TAX CUT UPDATE
Tax cuts will be voted on next week and I believe that they will pass, it’s been a wakeup call for the GOP. If they don’t pass, the Republican Party is done.
The House Ways and Means Committee are currently on day four of the markups, the vote will take place once the markups have been completed. (There is no official time for this yet).The first step Thursday will be for the House Ways and Means Committee to wrap up debate on the markups after four days of deliberations.
The committee aims to approve the bill by the end of the day, paving the way for a vote in the full House next week.
The House GOP plan would permanently slash the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent with a separate 25 percent rate for small businesses. The plan would also take steps to make it harder for hedge funds and international corporations to avoid paying some U.S. taxes.
On the individual side, House Republicans plan to reduce the number of existing tax brackets from seven to four, while keeping a top tax rate of 39.6 percent for the highest earners. Under the plan, taxpayers would see their standard deduction double to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for families, a change Republicans say would cut taxes for the majority of taxpayers.
Democrats say most of the benefits in the bill would go to big businesses and a handful of very wealthy people. They point to a recent estimate from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation that found roughly 56 percent of taxpayers earning over $1 million a year would see a tax break of over $500 by 2025. More than half of those earning between $30,000 and $40,000 will see a tax break of under $100 that same year.
Update on the Senate tax cut:
Deficits will play an even bigger role in the tax debate in the Senate. Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee are expected to unveil their proposals late in the day Thursday with plans to begin hearings on the bill early next week.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told reporters earlier this week that he expectsthe bill will differ from the House legislation but did not say what changes would be included.
Unlike the House, Senate tax writers are required to make sure their tax bill loses a maximum of $1.5 trillion over a decade. That's because GOP leaders plan to take advantage of special Senate budget rules that allow some tax and spending legislation to pass with 51 votes instead of the 60 votes needed for most other legislation. That would allow Republicans, who control 52 votes in the Senate, to pass the legislation without the help of a single Democrat.
Senate leaders must carefully craft their bill to meet those strict deficit guidelines while still winning the votes of all but two of their members. If they succeed, the House and Senate would go on to negotiate a compromise bill that would need a second approval in both chambers before becoming law.
FUSION GPS
Glenn Simpson will testify behind closed doors next week. He will not take the fifth and will give detail into the Fusion GPS case. Simpson is a co-founder of the private investigation firm that commissioned a dossier of information on President Donald Trump and has agreed to be interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee, at least partially defusing a looming subpoena fight. A lawyer for Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson announced that, after appearing before a closed House Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday, Simpson would submit to a "voluntary interview" with the panel next week.
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER IS RACIST?
This is the most insane story that I’ve seen. The NAACP in California wants to remove the star-spangled banner because they say it’s racist.
Francis Scott Key, a poet, wrote 4 stanzas to memorialize the battle.
The California NAACP called for the dissolution of the United States national anthem on Tuesday in addition to pledging support for former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
California NAACP President Alice Huffman said, "This song is wrong; it shouldn't have been there.”
Huffman called certain lyrics in "The Star-Spangled Banner" racist and "anti-black." She was specifically referring to lyrics from the third verse that aren't typically sung, including, "no refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave."
What Huffman is getting wrong is that the Star-Spangled Banner is about the British attacking the United States during the war of 1812. Since the British were attacking us there was no refuge. So everyone was at risk. Huffman claims that’s the ‘racist’ part, but I’m not seeing it that way.
GUEST: JEANNE ZAINO TELLS US WHAT IT’S LIKE TEACHING A CLASS ABOUT THE NATIONAL ANTHEM:
I don’t see any racist element in the Star-Spangled Banner. The students in my classes have never even heard the 3rd stanza, but I think it’s important that we know all of them. I teach my class about the National Anthem and even the African American students didn’t see any racism in this. However, they said that banning the anthem won’t achieve anything.
The California NAACP is basically saying that Francis Scott Key is a racist. Students that I teach see this as a diversion as what we should really be talking about.
It obscures the analysis that could lead to racial change. This is making the NAACP look like radical loons. They want to demonize the United States as a country of white privilege.
The attempt to get rid of our National Anthem in this country is very shameful. I think we should be honest about our history, but we should be able to see it from both sides and have real conversations about it.
It would help to have a discussion and get to the root cause. I don’t like it to be sidelined by these smaller issues.
BERGDAHL FACES A PAYDAY?!
The Army may end up paying Pvt. Bowe Bergdahl about $300,000 in back pay that he earned while as a prisoner of the Taliban for nearly five years.
Bergdahl walked off of his base in June of 2009, and was set free as part of a prisoner swap in May of 2014.
While Bergdahl's release was initially celebrated, eventually he was charged to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. He pleaded guilty to both, but received no jail time. Instead, he was demoted from sergeant to private, fined, and received a dishonorable discharge.
Now, the Army is trying to figure out what, if anything, they owe Bergdahl in pay during his time in captivity. Typically, soldiers who are held captive receive extra compensation, but this situation is different given that he pleaded guilty to desertion.
My feelings are that Bergdahl got off easy. While he may be entitled to $150,000 to additional pay- he could get as much as $300,000 for back pay even though he was dishonorably discharged. Now, will he get the full amount? No, but will he get some money? Yes.
MAIL TIME!
- It’s great to be able to get updates daily by the No Spin News, so my left leaning family members keep telling me the Manafort indictment is going to be tied to Trump’s Russia collusion, is that true?
- Bill, love the podcast, a couple of questions…what is the status of the Clinton foundation? Are they still a money machine or have they been shut down?
- O’Reilly, did you really say the mass gun murders are the price of freedom? So, if some nut kills your family, what can you do? It’s the price of freedom. Is that how you feel? What an incredibly stupid thing to say. Republicans are destroying America.
WORD OF THE DAY: PECKSNIFFIAN |
