Today is, in theory, the second-to-last day before Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) deadlines for both the bipartisan infrastructure deal and the Democrats’ reconciliation package.
Darn that Lois Lerner, thinking that maybe organizations who’s stated purpose was to avoid being taxed might not be the best ones to be granted tax-exempt status.
Also, fuck Grover Norquist into a shallow grave.
Yes. It’s interesting, though, that I’ve not seen/heard much from him in quite a while. I know that in some conservative quarters, he’s suspect because of his wife’s Palestinian heritage. Or maybe it’s because the conservative movement now so fully embodies his ideas that he’s no longer really needed.
Can’t be said often enough.
ETA. I think I got a better idea. How about he drowns in a bath tub?
Front Page from Josh…an excerpt…
[“It’s always important to remember that this is fundamentally a negotiation between and among Democrats . It’s all about getting to 50 votes, holding every member of the Senate caucus on board and avoiding any stray stragglers in the House. Republicans are more pieces on the chess board than anyone playing the game. The whole drama over recent months has been about Republicans trying to use delaying tactics and the opaque nature of the Senate to promote themselves from pieces on the board to players at the table and Democrats attempts to prevent that. So far they have avoided that and last week’s compromise agreement on a $3.5 trillion reconciliation framework was a key part of that. Keeping that on track is what this week is about.”]
There is Back Room stuff that will not make it into this and, of course, the messaging task for us is going up against people who do–literally–Nothing.
But Message
That’d be some irony.
Ultimately, how much of the “invigoration” of the IRS would actually just be restoration of the level of support of oversight & enforcement of rules - that were undermined by Trump?
excerpt:
Just as the nation’s economic inequality has widened, so, too, has the unequal treatment of taxpayers: Those with annual incomes under $25,000 are audited at a higher rate (0.69%) than those with incomes up to $500,000 (0.53%), according to the IRS data. Taxpayers who receive the earned-income tax credit, which serves mainly low-income workers with children, are audited at a higher rate than all but the very wealthiest tax filers.
Tax evasion is Tax evasion - but the Republicans seem to subscribe to then notion that if it isn’t discovered - it never happened …
It’s an old GQP trick; tell people how horribly-run the government is and then make it happen. Disgusting.
Has Manchin Gotten His Fill Of Bipartisanship?
Gonna call it now: no. Let’s hope I’m wrong.
You called it right. “Bipartisanship” is just the fig leaf Manchin uses to conceal the fact that he’s controlled by ExxonMobil and Charles Koch.
More like Bob Murray (before he died).
Appears that he wants to remain elusive - a conundrum - until the final seconds - largely because it seems that he feels that proclaiming a fixed position well in advance of the voting will have him targeted for extermination by big conservative money … appears that he is trying to “thread the needle” .
One way to look at it is - Assuming that Manchin is ultimately leaning toward finding a trail to follow that will lead to passage - it would seem that he is trying to hold thing in a state of flux - keeping the conservative attack dogs on their leash all along the way … and then break out into daylight just in time to facilitate passage … and the resultant publicity splash of the multitude of benefits that will be delivered to the citizens of West Virginia will buoy his standing on the home-front … infrastructure, safety net , education - etc will be hard for the majority of WV citizens to complain about - and those on the right who would plot Manchin’s funeral will have to rewrite their plans.
If it seems that all of Manchin’s action, waffling , misdirection and other crap is designed for his own self preservation - - well yeah … it is.
But who has those fucks to give? Or would want to?
My question is: what if the “bipartisan” bill fails?
There is no “real” or policy reason for passing a "bipartisan bill as everyone knows the bill that is really required will pass with only Democrat votes hence if the “bipartisan” bill fails, it will be added to the Democrat only bill. The only reason for a “bipartisan” bill is political, so Biden and Dems can claim to be “bipartisan” and Republicans can take credit for passing some infrastructure well still rallying against big spending socialists.
As the passage of a “bipartisan” bill has nothing to do with policy and is all politics it makes no difference in the real world if it passes or not. That is the Democrats know they must pass another bill through reconciliation with only Democrat support regardless of what happens to the “bipartisan” bill and whatever is not in the “bipartisan” bill, if there is no “bipartisan” bill, will just be added to the real bill that will pass only with Democrat votes.
And compare the rate of return on those investigations? How much are you going to get (besides jail time) dollar wise from someone stretching EIC, versus a billionaire paying NO taxes?
“Why wouldn’t our Republican colleagues want to move to proceed to debate that bill at the very minimum even if we don’t have agreement on the broader bipartisan bill?” Schumer said.
Looks to me like Schumer is systematically stripping away all of the bad-faith excuses on the GOP side for running down the clock while pretending to be working oh so hard on crafting this exquisite work of bipartisanship, so long as they don’t actually have to, you know, vote for anything.
Plus, a large percentage of the errors on EIC returns are honest mistakes attributable to the complexity of the forms and tax rules. When you get on the other end of the income range, you’re much more likely to be dealing with outright cheating.
The only problem with that is (well, actually two problems):
1 - will the bill accomplish anything significant if Schumer keeps dropping things out of it?
2 - hell, it’s not even a question - the GQP isn’t going to vote for it. Not under any circumstances. I don’t know why we continue to play this game when a fair portion of stuff that’s getting stripped out is stuff the average American is looking for the Dems to do. Why give in to the bullying from the Right? Just do it, already.
“If the bipartisan deal collapses, where does that leave the centrist Senate Democrats?”
Same place as they started: Collecting money from Big Oil, Big Pharma and large GQP/Trump KKKult donors while still pretending to be Dems.
If Grover Norquist doesn’t end up accidentally drowning in a bathtub, then Karma’s not even trying.