Awful: Manchin is again shrinking climate provisions. This could weaken US leadership at the global climate conference. This, even as a new AP poll finds 55% of Americans support action. The malapportioned Senate is the bane of our existence. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
A new quote from Manchin captures why we're in trouble.
"I’m totally out of sync with 48 other Democrats,” he said. "I’m just trying to survive in a very, very divided Congress in a very divided country."
The illusion that the country is evenly divided on climate, and that the Senate mess reflects this, obscures the real problem: That the obstacles to progress are structural, and that Manchin wields too much power while being well to the right of center:
*$555 billion on climate
*CTC extended a year
*Corporate and global min tax
*Universal pre-K
*Child care funding
*Expanded ACA subsidies, including Medicaid in red states
Elon Musk's absurd opposition to the billionaires tax shows exactly why we need it. Billionaires like him have benefited from policy choices that helped them build huge fortunes. One is the privileging of wealth, which this new tax would target. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
The billionaires tax is being widely treated as just a stopgap revenue raiser. But this is all wrong. It would fix flaws in the tax code that are themselves glaring problems. This would have real benefits beyond revenues.
Poor JD Vance. He' getting hammered by $1 million in ads reviving his past attacks on Trump. Vance is desperately atoning by claiming to be the real heir to Trump's populist legacy, as if GOP voters care more about that than about Trump himself. My latest: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
JD Vance is running a campaign saturated in performative anti-cosmopolitan posturing and demagoguery about cultural liberalism and critical race theory.
He wants to tax corporations for standing up for the voting rights of African Americans.
Kyrsten Sinema's effort to block some of Biden's tax hikes will likely be great news for the 1 percent. It would benefit a large swath of wealthy investors, capital owners and well-heeled professionals. A tax expert walked me through the appalling details: washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Sinema reportedly opposes hiking corporate/top income tax rates.
Key: The corporate hikes would hit shareholders. So not doing that plus not raising top income rates would largely benefit the 1 percent.
Tax Policy Center's Steve Rosenthal explains here:
If Trump cronies defy subpoenas related to 1/6, they should be referred to DOJ. At stake is whether the right will get away with making immunity from accountability the price of civic peace.
@RepRaskin tells me DOJ must act to preserve our democracy: