U.S. Politics

[Rick Plant]

"This afternoon, I took a virtual tour of two Siemens facilities — one in California and one in Texas. Because of the investments our infrastructure law delivers, Siemens is upgrading and expanding these facilities — creating 300 new good-paying jobs."- President Joe Biden

[Rick Plant]

"The Blatnik Bridge connects Wisconsin and Minnesota — and is one of the most important bridges in the region. Bridges like this are critical to our economy and keep us connected. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will invest in fixing over 15,000 bridges." - President Joe Biden

[Rick Plant]

Trump-backed Arizona candidate threatens Australian journalist: ‘Your days are numbered’



Kari Lake, the Trump-endorsed candidate for Arizona governor, has made international news for her ongoing denial of the fact Donald Trump lost both her state and the country in the 2020 election.

Lake is featured in a new "60 Minutes" Australia exposé on the former president and his supporters.

"On '60 Minutes,' Donald Trump eyes off another go at the top job," the narrator says in a new tease of the program. "Only this time, he and his followers, aren't taking no for an answer."

The preview features Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland during the Trump administration. Taylor argued that the MAGA movement is "the biggest cult phenomenon in western history."

The video features Lake, a former local Fox broadcaster, threatening an interviewer while walking off set.

"You want to keep pushing propaganda, your days are numbered," said conspiracy theorist said, whom CNN has described as a "serial promoter of election lies."

Watch:

[Rick Plant]

The GOP plan is to raise taxes on Americans, cut social security, and gut their healthcare. It's the "Tax and Gut" GOP plan! 

RICK SCOTT’S “11 POINT PLAN TO RESCUE AMERICA” WILL RAISE TAXES ON AMERICANS AND CUT SOCIAL SECURITY



Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), a multimillionaire member of the Senate GOP leadership and chair of its election committee, has released his “11 Point Plan to Rescue America” that he says Republicans will pursue if they win back power. It’s no surprise that it recycles many of the worst GOP ideas over the years and attacks working families while protecting corporate tax cuts and billionaire tax cheats.

Toplines:

- The Republican leadership plan shows once again that they are on the side of the wealthy and corporations, rather than here to help working families. Their plan will raise taxes on 100 million Americans, most of them of moderate means.

- Under the GOP plan working families will pay $100 billion more in federal income taxes this year alone. Those making less than about $27,000 annually—would pay an average of nearly $1,000 more in taxes in 2022. Low-income families with children would see their after tax incomes slashed by more than $5,000 – about 20%.

- Meanwhile the GOP plan will not require the rich and corporations to pay a dime more in taxes. Not one tax loophole benefiting the rich and corporations will be closed. Not one billionaire will pay more in taxes. We need to create a tax system where the wealthy and corporations start paying their fair share of taxes like the rest of us do.

RAISING TAXES ON WORKING FAMILIES

- The GOP plan calls for raising taxes on 100 million low- and moderate-income Americans, while making it easier for billionaires and huge corporations to evade paying their fair share.

- It would increase federal income taxes by more than $100 billion this year alone. More than 80% of the tax increase would be paid by households making about $54,000 or less. 97% would be paid by those making less than about $100,000. [Tax Policy Center]

- Working families struggling to pay their bills already pay a larger share of their income in federal and state taxes compared with the wealthy. They pay Social Security and Medicare  payroll taxes, federal excise taxes like the gas tax, and state and local taxes. But the head of the Republican Senate campaign committee thinks they should pay even more.

- Requiring everyone to pay some federal income taxes would mean that low-income households would no longer receive much benefit from tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit, which rewards work, and the Child Tax Credit, which helps lift families with children out of poverty. These credits are fully or partially ‘refundable’ which means that even a family whose tax liability is zero, can still get a refund back at tax time. For example, if the credit is worth $600 and the family’s tax is $400, they would get a $200 check. Under the GOP plan, they would owe $100.

