Senate Republicans on Tuesday blocked legislation aimed at addressing pay inequality, marking their second successful use of the filibuster under President Biden.
Senators voted 49-50 to try to advance the legislation, falling short of the 60 votes needed to overcome the procedural hurdle.
The bill would limit employers to “bona fide” factors such as education, training and experience when justifying pay differentials in wage discrimination claims. Continue reading.
The Senate voted 68-32 on Tuesday to approve a sweeping China-focused global competition bill, overcoming Republican objections that had threatened to derail the $200 billion+ bipartisan package.
Why it matters: The bill’s supporters cite the measure as evidence that the deeply divided Senate can still function on a bipartisan basis, despite the last-minute chaos that forced Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to delay final passage for weeks.
Infrastructure negotiations between President Biden and a group of Republicans led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) have officially broken down, and Biden now plans to turn his attention toward striking a deal with a separate, bipartisan group of senators, administration officials said Tuesday night.
What we’re hearing: When Biden and Capito spoke by phone on Tuesday, the call only lasted a few minutes, and it was clear that the two sides remain too far apart to find a compromise.
ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.
In 2007, Jeff Bezos, then a multibillionaire and now the world’s richest man, did not pay a penny in federal income taxes. He achieved the feat again in 2011. In 2018, Tesla founder Elon Musk, the second-richest person in the world, also paid no federal income taxes.
Michael Bloomberg managed to do the same in recent years. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn did it twice. George Soros paid no federal income tax three years in a row.
ProPublica has obtained a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years. The data provides an unprecedented look inside the financial lives of America’s titans, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg. It shows not just their income and taxes, but also their investments, stock trades, gambling winnings and even the results of audits. Continue reading.
Request is part of a deeper review of senior government officials’ disclosures
Two key senators want travel records of Supreme Court justices as part of a broader congressional look at financial disclosure standards for the receipt of gifts, travel and other financial gains by senior government officials.
Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedyasked the Justice Department and the U.S. Marshals Service last week for information and documents about the last 10 years of trips for members of the high court.
The Supreme Court Police handles protection for the justices in the Washington metropolitan area. But the justices can request security from the Marshals Service, which is part of the Justice Department, for other domestic travel. Continue reading.
President Biden on Tuesday cut off prolonged infrastructure negotiations with a GOP group led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and will instead move forward on discussions with a bipartisan group of senators.
The White House announced Biden’s move after the president and Capito spoke Tuesday afternoon. The two remained far apart on a deal during that discussion despite weeks of talks. The White House as a result is shifting to talks with a bipartisan group that is crafting its own proposal, an administration official confirmed.
Members of the bipartisan group include Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and other Senate moderates, such as Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). The senators are aiming to release a proposal by the end of the week. Continue reading.
Members of both parties express concern over unauthorized disclosure to ProPublica; IRS chief says agency is investigating
The top Senate tax writers expressed concern Tuesday about the unauthorized disclosure of taxpayer information in a ProPublica report examining more than 15 years’ worth of tax returns for the country’s wealthiest individuals, but they drew different conclusions about how the disclosure should influence their legislative efforts.
Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the report’s findings that America’s wealthiest billionaires paid little in income taxes underscored the need for legislation that would require them to pay their “fair share.”
But Finance ranking member Michael D. Crapo, R-Idaho, focused more on the leak of the tax returns, saying it adds to his concerns that the administration’s proposal to require banks to report more taxpayer financial information to the IRS could compromise Americans’ privacy. Continue reading.
It is more than 500 days until he’s up for reelection, but Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) isn’t taking any chances.
In an interview with Fox News over the weekend, he bashed Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), a potential Democratic challenger in that race and one who is generally seen as most likely to earn her party’s nomination. He compared her to a group of House Democrats that calls itself “the Squad,” a group that includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.).
“None of them will admit to being a socialist. She probably won’t. But she certainly has voted for socialist things,” Rubio said of Demings. “How can you vote with the Squad 94 percent of the time and argue that you’re not an honorary member of that group? How can you vote with [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi 100 percent of the time and argue that you’re not a far-left, liberal extremist?” Continue reading.
The latest Republican spin on the Jan. 6 insurrection got firmly fact-checked by “The Beat” anchor Ari Melber.
MSNBC’s Ari Melber on Monday pointed out how “more and more” Republicans are embracing lies about the U.S. Capitol riot by pretending the violence wasn’t that bad or trying to cast blame away from former President Donald Trump for starting it.
“The Beat” anchor then swiftly shredded 10 emerging falsehoods — by playing audio of outlandish GOP claims alongside footage of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection incited by Trump and his election lies.
“There are signs of (how) blatantly rejecting the evidence of your eyes and ears has become a litmus test for some hard-right figures,” said Melber. “This matters for truth and justice and how these lies spread matters for our future as a country.” Continue reading.
Something I’ve just learned about Amazon – one of America’s most profitable and fastest-growing corporations, headed by the richest man in the world:
According to the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Amazon warehouse workers sustained nearly doublethe rate of serious injury incidents last year as did workers in non-Amazon warehouses.
In addition, largely because Amazon failed to provide its workers adequate protective equipment during the pandemic, the corporation admits that nearly 20,000 employees were presumed positive for the coronavirus. Continue reading.
