(AP) — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday night despite threats from Beijing of serious consequences, becoming the highest-ranking American official in 25 years to visit the self-ruled island claimed by China.
Pelosi’s visit has triggered increased tension between China and the United States. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, to be annexed by force if necessary, and views visits by foreign government officials as recognition of the island’s sovereignty.
China had warned of “resolute and strong measures” if Pelosi went ahead with the trip. China’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday night it will conduct a series of targeted military operations to “safeguard national sovereignty” in response to Pelosi’s visit. It vowed to “resolutely thwart external interference and ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist attempts.”
The Biden administration did not explicitly urge Pelosi to call off the visit, while seeking to assure Beijing it would not signal any change in U.S. policy on Taiwan.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Washington’s betrayal “on the Taiwan issue is bankrupting its national credibility.”
“Some American politicians are playing with fire on the issue of Taiwan,” Wang said in a statement. “This will definitely not have a good outcome … the exposure of America’s bullying face again shows it as the world’s biggest saboteur of peace.”
Pelosi said in a statement just after her arrival that the U.S. delegation’s visit “honors America’s unwavering commitment to supporting Taiwan’s vibrant democracy.”
“Our visit is one of several Congressional delegations to Taiwan -– and it in no way contradicts longstanding United States policy,” she said. …
The Kremlin on Tuesday said Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan “provokes the situation” over the island, aligning Russia with China’s claims to Taiwan as its territory.
“Everything that relates to this tour, to the possible visit to Taiwan, is of course of provocative character,” the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, told reporters on Tuesday before she arrived. “It provokes the situation, leads to more tensions.”
“Here we are in absolute solidarity with China,” he continued. “Its sensitivity to this issue is justified.”
Wary of provoking Beijing, most European nations have long kept Taiwan at arm’s length.
But Russia, which has grown closer to China in recent years, on Friday reaffirmed its support on the issue. Its foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, told reporters, “Our position on the existence of only one China remains unchanged.” …
Although much attention has been on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the real potential for a military showdown comes now that she has left.
China’s military has said it will conduct a series of live-fire drills beginning on Thursday. A post on Chinese state media offered coordinates for five swaths of sea surrounding Taiwan, three of which overlap with areas that Taiwan says are a part of its territorial waters. …
Administration officials say they are hoping China’s military exercises last only a few days, but they are discussing their options if the movements expand into something more.
… China’s declaration during Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit that it would begin live-fire military exercises in six locations encircling the island could set up the largest crisis in the Taiwan Strait since 1996, when President Bill Clinton ordered American aircraft carriers to the area.
But those exercises were significantly farther from Taiwan’s shores than the series the Chinese government has warned mariners and aircraft that it plans. And it took place in a far more benign strategic environment, back when China’s entry into the global economy was supposed to modify its behavior, and when Mr. Clinton would tell Chinese students that the spread of the internet would foster freedom and dissent. It was also when China’s military packed a fraction of the punch it now boasts, including anti-ship missiles developed to deter American warships from getting close.
Administration officials say that based on their assessments a full cutoff of access to Taiwan is unlikely — in large part because it would hurt China’s own economy at a time of severe economic slowdown. On Friday, the Group of 7 industrialized nations, the core of the Western alliance, warned China not to retaliate for Ms. Pelosi’s visit, clearly an effort to suggest that China would be widely condemned for overreacting, much as Russia was for its invasion of Ukraine. …
(AP) — China on Friday said it is canceling or suspending dialogue with the United States on a range of issues from climate change to military relations and anti-drug efforts in retaliation for a visit this week to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The measures, which come amid cratering relations between Beijing and Washington, are the latest in a promised series of steps intended to punish the U.S. for allowing the visit to the island it claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. China on Thursday launched threatening military exercises in six zones just off Taiwan’s coasts that it says will run through Sunday.
Missiles have also been fired over Taiwan, defense officials told state media. China opposes the self-governing island having its own contacts with foreign governments, but its response to the Pelosi visit has been unusually vociferous.
The Foreign Ministry said dialogue between U.S. and Chinese regional commanders and defense department heads would be canceled, along with talks on military maritime safety.
Cooperation on returning illegal immigrants, criminal investigations, transnational crime, illegal drugs and climate change will be suspended, the ministry said.
China said Friday that more than 100 warplanes and 10 warships have taken part in the live-fire military drills surrounding Taiwan over the past two days, while announcing mainly symbolic sanctions against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her family over her visit to Taiwan earlier this week.
