Another Republican President, Another Recession.

DIY-HP-LED said:

Biden should say that in a speech to the nation. The gas lines are caused by the Republican's allies, the Russians! These clowns allied themselves with the Russians in an attack on America FFS, it wasn't just Trump who committed treason.

Joe should tell it like it is and call the bunch of them fucking traitors and tie these cocksuckers to the Russians with handcuffs, since they are already joined at the hip. Why not, they want to impose a Putin like government on America and are following the Russian model and taking their help while giving them aid and comfort. It's not like there isn't plenty of evidence, how do you think McConnell got the nick name Moscow Mitch? McCarthy and others were repeating Russian propaganda after being warned, all the pre election trips to Russia by many top republicans, the hundreds of Russian contacts, the list goes on forever FFS.

Joe should wash his hands of these fuckers, if he can't draw a few of them away from what they have become. Give them a last chance to come onside, a warning, then go at them with both fists and whatever power he possesses. They are traitors to the nation and constitution, Joe is president and has a duty to perform.

Perhaps he is waiting for the split in their ranks that the pundits are speaking of, but one thing is very clear, these people are traitors to the constitution and nation and they support insurrection and sedition.

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hanimmal said:

The only problem is that Biden specifically said he is not going to have anything to do with the DOJ. He is not going to politicize them, so we really don't have a clue what is being done or not atm.

This is decades of work that the Republicans and their super rich donors like the Koch's helped them set up that Trump and the Russians utterly exposed due to their getting caught. 2022 is more important to secure another Democratic sweep because it is not going to be a fast easy fix.

This shit is infected us down to the local election level. People need to wake up and not allow the noise to stop them from understanding how important it is to vote in every election and to be very informed on who it is running.

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The Biden administration has scrambled to devise a way to keep paying heightened unemployment benefits to an estimated 3.4 million Americans who stand to lose them soon in Republican-led states, but Labor Department officials have come to believe that the law does not allow them to do so.

With a federal intervention now unlikely, jobless Americans in at least 22 states including Arizona, Ohio and Texas are set to see their payments fall by $300 each week — or be wiped out entirely — as GOP governors try to force people back to work in response to a potential national labor shortage.

Federal officials have been reviewing whether they could mandate that states continue paying their unemployed workers, preserving a series of coronavirusstimulus programs dating to last spring. That includes Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, which provides weekly aid to self-employed workers and others who labor on behalf of gig economy companies such as Uber.

But Labor Department officials have come to believe that the government cannot legally force states to administer these benefits, according to two people briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations. Nor can Washington circumvent Republican governors by administering unemployment checks on its own or through cooperating agencies in other states, the sources said.

A more formal determination on the matter from the Labor Department is expected soon.

McConnell, White House clash on potential worker shortage as labor pressures intensify

Even if the Labor Department had the authority, the agency probably would face significant legal and logistical hurdles in distributing the aid swiftly, one of the officials said. The federal government most likely cannot erect a system to review unemployment claims and dole out weekly sums before the stimulus aid is set to expire in early September — a complex task involving a web of technology and personnel that has flummoxed many state agencies despite decades of experience.

The Labor Department’s analysis probably will disappoint lawmakers including Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who over the past week have called on the agency to ensure those who are out of work don’t face further financial hardship. Labor advocates similarly had pushed the Biden administration to take action, arguing that it has the legal obligation and ability to continue administering PUA because of the wording in the stimulus law, known as the Cares Act, that authorized it.

Instead, federal officials believe that any solution probably must come from Congress, where Republicans have argued that months of generous federal aid have deterred people from returning to work. The political obstacles mean there is little recourse left for the approximately 3.4 million Americans nationwide who stand to see their checks slashed starting in June. The numbers could further change when the U.S. government reports its latest claims information on Thursday.

The financial burden could fall hardest on nearly 2.3 million workers who are at risk of seeing their benefits eliminated entirely. That includes Americans who have been out of work for so long that they have exhausted state aid as well as those who are self-employed, who traditionally cannot collect unemployment checks. The number probably will change in the weeks before GOP-led states implement the cuts starting in June and July, months before the programs were supposed to expire.

