tax credit
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is mulling a 2020 presidential candidacy, speaks at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ (IBEW) construction and maintenance conference in Washington, U.S., April 5, 2019. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
April 25, 2019
By Arlene Washington
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The largest Democratic field in the modern U.S. political era is competing for the party’s 2020 presidential nomination.
The diverse group of 20 vying to challenge President Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee, includes six U.S. senators. A record six women are running, as well as black, Hispanic and openly gay candidates who would make history if one of them becomes the party’s nominee.
Here are the Democrats who have launched campaigns, listed in order of their RealClearPolitics national polling average for those who register in opinion surveys.
JOE BIDEN
The leader in polls of Democratic presidential contenders, Biden waited until late April to enter the race – launching his bid by taking a direct swipe at Trump. Biden, who served eight years as vice president under President Barack Obama and 36 years in the U.S. Senate, enters in the middle of a Democratic debate over whether a liberal political newcomer or a centrist veteran is needed to win back the White House. At 76, he is the second oldest candidate in the nominating contest, after Senator Bernie Sanders. Liberal activists criticize his Senate record, including his authorship of the 1994 crime act that led to increased incarceration rates, and his ties to the financial industry, which is prominent in his home state of Delaware. Biden, who relishes his “Middle-Class Joe” nickname and touts his working-class roots, made unsuccessful bids for the nomination in 1988 and 2008. Biden, recently the subject of allegations of unwanted physical contact with women, in a video pledged to be “more mindful” of respecting “personal space,” an attempt to tamp down the controversy.
BERNIE SANDERS
The senator from Vermont lost the Democratic nomination in 2016 to Hillary Clinton but has jumped in for a second try. In the 2020 race, Sanders, 77, will have to fight to stand out in a packed field of progressives touting issues he brought into the Democratic Party mainstream four years ago. His proposals include free tuition at public colleges, a $15 minimum wage and universal healthcare. He benefits from strong name recognition and a robust network of small-dollar donors, helping him to raise $5.9 million during his first day in the contest. Sanders, whose father was a Jewish immigrant from Poland, has shown a more personal side in this campaign, highlighting his struggles while growing up in a working-class family. He also has tried to reach out to black and Hispanic leaders after having trouble winning over minority voters in 2016.
BETO O’ROURKE
The former three-term Texas congressman jumped into the race on March 14 – and has been jumping on to store countertops ever since to deliver his optimistic message to voters in early primary states. O’Rourke, 46, gained fame last year for his record fundraising and ability to draw crowds ahead of his unexpectedly narrow loss in the U.S. Senate race against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz. O’Rourke announced a $6.1 million fundraising haul for the first 24 hours of his campaign, besting his Democratic opponents. But with progressive policies and diversity at the forefront of the party’s nominating battle, O’Rourke will face a challenge as a wealthy white man who is more moderate on several key issues than many of his competitors.
KAMALA HARRIS
The first-term senator from California would make history as the first black woman to gain the nomination. Harris, 54, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, announced her candidacy on the holiday honoring slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. She has made a quick impact in a Democratic race that will be heavily influenced by women and minority voters. She raised $1.5 million in the first 24 hours of her campaign and drew record ratings on a CNN televised town hall. She supports a middle-class tax credit, Medicare for All healthcare funding reform, the Green New Deal and the legalization of marijuana. Her track record as San Francisco’s district attorney and California’s attorney general has drawn scrutiny in a Democratic Party that has shifted in recent years on criminal justice issues.
PETE BUTTIGIEG
The 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is emerging from underdog status as he begins to build momentum with young voters. A Harvard University graduate and Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, he speaks seven languages and served in Afghanistan with the U.S. Navy Reserve. He touts himself as representing a new generation of leadership needed to combat Trump. Buttigieg would be the first openly gay presidential nominee of a major American political party.
ELIZABETH WARREN
The 69-year-old senator from Massachusetts is a leader of the party’s liberals and a fierce Wall Street critic who was instrumental in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She has focused her presidential campaign on her populist economic message, promising to fight what she calls a rigged economic system that favors the wealthy. She also has proposed eliminating the Electoral College, vowed to break up Amazon, Google and Facebook if elected, and sworn off political fundraising events to collect cash for her bid. Warren apologized earlier this year to the Cherokee Nation for taking a DNA test to prove her claims to Native American ancestry, an assertion that has prompted Trump to mockingly refer to her as “Pocahontas.”