The official Xinhua News Agency said Friday that fighters, bombers, destroyers and frigates were all used in what it called “joint blockage operations.”
The military’s Eastern Theater Command also fired new versions of missiles it said hit unidentified targets in the Taiwan Strait “with precision.”
The Rocket Force also fired projectiles over Taiwan into the Pacific, military officers told state media, in a major ratcheting up of China’s threats to attack and invade the island. …
Employers appear to be responding to rising interest rates and a slowing economy by reducing open positions.
The number of job openings fell for the third consecutive month in June, a sign that the red-hot U.S. labor market may be starting to cool off.
Employers posted 10.7 million vacant positions on the last day of June, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That is high by historical standards but a sharp drop from the 11.3 million openings in May and the record 11.9 million in March. It was the largest one-month decline in the two decades that the government has kept track of this data, other than the two months at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. …
… The Fed is doing everything it can to achieve a “soft-ish landing,” which comes with risks. As we all know, the Fed can’t plant corn. It can’t make boats go faster. Essentially, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s tool kit is lowering his glasses and sternly saying, “Hey, stop buying so much stuff,” in an attempt to normalize the forces of supply and demand.
The problem is, demand doesn’t need to slow down even further; that’s already happening. Instead, we need supply-side changes — more workers, more goods and more services — which require more than just monetary policy.
The vibes in the economy are … weird. That weirdness has real effects. A recent study found that broader vibes do indeed drive what people do, with media narratives about the economy accounting for 42 percent of the fall in consumer sentiment in the second half of 2021.
Indicators like G.D.P. are important, but much of the time, the root of economic problems lies with expectations. When we think about things like inflation, financial conditions and monetary policy, it’s best to frame them through people. And people are of course, silly and messy. Far too many economists and experts forget that the economy is really a bunch of people “peopling” around and trying to make sense of this world.
When policy is more focused on indicators that might not fully reflect reality, and not on the silly and messy people whom the policy is meant to serve, we enter dangerous territory.
There is no recession yet. Right now we are in a “vibe-cession” of sorts — a period of declining expectations that people are feeling based on both real-world worries and past experiences. Things are off. And if they don’t improve, we will have to worry about more than bad vibes.
It restores my faith, somewhat, in the “Press” that the NYT recognizes the role of journalism in creating the “silliness” that leads to “economic” problems. But the NYT is a leading promoter of silliness itself (particularly in the case of the terrible great big huge “looming multi Trillion Dollar Unfunded Deficit!” in Social Security).
Well, almost no-one is surprised by a lack of consistency in politics. But it does raise some questions about honesty.
Still, it might be a good first step…if it isn’t forgotten in the next 5,4,3,2…seconds.
Social Security’s trust funds were projected to have a depletion date of 2035 in the latest report from the program’s trustees, one year later than was projected last year.
That is no reason to celebrate. “We’re getting into that area where immediate action will be required,” said Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
Yet beneficiaries may take heart that there are some nuggets of good news for next year. …
… The 2020 Census showed that the baby boomers (born 1946 to 1964 and now ages 58 to 76), accounted for 22% of the U.S. population. By 2036, boomers will be 72 to 90 years old, and if the same age distribution held they would account for 10% of the population. …
The depletion date of the Trust Fund is insignificant. Nor has it materially changed in the last 30 years or longer. The current Trust Fund was increased by raising the paryroll tax on the Boomer generation so they could help pay directly for their own retirement. All generations pay for their own retirement through the Payroll tax and Pay as you go funding. This confuses a lot of people. Even though everyone pays for their own retirement, they do it in advance, so the Liars have sold the false idea that “the young” are paying for “the old.” This is true no more than
the young who buy the old’s stocks when the old need the cash are paying for the old’s retirement, or that the people who put their money in the bank today are paying for the guy who put his money in years ago and is today taking out his money with interest.
When the special Baby Boom Trust Fund runs out of money in about 2035 it will be necessary to increase the payroll tax 2% of payroll for each the worker and the employer in order to pay for the longer life expectancies of the people then paying the tax. (and yes, the lower birth rate as well as the slower rate of increase in real wages does increase the need for the increased tax, but the longer life expectancy is the main reason. People will argue this with different choices of statistics, but they need to not lose sight of the fundamental reality: retired people are going to need more money if they are going to be living longer. The “more money” comes most easily, most directly, and most fairly from a two dollar per week increase in the payroll tax. Or would come most easily. But if we wait until the Trust Fund actually runs out the increase will need to be more abrupt… about 20 dollars per week for each the worker and the employer. But by that time, workers wages will have increased by about 20 real dollars per week, so he won’t be getting less money after paying the tax, but more, if he is smart enough to understand that.