- The plan would also reduce the value of the standard deduction for millions of low- and middle-income households, requiring them to pay a lot more in taxes. Low-income households making less than about $27,000 a year would pay about $1,000 more in taxes in 2022, on average. Low-income families with children would see their after tax incomes slashed by more than $5,000 – about 20%. [Tax Policy Center]

- McConnell has tried to deny that the GOP would raise taxes on the most vulnerable half of the country if given the chance, but his record gives the American people little reason to trust him. So long as McConnell continues to hide what he’ll do if he regains power, the Scott plan is the only insight we have for the whole Senate GOP.

PROTECTING WEALTHY TAX CHEATS

- The GOP plan seeks to defund the IRS, the cop on the beat trying to prevent the wealthy and corporations from evading their taxes. The nation’s richest 1% evade $160 billion in lawfully owed taxes every year.

- Yet, the GOP plan would slash the IRS budget in half. Because the GOP slashed funding for the IRS, between 2010 and 2019 IRS audit rates of millionaires declined by 71% and of large corporations by 54%.

PROTECTING EXTREME WEALTH CONCENTRATION

- The Senate GOP leadership’s 31-page plan makes no mention of closing the gaping loopholes in the tax code that allow billionaires and huge corporations to legally dodge their taxes, or that encourage multinational corporations to move jobs and profits offshore.

- In several recent years, billionaires such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett and Michael Bloomberg, have paid zero federal income taxes.

- In the three years since passage of the Trump-GOP tax scam in 2017, which mostly cut taxes for the rich and corporations, 39 big corporations—including FedEx and T-Mobile—paid zero federal income taxes, despite over $120 billion in collective profits.

CUTTING BENEFITS AND SERVICES

- The GOP’s reckless, radical plan appears to promote the end of federal guarantees of vital services like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits, clean air and water. Under this plan, the GOP would abandon Americans to corporations and local governments with a long history of profiteering and discrimination, and even make it easier to hide the racist impact of public programs and practices.

- As with every other GOP plan in recent memory, this one claims to balance the budget and reduce debt—but not by catching rich tax cheats or stopping billionaires and big firms from paying little or nothing. Instead, the GOP once again plans to cut services and benefits that working families depend on. We’ve seen this GOP playbook over and over again.

- The GOP plan would make it harder for the federal government to respond to national disasters like the coronavirus, the 2008 financial crisis and climate catastrophes. As was shown during the pandemic, robust federal action is often the only way to keep workers employed, families fed and housed, and the economy afloat in times of national emergency. Choking off federal resources would leave Americans without help when they need it most.

SOCIAL MEDIA MESSAGING



When @SenRickScott says “all Americans should pay some income tax” does he mean the billionaires who routinely pay nothing, or does he just mean the lowest-income Americans he considers “moochers?” Asking for a friend.

Once and for all, the 47% of Americans who have  too little income to pay federal income taxes aren’t “moochers.” The billionaires and their billion-dollar corporations who pay $0 in federal income taxes are.

“Billionaires got $2.1 trillion richer during the pandemic”
“Billionaires pay an effective tax rate of just 8.2%”
“Corporations see fattest profit margins since 1950”
“55 Fortune 500 companies paid $0 federal income tax”

Republicans: *raise taxes on 100 million lower-income Americans*

https://americansfortaxfairness.org/issue/talking-points-rick-scotts-11-point-plan-rescue-america/


Johnson backs Scott: Calls plan to raise taxes and cut social security “A positive thing”

Today, during a Breitbart News Daily interview, Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson agreed with “most of” NRSC Chair Rick Scott’s 11 point plan to raise taxes on half of all Americans, while also cutting Social Security and Medicare, calling it “a positive thing.”

According to the Associated Press, Scott’s “11-point plan [would] would impose a modest tax increase for many of the lowest paid Americans, while opening the door for cutting Social Security and Medicare.” Already, the new Republican agenda has put GOP candidates in tight positions, especially in Ohio, Wisconsin, and Florida, and highlighted the “growing civil war” within the GOP.