White House grapples with reports of labor shortage, inflation as recovery picks up steam

In explaining their terminations, Republican governors nationwide have pointed to lower-than-expected hiring numbers in April as evidence of a worker shortage. Major business groups have sided with them, as organizations including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce contend that high unemployment payments are to blame — and have in response called on Congress to roll back the benefits.

The White House, for its part, maintains that the unemployment stimulus aid has not contributed to a crunch in hiring. Democrats and labor experts say the market instead is far more complicated: Some Americans are reluctant to return to workplaces they see as unsafe or jobs they consider to be underpaid, for example, while others have struggled to find adequate child care.

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The Treasury Department on Thursday announced a plan to raise an additional $700 billion through new tax compliance measures, a potentially key source of revenue for the Biden administration’s multitrillion-dollar spending proposals.

In a 22-page report, Treasury officials identified a number of policies to increase enforcement aimed at closing the “tax gap” between what taxpayers owe to the federal government and what they actually pay. These include increased reporting requirements, new tools for auditors, massively increasing the Internal Revenue Service’s budget, and new rules on cryptocurrency, among other measures.

Some of the changes — such as billions of dollars in additional spending at the IRS — would require congressional approval, and many Republicans have long tried to shrink the agency. But the White House said the proposed investments would pay off by allowing the agency to collect the taxes that are due.

Treasury’s Office of Tax Analysis estimated that the changes could bring in an additional $700 billion in tax collections over the next decade, as well as $1.6 trillion in the decade after that. Treasury said Thursday that the current tax gap is about $600 billion per year, although IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig recently said the number could exceed $1 trillion. Even partly closing that gulf could go a long way toward paying for President Biden’s spending proposals, which include trillions of dollars for infrastructure, child care, manufacturing and other domestic spending priorities.

Biden’s sweeping — and fluid — tax plans are making some congressional Democrats nervous

“At the crux of these proposals is a commitment to revitalizing tax enforcement,” Treasury’s paper states. “Working to close the tax gap reflects a commitment to ending our two-tiered tax system, one where most American workers pay their full obligations, but high earners who accrue income from opaque sources often do not.”

Treasury’s estimates face skepticism from many tax experts, and some of their new enforcement mechanisms could face political blowback among lawmakers. Treasury’s plan states that audit rates “will not rise relative to recent years” for those earning less than $400,000 per year, which is in line with the president’s campaign pledge not to raise taxes on middle-class taxpayers but may blunt the effectiveness of Treasury’s plan. Increasing IRS enforcement is considered politically easier than other measures, such as raising taxes, but will expose the administration to criticism that it is basing its plans on estimates that are more rosy than realistic.

In particular, the administration’s estimates may face skepticism from the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan scorekeeper for congressional legislation. The CBO has said similar ideas to increase IRS enforcement could raise hundreds of billions of dollars but not the kind of money the administration is banking on. The Penn Wharton Budget Model has found that the administration’s IRS plan would raise less than $500 billion. Administration officials told reporters Thursday that they recognized the difficulties of getting the plan through Congress. Treasury previously released a summary of its IRS enforcement proposal as a way to pay for Biden’s “American Families Plan,” one of the White House’s two main domestic spending priorities.

“I think there is no way under the sun they can get $700 billion. They will be very pleased if they get $250 billion,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican policy analyst and former director of the CBO. “This is just completely unrealistic.”

The United States collected a little more than $3 trillion in revenue in 2020, but spent more than $6 trillion. As a result, the U.S. budget deficit last year eclipsed more than $3 trillion, by far the biggest one-year gap in American history. These numbers were significantly elevated because of the emergency spending authorized to confront the coronavirus pandemic.