CORY BOOKER
Booker, 49, a senator from New Jersey and former mayor of Newark, gained national prominence in the fight over Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination. Booker, who is black, has made U.S. race relations and racial disparities a focus of his campaign, noting the impact of discrimination on his family. He embraces progressive positions on Medicare coverage for every American, the Green New Deal and other key issues, and touts his style of positivity over attacks. Booker eats a vegan diet and recently confirmed rumors he is dating actress Rosario Dawson.
AMY KLOBUCHAR
The third-term senator from Minnesota was the first moderate in the Democratic field vying to challenge Trump. Klobuchar, 58, gained national attention in 2018 when she sparred with Brett Kavanaugh during Senate hearings for his Supreme Court nomination. On the campaign trail, the former prosecutor and corporate attorney supports an alternative to traditional Medicare healthcare funding and is taking a hard stance against rising prescription drug prices. Klobuchar’s campaign reported raising more than $1 million in its first 48 hours. Her campaign announcement came amid news reports that staff in her Senate office were asked to do menial tasks, making it difficult to hire high-level campaign strategists.
JULIAN CASTRO
The secretary of housing and urban development under President Barack Obama would be the first Hispanic to win a major U.S. party’s presidential nomination. Castro, 44, whose grandmother immigrated to Texas from Mexico, has used his family’s personal story to criticize Trump’s border policies. Castro advocates a universal pre-kindergarten program, supports Medicare for All and cites his experience to push for affordable housing. He announced his bid in his hometown of San Antonio, where he once served as mayor and a city councilman. His twin brother, Joaquin Castro, is a Democratic congressman from Texas.
ANDREW YANG
The entrepreneur and former tech executive is focusing his campaign on an ambitious universal income plan. Yang, 44, wants to guarantee all American citizens between the ages of 18 and 64 a $1,000 check every month. The son of immigrants from Taiwan, Yang also is pushing for Medicare for All and proposing a new form of capitalism that is “human-centered.” He lives in New York.
KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
Gillibrand, known as a moderate when she served as a congresswoman from upstate New York, has refashioned herself into a staunch progressive, calling for strict gun laws and supporting the Green New Deal. The senator for New York, who is 52, has led efforts to address sexual assault in the military and on college campuses, and she pushed for Congress to improve its own handling of sexual misconduct allegations. On the campaign trail, she has made fiery denunciations of Trump. She released her tax returns for the years 2007 through 2018, offering the most comprehensive look to date at the finances of a 2020 White House candidate, and has called on her rivals to do the same.
JOHN HICKENLOOPER
The 67-year-old former Colorado governor has positioned himself as a centrist and an experienced officeholder with business experience. He is the only Democratic presidential candidate so far to oppose the Green New Deal plan to tackle climate change, saying it would give the government too much power in investment decisions. During his two terms in office, Colorado’s economy soared and the Western state expanded healthcare, passed a gun control law and legalized marijuana. The former geologist and brew pub owner is among the many candidates who have refused to take corporate money. He previously served as mayor of Denver.
JAY INSLEE
The Washington state governor has made fighting climate change the central issue of his campaign. As governor, Inslee, 68, has moved to put a moratorium on capital punishment and fully implement the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, and accompanying expansion of Medicaid health coverage for the poor. He has not settled on a position on Medicare for All but does support the Green New Deal backed by progressives. Inslee spent 15 years in Congress before being elected governor in 2012.
JOHN DELANEY
The former U.S. representative from Maryland became the first Democrat to enter the 2020 race, declaring his candidacy in July 2017. Delaney, 55, plans to focus on advancing only bipartisan bills during the first 100 days of his presidency if elected. He is also pushing for a universal healthcare system, raising the federal minimum wage and passing gun safety legislation.
TULSI GABBARD
The Samoan-American congresswoman from Hawaii and Iraq war veteran is the first Hindu to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. After working for her father’s anti-gay advocacy group and drafting relevant legislation, she was forced to apologize for her past views on same-sex marriage. Gabbard, 37, has been against U.S. intervention in Syria and slammed Trump for standing by Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. She endorsed Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign.