Munnell offers no “immediate action” to manage the “solvency” problem… except to raise the retirement age. This is like adding two years to the sentence of some old people (most of them) who may (or may not) live longer, but are very likely not to be able to work longer. AND, if they are paying for their own benefits…as they are now, but will not be under any of the “liberal” plans, they should be able to retire at any actuarily reasonable age they want, or need, to.
I don’t know if Munnell is not smart enough to understand this, or choses to ignore it for reasons of an undisclosed agenda of her own.
But your children and their children are going to be hurt quite badly if YOU are not smart enough to get Congress to understand this in ways they can’t pretend they don’t know about it.
The “Nuggets of good news”: Social Security will raise benefits to more or less keep up with inflation. Then they will take it all back by raising the Medicare deduction from Social Secuity checks to pay for an unproven Alzheimers “treatment” that will make the drug companies rich.
This is not good news. It is flim flam.
Please note, if it were real inflation, the wages of workers would increase in nominal dollars, and these nominal dollars would go to pay the nominal increase in benefits. This is one of the core features of “pay as you go” financing…which will be largely destroyed by the “make the rich pay” bright idea from the Left.
The jury decreed that the Infowars conspiracy theorist should pay compensatory damages to the parents of a 6-year-old killed in the Sandy Hook shooting, which Mr. Jones claimed was a hoax. …
At a hearing in the defamation case against the conspiracy theorist, the plaintiffs’ lawyer said he would turn over the materials to the committee unless the judge ordered him not to.
The lawyer for plaintiffs who are suing the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said Thursday that he plans to turn over two years of text messages from Mr. Jones’s phone to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The lawyer, Mark Bankston, who represents Sandy Hook parents suing Mr. Jones in defamation lawsuits for lies he had spread about the 2012 school shooting, said in court in Austin, Texas, that he planned to turn over the texts unless a judge instructed him not to do so.
“I certainly intend to do that, unless you tell me not to,” Mr. Bankston told the judge, Maya Guerra Gamble, who appeared unsympathetic to requests from Mr. Jones’s lawyers that Mr. Bankston return the materials to them. …
(But the carried interest tax loophole remains in place, ‘changes the structure of a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations’, and finds some money for Arizona drought relief, which they are in special need of apparently.)
The Arizona Democrat had been her party’s last remaining holdout on the package, now slated to move forward on Saturday and pass the Senate within days.
Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona, announced on Thursday evening that she would support moving forward with her party’s climate, tax and health care package, clearing the way for a major piece of President Biden’s domestic agenda to move through the Senate in the coming days.
To win Ms. Sinema’s support, Democratic leaders agreed to drop a $14 billion tax increase on some wealthy hedge fund managers and private equity executives that she had opposed, change the structure of a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations, and include drought money to benefit Arizona.
Ms. Sinema said she was ready to move forward with the package, provided that the Senate’s top rules official signed off on it. …
(Agriculture in Arizona has been under threat, evidently. Who knew?)
Leafy greens, cabbage, dates, melons, lemons, oranges, apples, potatoes and tomatoes are just some foods harvested from Arizona’s nourishing soil. The state also boasts a growing nut and date crop industry. Pistachio trees have a small presence in the Grand Canyon State, but the pecan business is developing quickly. … Guide to Arizona Agriculture
(AP) … Sinema said Democrats had agreed to remove a provision raising taxes on “carried interest,” or profits that go to executives of private equity firms. That’s been a proposal she has long opposed, though it is a favorite of Manchin and many progressives.
The carried interest provision was estimated to produce $13 billion for the government over the coming decade, a small portion of the measure’s $739 billion in total revenue.
It will be replaced by a new excise tax on stock buybacks which will bring in more revenue than that, said one Democrat familiar with the agreement. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the deal publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, provided no other detail. …
Kyrsten Sinema willing, Democrats appear to be on the verge of passing the Inflation Reduction Act — a bill that probably would, indeed, reduce inflation but is mainly a desperately needed effort to limit climate change. Republicans are, of course, attacking the legislation.
But when I look at the substance of those attacks, such as it is, I can’t help feeling more cheerful than I have in months.
