Monday, January 22, 2018
California Democrats want some businesses to fork over half tax-cut savings to state
Two Democrats have targeted money
that some businesses in the state are expected to save under the Trump
administration's tax plan.
(California State Assembly)
Calling the Trump administration’s
tax reform plan a “middle-class tax increase,” two California lawmakers
introduced a bill that would force large companies to fork over half of
their expected savings to the state.
Assemblymen Kevin McCarthy and Phil
Ting, both Democrats, introduced Assembly Constitutional Amendment 22,
which calls for a 10 percent surcharge on companies with a net earnings
over $1 million. The plan could potentially raise billions for the
state's social services programs.
“It is unconscionable to force working families to pay
the price for tax breaks and loopholes benefiting corporations and
wealthy individuals,” Ting said in a statement, according to The San Francisco Chronicle.
“This bill will help blunt the impact of the federal tax plan on
everyday Californians by protecting funding for education, affordable
health care and other core priorities.”The paper reported that the two lawmakers face an up-hill battle because Democrats in the state have lost their supermajority in the Legislature.
The Trump administration’s tax bill cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The administration contends that the lessened tax burden will stimulate the economy and help the U.S. stay competitive on a global scale.
About 2 million workers have received a bonus after the bill’s passage.
Congressional Democrats said the bill was rushed through and benefits the top 1 percent of earners. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has diminished the corporate bonuses as mere “crumbs.”
An editorial last week in The Sacramento Bee called the McCarthy-Ting proposal “dumb.”
“California’s tax system should be updated to match a 21st century economy,” the editorial read. “The high sales tax rate, which hits low-income people hardest, ought to be lowered, and certain services used by wealthier people and corporations ought to be subject to taxes. Proposition 13, the property tax cutting measure approved by voters 40 years ago, could be revisited.”
The editorial pointed out that the state will maintain a $13.5 billion reserve this year, but, “Bills that blindly seek to soak big business and the rich at a time of budget surplus solve nothing.”
Newly released texts between ex-Mueller team members suggest they knew outcome of Clinton email probe in advance
The Justice Department has given various
congressional committees nearly 400 pages of additional text messages
between two FBI officials who were removed from Special Counsel Robert
Mueller's investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump
campaign and Russian officials.
One of the newly discovered messages,
lawmakers said, appeared to indicate that Peter Strzok and Lisa Page
knew that charges would not be filed against Democratic presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton as a result of the investigation into her
email server -- before Clinton was interviewed by the bureau.
Strzok and Page were pulled off the probe last summer
after it emerged that some of their messages to each other included
anti-Trump content. Strzok, an FBI counterintelligence agent, was
reassigned to the Bureau's human resources division after the discovery
of the exchanges with Page, with whom he was having an affair.According to a Saturday letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray from Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, the Justice Department provided 384 pages of messages to lawmakers on Friday. However, Johnson noted that additional texts sent between Dec. 14, 2016 and May 17 of last year were not preserved by the FBI's system.
One exchange between Strzok and Page, dated July 1, 2016, referenced then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch's decision to accept the FBI's conclusion in the Clinton investigation. Lynch's announcement came days after it was revealed that the attorney general and former President Bill Clinton had an impromptu meeting aboard her plane in Phoenix.
"Timing looks like hell," Strzok texted Page.
"Yeah, that is awful timing," Page agreed. In a later message, she added: "It's a real profile in couragw [sic], since she knows no charges will be brought."
Four days later, then-FBI Director James Comey announced that no charges would be brought against Clinton, even though -- as he put it -- her actions in regard to the private server were "extremely careless."
Another exchange from the day before referenced a change to Comey's statement closing out the investigation. While an earlier draft of the statement said Clinton and President Barack Obama had an email exchange while Clinton was "on the territory" of a hostile adversary, the reference to Obama at first was changed to "senior government official" and then omitted entirely in the final version.
'F TRUMP': TEXTS BETWEEN EX-MUELLER TEAM MEMBERS EMERGE, CALLING TRUMP 'LOATHSOME HUMAN,' 'AN IDIOT'
Last month, the Justice Department released hundreds of text messages that the two had traded before becoming part of the Mueller investigation. Many focused on their observations of the 2016 election and included discussions of the Clinton investigation. Republican lawmakers have contended the communication reveals the FBI and the Mueller team to be politically tainted and biased against Trump — assertions Wray has flatly rejected.
In Johnson's letter to Wray, he asked whether the FBI had any records of communications between Strzok and Page during that five-month window and whether the FBI had searched their non-FBI phones for additional messages. He also asks for the "scope and scale" of any other records from the Clinton investigation that have been lost.
A source on the committees receiving the texts told Fox News it was "outrageous" that the FBI had not previously indicated that the five-month gap in the messages existed. The source said it was incumbent on the FBI to prove that the missing texts do not constitute "obstruction" of congressional oversight or "destruction of evidence."