ERIC SWALWELL
The third-term congressman from a California district south of San Francisco cited tackling student debt and gun violence among the reasons he jumped into the Democratic primary race. Swalwell, 38, is among the younger candidates vying for the 2020 Democratic nomination. He served on the House Intelligence Committee and founded the Future Forum, a group of more than 25 Democratic lawmakers that visits universities and community colleges to discuss issues important to millennial voters like student loan debt and climate change.
TIM RYAN
The moderate nine-term congressman from a working-class district in the battleground state of Ohio has touted his appeal to the blue-collar voters who fled to Trump in 2016. He says Trump has turned his back on those voters and failed to live up his promise to revitalize the manufacturing industry. Ryan, 45, pledges to create jobs in new technologies and to focus on public education and access to affordable healthcare. He first gained national attention when he unsuccessfully tried to unseat Nancy Pelosi as the House Democratic leader in 2016, arguing it was time for new leadership. A former college football player, he also has written books on meditation and healthy eating.
SETH MOULTON
An Iraq War veteran and member of Congress, Seth Moulton, 40, was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2014 when he defeated a fellow Democrat in the primary election. Moulton served in the Marines from 2001 to 2008. He became a vocal critic of the Iraq War in which he served, saying no more troops should be deployed to the country. He has advocated stricter gun laws, saying military-style weapons should not be owned by civilians. Moulton supports the legalization of marijuana and told Boston public radio station WGBH in 2016 that he had smoked pot while in college. After Democrats took control of the House of Representatives in 2018, Moulton helped organize opposition to Representative Nancy Pelosi’s bid to again become speaker.
MARIANNE WILLIAMSON
The 66-year-old New York Times best-selling author, motivational speaker and Texas native believes her spirituality-focused campaign can heal America. A 1992 interview on Oprah Winfrey’s show propelled Williamson to make a name for herself as a “spiritual guide” for Hollywood and a self-help expert. She is calling for $100 billion in reparations for slavery over 10 years, gun control, education reform and equal rights for lesbian and gay communities. In 2014, she made an unsuccessful bid for a House seat in California as an independent.
WAYNE MESSAM
Messam, 44, defeated a 16-year incumbent in 2015 to become the first black mayor of the Miami suburb of Miramar. He was re-elected in March. The son of Jamaican immigrants, he played on Florida State University’s 1993 national championship football team, and then started a construction business with his wife. He has pledged to focus on reducing gun violence, mitigating climate change and reducing student loan debt and the cost of healthcare.
(Reporting by Ginger Gibson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Source: OANN
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Six months before President Obama’s 2012 reelection, his campaign released an online slideshow. It was not an effort that helped him win.
Called “The Life of Julia,” it was an imaginary story complete with slick graphics and digestible talking points designed to illustrate “how President Obama’s policies help one woman over her lifetime — and how Mitt Romney would change her story.”
The timeline showed the mythical Julia growing up, graduating from college, building a business, giving birth, and eventually retiring. For every major milestone, a federally subsidized government program was there to help. Democrats saw Julia as illustrating the promise of a second Obama term under a caring and effective government. Republicans, on the other hand, gleefully discovered a ready-made, cradle-to-grave narrative about the dangers of Big Government.
Romney, the Republican nominee, dismissed the fictional fable as a “little cartoon,” while the editors of National Review called it “creepy,” and one conservative columnist summarized the mockery by asking, “Who the hell is ‘Julia,’ and why am I paying for her whole life?”
Nearly eight years later, not a single 2020 hopeful has waded into a similar digital space. None of the contenders has packaged a platform into easily consumable internet infographics. The sum of all their policies proposals, however, is even more expansive.
Under these plans, with the help of Uncle Sam, Julia could enroll her children in day care for free or at a subsidized rate. She could go to community college or a public four-year university without paying a penny. She could claim a federal tax credit to help with rent. She would enjoy a mandated $15 minimum wage at an entry-level position or compete for the millions of government-created jobs promised by the Green New Deal. And of course, she’d be automatically enrolled in Medicare. What follows is an examination of those promises, and others, along with the costs.
Universal Child Care
Child care is expensive, even more expensive than college tuition in some cases. Families in Massachusetts, the least affordable state for such care, according to one analysis, can expect to pay as much as $34,381 to enroll both an infant and toddler in day care.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren plans on making it free for millions of people. The Massachusetts Democrat is the first 2020 contender to endorse universal child care. She envisions subsidized nurseries in every community, “a network of child care options that would be available to every family.”
