Category: US

Vermont Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders adopted a tone more similar to that of Congressional Republicans than Democrats on Saturday when he said that the hotly debated Inflation Reduction Act will do little to reduce inflation.

“Madam President, I want to take a moment to say a few words about the so-called inflation reduction that we are debating this evening,” Sanders said on the Senate floor on Saturday night. “And I say so-called, by the way, because according to the CBO, and other economic organizations that study this bill, it will, in fact, have a minimal impact on inflation.”

Sanders went on to criticize the bill by saying that it does not address childhood poverty, income inequality, or the “dysfunctional” healthcare system in the United States.

Sanders explained that the bill “turns its back on the working parents of this country and our children.”

SOARING INFLATION DRIVES MORE AMERICANS TO LIVE PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK DESPITE 5.1% INCREASE IN WAGES

Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont, speaks during a news conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)

Sanders urged Democrats to support his effort to amend the bill so that it does more to help American working families.

Conservatives complimented Sanders on social media after Republicans on Capitol Hill have pointed out in recent days that the Congressional Budget Office acknowledged that the Inflation Reduction Act will have a negligible effect on inflation.

“Bernie Sanders, of all people, is being more honest about this garbage bill than Joe Manchin is,” Heritage Foundation Communications Director John Cooper tweeted.

A man shops at a Safeway grocery store in Annapolis, Maryland, on May 16, 2022, as Americans brace for summer sticker shock as inflation continues to grow. ((Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images) / Getty Images)

DEMOCRATS’ INFLATION REDUCTION ACT IS ‘ECONOMIC MALPRACTICE’: ECONOMIST

A vote to move ahead on Democrats’ social spending and taxation bill passed Saturday evening, setting up floor debate followed by a marathon vote-a-rama, before a final vote on the legislation that’s expected sometime Sunday.

“What today is about is whether or not Democrats are going to stand up and fight, fight for amendments and support amendments which address some very critical needs of working families,” Sanders told Fox News Digital earlier in the day. “The amendments that I will offer probably have the support of 70 or 80 percent of the American people. We will see how much support they will be getting.”

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WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 28: US President Joe Biden removes his mask as he delivers remarks on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (Getty Images/Getty Images)

Several other Democrats, however, are cool on Sanders’ strategy. They think it creates unnecessary risk after they negotiated for more than a year to get a reconciliation bill their entire caucus could support.

“Many of us believe that our number one goal is to make sure this gets to the finish line without any amendments creating problems for its final passage,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said. “I will vote no on any amendment I think compromises the bill’s signature by the president.”

Several top Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer have dismissed concerns and economist analysis that the Inflation Reduction Act will have a minimal effect on the record inflation that has continued to grow over the past year.

“They’re wrong..I don’t know who that list was…it’s as plain as the nose on your face,” Schumer said in response to a letter from 230 economists who warned that the bill will add to inflation.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Fox News’ Tyler Olsen contributed to this report

Billionaire Robert Brockman, who was indicted in 2020 in what has been called the largest ever tax evasion case against an individual in the United States, has died. He was 81.

Brockman’s death was confirmed Saturday by his lead attorney, Kathy Keneally. Additional details and the cause of death were not immediately available.

His attorneys had been arguing in court that he had dementia and was incompetent to stand trial. But a judge in May ruled him competent and set a February 2023 trial date.

Brockman, a Florida native and Houston resident whose fortune has been estimated by Forbes at $4.7 billion, was the former CEO of Reynolds & Reynolds, an Ohio-based software company that provides solutions to businesses.

In October 2020, the government charged him in a 39-count indictment with evading taxes on $2 billion in gains, wire fraud, money laundering and other offenses. He had pleaded not guilty.

The alleged scheme to conceal the billions in income since the IRS spanned decades, the Department of Justice said in its announcement of the indictment.

David L. Anderson, US attorney for the Northern District of California, said at the time that the “allegation of a $2 billion tax fraud is the largest ever tax charge against an individual” in the US

Keneally, his lead lawyer and a long-time tax specialist, was the assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s tax division from 2012 to 2014.

According to court records, Robert Smith, Brockman’s former business associate and the wealthiest Black citizen in the US, was to be a key witness against him. Smith avoided charges by admitting to evading taxes, paying $139 million in taxes and penalties, and agreeing to cooperate, records show.

At issue in the criminal case against Brockman was the allegation that he avoided taxes through an offshore charitable trust that the prosecutor said was secretly controlled by him — and which he said was independent.

Prosecutors said he used ill-gotten gains to buy a Colorado fishing lodge, a private jet and a 200-foot yacht, among other things. The government filed paperwork in 2021 to seize the 100-acre fishing retreat in the Rockies, the Aspen Times reported then.

It was not immediately clear how Brockman’s death would affect the government’s ability to recover the taxes it says are owed.

He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Dorothy; they are Robert Brockman II; a brother and two grandchildren, according to Bloomberg.

Michigan state investigators said test samples taken Thursday from Hubbell Pond in Milford showed low-level presence of a toxic chemical that was released into the Huron River System by the Tribar Manufacturing company in Wixom last weekend.

Two crews from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy sampled waters upstream, downstream and within the pond on Friday to gather more information on the presence of hexavalent chromium, a known cancer-causing chemical.

According to Michigan authorities, hexavalent chromium is known carcinogen that can cause a number of adverse health effects through ingestion, skin contact or inhalation.

State officials are still investigating why the release occurred, the exact volume and product that was released and the timeline of events.

