Conservative Blogger
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Trump tax plan met with mixed reviews
Donald Trump's long-awaited tax plan -- which would eliminate federal taxes for millions -- was met with mixed reviews Monday, with one anti-tax group calling it a jobs engine but others questioning its impact on the debt and deficit.
The plan unveiled Monday would eliminate federal income taxes on individuals earning less than $25,000 and married couples earning less than $50,000.
It also would benefit businesses and top earners. It would lower the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 15 percent and lower the highest income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 25 percent.
"We have an amazing code," Trump said of his tax system. "It will be simple. It will be easy. It will be fair."
Out of the gate, the plan won an endorsement from Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist, who hailed the proposed corporate tax cut.
"This makes us competitive worldwide. Jobs. Jobs. Jobs," he tweeted.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and former Congressional Budget Office director, noted tax reform plans typically involve lowering rates and broadening the base. "He's lowering the rate and narrowing the base," he said.
Asked about Trump's claim that the plan is revenue-neutral, Holtz-Eakin quipped: "He claims his hair is real, too."
The billionaire real estate mogul says the country would pay for the tax cuts through a combination of eliminating deductions and loopholes. Trump wants to eliminate the so-called "carried interest loophole" that allows managers of hedge funds and private equity firms to pay a lower tax rate than most individuals. He also wants to allow corporations to bring money held in overseas accounts back to the United States after paying a one-time tax of 10 percent.
Trump said the plan would impact the wealthy by reducing or eliminating most deductions and loopholes.
"In other words, it's going to cost me a fortune," he said at a news conference at his Trump Tower skyscraper in Manhattan.
Pomerleau, though, said Trump's plan likely would cut taxes for low- and high-income filers alike. And the most expensive provision -- for the federal budget -- would likely be the lowering of the top income tax rate, he said.
"That's a big swing from nearly 40 to 25 percent," he said.
Still, the plan would significantly impact the other end of the income spectrum.
While millions of low-income Americans already do not pay federal income taxes, Trump's plan would significantly expand that group -- his campaign says it would remove "nearly 75 million households" from the federal income tax rolls.
According to the Tax Foundation, under current law a single filer with no children would not pay taxes on income under $10,300. Under Trump's plan, that threshold rises to roughly $25,000.
Further, instead of having to file taxes and wait for a refund for any tax dollars that were withheld, lower-income Americans would simply send in a one-page form to the IRS saying, "I win," according to the Trump campaign.
The Trump plan also reduces the number of tax brackets from seven to four.
Pomerleau said, overall, "simplification is better."
Trump estimated that his plan would lead the economy to grow at least 3 percent a year, and as much as 5 or 6 percent.
The tax plan is the third major policy proposal from Trump, who has also outlined plans for immigration and guns. He has been criticized for failing to unveil specific policy proposals as he's risen in early polling.
Club for Growth Action, whose parent group has been feuding with Trump in recent weeks, put out a statement contrasting Monday's plan with Trump's "long history of calling for the largest tax increase in U.S. history."
"His tax plan begs the question: Does this mean you were completely wrong about all your liberal policies on taxes, trade, health care, bailouts, and eminent domain?" the group said in a statement.
Obama, Putin sharply disagree over chaos in Syria
President Obama and Russia’s Vladimir Putin wrapped up their first face-to-face meeting in nearly a year late Monday at the United Nations summit where they fundamentally disagreed over the chaos in Syria.
A U.S. official said the pair have agreed to discuss political transition in Syria but were at odds over the role that Syrian President Bahar al-Assad should play in resolving the civil conflict.
The official said Obama reiterated to Putin that he does not believe there is a path to stability in Syria with Assad in power. Putin has said the world needs to support Assad because his military has the best chance to defeat Islamic State militants.
Putin said the meeting, which lasted a little over 90 minutes, was “very constructive, business-like and frank” and the two world leaders discussed Russia’s potential involvement in a military campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria.
“We are thinking about it, and we don’t exclude anything.” Putin told reporters.