It wouldn’t be a nanny state, per se. Warren calls for the government to partner with existing services provided by cities, schools, nonprofits, tribes, and faith-based groups. For families making less than 200% the federal poverty line, the care is free. For anyone making more, Warren would cap their costs at no more than 7% of family income.
“In the wealthiest country on the planet,” Warren wrote, “access to affordable and high-quality childcare and early education should be a right, not a privilege reserved for the rich.”
Who would pay for all this? According to the candidate, everyone whose net worth exceeds $50 million. How much would they be on the line for? According to independent analysis by the Moody’s Corp., $1.7 billion over 10 years.
Debt-Free College
The average college graduate who walks off stage with a diploma, once advertised as the ticket to the middle class, also leaves campus with student loans, now feared as long-term financial shackles. According to an analysis by industry expert Mark Kantrowitz, the average 2016 graduate owed a whopping $37,172. The Federal Reserve estimated a monthly payment of $393 to service that debt.
Now White House hopefuls promise the same college education without the crushing expense.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders has proposed legislation to make community and four-year public colleges free for students from families earning less than $125,000 per year. Warren goes a step farther. She wouldn’t just make tuition free at those same universities, she would have the federal government forgive as much as $50,000 of loans for any graduate earning less than $100,000.
Sanders and Warren aren’t the only Democratic candidates being generous with other people’s money. Three other senators, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kamala Harris of California, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York., have co-sponsored the Debt-Free College Act. Introduced last month, the legislation would create a one-to-one match of federal to state dollars to cover any costs above the “expected family contribution,” a measure of a family’s financial health as calculated by the Department of Education.
Not every candidate is sold on free college, including Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar. The mayor of South Bend, Ind., told students at Northeastern University earlier this month that making the federal government pay their tuition wasn’t feasible, a sentiment echoed by the Minnesota senator during a Monday night CNN townhall.
Momentum is moving toward debt emancipation, though, and the costs are significant. According to the Warren campaign, for instance, her plan would create a one-time cost of $640 billion, plus another $1.25 trillion over the next 10 years. Here, too, the wealthy are expected to cover the cost.
Guaranteed Income
The political promise of a good job has been eclipsed by the prospect of guaranteed minimum wages and, in some cases, guaranteed income regardless of work.
Sanders has made increasing the minimum wage one of his hallmarks. The self-described Democratic socialist rails against the current federal minimum of $7.25 as “a starvation wage” and authored legislation to more than double it to $15 an hour. When Sanders first introduced the bill in 2015, only five senators added their names as co-sponsors. That number jumped to 30 just four years later, and every Senate Democrat running for president now backs his initiative.
An increased minimum wage pales in comparison to the massive jobs program included in the Green New Deal. Introduced by Sanders acolyte Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, it calls for an economic effort to combat climate change no less dramatic than the mobilization for the Second World War.
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Also a jobs program, an early GND blueprint released by Ocasio-Cortez’s office promised to put millions of Americans to work overhauling every existing building in the country, rebuilding the national power grid, and jump-starting the clean energy industry. The plan would blaze a path to the middle class for anyone able to follow. It also promised “economic security” for anyone “unable or unwilling to work.”
After the more controversial aspects of her proposal sparked an uproar, Ocasio-Cortez scrapped that blueprint in favor of a non-binding resolution that affirmed the overall spirit but not the specific policy proposals of the Green New Deal.
Aside from Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, the entire 2020 field has voiced support. Every Senate Democrat running for president endorsed the idea. The remaining mix of governors, mayors, and representatives voiced support for the spirit of the proposal if not the initial specifics.
Their hesitation comes from the cost, which the conservative American Action Forum pegged at $93 trillion. While some candidates shy away from specifics on environmental reform and subsequent economic redistribution, Andrew Yang is more than happy to discuss his plans to give away money. The Silicon Valley progressive wants the federal government to cut a $1,000 check each month to every citizen over 18.
Yang calls it a Freedom Dividend, his brand name for what economists describe as Universal Basic Income. On its face, the annual cost would be around $3 trillion, though Yang insists the spending would be offset by stimulated growth.