The source added that congressional investigators want to know if the Justice Department's inspector general has copies of the messages.
Sen. Doug Jones co-sponsors bill to pay military during government shutdown
December 10, 2017: Doug Jones speaks during a campaign rally in Birmingham, Alabama.
(AP)
Sen. Doug Jones, D- Ala., is
co-sponsoring an initiative that would ensure military service members
receive their pay during the federal government shutdown that began on
Friday.
Jones is joined by Sen. Claire
McCaskill, D-Mo., who introduced the measure shortly after the U.S.
Senate failed to reach an agreement to prevent the government shutdown.
"Around the world and here at home, our military and
their families continue to serve during this shutdown," Jones said in a
statement, according to Al.com.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell objected to the measure on Sunday, urging the Congress to fund the entirety of the government rather than just the military.
He said a similar measure was passed during the prolonged shutdown in 2013 but expressed hope “that we can restore funding for the entire government before this becomes necessary.”
Both Jones and McCaskill, Democrats from a deep-red state carried by President Trump in the 2016 election, broke ranks with their party and voted in favor of the Republican plan to fund the federal government on Friday.
Their votes were not enough to beat the filibuster – requiring 60 votes to pass the funding bill – and both sides reached a deadlock. Democrats insist on coming up with protections for undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children before re-opening the government.
There is an expected procedural vote in the Senate on Monday at noon that would fund the government until Feb. 8. It remains unclear if there’s enough support and it would not reopen the government.
Jones became the first Democratic Senator from Alabama in 25 years after beating last month embattled Republican candidate Roy Moore, who was accused of sexual misconduct with underage girls.
Trump's relationship with top Dems 'deteriorating' amid shutdown standoff
The relationship between President Donald Trump and
top Democrats may be “deteriorating” as the two parties inched closer
but ultimately fell short on an agreement that would have reopened the
federal government before Monday.
The revelation comes as the federal
government shutdown stretches into its third day. There is an expected
procedural vote in the Senate on Monday at noon that would fund the
government until Feb. 8, The Wall Street Journal reported. But it is
unclear if there’s enough support and it would not reopen the
government.
Marc Short, the White House director of legislative
affairs, told Fox News Sunday that the relationship between Trump,
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin,
D-Ill., is “probably deteriorating” since the shutdown began on Saturday
at 12:01 a.m.During the Friday meeting with Trump, Schumer reportedly agreed to only one-year appropriation for the border wall. The White House dismissed such offer, instead demanding a multi-year package for the administration’s signature issue.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Schumer said on Sunday that negotiations were underway and the exact details of a proposal taking shape are unclear.
“We have yet to reach an agreement on a path forward,” Schumer said late Sunday, hoping for a firmer commitment from the Republicans to protect roughly 700,000 younger immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as children.
The GOP is becoming increasingly confident that Democrats will ultimately blink and vote to end the shutdown amid to mounting criticism and blame for the standoff. The White House and Republican leadership insisted they will not enter negotiations on immigration until the government is funded.
Some Democrats reportedly expressed worries of the political costs due to the showdown in the wake of the midterm elections this year.
Republican Sens. Jeff Flake and Lindsey Graham – who opposed the bill on Friday – are thought to be supportive of the vote, Short said. Five Democrats from states won by Trump also broke ranks in a vote on Friday.
The vote on an actual bill re-opening the government would come late Monday or as late as Tuesday evening, depending on the success of the early Monday vote.
Trump urged the Senate on Sunday to deploy the so-called “nuclear option” – changing Senate rules to end the filibuster that requires the bills to reach a 60 vote threshold rather than a simple majority.
McConnell dismissed the suggestion, noting that the rule will be welcomed once the Republicans become the minority in the Senate.
As the government shutdown stretches into the work week, some effects of the political standoff could be felt by the general population.
But White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that the Americans will not see a “dramatic difference” because, unlike the Obama administration in 2013, the current administration is not trying to “weaponize” the situation.
“The effects won’t actually be as visible as they were as in 2013,” Mulvaney told “Fox News Sunday.” “Keep in mind that in 2013, the only way I can describe it, was the Obama administration chose to weaponize the shutdown. They wanted it to be showy. They went out of their way to hurt more people and to be more visible.”
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Government shutdown to prevent US troops overseas from watching NFL playoff games
The Military is not going to be able to watch the NFL. Is this the same NFL that disrespects them by taking a knee on the field during the The Star Spangled Banner? |
U.S. troops stationed overseas found out Saturday
that the government shutdown might have an unexpected impact on them: It
might block them from seeing telecasts of Sunday’s NFL conference
championship games.
Servicemen and women took to Twitter to share an unusual message on their TV screens provided by the American Forces Network.
Display nothing; This is on Publish with no configured Image
The network enables U.S. service members around the
world to watch American TV, but with the government shutdown underway,
the service was cut off.AFN has received complaints because service was not cut off during the 2013 government shutdown, the New York Daily News reported.
