Tag: Chuck Schumer

Senate Dems skipping COVID testing to push spending bill vote: report

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 7, 2022
No Comments on Senate Dems skipping COVID testing to push spending bill vote: report

That’s sick!

Senate Democrats are embracing a “Don’t Test, Don’t Tell” policy this weekend as they try to ram a $764 billion spending bill through the 50-50 chamber — knowing that even one COVID-19 positive could blow up their plans.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has set a Saturday test vote for the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, which needs all 50 Democrats on board so Vice President Kamala Harris can cast a tiebreaking vote in its favor.

“They’re not going to delay it if a member has gotten COVID,” a senior Senate aide told Puck News. “Counterparts are saying they’re not going to test anymore. It’s not an official mandate but we all know we’re not letting COVID get in the way. The deal is happening. Less testing, just wear masks and get it done.”

Another source told the outlet that even if a senator did catch the virus, “you can bring your ventilator and still vote.”

Unlike the House, the Senate does not allow proxy voting, meaning members who cannot make it to the floor due to illness are out of luck.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer set a test vote on Saturday for the Inflation Reduction Act.

Earlier in the week – before moderate Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) got on board with Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) climate and energy plan – the Democratic leader insisted his party was “going to stay healthy” ahead of a potential vote.

“We’re not talking about a plan B,” Schumer said at the time.

Concerns about having all 50 Democrats and Democrat-voting Independents present on the Senate floor have grown in recent weeks, as several senators have tested positive for COVID or been absent for other health reasons.

In late June, Senate President Pro Tempore Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) fell in his Virginia home and broke his hip – keeping him out of Washington until this week. He ultimately underwent two surgeries.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema agreed to a compromise for the spending plan — likely giving Democrats 50 votes for the bill in the Senate.

Just a week before, Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota seriously injured his hand during a yard work incident.

In early July, Schumer and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) tested positive for COVID-19, both reporting mild symptoms. Days later, Manchin and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska also reported positive tests.

Ironically, Schumer accused Senate Republicans of not taking COVID-19 seriously in the fall of 2020, when a spate of positive tests threatened to derail the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

“Every Senator and relevant staff must have negative tests on two consecutive days and have completed the appropriate quarantining period, and there should be mandatory testing every day of the [confirmation] hearing,” Schumer said in a statement on Oct. 5 of that year. “Testing must be administered by an independent entity, such as the Attending Physician of the United States Congress. Failure to implement a thorough testing approach would be intentionally reckless, and could reasonably lead some wonder if Chairman [Lindsey] Graham and Leader [Mitch] McConnell may not want to know the results.”

If the bill clears the planned Saturday test vote, a series of debates and votes on Republican amendments is expected to follow before a potential vote on final passage sometime Sunday. The legislation would then go to the House.

Sinema agreed to support the measure on Thursday after a provision taxing profits earned by hedge fund, venture capital and private equity executives known as carried interest was removed. In exchange, a 1% tax on corporate stock buybacks was added.

Despite its name, several economic experts — and even the White House — have suggested the Inflation Reduction Act would have little impact on the historic price spikes being felt across the country.

Tags Chuck Schumer, conference, coronavirus, inflation, joe manchin, kyrsten synema, News, senate

Why IRS’ $80B expansion is a ‘nightmare’ for small businesses

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 4, 2022
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Small business owners may soon be in for a lengthy and expensive battle with the IRS, tax experts warn.

A key provision in the Inflation Reduction Act — which throws an extra $80 billion to the IRS to improve the agency’s collection of under-reported income — will end up targeting small business owners to pay for the legislation, according to nonpartisan watchdog the Joint Committee on Taxation.

The group estimates that between 78% and 90% of the estimated additional $200 billion the IRS will collect will come from small businesses making less than $200,000 annually.

Just 4% to 9% would come from businesses making north of $500,000 a year — meaning the legislation is in sharp contrast to President Biden’s longstanding claim that he wouldn’t raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000.

“The IRS will have to target small and medium businesses because they won’t fight back,” Joe Hinchman, executive vice president at the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, told The Post. “We’ve seen this play out before … the IRS says ‘We’re going after the rich’ but when you’re trying to raise that much money, the rich can only get you so far.”