Reparations
More than 150 years after the end of the Civil War, only former Rep. Beto O’Rourke has declined to join every major candidate in supporting the establishment of a commission to study possible government reparations to descendants of former slaves. Even Sanders, though initially hesitant to back payments, said that as president he would sign legislation that creates a commission.
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The discussion over reparations hinges on what the payments look like, as Harris explained last month in an interview with NPR. Reparations, the California Democrat noted, “mean different things to different people.” For Harris, reparations could mean investing in disadvantaged communities by funding mental health services. For Marianne Williamson, the self-help/spirituality guru, New York Times best-selling author and long shot presidential contender, reparations mean money.
Williamson told CNN in January that $100 billion should be paid in reparations over the next decade in the form of economic stimulus and infrastructure investments. She did not say where the money should come from.
Affordable Housing
Three presidential hopefuls want to help put a roof over a large portion of the population’s head. Warren introduced legislation last month to address what she describes as “an American housing crisis.” Co-sponsored by her Senate colleague and primary competitor Gillibrand, the Warren bill would spend $445 billion to do two major things.
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First, build as many as 3.2 million new housing units for lower-income and middle-class families. Second, provide mortgage assistance to help people who were hurt by the financial crisis more than a decade ago.
Warren touts an analysis by Moody’s that found the bill would be deficit neutral, a balance only achieved by increasing taxes and fees over the next decade.
Harris has her own housing bill but geared it toward those who rent their homes. According to the summary of the bill, which was introduced last year, the Harris plan would create a tax credit for anyone spending more than 30 percent of their income on rent. Depending on the individual’s income, the government would pick up between 25 and 100 percent of the excess amount spent on rent.
‘Medicare for All’
It was dismissed as a progressive pipe dream four years ago. So-called Medicare for all has since become all but official Democratic orthodoxy in this presidential primary. Eleven stalwarts demand some version of it. Five others — apostates in their own party — prefer more modest plans. Sanders is very much the OG of Medicare for all. His plan would offer the most generous benefits and, in theory, would eliminate private health insurance altogether.
“The current debate over Medicare for all really has nothing to do with health care,” he said at a recent news conference announcing the legislation. “It has everything to do with greed and profiteering. It is about whether we continue a dysfunctional system.”
Fixing that system would mean dropping the 8.8 percent uninsured rate to zero and lumping the 155 million Americans who are insured through employer plans with 20 million who have coverage through the individual market, 60 million current Medicare beneficiaries, and tens of millions now without insurance. But the costs, according to both liberal and conservative economists, are staggering.
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The libertarian Mercatus Center at George Mason University estimated last year that an earlier version of the plan would cost $32.6 trillion over 10 years. Gerald Friedman at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, put that number at $14 trillion.
Sanders argued that overall spending on health care in the U.S. would drop as a result of his plan even as overall government spending would spike.
How does Sanders plan on paying for it? According to a five-page memo released by the senator’s office, a grab bag of options including a 70% tax on those making above $10 million a year, fees on financial institutions, and a mandatory 4% income-based premium on employees plus a 7.5% income-based premium paid by employers.
In all, the Democrats’ “free stuff” menu is sure to tempt voters in the primaries that begin in nine months. Which of those offerings survive to be placed before the larger electorate in November 2020 is anyone’s guess, as is the ultimate choice voters will make. If a Democrat moves into the White House two months later, the work of fulfilling at least some of these campaign promises will begin. Closing the deal, especially if Republicans retain control of the Senate, is sure to be far tougher than selling it was to a receptive base.
FILE PHOTO: The administrative entrance at the Whirlpool plant in Clyde, Ohio, U.S. October 3, 2017.REUTERS/Aaron Josefczyk/
April 22, 2019
(Reuters) – Appliances maker Whirlpool Corp beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit on Monday, fueled by price increases to counter higher raw material and freight costs.
Shares of the company rose about 8 percent after the bell, adding to the 32 percent gain since the beginning of the year.
Whirlpool is facing higher-than-expected raw material costs as the U.S.-China trade dispute has made imported steel and aluminum expensive, with the company looking to cushion the hit by raising prices and reining in costs.
“Successful execution of price increases and sustained focus on cost discipline drove very positive results in the first quarter, and provide confidence in our ability to deliver our full-year financial goals,” Chief Executive Officer Marc Bitzer said in a statement.
The company also hiked its quarterly dividend by 4.3 percent and reaffirmed its full-year profit forecast of between $14 and $15 per share.