For one thing, the debate over the proposal feels like a return to a more innocent time, when Republicans tried to make their case with dishonest claims about economic policy — not insane conspiracy theories and attempts to overthrow democracy.
For another, the G.O.P. critique of the bill is extraordinarily weak. And that’s a good omen for Democrats’ new approach to climate policy — one that relies mainly on carrots rather than sticks, on incentives to do the right thing rather than penalties for doing the wrong thing. We’re already seeing just how hard it is for Republicans to attack this approach, and it will get even harder once the public starts to see the benefits of environmental investments.
So, about that critique. The act calls for $369 billion in climate spending, mainly tax credits for families and businesses that adopt clean-energy technologies, improve energy efficiency, and so on. It would also spend $64 billion on extending subsidies that help keep health insurance affordable.
This new spending would be fully paid for, and then some, mainly by cracking down on tax avoidance and evasion. The biggest revenue source is to be a new minimum tax on large corporations. The legislation would also give a desperately underfunded Internal Revenue Service more resources to crack down on tax cheats. And it would seek to save Medicare money by giving the program the power to negotiate over drug prices. …
How can Republicans attack such a bill? They can’t openly defend the interests of tax evaders and avoiders, although their long-term efforts to starve the I.R.S. of resources show that in practice they are pro-tax cheater. What they have done, instead, is claim — citing an estimate from Congress’s nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation — that the legislation would raise taxes on the middle class and that this violates one of Joe Biden’s campaign pledges.
It’s a bogus claim, on multiple levels.
First, the act wouldn’t raise personal income taxes on anyone. Full stop. It just wouldn’t.
What the J.C.T. projects instead are “distributional effects,” an attempt to estimate the indirect burden on families resulting from other taxes, which in this case essentially means the possible effect on wages of requiring large corporations to pay a minimal amount of tax.
Estimating these effects is useful, but are they a “tax increase” on workers? Almost any government policy will have an adverse effect on the income of someone, somewhere; is everything the government does a tax increase?
Furthermore, if we’re going to consider the indirect effect on family incomes of legislation that doesn’t directly affect their taxes, why not consider the whole act, not just part of it? The J.C.T. table that Republicans are citing notes that it excludes the impact of several major pieces of the bill that would help families, in ways ranging from reduced drug costs and larger health insurance subsidies to clean-energy incentives. Add those in and the middle class almost surely ends up ahead.
Another point I haven’t seen emphasized is that the bill would probably reduce air pollution in general, not just greenhouse gas emissions, which would have major health benefits — and monetary benefits, too. …
Wait, there’s more. The J.C.T. assumes that a significant part of the revenue to be gained from taxing corporations would eventually come out of wages. That’s an area of intense academic debate, but there are good reasons to believe that when you’re cracking down on tax avoidance the effect on wages is actually minimal.
Finally, despite all the ways the J.C.T. analysis tilts the playing field against the Inflation Reduction Act, the claimed increase in middle-class taxes is tiny. For example, according to the J.C.T., the federal tax rate on families earning between $50,000 and $75,000 a year would rise from 13.0 percent to … 13.1 percent.
So the G.O.P. attack on this proposal is, in a word, pathetic. The only way it might gain traction is if the media bothsides its reporting, failing to inform news consumers that Republican claims about the bill are, in fact, untrue. That is, unfortunately, a real possibility. Any news report to the effect that “Republicans say the bill would raise middle-class taxes” that doesn’t point out that this claim is false betrays the public interest.
Misinformation aside, however, the right-wing attack on Democrats’ new climate policy is, as I said, extraordinarily weak — and that’s a wonderful thing to see. While the Inflation Reduction Act is a big deal in itself, many of us hope that it will be only the down payment on an even bigger effort to save the planet. And if this is the best the planet’s enemies can do, that’s a very good omen.
I didn’t want to spoil you optimism, but I don’t have your faith in the ability of the people to see the good things. And the “weak” Republican argument against it is more of the stupid lies that have been winning them elections as long as i can remember, though perhaps less flagrant than the more recent stupid lies.
the people will never notice good effects on climate change. even the good effects of reducing air pollution in general will not be noticed or forgotten in a week.
we still have a long way to go. Kansas may be a better sign of hope.
,,, While Sanders voiced satisfaction with certain parts the narrower plan in floor remarks earlier this week, he also made pointed remarks at the bill, which he said “does virtually nothing to address the enormous crises that working families all across this country are facing today.”
