Democrats are likely to prove successful in raising individual income tax rates and stepping up the scrutiny of wealthy Americans as they work on revising US tax law in the coming months.
This is a key finding from a survey of 15 current and former White House and Congress employees who specialize in tax policy that Bloomberg completed this month. A tax on unrealized capital gains as envisaged by the Senate CFO Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Was considered impossible to get through Congress, the poll found.
President Joe Biden plans what would mean the biggest tax hike since 1993 to help fund infrastructure, energy and social initiatives as part of his longer-term follow-up to the $ 1.9 trillion pandemic relief package. Faced with Republican opposition, Democrats need to secure the support of their moderate members in the 50:50 Senate, making it politically difficult to pull the tax program together.
“There’s a pretty strong consensus on taxing the rich and corporations more heavily – but pretty strong consensus means you have to get all 50,” said Steven Rosenthal, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and former attorney for the Joint Committee on Taxes. “Tax increases are difficult, even good tax increases. Tax increases hurt some people. “
Increasing corporate tax, which was supposed to be an integral part of the Biden Plan, was seen as slightly more difficult than increasing the individual rates, with the expanded land levies just behind. The most likely tax change of all, according to the experts, is an increase in lending to families, which would increase the overall cost of the program. Read more from Laura Davison.
Done on the hill
Click here for a full list of today’s hearings and markups.
Pelosi could revive drug prices in the infrastructure package: House spokesman Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Said yesterday that Democrats are discussing adding a provision in upcoming infrastructure legislation that would allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices. This would take a huge bite out of the drug companies but help meet the cost of expanded health programs. This would allow the government to use its purchasing power to negotiate with drug manufacturers to reduce the cost of the Medicare program. Pelosi cited estimates from the Congressional Budget Office for an earlier bill tabled by Democrats but never passed by Congress that negotiating drug prices would save the federal government $ 456 billion over a decade. Read more from Steven T. Dennis and Alex Ruoff.
Democrats step back on vows to fire Biden candidates: Two Democratic senators rejected a threat to vote against all Biden candidates who are white and straight after receiving assurances that his government was stepping up its candidate selection efforts for Asian American or Pacific Islanders. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (Fig.) Was made by Sen. Mazie Hirono (Hawaii). Loss of their votes could jeopardize the confirmation of the Biden candidates in an evenly divided Senate.
But Duckworth’s office said in a statement released last night that it “appreciates the assurances made by the Biden administration that it will do much more to improve the AAPI’s voices and prospects at the highest levels of government, including appointment a senior AAPI White House official who represents the community, secure confirmation of AAPI appointments and make policy proposals that are relevant and important to the community. Read more from Laura Litvan.
Equal pay litigation persists in the face of political pressure: Equal pay litigation is likely to grow with increasing momentum across the country to pass more stringent laws and increase government enforcement to narrow the persistent wage gap for women and people of color said lawyers and scientists. The federal and state legislature has already submitted proposals aimed at promoting the transparency of pay, removing obstacles to wage distortion lawsuits and strengthening the policy for paid leave. The House Oversight and Reform Committee will meet today on this year’s Equal Pay Day to highlight the pay gap. Read more from Erin Mulvaney and Paige Smith.
McCollum Seeks to Restrict Use of the Pentagon War Account: The practice of increasing funding within the accounts for emergency overseas operations must be curtailed, Rep said. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense of the Resources. Democrats and Republicans have criticized the OCO account as a “slush fund” that contains funds that should be spent as part of the regular Pentagon budget – rather than emergency war spending to deal with unpredictable scenarios and expenses. Read more from Roxana Tiron.
Vilsack pushed for a “deterioration” in trade relations between Mexico: House Republicans from farm states called on the White House to persevere in enforcing trade deals with Mexico. Nearly 30 food and agriculture associations, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the North American Meat Institute, wrote to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai that trade relations with Mexico are “rapidly deteriorating”. Read more from Megan U. Boyanton.
Trump Bias Rule is seldom challenged by Mountain Democrats: The Chairs of the Senate and House Working Committees have repealed a rule regulating how employers can resolve workplace bias claims. This appears to be the first attempt by the Democrats since regaining control of the Senate to reverse a ruling introduced towards the end of the Trump administration. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) And Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) Submit resolutions to reject the “arbitration rule” of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission through the Congressional Review Act. Read more from Paige Smith and Courtney Rozen.
Investigation of slim GOP win in Iowa hits nerves: Republicans urge Pelosi to suspend efforts by a committee to investigate a state-approved Iowa election that the Democratic candidate lost by six votes, even worried some Democrats after the riot has on the 2020 presidential election. The House Administration Committee is currently examining Democratic Rita Hart’s call for a six-vote win in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, the state-certified GOP winner of this race. Read more from Billy House.
Migrant surge from Trump worsened
The Trump Homeland Security Department has been criticized by an agency watchdog for abandoning plans to deal with a surge in migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border – decisions that are now echoing through Biden’s response to a new surge. Trump’s DHS ignored an agency’s plan to respond to a surge that resulted in an overwhelmed system and detainees held in facilities for more than 72 hours, the Homeland Security inspector general said. Read more from Shaun Courtney.
Separately, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard and high-ranking US officials discussed at a meeting in Mexico City yesterday how to resolve an increasingly dire situation on their border. The White House sent senior Latin American officials, Roberta Jacobson and Juan Gonzalez, to Mexico as a flood of migrants, especially unaccompanied children, shows no sign of subsiding on the U.S.-Mexico border. Democrats and Republicans in Congress have urged Biden to take action to deal with a full blown humanitarian crisis. Read more from Max de Haldevang and Jordan Fabian.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris plan to meet with Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and immigration advisers at 2 p.m. today at the White House.
All about administration
Murthy wins confirmation for the second stint: The Senate approved the appointment of Vivek Murthy as general surgeon from 57-43. The vote came six days after the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions voted to move forward with its nomination. Shira Stein reports that his nomination received non-partisan support from members of the panel.
Biden uses DPA for corner vaccine market: The US has injected more than a quarter of the world’s coronavirus vaccine doses to date, thanks to two presidents who share only one strategy to corner domestic production of shots using a 70-year-old law so far this has prevented export. The US, first under Donald Trump and then under Biden, agreed early on to purchase all of Pfizer and Moderna’s well-known US production for the coming months in order to secure hundreds of millions of cans for American weapons. The nationalist approach of Biden and Trump has been criticized by some allies and public health experts. Read more from Josh Wingrove.
China Beats US Allies: This week, Biden redeemed his election promise to work more with allies to put pressure on China and coordinate with US partners to impose sanctions on alleged human rights abuses in Xinjiang. China wasted no time on Monday evening and immediately responded with mutual sanctions against European Union officials while calling the bloc’s ambassador to China. Those affected included politicians in a number of countries, one of the EU’s most important foreign policy bodies and Europe’s largest research institute with a focus on China. Continue reading.
US says North Korea tested short-range system: US officials said North Korea tested a short-range weapon system over the weekend but provided few details and downplayed the importance of the test. And North Korea’s actions did not specifically violate United Nations sanctions, officials told reporters, adding that more details have been classified. The officials described the activity as relatively low. Read more from Josh Wingrove.
Insurrectionary judge beats up US 60-minute interview: A federal judge responsible for one of the most prominent cases arising from the January 6th Capitol riot reprimanded the Justice Department for publicly discussing its investigation. “These defendants are entitled to a fair trial that is not carried out in the media,” said US District Judge Amit Mehta yesterday after the former US attorney appeared in Washington on the newscast “60 Minutes” to comment on the investigation to take. Read more from David Yaffe-Bellany.
How to contact the reporters on this story: Zachary Sherwood in Washington zsherwood@bgov.com;; Brandon Lee in Washington blee@bgov.com
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giuseppe Macri at the gmacri@bgov.com;; Loren Duggan at the lduggan@bgov.com;; Michaela Ross at the mross@bgov.com