Net earnings available to Whirlpool rose to $471 million, or $7.31 per share, in the first quarter ended March 31 from $94 million, or $1.30 per share, a year earlier.
The quarter included a $127 million benefit from a Brazilian indirect tax credit.
Excluding items, the company earned $3.11 per share, blowing past analysts’ average estimate of $2.86, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Net sales fell 3.1 percent to $4.76 billion, missing the average estimate of $4.83 billion.
(Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas, Divya R and Arjun Panchadar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Foxconn, the trading name of Hon Hai Precision Industry, is seen on top of the company’s building in Taipei, Taiwan, March 30, 2018. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
April 19, 2019
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s Foxconn said on Friday it remains committed to its contract to build a display plant and tech research facilities in Wisconsin, days after the U.S. state’s governor said he wanted to renegotiate the deal.
Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who inherited a deal to give Foxconn $4 billion in tax breaks and other incentives when he took office in January, said on Wednesday he wanted renegotiation because the firm is not expected to reach its job creation goals for the state.
Foxconn’s proposed 20-million-square-foot Wisconsin campus, announced at a White House ceremony in 2017, marks the largest greenfield investment by a foreign-based company in U.S. history and was praised by President Donald Trump as proof of his ability to revive American manufacturing.
Foxconn, a major supplier to Apple Inc, has pledged to eventually create 13,000 jobs in Wisconsin, but said earlier this year it had slowed its pace of hiring.
“Foxconn remains committed to our contract,” the company said in a statement on Friday.
“Foxconn’s commitment to job creation in Wisconsin remains long term and will span over the length of the WEDC (Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation) contract and beyond,” it said, adding the construction on the LCD display manufacturing facility will commence in the summer.
To qualify for tax credits, Foxconn must meet certain hiring and capital investment goals under the current contract.
It fell short of the employment goal in 2018, hiring 178 full-time workers rather than the 260 targeted, and failed to earn a tax credit of up to $9.5 million.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee, writing by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
Source: OANN
Democrats in the House and Senate have reintroduced legislation to direct the Internal Revenue Services to create a free tax-filing service available to the public online, The Hill reports.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a candidate for president in 2020, is a lead sponsor of the Senate bill, the Tax Filing Simplification Act.
“Taxpayers waste too many hours and hundreds of dollars on tax preparation each year, which disproportionately burdens low-income and minority taxpayers,” she said in a statement. “This bill will require the IRS to offer easy, free, online tax-filing for all taxpayers. This is a simple idea with a long history of support from both Republicans and Democrats, and it’s time to make it a reality.”
Her fellow presidential candidates Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., joined her and other senators in offering the bill. Reps. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Katie Hill, D-Calif., joined to reintroduce the House bill.
“Millions of Americans each year who are eligible for cash refunds like the Earned Income Tax Credit don’t claim them — either because tax filing is too complicated, or they don’t know they’re eligible,” said Adam Ruben, the director of Economic Security Project Action. “This creates a system where only the wealthiest Americans can afford to take advantage of the tax breaks and deductions available to them. Senator Warren’s Tax Filing Simplification Act is a commonsense improvement that would make tax filing easier and more fair, and mean millions more hardworking Americans will get the refunds like the EITC they’re entitled to.”
Source: NewsMax Politics
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Senator Kamala Harris launches her campaign for president of the United States at a rally at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza in her hometown of Oakland, California, U.S., January 27, 2019. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage/File Photo
April 12, 2019
By Amanda Becker
IOWA CITY, Iowa (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Kamala Harris held just one public event this week during her third trip to Iowa since joining the contest for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, a town hall at the University of Iowa where she talked about her plan to raise teacher pay.
Harris, formerly California’s top prosecutor, spent most of her two-day visit at private gatherings aimed at securing early support from specific constituencies – women, state lawmakers and educators.
Iowa hosts the first presidential nominating contest in February 2020, and Harris’ early strategy in the farming state is considerably different than the traditional barnstorm politicking by some of her Democratic competitors.
Former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke, for example, went to 23 events across 10 counties on his second trip to Iowa. U.S. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey attended 14 events in 11 counties during two visits, with a third scheduled next week.
Harris’ campaign thinks its targeted approach will allow her to build momentum in Iowa, while freeing up resources to invest more heavily in the path they see as crucial to her winning the Democratic nomination: California and the U.S. South.
