The future of the Democrats’ $739 billion budget package remains murky, in large part because Sinema wants changes after more than a year of negotiations.
According to multiple reports, the Arizona senator’s request includes withdrawing a provision in the bill that would eliminate the carried interest loophole, a move that would change the way certain investment income is taxed. Eliminating it would reduce the measure’s projected revenue by $14 billion, undercutting what Democrats would like to spend while promoting deficit reduction. Sinema also wants to add $5 billion in drought funding because Arizona routinely has water supply problems (Politico).
The senator, who has not said anything publicly while her staff says she is reviewing the plan, also hinted that she has questions about the legislation’s proposed 15 percent minimum corporate tax. During a call Wednesday with business groups, he asked if that provision is “badly written” (CNN).
▪ Bloomberg News: Sinema seeks to maintain private equity freeze, cut corporate tax.
▪ The New York Times: With climate deal in sight, Democrats are pinning their hopes on Sinema.
▪ Politico: Electric cars, drug costs and more: 5 battles Democrats could lose on their bill.
Sinema’s reluctance to raise taxes through carried interest, which is a share of profits earned by general partners of private equity, venture capital and hedge funds, would be the latest blow to President Biden and top Democrats who propose requiring by wealthy Americans and corporations to pay more. taxes.
As The Hill’s Tobias Burns reports, previous proposals that have now been scrapped include an increase in the individual income tax rate, estate and capital gains tax, and a proposed overtax on high-income households. As a result, the bill’s price tag has been reduced to a fraction of the original $3 trillion envisioned by the majority party.
There are, however, other issues that Democrats may need to consider. Automakers are calling on Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) to reconsider the newly structured $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles over fears it could be unenforceable. According to Reuters, the complaint focuses on new supply requirements for battery components and critical minerals, but Manchin has shown no interest in meeting their wishes.
“Say [automakers] to be aggressive and make sure we export to North America, process in North America and put a line in China,” Manchin told reporters. “I don’t believe we should build a mode of transport on the backs of foreign supply chains. I’m not going to do it.”
▪ Business Insider: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) rips Manchin’s surprise deal.
▪ Bloomberg News: Automakers including Ford, General Motors and Toyota are asking Congress to set a tax credit for electric vehicles they can’t use.
▪ The Hill: Manchin deal could create new hurdles for electric vehicle incentives.
▪ The Hill: The Democrats’ plan would cut the deficit by more than $100 billion, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Tragedy struck the Capitol community Wednesday when Walorski, a six-term congressman, and two staff members were killed in a car crash. The two-vehicle crash happened in Indiana around 12:30 p.m., according to the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office.
Walorski was traveling with Zachery Potts, 27, and Emma Thomson, 28. The congresswoman’s office confirmed the deaths.
“Dean Swihart, Jackie’s husband, has just been notified by the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Office that Jackie was killed in a car accident this afternoon,” the office’s statement said. “She returned home to be with her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers. We will have no further comment at this time.”
Walorski, the top GOP member on the House Ethics Committee, was remembered by lawmakers as a hard worker who cared deeply about representing her constituents. Before winning her seat in 2012, Walorski spent five years in the Indiana House of Representatives and served with her husband as a missionary in Romania for four years.
“Jackie was a dear friend, trusted advisor and the embodiment of integrity who earned the admiration and respect of all her colleagues in the House. She always put others first,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in a statement, calling her death “absolutely devastating.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Biden ordered flags on Capitol Hill and the White House, respectively, to fly at half-staff to honor Walorski (The Hill), the third lawmaker this year to die. The others: Reps. Don Young (R-Alaska) and Jim Hagedorn (R-Minn.) (Roll Call).
© Associated Press / J. Scott Applewhite | The late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), 2014;
Finally, there was legislative action on Wednesday, as the Senate overwhelmingly gave the green light to a resolution endorsing Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership. Senators voted 95-1 in favor of it, with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) the only no. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted absent.
The vote before recess was largely pushed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who endorsed every lawmaker who opposed NATO entry into the two Nordic countries. The move sends another message that Congress remains united in opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and aggression toward Europe.
“There is no doubt that accepting these strong democracies with modern economies and capable, interoperable militaries will only strengthen the most successful military alliance in human history,” McConnell told the Senate.
Finland made the NATO push in part because of the 800-mile border it shares with Russia. Sweden, meanwhile, shares a strategic interest with Moscow in the Baltic Sea, which gives the Russian navy access to the Atlantic (The Hill).
Relevant Articles
▪ Bloomberg News and Reuters: China on Thursday test-fired missiles in military exercises around Taiwan, a day after Pelosi’s departure.
▪ The New York Times: Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan risks undermining US efforts with Asian allies.
▪ The Washington Post: Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan ushers in a new phase of China’s pressure campaign.
▪ The Wall Street Journal: Pelosi trip delays Contemporary Amperex Technology’s North American plant announcement (electric vehicle battery supplier for China-based Tesla).
▪ The Associated Press: After Taiwan, Pelosi is in South Korea to meet political leaders.
PROGRAM OF THE DAY
➤ POLITICS
Are GOP voters so excited about former President Trump, so raw about the 2020 election, and so eager to embrace Trump supporters that midterm GOP candidates are more vulnerable this year than the GOP realizes? The Hill’s Brett Samuels asked political analysts to help answer that question.
Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen didn’t poison the results for far-right GOP candidates in Tuesday’s primaries, raising new questions about how the candidates will perform in November’s general election. Republican primary voters overwhelmingly chose candidates who made the 2020 election a central part of their campaign messages, The Hill’s Julia Manchester reports.
Alexander Bolton, The Hill: McConnell manages midterm expectations after Trump-backed candidates win.
Michigan Rep. Peter Meijer (R) is the latest victim of Trump’s vow to exact revenge on conservatives who voted to impeach him after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. He became the second of 10 Republicans to break with the party to support impeachment and was ousted in a GOP primary.
Meijer lost Tuesday to John Gibbs, a former Housing and Urban Development official who won Trump’s endorsement in the race for the state’s 3rd District. The defeat turned the spotlight on the House Democrats’ campaign to support Trump’s most supportive candidate across the aisle, hoping to land opponents the party could label as extremist Trump stooges and peddlers of the “big lie”.
As The Hill’s Max Greenwood writes, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spent nearly half a million dollars on ads boosting Gibbs, believing that Democratic nominee Hillary Scholten might prove easier to beat in November. Many analysts warn that Democratic officials are playing with fire by trying to play the GOP turf (The Hill).
New York Times: Meijer’s Michigan Defeat Shows Republicans’ Intolerance of Trump’s Competitors.
© Associated Press / J. Scott Applewhite | Rep. Peter Meijer (R-Mich.), 2021.
As has always been the case in the run-up to November’s election dramas, many for Democrats are seeking to overcome fears about inflation and the pocketbook, boosting turnout from blocs of progressives and even independents, and ending Biden’s low job approval and the left’s case that the party in the White House usually loses seats in off-year elections.
▪ The New York Times: See who won and who lost in Tuesday’s key primaries in five states.
▪ Henry Olsen, The Washington Post: GOP blows its chance to make midterm referendum for Democrats.
▪ Jeff Greenfield, Politico magazine: How the November midterms could still surprise us. (“When it comes to games in the next three months, even at the most basic level, we don’t really know what we think we know.”)
Democrats were excited but surprised Tuesday to see voters in the red state of Kansas support abortion rights by nearly 59 percent. THE…