Scott’s plan is facing fierce backlash and Johnson — who last month told Wisconsin workers he “wouldn’t insert [him]self” to fight for jobs in his own hometown and was caught complaining that he’s “only doubled” his wealth as a U.S. Senator — will now have to explain to voters why he thinks we should raise taxes on seniors and sunset entitlement programs millions of Wisconsinites rely on.

https://www.wispolitics.com/2022/american-bridge-johnson-backs-scott-calls-plan-to-raise-taxes-and-cut-social-security-a-positive-thing/

[Rick Plant]

Revealed: New GOP plan to raise taxes on working people and end Social Security



They’re at it again: Republicans want to raise taxes on poor and working-class Americans, end Social Security and Medicare, jack up pollution and corporate profits, all while continuing to pamper their billionaire donor base.

This time it’s the guy in charge of getting Republican senators elected and re-elected, Florida’s Senator Rick Scott.

You may remember him as the guy who ran the company convicted of the largest Medicare fraud in the history of America, who then took his money and ran for Governor of Florida, where he prevented the state from expanding Medicaid for low-income Floridians for all the years he ran the state.

Now he’s the second-richest guy in the senate and, IMHO, the leading candidate for the GOP nomination for president in 2024. And, true to form, he’s echoing the sentiments of the richest guy in the Senate, Mitt Romney, the last guy before Trump to have that nomination.

“There are 47 percent who are with him,” Romney said of Obama voters back in 2012, “who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you name it. These are people who pay no income tax.”

Low income working people in America generally pay a higher percentage of their income as taxes than do most of our billionaires and multi-multi-millionaires. They pay Social Security taxes, Medicare taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, taxes in the form of fees for everything from a driver’s license to road tolls to annual car inspections.

As Romney pointed out, though, about 47 percent of Americans in 2012 made so little money that, after applying the standard deduction, they paid no income tax.

This doesn’t just reveal how few people pay taxes, though. To the contrary, it reveals how many Americans are living in or on the edge of poverty.

The simple reality is if you want more people to pay income taxes, all you have to do is raise working people’s pay. We saw this in a big way between 1950 and 1980, when Keynesian economics reigned and labor unions helped wages — and the taxes they paid — steadily rise for working people.

But Republicans don’t like the idea of what they call “wage inflation.” They’d rather just squeeze working people harder, while continuing their subsidies of the lifestyles of the morbidly rich “donor class.”

More than half of Americans make so little money from their employment that they can’t deal with an unexpected $1000 expense like a car accident or medical bill. And it’s these very people who Rick Scott and the GOP believe need to be further taxed so they’ll have what Scott calls “skin in the game.”

In the early years of the Reagan administration, before his neoliberal “trickle down” and “supply side” policies started to really bite Americans, only 18 percent of Americans were so poor that their income didn’t qualify to be taxed.

As “Right to Work for Less” laws spread across America and Republicans on the Supreme Court made it harder for unions to function, more and more working people fell below the tax threshold.

Today it takes two working adults to maintain the same lifestyle that one worker could provide in 1980, so an estimated 61 percent of working Americans this year will make so little pay that their income isn’t subject to taxation.

Rick Scott and the GOP’s solution to this situation isn’t to raise the income of working-class people. Quite to the contrary, they’re suggesting that low-income people should be hit with their very own income tax — in addition to the dozens of other taxes they’re already paying — all so multimillionaires and billionaires like Scott and his friends can hope to see their own taxes go down a tiny bit.

Doing his best imitation of Newt Gingrich, Scott has rolled out his 11-point-plan to soak the American middle class, lock down elections, destroy consumer protections, increase pollution and climate change, and squeeze a few more dollars out of every family, no matter how tight their budgets may already be.

Scott calls that “rescuing America.” And it may be true, if you’re morbidly rich and made your money spewing pollution or hustling opioids.

His plan not only calls for a 50 percent cut in the IRS workforce, presumably to end all audits of rich people like Scott, but also demands all federal legislation to “sunset” within five years. That would almost certainly end Social Security and Medicare, programs that have been in the crosshairs of Republicans since Reagan’s day.

