay any additional taxes.Comment
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
With less than a month to go, the projected Q3 GDP is dropping rapidly.
Atlanta Fed Slashes Q3 GDP Growth As PMI Plunges | ZeroHedgeComment
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Senate passes long-sought bill to help veterans affected by burn pits
The Senate voted Tuesday night to pass a long-sought bipartisan legislation to expand health care benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their military service, sending the bill to President Joe Biden to sign into law. The final vote was 86-11.
Passage of the bill marks the end of a lengthy fight to get the legislation through Congress, as veterans and their advocates had been demonstrating on Capitol Hill for days. Many veterans were allowed into the Senate gallery to watch the final vote on Tuesday evening.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced after reaching the deal with Republicans who had blocked the bill from advancing last week while they sought to add cost-controlling amendment votes to the package.
"I have some good news, the minority leader and I have come to an agreement to vote on the PACT Act this evening," Schumer said on the Senate floor. "I'm very optimistic that this bill will pass so our veterans across America can breathe a sigh of relief."
The bill, called the Honoring our PACT Act, was approved by the House of Representatives in July.
The bill widely expands health care resources and benefits to those exposed to burn pits and could provide coverage for up to 3.5 million toxic-exposed veterans. It adds conditions related to burn pit and toxic exposure, including hypertension, to the Department of Veterans Affair's list of illnesses that have been incurred or exacerbated during military service.
The legislation had been held up in the chamber since last week when more than two dozen Republicans, who previously supported the measure, temporarily blocked it from advancing.
Sen. Pat Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, rallied fellow Republicans to hold up the legislation in exchange for amendment votes, specifically an amendment that would change an accounting provision. Toomey had previously said he wanted an amendment vote with a 50-vote threshold.
... another victory for both Democrats and veterans. The Republican Senate finally realized how bad they looked to the American public.
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Hutchinson Exposed: Kept Working for Trump 9 Weeks After He Left WH, Gov't Records Show
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Voters in Kansas are the first to decide on abortion post-Roe
Voters in Kansas today will decide whether to add an amendment to the state constitution that says there is no right to an abortion in the state.
A constitutional amendment would open the door for lawmakers to further restrict or ban abortion in the state.
.... Kansas voters voted overwhelmingly tonight against any amendment to remove or restrict abortion rights in this Republican red state. Democrats, Independents and Republicans voted against the proposal with many parents saying they wanted to vote to protect the right's of their daughters to make decisions about their own bodies.
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Jan. 6 rioter who carried gun to US Capitol and threatened Nancy Pelosi gets more than 7 years in prisonComment
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Re: The Shining City Upon a Hill
Sinema says she will 'move forward' on economic bill, giving Democrats the votes to move ahead
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema on Thursday night agreed to support the Democrats' economic bill, giving Democrats the 50 votes they need to pass the legislation in the coming days.
Sinema's support is critical given that all 50 Republicans will oppose a plan they argue would hurt the economy and cost far more than Democrats are contending -- so any one Democratic defection could sink it.
In a statement, Sinema indicated that she won several changes to the tax provisions of the package, including removing the tax on carried interest, which would have impacted hedge fund managers and private equity. That proposal would have raised $14 billion.
"We have agreed to remove the carried interest tax provision, protect advanced manufacturing, and boost our clean energy economy in the Senate's budget reconciliation legislation," Sinema said. "Subject to the Parliamentarian's review, I'll move forward."Democrats agreed to add an excise tax on companies' stock buybacks as part of the agreement.
"The agreement will include a new excise tax on stock buybacks that brings in far more revenue than the carried interest provision did, meaning the deficit reduction figure will remain at $300 billion,".
The $300 billion target in deficit reduction had been a key priority of Sen. Joe Manchin, whose agreement to the deal last week revived the legislation.
"The agreement preserves the major components of the Inflation Reduction Act, including reducing prescription drug costs, fighting climate change, closing tax loopholes exploited by big corporations and the wealthy, and reducing the deficit by $300 billion," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement. "The final version of the Reconciliation bill, to be introduced on Saturday, will reflect this work and put us one step closer to enacting this historic legislation into law."
High-stakes negotiations
Earlier Thursday, top Senate Democrats engaged in high-stakes negotiations with Sinema, actively discussing potential changes to major tax components in order to secure the Arizona moderate's support.
In private discussions, Sinema had expressed concern over key parts of the Democrats' plan to pay for their climate and health care package -- imposing a 15% tax minimum tax on big corporations and taxing so-called carried interest, which would mean imposing a new levy on hedge fund managers and private equity.
As a result, Democrats had been scrambling to find new revenue sources to meet the goal of saving $300 billion over a decade.
"Failure is not an option," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, expressing the view of much of his caucus earlier Thursday that Sinema would eventually get on board.
Schumer announced earlier on Thursday that the Senate will reconvene on Saturday and plans to take the first procedural vote to proceed to the bill.
If the bill ultimately passes, the House would need to act.
Democrats are trying to wrap up negotiations and pass their economic passage before leaving town for a month-long August recess. The bill still needs to be approved by the Senate parliamentarian in order to advance under the rules surrounding reconciliation, which would allow the legislation to be passed by a simple majority.
It's unclear when the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, will announce her decision on the package. A Democratic aide said that the Senate Finance Committee's energy provisions -- most notably the clean energy credits -- are scheduled to go in front of the Senate parliamentarian on Friday.
Schumer announced a deal with Manchin last week that contains a number of key goals for the party on health care costs, taxes and combating the climate crisis. The measure would invest $369 billion into energy and climate change programs with the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40% by 2030.
For the first time, Medicare would be empowered to negotiate the prices of certain medications, and it would cap out-of-pocket costs at $2,000 for those enrolled in Medicare drug plans. It would also extend expiring enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act coverage for three years.
Heavy pressure on Sinema
Sinema was not part of the deal, learning of it when the news broke last week. She had refused to comment publicly on the deal, with her aides only saying she would wait until the Senate parliamentarian's review is done before taking a position. Yet she had been making her demands clear with Democratic leaders, including seeking to add $5 billion to help the Southwest cope with its multi-year drought, according to multiple sources.
Defending the new tax, the Democratic-led Senate Finance Committee released date on Thursday from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation showing that up to 125 billion-dollar companies averaged only a 1.1 percent effective tax rate in 2019. The committee argues in its release that this shows the "rock-bottom tax rates" that some companies are able to pay.
"While we know that billion-dollar companies are avoiding paying their fair share, these tax rates are lower than we could have imagined," said Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. "We're going to put a stop to it with our 15 percent minimum tax."
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