Beefing up IRS enforcement could help address some of that gap, the Treasury report said. The key part of the tax compliance proposal is to increase the size of the IRS budget by about $80 billion over a decade, nearly increasing its size by 50 percent. Some of that funding would go to significantly increase the number of IRS agents and personnel, after the tax agency’s budget was cut by about 20 percent because of changes pushed by congressional Republicans.

Treasury says its plan would lead to the hiring and retention of 5,000 new enforcement personnel. It would in particular allow the IRS to hire “specialized” enforcement staff, particularly by funding the IRS divisions focused on scrutinizing large corporations and “global high-wealth and high-income individuals.”

The funding would also include about $6 billion for modernizing the IRS’s information technology systems and security funding. The Treasury report said “the IRS defends against approximately 1.4 billion sophisticated cyberattacks” each year. The funding would also help the administration implement its expansive tax credit programs, such as a new child benefit for tens of millions of American parents.

Increasing the IRS budget would require congressional approval, and although Democrats are largely supportive, the GOP is expected to oppose the change.

White House seeks to make massive boost to IRS enforcement centerpiece of new spending plan

The second key proposal is to strengthen requirements surrounding what banks must tell the IRS about their customers. The agency would then use the additional information provided by the banks to “better target enforcement activities,” Treasury said Thursday, a measure in particular aimed at improving voluntary compliance through a deterrence effect.

Steve Rosenthal, a tax expert at the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center think tank, has raised questions about the administration’s reporting requirement plan and argues that it would cast too wide a net, by targeting not just the kinds of firms where underreporting is common but a much wider set of firms than would be useful or necessary.

“The assertion that rich guys are cheating to this level is unsupported by the literature,” Rosenthal said.

The third and fourth parts of the plan involve overhauling outdated IRS technology — some of which dates to the 1960s — so it is better at identifying tax evasion, as well as new penalties on tax preparers who “commit or abet” tax fraud.

Treasury’s plan would also target cryptocurrency as part of its enhanced reporting requirements, with cryptocurrency companies required to provide the IRS with more financial information. The reporting requirements would affect businesses receiving cryptocurrency with a fair market value of more than $10,000.

It described cryptocurrency and virtual currency as a “significant concern,” adding that they had grown to $2 trillion in market capitalization.

“Cryptocurrency already poses a significant detection problem by facilitating illegal activity broadly including tax evasion,” the report said.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency had been extremely volatile this year, with some rocketing in value only to slide markedly and suddenly.

Treasury officials have emphasized that their efforts are aimed at reversing the decline in scrutiny of particularly high-income taxpayers and businesses. Audit rates for corporations with more than $20 billion in assets fell from 98 percent in 2010 to 50 percent in 2018, Treasury’s report said. Taxpayers earning more than $10 million faced audit rates of 19 percent in 2010 but just 7 percent in 2018. Audit rates declined for taxpayers broadly, but the decline in audits for the rich was particularly pronounced.

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Prices were up by 3.6 percent in April compared to a year ago, continuing a trend of rising inflation, although economic policymakers say the increases aren’t here to stay.

Data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Friday showed that prices rose 0.6 percent in the past month.
However, consumer spending fell 0.1 percent in April compared to March, after adjusting for inflation, as stimulus running through the economy began to slow down.

The latest inflation data is unlikely to rattle the Federal Reserve, which is charged with keeping prices stable and unemployment low. Fed leaders have argued for months that a rise in inflation will be temporary, and that prices will simmer down as the economy reemerges from the pandemic. Rather than rush to raise interest rates and slow down the recovery, the Fed is urging patience so that the labor market has time to recover.

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In April Americans’ after-tax income slid 15.1 percent from the record level it hit in March, when hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus payments goosed U.S. bank accounts, after adjusting for inflation. In March, income had jumped an eye-popping 22.7 percent compared to February. So while after-tax income slipped in April, it has trended upward in the longer run, as stimulus checks and unemployment benefits continued to arrive in April but at lower levels.