Realizing how “raising taxes on 60% of American voters” will play in campaign ads, Mitch McConnell has backed away from Scott’s bizarre proposal. But Fox “News” is all over it, inviting Scott on repeatedly to hawk his plan and prepare the ground for his candidacy. After all, billionaires like Rupert Murdoch and his family need their tax breaks!

As Sean Hannity told Scott during a recent appearance, “I want to applaud you. I'd like to see the House and the Senate come together on these issues, make these promises to the American people, get elected and then fulfill those promises.”

No doubt multi-millionaire Hannity was speaking his own truth. But for the majority of Americans who are so poor they barely have to pay income taxes, Scott’s plan is just the latest in a 40-year barrage of assaults and insults coming from the GOP.

https://www.rawstory.com/revealed-new-gop-plan-to-raise-taxes-on-working-people-end-social-security-medicare/

[Rick Plant]

Senate votes to make daylight saving time permanent
Daylight saving time began Sunday and runs through Nov. 6.

WASHINGTON — The Senate approved legislation Tuesday that would make daylight saving time permanent in the U.S. starting next year.

The bill, called The Sunshine Protection Act, was passed by unanimous consent, meaning no senators opposed it. If it is enacted, Americans would no longer need to change their clocks twice a year.

"We got it past the Senate, and now the clock is ticking to get the job done so we never have to switch our clocks again,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said on the Senate floor. “So I urge my colleagues in the House to act as swiftly as the Senate — let’s get this bill on President Biden’s desk and deliver more sunshine to Americans across the country.”

Daylight saving time started in the U.S. in 1918 to create more daylight hours during warmer months. It was extended by four weeks starting in 2007. States are not required to follow daylight saving time — Hawaii and most of Arizona do not observe it.

Under the legislation, states with areas exempt from daylight saving time would be permitted to choose standard time for those areas.

"It’s time for Congress to take up our bipartisan legislation to make Daylight Saving Time permanent and brighten the coldest months with an extra hour of afternoon sun," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., a co-sponsor of the legislation, said in a tweet.

Whitehouse reintroduced the measure last week with Sens. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., James Lankford, R-Okla., Roy Blunt, R-Mo., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Ed Markey, D-Mass.

The bill now heads to the House, where passage would send it to President Joe Biden's desk. Daylight saving time began Sunday and lasts until Nov. 6.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/senate-passes-bill-making-daylight-saving-time-permanent-rcna20158

[Rick Plant]

Biden signs government funding bill that includes $13.6 billion in Ukraine aid

President Joe Biden signed a funding bill to keep the government running through September and send $13.6 billion in aid to Ukraine.

The money for Ukraine will go both to helping refugees fleeing Russia’s invasion and to defensive equipment and training for the country’s military.

Biden is set to travel to Brussels next month for a summit among NATO leaders.


President Joe Biden, center, signs H.R. 2471, the “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022,” in the Indian Treaty Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, March 15, 2022.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a $1.5 trillion bill that funds federal operations through September and sends billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine as the country fights off a Russian invasion.

Washington had to approve a spending plan by the end of the day to prevent a government shutdown.

The bill includes $13.6 billion for assistance to Ukraine, which fits into a broader U.S. effort to bolster Ukrainian defense, hamper Russia’s economy and support civilians displaced by the war. The money will fund defensive military equipment and training, along with aid for Ukrainian refugees both within the country and in neighboring nations.

“We’re moving further to augment support to the brave people of Ukraine as they defend their country,” Biden said Tuesday before he signed the bill. He added that the U.S. will be “better positioned to provide for the rapidly growing humanitarian need of the Ukrainian people.”

Biden signed the bill shortly after the White House announced he would travel to Brussels this month for an extraordinary summit about Russia’s attack on Ukraine. He also approved the funding hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s planned address to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday morning.

While the bill includes critical funding for U.S. efforts in Ukraine, it also stamps out some risks in the U.S. for now. The federal government will avoid a shutdown, which can damage the economy and put many federal employees out of work temporarily.

