Update 572 — December’s Disposition:What Will Get Done, What Might Wait? The dread month of December is now upon us. Congress faces a fuller slate of priorities prior to adjournment than the usual madcap year-end. But delay invites difficulty. Now Congress is poised to dispose of three critical policy issues bearing on the economy and, therefore, next …
Update 571 — Thanksgiving Props:People, Policies to Be Grateful For This past year has brought a tableful of major policy successes, served with significant delays and some disappointments. For progressives, the return of full Democratic government control in January offered a promising menu for 2021, as the country sought to move past the Trump presidency. The prospect …
Update 569 — BBB and Equity:What the Tax Provisions Mean Six months ago, the Treasury Department released the Green Book detailing President Biden’s vision for a more equitable tax system, aimed at getting large firms and the very wealthy to pay their fair share. The key elements of this initiative are pending in Congress in the Build …
Update 568 — CPI up 6.2%, I-Word HeardBut Benefits Top Risks: IIJA, Look Forward In less than 24 hours, the world’s three largest economies — the U.S., China and Japan — each released inflation data showing prices rising at the fastest rate in 30 years. The 6.2 percent increase in prices over the last 12 months shows …
Update 566 – Building a BBB Budget:Can It Be Balanced by Billionaires? Last weekend, Senator Kyrsten Sinema nixed BBB proposals to raise corporate, individual and capital gains tax rates to pay for the bulk of the bill. Scrambling to fill the close to $1 fiscal hole, Democrats have seized upon the billionaire tax option. The plan proposed …
Update 562 — 1, 2, 3, What’re We Fighting For?Democrats’ BBB Message Mixed or Missing? With the ticking time bomb that is (still) the debt limit to be reset for December 3, the conversation on the Hill returns to reconciliation negotiations. President Joe Biden spoke in Michigan this week, campaigning for the reconciliation and infrastructure bills being …
Update 561 — Shutdown Narrowly Averted;Negotiations on BIF and BBB Intensify Yesterday, Congress managed to avoid a government shutdown by passing a stopgap continuing resolution to keep the federal government open through December 3. Speaker Pelosi also put off a vote last night on BIF, the bipartisan $1.2 infrastructure bill, when the needed 218 votes could not …
Update 559 — The Payfor Package:Necessity is the Mother of Taxation A reflexive assumption of national opposition to taxes, and support for tax cuts, seemed to have had an axiomatic grip on fiscal politics from the nation’s birth. But the conventional wisdom was seriously challenged by Trump’s $1.9 trillion tax cut of 2017 and left the …
Update 556 – Engine of Robust Recovery:FY22 Spending Fuels Building Back Better The House and Senate have two weeks to complete work on a federal budget for FY22, aka the Build Back Better Act. This bill codifies President Biden’s economic, fiscal, and social agenda, creating jobs, cutting taxes, and lower costs for working families. Payfors are making …
Update 554 — The Road to Reconciliation:Path, Process Ahead for Budget Resolution Last week, the House passed an FY2022 budget resolution, allowing the $3.5 trillion package to move forward via reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority to pass. In order to achieve the Democratic unity needed for passage, Speaker Pelosi promised a group of moderate Democrats …