The NFL has stepped in to offer free access to the games for the troops using NFL Game Pass.
Brian McCarthy, NFL public relations director, tweeted out where military members could access the service. But it may offer only a partial solution to soldiers' football craving: The USO centers where it will be provided are not accessible to all troops, Yahoo Sports reported.
Women’s March -- Are we watching a movement or just group therapy for Trump haters?
One year ago
this weekend, liberal women flowed into our nation’s capital and other
cities across America for a march to protest the inauguration of
President Trump. And on Saturday, women and some male supporters again gathered
in Washington and hundreds of cities to protest against the president
and in support of protection for illegal immigrants and other liberal
causes.
While the Saturday protests were
underway, Congress was trying to figure out how to reach agreement on a
spending bill to end the government shutdown that began Saturday
morning.
Donning pink hats
resembling women’s sacred body parts suddenly exposed for all to see,
protesters last year expressed fury that against all odds a white, male
Republican who never before held public office somehow bested their
longtime feminist-in-chief Hillary Clinton. How dare he stop Hillary
from shattering the glass ceiling!The glass ceiling the protesters had envisioned shattering entirely was instead left in shards that got under their skin – deep under their skin.
After much public dialogue over the last year, the questions must now be asked: What exactly has the Women’s March accomplished and are the protesters capable of turning their angst into action? Will Saturday’s protests accomplish anything more, or just serve as a self-affirming feel-good moment for President Trump’s opponents?The glass ceiling the protesters had envisioned shattering entirely was instead left in shards that got under their skin – deep under their skin.
While the Women’s March last year certainly served as an outlet for liberals to gather and share their “election depression,” there was no real call to action. There was no plan for attendees to return to their respective hometowns, run for office, nor do anything differently than they had done before the 2016 election. Quite frankly, without that kind of action the Women’s March risks becoming nothing more than annual group therapy.
Whether the protesters can now turn their angst into action remains to be seen. Thus far, the Women’s March already falls short on tangible results when compared to other recent populist movements.
By comparison, the Tea Party movement that sprang in the spring of 2009 accomplished far more in their inaugural year than the Women’s March has.
In record speed from the moment the movement was invoked on February 19, 2009 from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange – to the ensuing raucous Tea Party rallies that played out on the steps of cities from coast to coast – Americans watched as their government was taken back by the people.
However, the Tea Party movement didn’t stop at the rallies. They quickly rolled up their sleeves and got to work, putting aside their differences with their own party and often volunteering at local GOP headquarters, signing up for campaigns, knocking on doors and mobilizing “Get Out the Vote” efforts.
Unlike the Women’s March, the Tea Party movement’s swift action yielded instantaneous results that were impressive; record-breaking, in fact.
In 2010, just one year after launching, the Tea Party movement helped Republicans regain control of the House of Representatives. Credit was widely given to the Tea Party, which staged vigorous protests of Congress members’ town hall meetings back in their home districts, successfully shined a light on House races and made ObamaCare a central issue.
In 2014, the Tea Party movement helped Republicans win the U.S. Senate and win the largest Congressional majority in American history. With the staggering loss of 50 seats in Congress, Democrats suffered their largest defeat in decades.
And in 2016, in arguably a continuation of the populist revolution, the Tea Party helped put Donald Trump in the White House in what Politico called the biggest upset in American history.
The Women’s March has no such scalps on the wall. In fact, the movement hasn’t yielded any new stars.
Whereas the Tea Party movement spawned stars such as Republican Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Joni Ernst of Iowa – both leaders in their respective classes today – no one has wanted to attach themselves to the Women’s March.
However, leaders of the Women’s March may have realized their risk of falling into political oblivion, because the organization announced new components to Saturday’s marches.
The protesting women are launching a nationwide voter registration campaign to recruit more women to vote, and aim to affect the midterm elections in November.
The strategy just might work as the Women’s March has joined forces with Rock the Vote, a movement that registered youth to vote in the 1992 presidential election and impacted the presidential race in favor of the saxophone-playing, boxers-or-briefs-clad Bill Clinton.
If the Women’s March is able to recruit talented people from Rock the Vote who succeeded in previous voter registration outreach campaigns, the group has a chance to deliver on its promise.If the Women’s March is able to recruit talented people from Rock the Vote who succeeded in previous voter registration outreach campaigns, the group has a chance to deliver on its promise.
As the new year unfolds and the midterm elections loom, the Women’s March has a real opportunity to shift from “protest” to “pragmatism.”
Whether or not the Women’s March can make the transition will determine whether the movement is a force to be reckoned with, or will simply go down in history as a passing fad worth not much more than the cheap yarn from which its pink hats were spun.
Jen Kerns has served as a U.S. presidential debate writer for FOX News. She previously served as a GOP strategist and spokeswoman for the California Republican Party, the Colorado Recalls over the Second Amendment and the Prop. 8 battle over marriage and religious liberty which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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