The Hubbell Pond samples were the only ones where hexavalent chromium was detected, out of the more than 30 samples that were taken from varying depths from near the point of release downstream to Barton Pond in Ann Arbor.

“Liquid containing 5% hexavalent chromium was discharged to the sanitary sewer system from Tribar Manufacturing in Wixom last weekend and routed to the Wixom wastewater treatment facility,” Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy said in a statement.

Michigan authorities advised people and pets to avoid contact with the Huron River water between North Wixom Road in Oakland County and Kensington Road in Livingston County. This includes Norton Creek downstream of the Wixom Wastewater Treatment Plant (Oakland County), Hubbell Pond (also known as Mill Pond in Oakland County) and Kent Lake (Oakland and Livingston counties).

Residents are also warned not to water their plants with river water or eat fish caught in that section of the river.

Authorities also warned this recommendation could be expanded to other areas of the river as it receives additional test results.

Properly constructed and permitted drinking water wells not influenced by surface water are unlikely to be contaminated by chromium from the river, they said.

Unlike CPAC’s Orlando event in February — and the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Nashville conference in June — the weekend gathering was missing most of the non-Trump names floated as potential 2024 contenders, though Sens. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) were among the elected officials who spoke.

And while Trump’s dominant standing in the GOP has never been under greater threat from a rising crop of ambitious Republicans, the event highlighted his continued pull with the party’s activists. A straw poll survey of CPAC Texas attendees’ 2024 preferences showed Trump leading with 69 percent support, 10 percentage points higher than his showing of him at the February gathering in Florida. DeSantis came in second place with 23 percent.

Trump’s approval rating among attendees was at 99 percent. Poll methodology, including the survey size and margin of error, were not provided.

“I’ve said the last couple CPACs, I don’t think it can go any higher,” said Jim McLaughlin, a Trump campaign pollster who conducts the CPAC straw polls.

McLaughlin argued that the response from the gathering proved Trump’s influence is not wanting.

“Matter of fact, what’s happening is he’s more popular than ever,” McLaughlin said.

Taking the stage soon after at the Hilton Anatole on Saturday evening, Trump declared that the CPAC straw poll is a “very respected” survey.

“When you see those numbers, there is a great feeling of unity,” Trump said. “Not only at CPAC, but I think the Republican Party.”

Yet while straw polls at other gatherings of conservative activists have also shown that Trump would start a 2024 primary campaign with a strong lead, recent polling of the broader GOP electorate has told a slightly different story.

A Siena College/New York Times poll conducted last month showed the former president with support from just under half of Republican primary voters in a matchup with several other candidates. Trump led with 49 percent of the vote, followed by DeSantis with 25 percent.

In a separate poll question removing Trump as an option for 2024, 59 percent of CPAC Texas attendees supported DeSantis for president, followed by 8 percent for Donald Trump Jr.

Trump on Saturday again teased a run. He falsely claimed that he had won a presidential election “twice,” before adding “now we may have to do it again.”

“But first, we have to win an earth-shattering victory in 2022,” he said of the midterm elections, in which Republicans will attempt to take back control of both chambers of Congress. Trump has doled out endorsements across the country this year, but so far he has declined to put any significant campaign money behind his chosen candidates.

Not only were other top potential 2024 rivals absent from the conference, throughout the three-day gathering, there was little talk of them. Speakers instead focused squarely on Trump, largely not mentioning DeSantis or others as top leaders in the party.

The loudest voices spreading baseless claims of election fraud in 2020 — claims that have repeatedly been disproven in audits, official investigations and litigation — shied away from discussing Pence, even to criticize him.

Steve Bannon, the former Trump campaign and White House strategist who was convicted this week of contempt of Congress, outlined at the conference a vision for the coming years of the GOP. That included more candidates like Kari Lake, who won the Republican gubernatorial nomination in Arizona this week after basing her campaign on disproven claims of election fraud. And, of course, it included Trump with a second term in office.

Bannon, who was recently found guilty on two counts of refusing to cooperate with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, riled up the crowd by suggesting outside forces were attempting to jail Trump in an effort to keep him from seeking the White House again.

“They understand they can’t beat him at the ballot box,” Bannon said. “They ca n’t beat his energy from him. They ca n’t beat his vision of him. They’re coming out with a death by a thousand cuts legally, right, and trying to put him in jail to make sure he cannot run again in 2024 and be the rightful president he should be right now.”

President Joe Biden won the 2020 election by flipping five states Trump carried in 2016 and outstripping him nationally by 7 million votes.

In a statement to POLITICO after the straw poll, American Conservative Union chair Matt Schlapp referred to Trump’s enduring prominence with conservatives.

“There’s an unbreakable bond between President Trump and the conservative movement,” Schlapp said. “He simply did the things he promised to do and for that they are forever grateful.”

On stage Saturday, British commentator and former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage told the crowd Trump looks like he is ready for another run.

Farage, who has visited with Trump recently, told the CPAC audience that the former president appears to have lost 20 pounds since leaving office.

“The weight of the world is coming off his shoulders,” Farage said. “His nominees of him are winning the primaries, and I believe Donald Trump is the man to go out there and fight on behalf of America and the Western world.”

Scott, the Florida senator whose 12-point “Plan for America” and corresponding ad campaign has been constructed as a sign he’s laying the groundwork for a presidential run, got the most resounding applause of his speech when he called for a border wall to be named after “President Donald J. Trump.”