The Kremlin chief said that any Russian action would be in accordance with the international law.
A senior administration official described the meeting as “business-like back and forth” and productive.
The two met on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Syria and Ukraine were expected to top the agenda for the sit-down.
Earlier, the two clashed sharply in separate addresses to the General Assembly in New York City, with Obama urging a political transition to replace the Syrian president but Putin warning it would be a mistake to abandon the current government.
Obama said the U.S. is "prepared to work" with Russia and Iran to resolve the bloody Syrian civil war.
But, in a clear reference to Putin's support for the regime in Damascus, Obama said the world cannot see a "return to the pre-war status quo" in Syria.
"Let's remember how this started," Obama said. "[Bashar] Assad reacted to peaceful protests by escalating repression and killing."
Without elaborating, Obama said "compromise" will be required to end the fighting in Syria and stomp out the Islamic State. But he said there must be a "transition" away from Assad.
Putin, though, used his own address to voice support for the Syrian government and argue that its military is the only viable option for defeating the Islamic State.
"We believe it's a huge mistake to refuse to cooperate with the Syrian authorities, with the government forces, those who are bravely fighting terror face-to-face," Putin said during his first appearance at the U.N. gathering in a decade.
Obama and Putin's disparate views of the grim situation in Syria left little indication of how the two countries might work together to end a conflict that has killed more than 250,000 people and resulted in a flood of refugees.
The Syria crisis largely overshadowed the summit's other discussions on peacekeeping, climate change and global poverty.
The Obama-Putin meeting comes as Moscow builds up its military presence in Syria, for reasons that U.S. officials have said remain unclear.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Planned Parenthood president says she's 'proud' of organization's actions amid controversy
Planned Parenthood's president will tell a House committee Tuesday that she is "proud" of the work her organization does, even as the organization is embroiled in a controversy over videos depicting the sale of fetal tissue.
Cecile Richards will testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform committee Tuesday morning. It will be her first appearance since the scandal erupted this past July.
The ten videos released so far by a group called the Center for Medical Progress capture Planned Parenthood officials casually describing how they sometimes obtain tissue from aborted fetuses for researchers. In one video, a doctor for a Planned Parenthood tissue harvesting partner appears to admit a baby’s “heart actually is still beating” at times following abortions and an ex-procurement tech gives a first-person account of watching a baby’s heart beat before she dissects its brain.
Planned Parenthood foes say the videos show the group breaks federal laws barring for-profit fetal tissue sales and altering abortion procedures to obtain usable organs. Planned Parenthood and its defenders say it's done nothing illegal and says that Daleiden dishonestly edited the videos to distort what was said.
In prepared testimony for her appearance Thursday obtained by Fox News, Richards said Planned Parenthood "is proud of its limited role in supporting fetal tissue research." She said just 1 percent of Planned Parenthood's nearly 700 clinics obtain fetal tissue for researchers seeking disease cures
She also fires back at Center for Medical Progress Project Lead David Daleiden, calling for him to be investigated after she says he "tried unsuccessfully to entrap Planned Parenthood physicians and staff for nearly three years." Daleiden obtained the videos after posing as an executive of a nonexistent firm that buys fetal tissue for scientists.
So far, the most damage inflicted on Planned Parenthood by the videos is the insensitive way some of its officials discuss the procedures. That has drawn apologies from Planned Parenthood and bitter criticism from Republicans.
Most Democrats have rallied behind the group, and President Barack Obama has threatened to veto GOP legislation cutting its federal money. Public opinion polls show majorities oppose blocking Planned Parenthood's taxpayer dollars. Departing House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., fearing voter anger, have rebuffed conservatives who would shut down the government if Obama doesn't agree to halt Planned Parenthood's money.
The organization receives about a third of its $1.3 billion annual budget, around $450 million, from federal coffers, chiefly reimbursements for treating Medicaid's low-income patients.