I.R.S. — Increasing the number of IRS agents could hurt small businesses most.

In fact, going after the lower and middle class can actually be more lucrative for IRS auditors than trying to get more money from the wealthy. “The rich have their lawyers and fight it — that’s why the poor are easier to go after,” Hinchman adds.

Accordingly, tax experts warn that the IRS’s audits will be far more painful and costly for small business owners — even for those who think they’re filing their taxes correctly.

manchin — Sens. Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer have reached a deal that would give the IRS an extra $80 billion.

“Most small businesses aren’t doing anything wrong,” Daniel Bunn, executive vice president at the Tax Foundation, told The Post. “We don’t make the tax code simple and the complicated tax code makes it difficult for small business owners to comply with all the requirements.”

Even if small business owners get everything right, they may still be faced with a headache since part of the IRS expansion will involve sending out more notices and letters to businesses, Bunn adds. For individual contractors or small businesses, an IRS letter that they owe more money or made an error on their taxes can put them underwater.

“Anytime you get an IRS letter, it could take months or years to get it settled — we’re talking many thousands of dollars to address,” Bunn added. “Large companies have constant reviews and lawyers going through everything… small business doesn’t have the resources to fight back in the way.”

The White House has dismissed claims the bill will hurt lower- and middle-income Americans, instead noting the JCT estimate doesn’t take into account how much the bill will offset costs for average Americans like prescription drugs.

But tax experts aren’t so sanguine about the reality of giving the IRS more resources.

“The approach here is to double the IRS workforce, take the leash off, and see how much they can collect,” Hinchman adds. “I think they’ll collect it but it will be quite painful.”

Tags Business, Chuck Schumer, go, inflation, joe manchin, small business, tax, tax payer, tax reforms, taxpayers

Why IRS’ $80B expansion is a ‘nightmare’ for small businesses

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 4, 2022
No Comments on Why IRS’ $80B expansion is a ‘nightmare’ for small businesses

Small business owners may soon be in for a lengthy and expensive battle with the IRS, tax experts warn.

The group estimates that between 78% and 90% of the estimated additional $200 billion the IRS will collect will come from small businesses making less than $200,000 annually.

I.R.S. — Increasing the number of IRS agents could hurt small businesses most.

Accordingly, tax experts warn that the IRS’s audits will be far more painful and costly for small business owners — even for those who think they’re filing their taxes correctly.

But tax experts aren’t so sanguine about the reality of giving the IRS more resources.

“The approach here is to double the IRS workforce, take the leash off, and see how much they can collect,” Hinchman adds. “I think they’ll collect it but it will be quite painful.”

Tags Business, Chuck Schumer, go, inflation, joe manchin, small business, tax, tax payer, tax reforms, taxpayers

Senate passes long-sought bill to help veterans affected by burn pits

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 2, 2022
No Comments on Senate passes long-sought bill to help veterans affected by burn pits

CNN
—

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.

Toomey discusses why he voted against bill to help vets exposed to toxic burn pits

Tuesday’s final vote followed votes on three amendments with a 60-vote threshold. Toomey’s amendment, which would have made a change to a budget component of the legislation, failed as expected, in a vote of 47-48.

Last week’s surprise move by Republicans led to a swift backlash among veterans and veterans’ groups, including protests on the US Capitol steps over the weekend and early this week. Comedian and political activist Jon Stewart – a lead advocate for veterans on the issue – took individual GOP senators to task for holding up a bill that had garnered wide bipartisan support in earlier votes.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell defended his party’s handling of the legislation at a news conference on Tuesday.

“Look, these kind of back and forths happen all the time in the legislative process, you’ve observed that over the years,” he said. “I think in the end, the veterans service organizations will be pleased with the final result.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments Tuesday.

Tags Chuck Schumer, demographic groups, government and public administration, government organizations - us, law, military, military veterans, mitch mcconnell, political figures - us, political organizations, politics, population and demographics, society, US Congress, us political parties, us republican party, us senate

White House admits Inflation Reduction Act will barely impact inflation

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 2, 2022
No Comments on White House admits Inflation Reduction Act will barely impact inflation

The $739 billion Democratic spending plan dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act will barely affect prices over the next decade, experts say — and even the White House admitted it Monday.

