“Congressional Democrats are scrambling to find a path forward on ambitious voting rights proposals — and much of the rest of their agenda — after Senator Joe Manchin dug into his longtime position that legislation must include backing from Republicans to earn his vote.
The moderate Democrat from deep-red West Virginia wrote in a recent op-ed that he will only back election bills that gain at least one Republican colleague’s support, and that he will not vote to end the legislative filibuster, which requires Democrats to attract significant Republican support to pass most bills.
At one time, that position used to be a fairly conventional line in the sand. But given the current chasm between the parties, Manchin’s pronouncement could doom much of the Democratic agenda, including a massive infrastructure package and universal preschool, and has exposed tensions among Democrats over what compromising and bipartisanship even mean after the Capitol insurrection and the presidency of Donald Trump.
‘If we are going to shut down the Senate and not do anything big between now and the next election, we might as well hand the election over to Republicans,’ said Senator Christopher Murphy of Connecticut, a Democrat.” Read more at Boston Globe
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Set to embark on the first overseas trip of his term, President Joe Biden is eager to reassert the United States on the world stage, steadying European allies deeply shaken by his predecessor and pushing democracy as the only bulwark to rising forces of authoritarianism.
Biden has set the stakes for his eight-day trip in sweeping terms, believing that the West must publicly demonstrate it can compete economically with China as the world emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.
Building toward his trip-ending summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden will aim to reassure European capitals that the United States can once again be counted on as a dependable partner to thwart Moscow’s aggression both on their eastern front and their internet battlefields.” Read more at The Guardian
A tax-policy protest near a mansion owned by Jeff Bezos in Washington.Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
“It’s been a back-and-forth struggle over the course of American history: How much tax should the wealthy pay?
In colonial times, parts of the North taxed the rich more than Europe did, with Massachusetts going so far as to enact a wealth tax that covered financial holdings, land, jewelry and more. Southern colonies, by contrast, kept rates low and collection ineffectual, to prevent taxes from undermining slavery by eroding the wealth of slaveholders.
After the country’s founding, the low-tax advocates generally won out — until the 20th century, when soaring inequality, two wars and the Great Depression led Washington to create the world’s most progressive tax system. Then the situation flipped again, and top tax rates have plummeted over the last few decades.
Yesterday, the news organization ProPublica published a scoop, based on the tax returns of thousands of wealthy Americans, including Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. An anonymous source sent ProPublica the material after the organization had published articles about the I.R.S.’s lax enforcement of taxes on the wealthy. (Here’s ProPublica’s explanation of why it decided to publish the new story, despite privacy concerns.)
The tax returns offer details on a story that has long been clear: The wealthy now pay strikingly low tax rates.
To take one example, Bezos’s wealth soared by $120 billion from 2006 to 2018, and his federal taxes during that time amounted to only 1.09 percent of the wealth gain. The situation for the average household was radically different: Its taxes amounted to more than 100 percent of its wealth increase.
A central reason that very wealthy people can avoid taxes is that the U.S. system taxes only so-called realized gains — like wages or stock sales. But the wealthy often live off unrealized gains — in the form of stocks and other assets that grow more valuable over time. The wealthy borrow against these assets to pay for houses, islands and private planes and then use a variety of strategies to avoid paying taxes on the debt repayment.
One such strategy is waiting until after death to repay the loan — or what Edward McCaffery, a tax expert at the University of Southern California, calls ‘buy, borrow, die.’ Robert McClelland of the Tax Policy Center called it the main revelation of the ProPublica story.
All the while, the wealthy are often able to keep their taxable income low. In 2011, Bezos reported so little income that he qualified for — and claimed — a $4,000 child tax credit. In both 2016 and 2017, Carl Icahn, who’s a billionaire, paid no federal income taxes.
Legal tax avoidance by the wealthy has become more widespread over the past half-century for several reasons. For one, inequality has soared, meaning that the rich have more wealth to protect. And tax rates have fallen significantly.