Powered in part by this government-assisted income surge, consumer spending recovered completely from the Covid crisis in March, after adjusting for inflation. Consumers account for almost 70 percent of the U.S. economy and their spending whims have long powered U.S. economic growth.

But while consumers are finally shelling out just as much per month as they did before the recession, spending in April 2021 looks very different than it did just 14 months earlier, before the crisis. Spending on goods — everything from private planes to window panes — recovered within a month or two and has been in record territory ever since.

Spending on services, such as parking fees and surgeries, rose 0.6 percent in April from the previous month but remained 4.7 percent below its prepandemic level as fears of the virus remain widespread and some high-traffic brick-and-mortar firms struggle to regain their footing.

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Yet there are signs for optimism. Julia Coronado, president of Macropolicy Perspectives and a former Fed economist, said the gradual shift back towards services spending will help the economy find its footing. Workers in service-sector jobs will keep going back on the payrolls, and pressure will ease on the “overheated goods sector,” where supply chain backlogs triggered higher prices.

“People are going to the dentist, getting their hair done, reupping their gym memberships, going out to eat and taking vacations,” Coronado said. “It is a transition that will take all summer though and the Fed will be patient to see the recovery through to where it is more balanced and can better stand on its own.”

What are Americans making for dinner? Reservations.

A few weeks ago, a different measure of inflation, the consumer price index showed an even higher inflation figure: 4.2 percent. That index tends to be higher than the figure in today’s release, which is the measure of inflation watched most closely by the Federal Reserve.

The two measures are similar, and both indexes calculate prices based on a bucket of goods. But the baskets aren’t identical and some prices of goods get heavier weights than others.

The consumer price index released earlier this month is based on a survey of what households buy, while the figures released Friday are based on surveys of what businesses are selling. Furthermore, the consumer price index only captures out-of-pocket expenses and wouldn’t reflect costs that aren’t paid for directly, like medical care covered by insurance or Medicaid. Those costs would be included in Friday’s data.

The surge in both indexes was due in part to their point of comparison: Last April, prices and spending plunged as the nation locked down in fear of the novel coronavirus. In comparison to that unusual low, economists say, it is not surprising that this April’s numbers look unusually high.

What used cars tell us about the risk of too much inflation hitting the economy

Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell and others give a few reasons for why inflation is on the upswing, and why the Fed isn’t worried about bringing it down too soon. Consumer demand for goods and services — from airline tickets to restaurant reservations — is rebounding as people unleash pent-up savings. Meanwhile, the supply side of the equation is struggling to catch up. Those bottlenecks are expected to ease as factories ramp back up to full capacity and workers come back on the payrolls. But it won’t happen right away.

Economists also expect inflation figures to taper off in the year to come, as the super-low readings from the pandemic’s early days shift out of the calculation.

The Biden administration also expects that inflation will rise over the coming months before tapering off to more sustainable levels. On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that “as the economy gets back online it’s going to be a bumpy process.”

“I don’t think this is endemic inflation,” Yellen said.

Many Republicans disagree with the Fed and White House. They argue that the Fed will be behind the curve once it decides inflation has climbed too far past its annual 2 percent target. The GOP also blames overspending from the Biden administration for overheating the economy.

Former treasury secretary Larry Summers, an early critic of the administration’s stimulus plan, also doubled down on his inflation concerns this week. In a Washington Post op-ed, Summers wrote that “the primary risk to the U.S. economy is overheating — and inflation.”

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The White House on Friday rejected a new counteroffer from Senate Republicans on funding for infrastructure reform, saying the party’s latest proposal — which included an additional $50 billion in spending — marked a welcome move, but one that still falls far short of what President Biden is seeking.

With billions of dollars still separating the two sides, the exchange capped off a week of tense negotiations that increasingly has left Democratic and GOP lawmakers unsure if they’re going to be able to broker a bipartisan deal to improve the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections.

In total, Republicans now appear to have offered to spend nearly $980 billion on infrastructure. More than $300 billion of that amount appears to represent new federal investments, with the rest of the proposal reflecting existing or expected spending as part of regular congressional efforts to fund improvements in water and transportation.