According to Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, the 725-page bill hammered out by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Joe Manchin (D-WV) would only lower the Consumer Price Index – a closely watched gauge that measures what consumers paid for goods and services –0.33% by 2031.

“Through the middle of this decade the impact of the legislation on inflation is marginal, but it becomes more meaningful later in the decade,” Zandi wrote.

Jesse Lee, a senior communications adviser to the National Economic Council, was quick to tout Zandi’s findingstweeting, “This is actually the overwhelming consensus.”

“White House officials’ own rosiest, best-case-scenario spin is that their ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ will have taken one third of one percentage point off inflation by nine years from now?” Andrew Quinn, a speechwriter for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), asked incredulously.

“White House comms spiking the ball over a bill that doesn’t reduce inflation until 9 years from now,” mocked Heritage Foundation spokesman Jon Cooper. “And keep in mind, this is obviously the best number they could come up with.”

The White House admitted the Inflation Reduction Act from Sens. Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer won't impact prices much over the next decade. — The White House admitted the Inflation Reduction Act from Sens. Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer won’t impact prices much over the next decade.

Schumer and Manchin have claimed the bill would reduce inflation by lowering prescription drug and energy costs while reducing the federal budget deficit through a 15% minimum tax on corporations that report income of at least $1 billion per year, and increased tax enforcement by the IRS, and increased tax enforcement by the IRS. taking a share of profits earned by general partners at private equity, hedge funds, and venture capital firms known as carried interest.

However, experts say the inflation cure prescribed by the Democrats is likely to be ineffective, and could be worse than the disease.

Alex Muresianu, a federal policy analyst with the Tax Foundation, told The Post on Monday that the corporate tax – also called the “book minimum tax” — would “reduce supply in the long-run by reducing incentives to invest, particularly for manufacturing firms .”

“Meanwhile, on the demand-side, by taking money out of the economy, tax increases in excess of the spending attached could reduce inflation incrementally, but there are a couple problems,” he added. “First, in the first couple years, the bill does not net reduce the deficit — most of the net reduction in the deficit over the ten-year window comes in later years.

Schumer and Manchin claimed the bill would lower prescription drug and energy costs.

“And second, the tax increases like the book minimum tax are not focused on taxpayers with high marginal propensity to consume, meaning the tax increase does not come with a particularly large reduction in aggregate demand.

“So, on the whole,” Muresianu concluded, “we should expect the bill to have a negligible impact on inflation. The Federal Reserve’s choices will play a much bigger role in whether or not inflation subsides than whether or not this bill passes.”

Levon Galstyan, a Certified Public Accountant with Jersey City-based Oak View Law Group, agreed, noting: The Inflation Reduction Act will shift resources through hundreds of billions of dollars in special-interest subsidies targeted to Democratic constituencies, further limiting supply through restrictions and tax increases.

“A deterrent to output would be that manufacturers would pay around half of all new levies,” Galstyan also told The Post. “The legislation would subject small businesses to a horde of tax enforcers, driving up prices and limiting their capacity to serve customers.”

According to Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, the bill would only lower the Consumer Price Index by 0.33% by 2031. — According to Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, the bill would only lower the Consumer Price Index by 0.33% by 2031.

Peter Morici, an economist and professor emeritus at the RH Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, also argued that there was almost no chance the legislation would reduce prices.

“One of the Fed bank presidents [Neel Kashkari of Minneapolis] came out [Sunday] morning … saying we’re going to get inflation down at 2%. If you believe that, then I want you to go to Yankee Stadium on Sunday afternoon and look for me playing shortstop,” Morici told The Post.

“I’m 73 years old. I was a pretty damn good middle infielder, but I didn’t have much of a career because I never could hit the breaking ball,” he added. “I mean, that’s as credible as I’m gonna play shortstop for the New York Yankees.”

Other experts have pointed out that the legislation fails to provide a long-term solution for bringing down inflation.