‘It’s amazing how much we’ve cut taxes even since 1997 — on dividends, the estate tax threshold, capital gains and the top rate,’ Owen Zidar, a Princeton University economist, told me. ‘All of those things have become more favorable to the top of the distribution.’ The decline in the corporate tax rate — effectively a tax reduction for shareholders — has also been important.
You sometimes hear the cynical view that raising taxes on the wealthy is pointless, because they have the resources to evade any taxes the government tries to impose. But history suggests otherwise.
While some tax avoidance is inevitable, the federal government has largely succeeded in raising taxes when it has tried. The very richest Americans paid more than 50 percent of their income in federal taxes during the 1950s and ’60s (and were less successful at shielding their wealth from taxation). Today, that percentage has fallen below 30 percent.
There are three main ways to reverse the decline in tax payments by the wealthy, Gabriel Zucman of the University of California, Berkeley, said. One is a direct tax on wealth, like those proposed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Two is a tax on unrealized gains — assets that have become more valuable — as Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon has proposed. Three is an increase in corporate taxes, as President Biden favors. There are also more modest ideas, like a larger estate tax.
Societies can choose how much they do or don’t tax their wealthiest people, Zucman said. ‘For billionaires,’ he added, ‘the federal income tax — the pillar of the U.S. tax system — has become a voluntary tax.’” Read more at New York Times
“President Biden has ended infrastructure talks with a group of Republican senators after the two sides failed to reach an agreement, saying their proposal did not meet the country's needs. The administration is now shifting its efforts to a coming proposal from a bipartisan group of senators led by Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. But some Senate Democrats are frustrated that any deal reached by that group is unlikely to satisfy the majority of their caucus, and they are prepared to go it alone. While his legislative efforts stall at home, Biden is preparing to leave today for his first foreign trip as President -- where he'll meet with the UK Prime Minister, Turkish President and other world leaders.” Read more at CNN
“Americans can travel safely to more countries now, per CDC guidance. The agency issued new travel advice for more than 120 countries, moving 33 countries -- including Israel, Iceland and Singapore -- into its lowest risk category. Travel within Europe is set to become easier as well, with the European Union's launch of its EU Digital Covid Certificate. But just as we're beginning to emerge safer from the coronavirus, we now have to watch out for other infections. Experts say this coming flu season could be a doozy.” Read more at CNN
“Millions of J&J Covid-19 vaccines are at risk of expiring in June. Hospitals, state health departments and the federal government are racing to decide how to use up Johnson & Johnson doses that are set to expire this month. There are few practical solutions, according to those involved in the vaccination drive.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Democrats and Republicans in the Senate finally agreed on something: the need to keep the US competitive on the global stage. The Senate passed legislation aimed at countering China's growing economic influence by investing more than $200 billion in American technology, science and research. The bill includes more than $50 billion for the semiconductor industry, as well as investments in cybersecurity and biotechnology. It now must pass the House before going to Biden's desk for his signature.” Read more at CNN
“WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate report examining the security failures surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol says missed intelligence, poor planning and multiple layers of bureaucracy led to the violent siege. It does not fault former President Donald Trump, who told his supporters to ‘fight like hell’ to overturn his defeat just before hundreds of them stormed the building.
In an effort to be bipartisan — and to find quick agreement on security improvements to the Capitol — Senate Democrats wrote the report with their Republican counterparts and largely steered clear of addressing the former president’s role. The investigation by the two panels, the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Rules Committee, makes 20 recommendations for immediate security changes, including legislation to give the Capitol Police chief more authority, better training and equipment for law enforcement and an overhaul of the way intelligence is collected ahead of major events in Congress.” Read more at AP News
“Senate Republicans filibustered a bill that would have made it easier for women and L.G.B.T.Q. workers to sue for pay discrimination.” Read more at New York Times
“The Senate confirmed Biden’s first two nominees to federal courts.” Read more at New York Times
“Virginia Democrats chose former Gov. Terry McAuliffe as their candidate for governor. In New Jersey, Jack Ciattarelli, a moderate Republican, won his party’s gubernatorial primary.” Read more at New York Times
“Dark money groups tied to Donald Trump’s inner circle and backed by people who have spread baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election appear to be playing a key role in funding an unprecedented review of 2.1m ballots in Arizona.