The Vermont senator specifically announced he would be introducing an amendment “to make sure that Medicare pays no more for prescription drugs than the [Veterans Affairs]. He also pushed for measures to provide “comprehensive dental vision and hearing benefits,” in addition to lowering “the Medicare eligibility age to at least 60” and to extend the solvency of Medicare.
“Given that this is the last reconciliation bill that we will be considering this year, it is the only opportunity that we have to do something significant to the American people that requires only 50 votes, and that cannot be filibustered,” he stressed from the floor of the upper chamber.
Sanders told The Hill on Thursday that he is still finalizing his amendments, and is looking at areas like “health care, childcare, and some other issues.” …
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrives in Taiwan, defying Beijing
Boston Globe – August 2
Russia backs China’s stance on Taiwan, calling Pelosi’s visit ‘provocative.’
NY Times – Aug 2
Whereas Russia’s invasion of Ukrain is not “of provocative character?”
Irony is dead.
Chinese military drills circling Taiwan set up a potential standoff
NY Times – August 3
As China Plans Drills Circling Taiwan, US Officials Fear a Squeeze Play
NY Times – Aug 3
China halts climate, military ties over Pelosi Taiwan visit
Boston Globe – Aug 5
Job openings fell in June, suggesting that the labor market is cooling
NY Times – Aug 2
The vibes in the economy are … weird
NY Times – Aug 4
‘A recent study…’
Narrative-Driven Fluctuations in Sentiment: Evidence Linking Traditional and Social Media
It restores my faith, somewhat, in the “Press” that the NYT recognizes the role of journalism in creating the “silliness” that leads to “economic” problems. But the NYT is a leading promoter of silliness itself (particularly in the case of the terrible great big huge “looming multi Trillion Dollar Unfunded Deficit!” in Social Security).
Well, almost no-one is surprised by a lack of consistency in politics. But it does raise some questions about honesty.
Still, it might be a good first step…if it isn’t forgotten in the next 5,4,3,2…seconds.
Social Security isn’t bankrupt: What we know about future benefits based on the latest trustees report
CNBC – June 25
Baby Boomers Will Leave Housing Glut After Their Final Move
CU Times – July 5
… The 2020 Census showed that the baby boomers (born 1946 to 1964 and now ages 58 to 76), accounted for 22% of the U.S. population. By 2036, boomers will be 72 to 90 years old, and if the same age distribution held they would account for 10% of the population. …
This is misinformation. What I call a lie.
The depletion date of the Trust Fund is insignificant. Nor has it materially changed in the last 30 years or longer. The current Trust Fund was increased by raising the paryroll tax on the Boomer generation so they could help pay directly for their own retirement. All generations pay for their own retirement through the Payroll tax and Pay as you go funding. This confuses a lot of people. Even though everyone pays for their own retirement, they do it in advance, so the Liars have sold the false idea that “the young” are paying for “the old.” This is true no more than
the young who buy the old’s stocks when the old need the cash are paying for the old’s retirement, or that the people who put their money in the bank today are paying for the guy who put his money in years ago and is today taking out his money with interest.
When the special Baby Boom Trust Fund runs out of money in about 2035 it will be necessary to increase the payroll tax 2% of payroll for each the worker and the employer in order to pay for the longer life expectancies of the people then paying the tax. (and yes, the lower birth rate as well as the slower rate of increase in real wages does increase the need for the increased tax, but the longer life expectancy is the main reason. People will argue this with different choices of statistics, but they need to not lose sight of the fundamental reality: retired people are going to need more money if they are going to be living longer. The “more money” comes most easily, most directly, and most fairly from a two dollar per week increase in the payroll tax. Or would come most easily. But if we wait until the Trust Fund actually runs out the increase will need to be more abrupt… about 20 dollars per week for each the worker and the employer. But by that time, workers wages will have increased by about 20 real dollars per week, so he won’t be getting less money after paying the tax, but more, if he is smart enough to understand that.
Munnell offers no “immediate action” to manage the “solvency” problem… except to raise the retirement age. This is like adding two years to the sentence of some old people (most of them) who may (or may not) live longer, but are very likely not to be able to work longer. AND, if they are paying for their own benefits…as they are now, but will not be under any of the “liberal” plans, they should be able to retire at any actuarily reasonable age they want, or need, to.
I don’t know if Munnell is not smart enough to understand this, or choses to ignore it for reasons of an undisclosed agenda of her own.