Biden has signaled during negotiations he is open to slimming down his package, known as the American Jobs Plan, to about $1 trillion from its initial $2.3 trillion price tag. But the president has also maintained that infrastructure spending should include entirely new investments — meaning that the gap between Democrats and Republicans is more vast than it appears.

Biden offers tax concession in infrastructure talks with key Republican

White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed the details of the GOP’s latest counteroffer on Friday in a statement after Biden spoke by phone with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). “The president expressed his gratitude for her effort and goodwill, but also indicated that the current offer did not meet his objectives to grow the economy, tackle the climate crisis and create new jobs,” she said.

Capito’s office confirmed the call in its own statement, but declined to provide further details.

Both sides said they planned to resume talks on Monday, with Congress set to return after its latest recess. And Psaki signaled the White House could soon broaden its conversations further to other burgeoning efforts in the Senate to craft a bipartisan infrastructure deal.

Time could be running out for infrastructure deal

The overall price tag of an infrastructure package represents only one of the many disagreements still separating Democrats and Republicans over new public-works spending. The two sides still cannot come to terms on what infrastructure fully entails, much less how the U.S. government should finance the investments.

Both sides have sought to make some concessions — with the GOP raising the initial cost of its plan and the White House signaling privately it is willing to put aside some of its most controversial tax increases if only for the moment. But the entreaties have hardly bridged the massive political divide, prompting top White House aides to emphasize in recent days that the clock is ticking.

Psaki earlier Friday declined to set a deadline or specify that the talks are at their end. “There’s runway left,” she said at her news briefing, even though she said there are some “realities of timelines.”

That includes ongoing work in the House and Senate to reauthorize a series of key federal transportation programs, an effort long seen as a potential vehicle for a broader infrastructure deal. Earlier in the day, Rep. Peter A. DeFazio (D-Ore.), the leader of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, released his $547 billion plan to fund the nation’s roads and railways. The panel is set to begin considering the measure next week.

DeFazio, who also spoke with Biden on Friday, said in an interview that his proposal incorporates “many of the new and novel programs and objectives” that Biden sketched out in his jobs plan, including the president’s desire to couple new transportation spending with efforts to combat climate change. He said he felt it was important for infrastructure reform to proceed in essentially two tracks, adding: “I think it is essential that the president continues to engage meaningfully with the Senate.”

But Biden’s talks have begun to trouble some Democrats, who in recent days have urged the White House to hold firm on its infrastructure ambitions — and seize on its narrow but potent majorities in Congress to see it through to passage.

“Hmm. When the GOP passed legislation to provide a $1 trillion tax break to corporations & the 1% without a single Democratic vote, I didn’t hear my Republican colleagues say ‘Wait. It has to be bipartisan,’ ” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) tweeted on Friday. “Please don’t tell me we can’t use the same tools to help working people.”

“If what I’m reading is true, I would have a very hard time voting yes on this bill,” said Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, adding in a tweet that the $2 trillion package Biden initially put forward “was already the compromise.” “@POTUS can’t expect us to vote for an infrastructure deal dictated by the Republican party,” he added.

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The wealthiest Americans — including Warren Buffett, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos — paid little in federal income taxes at times in recent years, despite soaring fortunes, according to Internal Revenue Service data obtained by ProPublica.

The tax information published Tuesday shows how billionaires are able to legally reduce their tax burden, highlighting how in some cases the American tax system hits ordinary wage-earners harder than the richest people in the country, ProPublica said. The bombshell report comes after President Biden and other Democrats have complained the U.S. tax system is unfair and tilted to benefit corporations and the wealthy.

ProPublica analyzed the data by focusing on the soaring fortunes of the country’s wealthiest members in recent years and alleged they were paying a “true tax rate” of just 3.4 percent. The news organization came up with this rate by calculating estimates of the value of their stock portfolios and other assets and then how much they paid in federal income taxes.

