Ds respond to the charge that they're slouching toward 2010 redux by racing to pass a bill jammed with social engineering that no one has read, and which Rs will spend the next 10 months framing while Ds talk up the massive price tag.
At least in 2010, they had a hope of passing the thing into law. This is just a positioning statement that Rs get to make the centerpiece of their midterm pitch. Rs are blessed. They didn't do anything to deserve their good fortune.
A lot of this is going to be easy for Rs to mobilize their voters against while probably having a smaller energizing effect on D voters. For example:
The surtax on incomes over $10m also targets pass-through businesses with revenue over $200k. That's not a lot of revenue, so Rs get to call it a small business tax. Same for the NIIT for joint filers with S corp or partnership income.
Price negotiation for prescription drugs in Medicare. Everyone loves that, right? It really only targets 10 drugs before 2025. But what is functionally price controls will hit small businesses, which most of pharma is. And this is an industry that has a lot of residual goodwill.
The local journalism tax credit, which "would provide a credit up to $25,000 to defray employment taxes in the first year, and $15,000 in the next four years, for each employee.” Get ready to hear a lot about the "media bailout."
Four weeks paid leave. Again, eveyrone loves it. But it's estimated to cost $200 billion (per NPR, who could only get a source to admit as much without attribution. npr.org/2021/11/03/105…
Salt tax relief. Enough said.
Illegal immigrants here before Jan 1 2011 are eligible for "parole," which isn't a greencard or citizenship, but does defer deportation and grants work status. ~7 million eligible. We have a labor shortage, so that's not a bad provision. But Rs will get more milage than Ds
There really isn't one resource that has pulled all this together because, again, no one has really read the thing yet. But Rs will. And they'll make it the biggest story of the year. Meanwhile, all Ds get is a statement of principle that has no hope of becoming law. Madness.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
