That wouldn’t be true if Democrats had not snagged the two Senate seats in Georgia. Nor would these bills have any chance of passing if West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III had an “R” after his name. It was a big deal that Manchin signed onto the $1.9 trillion rescue plan and that he stuck with fellow Democrats on trying to move a compromise version of the For the People Act to the floor. When all the chips are down, Manchin is unlikely to embarrass the president and impair the Democratic agenda, although he is quite willing and capable of paring it down.
While Republicans (some of whom no doubt never intended to support a bipartisan bill) groused that they did not know Biden was serious about not signing the infrastructure bill without reconciliation package, they could hardly be surprised. That has been the game plan from the get-go. Moreover, Republicans have no leverage at this point. As White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday, if Republicans “are going to vote against a historic investment in infrastructure that’s going to rebuild roads and railways and bridges in their communities simply because they don’t like the mechanics of the process … that’s a pretty absurd argument for them to make.” She added, “Good luck on the political front on that argument.” In any event, if they reneged on the bipartisan deal, Democrats would then stuff the two bills into one reconciliation package.
Less discussed after Biden’s Thursday announcement were the tax hikes that will likely pay for human infrastructure plans. Republicans appear unwilling to force their corporate patrons and rich donors to pay anything more in taxes (or in some cases, anything at all), so ensuring fair taxation falls to Democrats to negotiate in the reconciliation process.
Biden showed in the bipartisan infrastructure bill that he was not insistent on paying for all of his spending. A senior White House adviser told me that likewise, it is not clear how much of the human infrastructure bill will be paid for, although the bill will have to comply with the arcane Byrd rules if it is to make it through on reconciliation. All of that will be another matter of negotiation.
A starting point for taxes is likely to be the original pay-fors in both the American Jobs Plan and the American Families Plan. That includes a minimum corporate tax rate of 15 percent (per the Group of Seven agreement), an increase in the top corporate rate to 28 percent and measures to limit incentives for moving operations overseas. Manchin has already said he would not go higher than 25 percent on the corporate tax rate. From the American Families Plan, Democrats may choose from measures, such as the hike in the top income tax rate to 39.6 percent, equalizing the capital gains rate with the rate for ordinary income for the richest Americans and ending the “step-up” loophole in the estate tax (for amounts more than $1 million for an individual and $2.5 million for a couple).
The tax hikes for corporations and for wealthy individuals are not merely a matter of raising revenue. The president and his senior aides have always maintained that tax hikes are not only to produce revenue. Aides tell me it is just as a matter of fairness about who should bear the burden of funding the government. Psaki reiterated this point on Friday. She explained that Biden “believes that raising the corporate rate back to where it was the first year of the George W. Bush administration” and raising taxes on the top one percent to pay for necessary human infrastructure is simply “the right policy.”
In a real sense, Biden is reinventing the tax code to achieve larger goals. His child tax credits are not just tax policy; it is about cutting child poverty. Likewise, making corporations pay more and rolling back huge cuts for the very rich signal a commitment to reduce income inequality. Republicans insist on protecting those most able to pay from shouldering their fair share, but poll after poll shows that a large percentage of Americans agree with Biden that the rich and corporations should pay more. Democrats would be more than happy to run on the accomplishment in raising the tax bill for billionaires and our biggest companies. The recent ProPublica report highlighting how little billionaires pay horrified plenty of Americans on both sides of the aisle. The moment is therefore ripe for ending that free ride.
Certainly, much has yet to be done before any of this materializes, but if Biden pulls it off, he will have vastly exceeded expectations. Few would have thought that Biden could get a $1.9 trillion rescue plan, a historic bipartisan infrastructure plan, a bevy of social programs to support workers and tax hikes in his first year in office.
It was also noteworthy that Biden included a expansive discussion of voting rights at his announcement of the infrastructure deal. “Voting rights is maybe the most consequential thing, I think, with — I’m going to be going around the country,” he said. But he also made clear the scope will go beyond even what was included in Democratic voter reform bills.
This isn’t just about whether ... you can provide water for someone standing in line while they’re waiting to vote. This is about who gets to judge whether your vote counted after it’s been cast. Think about it.Up to now, every state and the federal government has assumed that there would be officials who were appointed and/or elected in states where the election commissioners — bound by an oath that they would uphold certain requirements to make sure the vote was honest and fair. ... It’s about saying that the legislature in Georgia could decide, if it’s a Republican legislature, “You know, on reflection, we don’t think that election was fair. We’re going to vote to say it didn’t count.” It’s just simply wrong. It’s wrong. And in my view, it borders on being immoral.
In other words, Biden’s focus on voting rights seems to extend to some items in H.R. 1 (as Manchin modified it), some from the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and some that are in neither bill but would halt Republicans’ election chicanery, such as national standards for audits, protection for nonpartisan voting officials and perhaps even some needed amendments to the Electoral Count Act.
Ah, but Democrats do not have 60 votes for any of that! There are two ways of looking at that. First, the bipartisanship on hard infrastructure might lead to cooperation even on some aspects of voting reform. Second, Manchin is getting quite a lesson in Republicans’ aversion to democracy. Watching them filibuster a bipartisan commission on Jan. 6 and their unified objection to his own compromise voting rights bill might open his eyes to options to “improve” or “reform” the filibuster. With Manchin, what is key is not what he says first, but what he says at the end. Enlisting him in the sacred fight to defend voting rights from Republicans seeking to undermine democracy will not be easy, but it is possible.
"Opinion" - Google News
June 27, 2021 at 09:00PM
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Opinion | Biden's path forward will not be easy. But it is possible. - The Washington Post
"Opinion" - Google News
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