The publication of information from these personal income tax forms comes as the Biden administration pushes to raise income taxes on the country’s top wage-earners. But ProPublica’s data shows how taxing income would have little effect on the richest Americans, whose wealth is mostly held as assets.

Biden tax plans make some Democrats nervous.

The U.S. tax system focuses on income, not so-called “unrealized gains” from unsold stocks, real estate or other assets.

“These are extremely well-known facts,” said Jeffrey Hoopes, a tax expert and associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“If you don’t realize [the income], you don’t pay,” Hoopes added.

This wouldn’t change under Biden’s proposals for changing the U.S. tax code. Biden wants to nudge the top income tax from 37.9 percent to 39.6 percent for Americans earning more than $400,000 a year and raise taxes on the sale of certain assets -- known as capital gains -- from 20 percent to the top income rate.

Biden has rejected a so-called wealth tax, such as the one proposed during the presidential campaign by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), which would institute a tax on unsold assets for the ultra-rich. Biden has also proposed raising taxes on corporations, a number of which pay little if any corporate income taxes, according to some estimates.

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans slashed taxes across the board in 2017, and Republicans have vowed to block any efforts by the Biden administration to roll back those changes. Their position has created a big roadblock for key pieces of Biden’s agenda, including the White House’s push to approve an infrastructure package.

There already was some data about taxes paid by the wealthiest Americans, but nothing on the scale of what ProPublica said it obtained.

The IRS publishes a report on the taxes paid by the top 400 taxpayers based on adjusted gross income. The most recent version, which uses anonymous data, showed that in 2014 these richest Americans paid an average 23.13 percent federal income tax rate.

Information from individual IRS tax forms are closely guarded secrets and, in recent years, have loomed large in political fights after President Donald Trump refused to release his personal income tax forms in the run-up to and during his presidency, claiming his tax forms were under an IRS audit. It was unclear how ProPublica obtained the records.

Biden says he won't raise taxes on anyone making under $400,000

The records, though, purport to show Warren Buffett, head of Berkshire Hathaway, as having paid $23.7 million in federal income taxes on total income of $125 million from 2014 to 2018, which would indicate a personal income tax rate of 19 percent. ProPublica estimated that Buffett saw his wealth soar by $24.3 billion during that period and so his “true tax rate” was 0.10 percent.

Buffett has in the past called for tougher restrictions on the wealthy to prevent them avoiding paying taxes.

Likewise, Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla, paid $455 million on $1.52 billion in income during the same period, when his wealth grew by $13.9 billion, accounting for a “true tax rate” of 3.27 percent, according to ProPublica.

Jeff Bezos, chief executive of Amazon and the owner of The Washington Post, paid $973 million in taxes on $4.22 billion in income, as his wealth soared by $99 billion, resulting in a 0.98 percent “true tax rate.”

Spokespeople for Musk and Bezos did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a statement to ProPublica, Buffett said that his company, Berkshire Hathaway, pays a large amount of corporate income tax and that he has planned for more than 99 percent of his personal wealth to go to taxes and philanthropy.

“I believe the money will be of more use to society if disbursed philanthropically than if it is used to slightly reduce an ever-increasing U.S. debt,” Buffett wrote in the statement.

“But that will be for Congress to determine,” through changes to U.S. tax policy, he added.

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hanimmal said:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/08/wealthy-irs-taxes/
View attachment 4918972

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Analysis: More than 6,000 lobbyists have worked on taxes in 2017

That means there are more than 11 lobbyists working on taxes for every member of Congress.

thehill.com

President Biden and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.a) ended negotiations over the president’s infrastructure package on Tuesday as the two sides failed to strike a deal after weeks of talks.

The administration will now focus its efforts on conversations with a bipartisan group of senators, as it continues to search for support for the president’s wide-ranging infrastructure package, an administration official said Tuesday.

And Senate Democrats are looking at the possibility of breaking the infrastructure package in two. They could try and assemble one bill with Republicans and then try and pass a separate measure with only Democratic support in an effort to meet all of their objectives, but both strategies could prove difficult execute.