“Organizing looks very different right now than it will look a year or even six months from now,” said Miryam Lipper, Harris’ Iowa spokeswoman. “Right now we’re focused on introducing Kamala to Iowans and engaging with potential supporters in a smart way.”
Harris’ tactics carry some risk. Iowa voters play an outsized role in picking U.S. presidents, and many have come to expect frequent face time with White House hopefuls.
Harris aides say it is early in the race, and there could come a point when she crisscrosses Iowa’s 99 counties.
However, Iowa likely will award just 41 of about 3,800 delegates available to win the Democratic nomination. While the campaign aims to do well there, aides say they do not think a first-place finish is as critical for Harris as it might be for other candidates needing a break-out moment.
Early opinion polls show Harris in the top tier of more than 18 Democrats who have announced campaigns or are expected to. Harris, 54, supports a middle-class tax credit, Medicare for All government health insurance, the so-called Green New Deal proposal on climate change and the legalization of marijuana.
Joshua Putnam, a professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington who specializes in political primaries, said a candidate in Harris’ position needs to meet expectations in Iowa and the subsequent New Hampshire primary to remain viable for the strategy to work.
“They likely do not need outright wins in either of the first two states, but that is not the only type of winning. One can win or lose relative to expectations as well,” Putnam said.
GRAPHIC-Who is running in 2020 – https://tmsnrt.rs/2Ff62ZC
‘CAMP KAMALA’
Harris’ strategy was on display this week as she courted groups with the potential to influence their friends and neighbors.
She met with Democratic state legislators on Thursday ahead of their session ending in May, when they will leave Des Moines and return to their districts. She secured her first endorsement from a party activist in Iowa before a house party hosted by members of a group that encourages women to run for office.
Harris told the women the 2016 election of President Donald Trump, the likely Republican candidate in 2020, was an “inflection point” in U.S. history.
“This is a moment in time that is requiring each of us as individuals and collectively to look in the mirror and ask a question … who are we?” Harris said at the gathering. “And part of the answer to that question is we are better than this. So this is a moment in time then that we must fight for the best of who we are.”
Next week, Harris’ campaign is hosting “Camp Kamala” to educate college students about Iowa’s complex caucus process and her candidacy before they fan out across the state and the rest of the country for their summer break.
While she is not ceding Iowa by any stretch, Harris’ delegate strategy begins in earnest in Nevada and South Carolina, which hold the third and fourth nominating contests.
Harris aides say they expect to do well in Nevada and believe it is important to have a strong showing or win in South Carolina, the first contest with a sizeable percentage of black voters. Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, would make history as the first black woman to gain the nomination.
Her performance on so-called “Super Tuesday” in early March, when at least a dozen states will award about 40 percent of the delegates, will be critical, her campaign acknowledged.
The southern states of Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia hold their nominating contests on Super Tuesday, as do delegate-rich Texas and California. Harris has already visited Texas, which will award more than 260 delegates, and California, where she has won statewide races three times, will award at least 475.
Her campaign aims to invest as heavily in these states as they can, aides said.
Jean Hessburg, the Iowa activist who endorsed Harris this week, said caucus goers understand “this is a marathon and not a sprint.” Candidates making dozens of stops across the state risk spreading themselves too thin, she added.
“By doing these targeted events, the idea would be it’s more memorable,” said Hessburg, who leads the Women’s Caucus for the Iowa Democratic Party.
(Reporting by Amanda Becker; additional reporting by Joseph Ax and Timothy Reid; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Grant McCool)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: A logo is seen at a branch office of private Bank J. Safra Sarasin in Basel October 26, 2014. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo
April 11, 2019
By John Miller
ZURICH (Reuters) – Three Germans on trial in Switzerland for helping expose a tax-stripping scheme that cost European governments billions of euros will likely avoid prison after a verdict on Thursday that fell well short of prosecutors’ demands.
The men, Stuttgart-based lawyer Eckart Seith and two former employees of Basel-based Bank J. Safra Sarasin, had faced up to 3-1/2 years in prison for numerous charges. Instead, they got suspended fines and jail terms for violating banking secrecy.
“The Zurich District Court condemns three persons, accused of transferring a bank customer list to a German lawyer, for multiple violations of the banking law,” the court said in a statement, adding one banker was also found guilty of industrial espionage and coercion.