“Inflation results from deep-set, fundamental issues and this bill does nothing to address those factors,” said James Lucier, managing director at Washington-based policy research firm Capital Alpha.

Biden administration official Jesse Lee, a senior communications adviser to the National Economic Council, agreed with Zandi's findings. — Biden administration official Jesse Lee, a senior communications adviser to the National Economic Council, agreed with Zandi’s findings.

“Inflation will probably fix itself over a ten year period, if we’re lucky,” Lucier told The Post, labeling the supposed “anti-inflationary effects” of the legislation as “smoke and mirrors.”

Rather than bringing down prices, some of the economists suggested that federal tax credits for Americans to buy electric vehicles and the extension of ObamaCare subsidies would exacerbate the problem.

“They’re giving people money to buy electric vehicles. They’re in short supply. The lithium that goes into them is in short supply. That’s gonna raise the price of electric vehicles,” said Morici, who added that “additional subsidies to buy health insurance is not going to lower the cost of health insurance, it’s going to increase the price.”

“Many of the incentives that are in the bill tend to increase the price of components for products that go into the electrical grid and so forth,” Morici continued. “So it’s basically giving people money to chase products that are in short supply.”

Will McBride, VP of federal tax and economic policy at the Tax Foundation, echoed that concern, saying the ObamaCare subsidies would make “entitlement spending” worse.

“Essentially,” McBride said, “the value of the dollar is getting diminished as the federal government’s ability to repay its debt diminishes.”

Additional reporting by Lydia Moynihan and Ariel Zilber.

Tags Chuck Schumer, Congress, Economy, inflation, Joe Biden, joe manchin, News, senate, white house

Senate GOP argues data shows Schumer-Manchin deal raises taxes on earners under $400K

Post author By mangakiko
Post date August 1, 2022
No Comments on Senate GOP argues data shows Schumer-Manchin deal raises taxes on earners under $400K

The energy and healthcare deal from Sens. Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer would raise taxes on millions of Americans earning less than $400,000 annually, Senate Republican say, citing non-partisan data.

The Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation found that taxes would jump by $16.7 billion on American taxpayers making less than $200,000 in 2023 and raise another $14.1 billion on taxpayers who make between $200,000 and $500,000.

During the 10-year window, the average tax rate would go up for most income categories, the Senate GOP said, citing the data from the joint committee. And by 2031, new energy credits and subsidies would have people earning less than $400,000 pay as much as two-thirds of the additional tax revenue collected that year, the release said.

“Americans are already experiencing the consequences of Democrats’ reckless economic policies. The mislabeled ‘Inflation Reduction Act’ will do nothing to bring the economy out of stagnation and recession, but it will raise billions of dollars in taxes on Americans making less than $400,000,” said Sen. Mike Crapo, an Idaho Republican who sits on the Senate Finance Committee as a ranking member, and who requested the analysis.

“The more this bill is analyzed by impartial experts, the more we can see Democrats are trying to sell the American people a bill of goods,” Crapo added.

Chuck Schumer — The Manchin-Schumer plan would spend $369 billion on energy and climate initiatives.

But Democrats are objecting to the GOP’s assertions with a spokesperson for Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden stating families “will not pay one penny in additional taxes under this bill,” according to Politico.

The spokesperson, Ashley Schapitl, also said the JCT 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.

The Manchin-Schumer plan would spend $369 billion on energy and climate initiatives and another $64 billion to continue federal health insurance subsidies.

Joe Manchin — Manchin believes the bill is “not putting a burden on any taxpayers whatsoever.”

The measure would raise $739 billion over a ten-year span with much of that money coming from a 15% corporate minimum tax, the West Virginia Democrat and Senate Majority Leader from New York said.

Manchin, in touting the bill, said it “would dedicate hundreds of billions of dollars to deficit reduction by adopting a tax policy that protects small businesses and working-class Americans while ensuring that large corporations and the ultra-wealthy pay their fair share in taxes.” .”

He said on CNN Sunday the bill is “not putting a burden on any taxpayers whatsoever.”

On “Meet the Press” he said, “I agree with my Republican friends, we should not increase and we did not increase taxes.”

Tags Chuck Schumer, joe manchin, News, senate, tax

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