McConnell today says he hopes for deal with Biden of "maybe" $1T but wants it "fully paid for" and suggests redirecting aid Biden already sent to states in his COVID package...
There’s potentially a $100B difference in taxes Jeff Bezos and his estate would pay under GOP tax proposal and the Biden tax proposal.
The biggest difference is most Senate Republicans have proposed to completely eliminate the 45% estate tax on net worth larger than ~$11 million. Bezos’ net worth is estimated at about $188 billion.
Biden has also proposed eliminating the 100% tax break on capital gains at death. The lost step-up on basis would potentially tax Bezos’ estate more than any other person, because his wealth is largely a never-taxed, unrealized cap gain on Amazon stock.
FYI @LeaderMcConnell speaks regularly against the military takeover of Myanmar. Now we have people openly advocating *right now* for a military coup in the USA.
The 1/6 Commission vote is a great example of how *attendance is not required* for a successful filibuster.
If you needed 41 votes to filibuster and not 60 to end one, yesterday *might* have gone differently.
At minimum, 6 more Republicans would have had to show up and vote.
The way the Senate rules work, a 59-1 vote is a victory for the 1. Likewise 54 loses to 35.
You need 60. I think @NormOrnstein has proposed 41 affirmative votes and some other tweaks to at minimum require attendance and make a filibuster harder work than it is today.
I don't think a 41 vote requirement would mean all that much in practice though. Take yesterday: Schumer needed consent of the Republicans to schedule the vote when he scheduled it.
Most of what the Senate does is done by *unanimous consent.* Once you start mucking with rules...
It is actually possible to not miss any Senate votes.
Susan Collins hasn't missed any.
Chuck Grassley went 27 years without missing a vote before his positive COVID test.
Senators often know when their votes won't change the outcome, and so will skip town for a family function, a funeral, a codel, a medical appointment, etc. Others refuse to do that because they see the vote itself as very important even if outcome doesn't change.
It's pretty darn rare for a missing lawmaker to actually change the outcome, and it didn't today.