Democrats have used a Senate filibuster -- a virtually endless procedural delay -- to block GOP legislation halting Planned Parenthood's federal payments. So two House committees plan to approve filibuster-proof legislation shifting Planned Parenthood's Medicaid funds -- about $350 million -- to community health centers.
The bill would also keep a promise made during this spring's budget debate to repeal key elements of Obama's signature health care law. Panel votes are expected Tuesday and Wednesday.
In addition to the four congressional committee investigations of Planned Parenthood, Boehner has said he will also appoint a special committee to probe the group.
Planned Parenthood has defended itself with newspaper ads, petition campaigns and lawsuits against state efforts to curb its funding. On Tuesday, volunteers and supporters scheduled events in nearly 90 cities and planned to give lawmakers more than 2 million signatures on "I Stand With Planned Parenthood" petitions.
State Dept: Clinton email storage safe not secure for some messages
WASHINGTON – The State Department has told Senate investigators that it didn't provide Hillary Rodham Clinton's lawyer with a secure-enough method to read now-highly classified material from her homebrew email server because it didn't anticipate that the messages would be deemed so secret.
In July, State Department officials installed a safe at the office of attorney David Kendall after the government determined some of Clinton's emails may have contained classified information. But it said last week the safe wasn't suitable for so-called top secret, sensitive compartmented information, known as TS/SCI, which the government has said was found in some messages.
Assistant Secretary of State Julia Frifield wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley on Sept. 22 that "while the safe was suitable for up to (top secret) information, it was not approved for TS/SCI material" because the material wasn't held in a facility set up for discussing highly secret information, known as a SCIF, or sensitive compartmented information facility.
Those questions were not an issue at the time the safe was installed because "there was no indication that the emails might contain TS or TS/SCI material," Frifield wrote in the letter obtained by The Associated Press. Kendall has a top secret security clearance.
The State Department's letter underscores how even the nation's diplomatic apparatus didn't anticipate Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate, would have sent or received such highly sensitive information on her private email server while secretary of state. Questions about her use of such a server have at times dominated her White House run.
Kendall and a Clinton spokesman did not immediately return messages seeking comment Monday.
"It shows how badly the wires were crossed" between the State Department, which didn't anticipate any of the emails would be top secret, and the intelligence community, which decided they were classified, said Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists.
The State Department also said it was unaware of whether anyone's security clearances were suspended pending an investigation into possible improper handling of classified information, one of several questions posed by Grassley, R-Iowa. Such an action is not uncommon amid such classification reviews, said Bradley Moss, a Washington lawyer who deals regularly with security clearance matters.
The AP in March first discovered that Clinton ran her server off an Internet connection traced to her Chappaqua, New York, home. Clinton later confirmed she operated the server for convenience but did not provide details on how well the basement server was backed up or how adequately it was protected from hackers.
Since then, the State Department has indicated through Freedom of Information Act releases of Clinton's emails that dozens of messages that passed through her private server were later deemed classified. Most messages released so far have been marked "confidential," the lowest level of U.S. government classification.
But two emails, although not marked classified at the time they were sent, have since been slapped with a "TK" marking, for the "talent keyhole" compartment, suggesting material obtained by spy satellites, according to the inspector general for the intelligence community. They also were marked "NOFORN," meaning information that can only be shared with Americans with security clearances.
One email included a discussion of a U.S. drone strike, part of a covert program that is nevertheless widely known. A second conversation could have improperly referred to highly classified material, but it also could have reflected information collected independently, U.S. officials who have reviewed the correspondence told the AP.
Clinton has since apologized for using a private server and said she's provided copies of all the messages she was required to turn over. She reiterated in a recent interview that she didn't "send or receive any material marked 'classified.' We dealt with classified material on a totally different system. I dealt with it in person."
Since earlier this year, government investigators — and her political adversaries in particular — have focused on Clinton's email practices that effectively bypassed government-run systems. Also potentially at issue is whether Clinton withheld any work-related emails from the roughly 30,000 messages she provided to the State Department.
The AP is one of several organizations that have sued the State Department for records during her tenure, including emails to and from Clinton and her former top aides.
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