The defendants were acquitted of all other charges, the court said.
Seith could not be reached immediately for comment. He told German newspaper FAZ he would lodge an appeal.
The case, in which prosecutors said the accused passed secret Swiss bank documents to German authorities, is linked to the border-crossing fraud investigation into so-called “cum-ex trades” in which financial powerhouses including BlackRock, Spain’s Santander and Deutsche Bank are under scrutiny.
In the 2001-2011 scheme, European governments were duped into believing a stock had multiple owners, each entitled to a dividend and a tax credit. Germany, Denmark, Austria, Belgium and other countries lost tax revenue that instead benefited wealthy investors.
The Zurich trial was linked to German drug chain billionaire Erich Mueller, a Bank Sarasin client who lost around 50 million euros ($56 million) in 2012 on cum-ex trades after German tax officials balked at paying him a tax credit.
Mueller, seeking to recoup his money from Sarasin, hired Seith and worked with the two German bankers, both of whom spent time in investigative custody in Switzerland.
In 2017, a German court ruled Bank Sarasin had to pay 45 million euros to Mueller. Sarasin’s ex-deputy chief executive, Eric Sarasin, in 2016 also paid a settlement in Germany.
Switzerland, the world’s largest offshore wealth center, last year began sharing bank data with many foreign tax authorities, bowing to international pressure to help crack down on tax cheats.
Still, the Zurich case shows the nation continues to move aggressively against people who pass on bank information to foreign individuals or governments.
Meanwhile, German media have celebrated Seith for helping expose the cum-ex scheme.
(Reporting by John Miller; Editing by David Holmes)
Source: OANN
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers is introducing legislation to expand the electric vehicle tax credit by 400,000 vehicles per manufacturer, according to Reuters.
The legislation is expected to be introduced on Wednesday and could give companies like Tesla and General Motors a substantial boost.
The bill is sponsored by Democrats Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, Republican Senators Lamar Alexander and Susan Collins and Democratic Representative Dan Kildee. The passage of such a bill could catalyze more purchases of electric vehicles from automakers who are now sinking billions of capital into EVs.
The existing tax credit, which is $7500, phases out over 15 months after an automaker hits a cumulative 200,000 in sales of electric vehicles. GM’s tax credit was cut on April 1 of this year and Tesla’s tax credit was cut on January 1 of this year. Both credits now stand at $3,750. GM’s credit falls to $1,875 in October and will disappear in April 2020, while Tesla’s credit drops to $1,875 in July and expires at the end of 2019.
Like every bill, this one has a ridiculous name with a stupid pun: it’s being called the “Driving America Forward Act” and would grant each automaker a $7,000 credit for another 400,000 vehicles on top of the already existing 200,000 vehicles eligible. On the other hand, it would shorten the phase out schedule to 9 months from one year.
The bill would also seek to extend the hydrogen fuel cell credit through 2028.
And since taxpayers will foot the bill, here is the damage: the EV tax credits are estimated to cost $11.4 billion if the bill is passed.
Debbie Stabenow said: “We have a cap that’s got to go up. I want to get this done as soon as possible.” It wasn’t exactly clear why it it has “got to go up”, exactly?
Meanwhile, this proposal runs in stark contrast to the White House, who proposed immediately eliminating the $7,500 existing tax credit last month. It said this would save the US government $2.5 billion over a decade. Senator John Barrasso, who chairs the Environment and Public Works Committee, proposed legislation in February to end the credit and to impose a highway user fee on electric vehicles to pay for road repairs.
This new bill is predictably backed by most automakers including GM, Tesla, Toyota Motor Corp, Ford Motor Co, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, Honda Motor Co, BMW AG, Nissan Motor Co and Volkswagen. In fact, GM President Mark Reuss said: “…the EV tax credit provides customers with a proven incentive as we work to establish the U.S. as a leader in electrification.”
And what would a proposed $11 billion in government spending be without the Sierra Club weighing in? Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said: “…as we build and grow the clean energy economy, we must continue to invest in tackling the sector that generates the most pollution: transportation.”
Tesla stock rose 2% on the news, even though it was not clear what were the odds of the bill’s ultimate passage into law.
Here’s why politicians were no match for Candice Owens because she’s more authentic.
Source: InfoWars
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