Republicans in the Arizona state senate, which authorized the inquiry, allocated $150,000 in state funds to pay for it – just a fraction of the projected overall cost, which is still unknown. The state senate had enough money in its operating budget to pay for the investigation, the Arizona Mirror reported in April, but chose not to pay the full price.
Instead, the effort is being paid for by private donors, who remain hidden from the public, according to a review by OpenSecrets and the Guardian. Arizona Republicans and Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based company overseeing the review, have refused to say who is providing the rest of the money.
‘It is wholly inappropriate that the Arizona state senate is hiding the mechanisms by which their sanctioned activity is being funded,’ said Adrian Fontes, a Democrat who served as the top election official in Maricopa county, the target of the ballot review, until he lost his re-election bid last year. ‘The lack of transparency there is just grotesque.’” Read more at The Guardian
“Idaho’s Republican lieutenant governor and gubernatorial candidate, Janice McGeachin, attended a gathering where she was endorsed in a glowing introductory speech by a rightwing militia leader, as revealed in a video obtained by the Guardian.
The video shows Eric Parker, who was charged over his role in the standoff in 2014 at Bundy Ranch in New Mexico where he was pictured pointing an assault rifle at federal agents, reminding McGeachin that she told him at an earlier meeting that ‘if I get in, you’re going to have a friend in the governor’s office.’In the same speech, Parker tells the small audience that when he sought McGeachin’s assistance in the case of Todd Engel, another Bundy Ranch attendee who was sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2019, he showed her sealed evidence from the trial.
He recalled saying to her: ‘I’m not sure this is legal’ and that she replied: ‘I want to see it,’ after which time he said she ‘started writing letters to the Department of Justice’ and ‘rallying support’ on behalf of the imprisoned man.Parker posted the speech video on his Telegram channel on 19 May, the same day that McGeachin publicly announced her candidacy for governor, where she may be up against the incumbent, fellow Republican Brad Little, who is yet to clarify his intentions.” Read more at The Guardian
“Lives Lived: Douglas Cramer produced some of the most successful television shows of the 20th century, including ‘Dynasty’ and ‘The Love Boat.’ He died at 89.” Read more at New York Times
“‘No Quit Noles’: The Florida State softball team is one win away from a second national title in four years after beating No. 1 Oklahoma in Game 1 of the best-of-three series 8-4 Tuesday. Game 2 is Wednesday night.” Read more at USA Today
“The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has prompted more speculation about his health after recent photographs suggested he had lost weight.
Kim, whose heavy frame has drawn global interest since he became the country’s leader almost a decade ago, looked noticeably trimmer in images released by state media on Saturday, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
NK News, which analysed photos of Kim addressing a ruling party politburo meeting late last week – his first public appearance for a month – said he appeared to have lost a “significant amount of weight”.
On Tuesday the Seoul-based website published enlarged images suggesting that Kim, who is believed to be 37, had tightened the strap on his favourite watch, reportedly worth $12,000.
The photos appear to show that his left wrist is considerably thinner than in similar images taken in November 2020 and March this year.
Kim, a heavy smoker whose father, Kim Jong-il, died from a suspected heart attack in December 2011, has struggled with health conditions observers attribute to his weight and lifestyle.
South Korea’s national intelligence service told MPs last year it believed Kim weighed 140kg (22st) and had gained an average of 6-7kg a year since coming to power in late 2011, NK News said.
It was not clear from the website’s report if Kim’s altered appearance was the result of illness or a conscious decision to lose weight.” Read more at The Guardian
Photo: BFM TV via AP France
“President Emmanuel Macron (white shirt) was slapped by the man in the green T-shirt during a visit to Tain-l’Hermitage.
Someone can be heard shouting ‘Down with Macronism,’ and a ‘medieval battle cry associated with fringe right-wingers who want France to return to being a monarchy,’ Agence France-Presse reports.
The big picture: ‘The incident took place in a tense and increasingly polarised political climate in France, weeks ahead of regional elections and less than a year before presidential polls.’” Read more at Axios
“BUCARAMANGA, Colombia (AP) — An international monitoring group on Wednesday accused police officers in Colombia of responsibility for the deaths of 20 people and other violent actions against protesters during recent civil unrest, including sexual abuse, beatings and arbitrary detentions.
Human Rights Watch said in a report said it has ‘credible evidence’ indicating police killed at least 16 protesters or bystanders with ‘live ammunition fired from firearms,’ while three other people died when police used non-lethal weapons. The report said another person died after being beaten repeatedly.” Read more at AP News
“The United Nations estimates 100,000 people in Myanmar's borderlands have been displaced by fighting that includes attacks by security forces in civilian areas. The country has been in a state of unrest since a military coup in February, with daily protests and fighting between the military and ethnic minority militias. People who have fled Kayah state, which borders Thailand, urgently need shelter, food, water and health care, according to the UN, and the organization urged security forces to let aid workers and supplies through. Thailand, which fears a flood of refugees, is concerned about the fighting and is urging the military government to restore democracy, as per a plan agreed upon by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.” Read more at CNN
“Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic group from northwest China, are allegedly being detained and deported at China's request in three major Arab countries: Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Rights groups have documented several cases of Uyghur disappearances in the last few years, and families of those deported fear their loved ones have ended up among the estimated 2 million Uyghurs who have been sent to internment camps. Even as Western nations condemn China's treatment of Uyghurs, activists fear that countries in the Middle East and beyond will be willing to acquiesce to Beijing's crackdown on members of the ethnic group.” Read more at CNN
“39 — The number of people killed in mass shootings in the U.S. from March through May. After nearly a year of no shootings in public places that killed four or more people, the five attacks since March 16 matched the highest three-month total since 1966.
$57 billion — The amount of money that Ørsted, the world’s largest developer of offshore wind energy, plans to invest in wind energy by 2027. Ørsted, which began as a Danish state-owned oil-and-gas company, is one of the few to make a complete transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Its experience is a case study of the challenges facing oil majors as they seek to make the same pivot.
27 million — The approximate number of messages monitored by the FBI as part of an investigation into international crime organizations spanning more than 100 countries. ‘Operation Trojan Shield’ secretly ran an encrypted-messaging platform that was used by criminals who thought they were communicating securely.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Global inequality is getting worse, with lack of vaccine access playing a role.
The global economy is set to grow by 5.6% this year, marking the fastest recovery in more than 80 years. Much of that growth, however, is set to come from the 90% of developed economies expected to regain their pre-pandemic per-capita income levels by next year. Only about one-third of developing or emerging-market nations are likely to do so, suggesting that global inequality is likely to continue to widen in part because of uneven vaccine distribution. While the U.S. (projected at 6.8% this year), China (8.5%), India (8.3%) and the eurozone (4.2%) are all set to see significant growth after last year's 3.5% global contraction, the World Bank has cut its forecast for low-income countries. Those with an annual gross national income per capita of $1,035 or less are expected to grow 2.9% this year. ‘While there are welcome signs of global recovery, the pandemic continues to inflict poverty and inequality on people in developing countries around the world,’ said David Malpass, president of the World Bank Group.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Biogen's controversial new FDA-approved drugfor Alzheimer's, a disease 500,000 Americans are diagnosed with each year, will cost $56,000 annually, Axios health care editor Tina Reed writes.
If half of the newly eligible Americans in a year began treatment with Aduhelm, the cost would be $14 billion — roughly equivalent to Medicare Part B spending in 2019 on the next 8 products combined, per a Bernstein analysis.
Why it matters: It's experts' nightmare drug-spending scenario — an extremely expensive product that millions of desperate patients could be eligible for. And it may not even work.
The numbers alone could give new ammunition to advocates who argue that drug prices are too high and should be limited.” Read more at Axios