The bill provides enough money to cover federal spending through the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30 after Congress passed multiple stopgap plans to keep the lights on in recent months.

Lawmakers will have to approve another funding bill later this year as the midterm elections approach.

The funding legislation did not include $15.6 billion in supplemental coronavirus relief that was originally tucked into the plan. The White House has warned its efforts to curb and treat infections will suffer if Congress does not approve more aid.

While the Democratic-held House could pass more pandemic relief money, Senate Republicans may block it from getting to Biden’s desk.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/15/biden-signs-government-funding-bill-with-ukraine-aid.html


White House says U.S. will run out of money to fight pandemic if Congress doesn’t pass Covid funding bill

The White House is urging Congress to pass $22.5 billion in Covid spending, warning that the U.S. is running out of money to fight the virus.

House Democrats last week stripped $15 billion in Covid funding from a broader spending bill after failing to reach a bipartisan agreement with Republicans.

The White House said the U.S. will not have enough money for booster shots, antiviral pills, monoclonal antibodies and robust testing if Congress fails to approve more funding.



The White House on Tuesday warned the U.S. won’t have enough booster shots and lifesaving Covid treatments for Americans if Congress fails to pass $22.5 billion in additional pandemic funding.

Senior Biden administration officials, on a call with reporters, said the U.S. could face another wave of Covid infections in the coming months, even as new cases and hospitalizations have dramatically declined from the peak of the unprecedented omicron surge in January. Infections are already on the rise again in major European nations, such as the U.K. and Germany. China is battling its worst outbreak since 2020.

The officials warned the funding is urgently needed to get ahead of another Covid wave. House Democrats last week stripped $15 billion in coronavirus funding, which was already less than Biden requested, from a broader spending bill after failing to reach a bipartisan agreement with Republicans. The GOP has insisted that Congress offset new Covid money by cutting funds for state and local governments allocated for the spring, a demand many Democrats were unwilling to accept.

The senior administration officials told reporters the federal government will not be able to purchase enough booster shots, vaccines that target specific variants or more antiviral pills beyond the 20 million already on order from Pfizer if more funding isn’t approved.

There is also no more funding for additional monoclonal antibody treatments, including an order planned for March 25, the officials said. If more funding doesn’t come through, the federal government will have to cut state allocations of monoclonal antibodies by more than 30% starting next week, they said.

The federal government will also not be able to maintain sufficient Covid testing capacity beyond June in the event of another surge, the officials said. During the omicron wave, there was a run on at-home tests and in-person clinics, resulting in hourslong lines and empty pharmacy shelves.

Uninsured people will also no longer have coverage for Covid testing and treatments, according to the White House. The fund that covers them will stop accepting new claims a week from now, forcing health-care providers to either absorb the costs or turn patients away, the officials said. The fund will completely end in early April and the uninsured will no longer have coverage for vaccinations, they said.

Some investments made in surveillance of new Covid variants will also have to be wound down, the officials said, leaving the U.S. without the capabilities it needs to stay on top of how the virus is evolving. The emergence of the highly mutated omicron variant blindsided the U.S. and much of the world in November.

The White House said the money is also needed to fund the development of a vaccine that covers a range of Covid variants, and support the administration’s efforts to help increase the vaccination rate in developing nations. Without the money, the risk will rise that new variants will emerge, the officials said. Omicron emerged in South Africa and Botswana, and the delta variant was first identified in India.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/15/covid-white-house-says-us-will-run-out-of-money-to-fight-pandemic-.html


Biden heading to Brussels for NATO meeting

U.S. President Joe Biden plans to travel to Brussels next week to meet with NATO allies about bolstering support for Ukraine as it fights to fend off Russia’s unprovoked attack.

The “extraordinary summit” on March 24 will bring together North American and European leaders to discuss “further strengthening NATO’s deterrence & defence,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.

The alliance is expected to call on its military commanders Wednesday to send more troops and missile defenses to eastern Europe, Reuters reported. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also scheduled to address U.S. lawmakers Wednesday morning.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/15/russia-ukraine-live-updates.html