But your children and their children are going to be hurt quite badly if YOU are not smart enough to get Congress to understand this in ways they can’t pretend they don’t know about it.
The “Nuggets of good news”: Social Security will raise benefits to more or less keep up with inflation. Then they will take it all back by raising the Medicare deduction from Social Secuity checks to pay for an unproven Alzheimers “treatment” that will make the drug companies rich.
This is not good news. It is flim flam.
Please note, if it were real inflation, the wages of workers would increase in nominal dollars, and these nominal dollars would go to pay the nominal increase in benefits. This is one of the core features of “pay as you go” financing…which will be largely destroyed by the “make the rich pay” bright idea from the Left.
Alex Jones Trial Update: Jurors Award $4.1 Million in Damages
NY Times – Aug 4
Related:
Lawyer Says He Intends to Give Alex Jones’s Texts to House Jan. 6 Panel
(But the carried interest tax loophole remains in place, ‘changes the structure of a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations’, and finds some money for Arizona drought relief, which they are in special need of apparently.)
Sinema Agrees to Climate and Tax Deal, Clearing the Way for Votes
NY Times – Aug 4
The Arizona Democrat had been her party’s last remaining holdout on the package, now slated to move forward on Saturday and pass the Senate within days.
Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Democrat of Arizona, announced on Thursday evening that she would support moving forward with her party’s climate, tax and health care package, clearing the way for a major piece of President Biden’s domestic agenda to move through the Senate in the coming days.
To win Ms. Sinema’s support, Democratic leaders agreed to drop a $14 billion tax increase on some wealthy hedge fund managers and private equity executives that she had opposed, change the structure of a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations, and include drought money to benefit Arizona.
Ms. Sinema said she was ready to move forward with the package, provided that the Senate’s top rules official signed off on it. …
Senate Majority Leader Sinema forced the issue of “her” preferences. Already wrote her. She holds the country hostage.
(Agriculture in Arizona has been under threat, evidently. Who knew?)
Leafy greens, cabbage, dates, melons, lemons, oranges, apples, potatoes and tomatoes are just some foods harvested from Arizona’s nourishing soil. The state also boasts a growing nut and date crop industry. Pistachio trees have a small presence in the Grand Canyon State, but the pecan business is developing quickly. … Guide to Arizona Agriculture
Democrats, Sinema say they’ve reached agreement on economic package
Boston Globe – Aug 4
(AP) … Sinema said Democrats had agreed to remove a provision raising taxes on “carried interest,” or profits that go to executives of private equity firms. That’s been a proposal she has long opposed, though it is a favorite of Manchin and many progressives.
The carried interest provision was estimated to produce $13 billion for the government over the coming decade, a small portion of the measure’s $739 billion in total revenue.
It will be replaced by a new excise tax on stock buybacks which will bring in more revenue than that, said one Democrat familiar with the agreement. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the deal publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, provided no other detail. …
Republicans Flail and Fail on Taxes
NY Times – Paul Krugman – Aug 4
Dobbs
I like the way you said this. we can hope.
I didn’t want to spoil you optimism, but I don’t have your faith in the ability of the people to see the good things. And the “weak” Republican argument against it is more of the stupid lies that have been winning them elections as long as i can remember, though perhaps less flagrant than the more recent stupid lies.
the people will never notice good effects on climate change. even the good effects of reducing air pollution in general will not be noticed or forgotten in a week.
we still have a long way to go. Kansas may be a better sign of hope.
Mrs Fred tells me that she’s heard Sen Sanders now has ‘some issues’. As well he might.
Democrats could see a bruising clash with Sanders over economic bill
The Hill – Aug 6
,,, While Sanders voiced satisfaction with certain parts the narrower plan in floor remarks earlier this week, he also made pointed remarks at the bill, which he said “does virtually nothing to address the enormous crises that working families all across this country are facing today.”
The Vermont senator specifically announced he would be introducing an amendment “to make sure that Medicare pays no more for prescription drugs than the [Veterans Affairs]. He also pushed for measures to provide “comprehensive dental vision and hearing benefits,” in addition to lowering “the Medicare eligibility age to at least 60” and to extend the solvency of Medicare.
“Given that this is the last reconciliation bill that we will be considering this year, it is the only opportunity that we have to do something significant to the American people that requires only 50 votes, and that cannot be filibustered,” he stressed from the floor of the upper chamber.
Sanders told The Hill on Thursday that he is still finalizing his amendments, and is looking at areas like “health care, childcare, and some other issues.” …