Biden spoke Tuesday afternoon with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who has been part of the bipartisan effort, which will meet Tuesday evening, as well as Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.a) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.).

Biden offers tax concession on infrastructure in talks with Capito.

An administration official said the talks with Capito, the GOP’s top negotiator, fell apart after the president could not get her group to increase their overall spending on the plan, and they continued to disagree on how to pay for it.

“He informed Senator Capito today that the latest offer from her group did not, in his view, meet the essential needs of our country to restore our roads and bridges, prepare us for our clean energy future, and create jobs,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. “He offered his gratitude to her for her efforts and good faith conversations, but expressed his disappointment that, while he was willing to reduce his plan by more than $1 trillion, the Republican group had increased their proposed new investments by only $150 billion.”

But Capito pinned the blame on the president, saying she was “disappointed by his decision” to end the talks after refusing her latest offer on a revised package.

Time could be running out for infrastructure deal.

“Despite the progress we made in our negotiations, the president continued to respond with offers that included tax increases as his pay for, instead of several practical options that would have not been harmful to individuals, families, and small businesses,” she said in a statement. “While I appreciate President Biden’s willingness to devote so much time and effort to these negotiations, he ultimately chose not to accept the very robust and targeted infrastructure package, and instead, end our discussions.”

There were numerous areas of disagreement. Biden had originally proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent as part of the plan, but many Republicans remained adamant that the corporate tax rate wouldn’t change. Biden later showed an openness to only raising the rate to 25 percent, and last week began pushing Republicans to see if they would accept any tax changes whatsoever.

Many Republicans had agreed that there needed to be large investments in U.S. infrastructure, but they had alleged that Biden’s original definition of “infrastructure” was too broad. For example, many Republicans objected to Biden’s proposal that would include spending on eldercare and other services as part of the package
Biden had proposed a massive infrastructure package as a key part of his 2020 campaign, saying he wanted to rebuild roads, bridges, highways and ports, expand access to housing and broadband, and effectively modernize the United States for the 21st century.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) now faces a crucial decision over how to proceed. He could try and advance a measure with only Democratic votes through a process called “reconciliation,” but there would be little room for error because the Senate is split 50-50. Biden’s outreach to Republicans on Tuesday suggests he still wants to find a way to assemble a bipartisan coalition, only now it appears possible that Capito might not be part of it.

Speaking to reporters Tuesday before talks collapsed, Schumer said Democrats are proceeding on two paths.

On one track are newly emerging conversations between Biden and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Sinema and Portman, who are “trying to put something together that might be close to what the president needs.” At the same time, however, Schumer said Democrats are getting to work on reconciliation, acknowledging that Democrats are unlikely to accomplish everything they hope in a bill crafted alongside the GOP.

“It may well be part of the bill that’ll pass will be bipartisan, and part of it will be through reconciliation,” Schumer said. “But we’re not going to sacrifice the bigness and boldness in this bill.”

The president’s efforts at negotiations, however, could be slowed as he leaves
Wednesday for his first international trip. Psaki said Biden has designated members of his cabinet and senior White House staff to continue conversations as he heads overseas.

The White House has also not ruled out pushing the legislation through budget reconciliation if they cannot strike a deal with Republicans.

“The President is committed to moving his economic legislation through Congress this summer, and is pursuing multiple paths to get this done,” Psaki said in her statement.

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Prices were up by 5 percent in May compared with a year ago, the largest increase since the Great Recession, continuing a steady climb in inflation even as policymakers insist on staying the course.

Data released Thursday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that prices rose 0.6 percent in the past month. Policymakers have predicted that prices will rise over the coming months, especially compared to a year ago, when the economy was still reeling from coronavirus pandemic shutdowns.

“We are entering what will no doubt be a long, hot summer as consumers continue to spend faster than most producers and service providers can keep up,” wrote Grant Thornton chief economist Diane Swonk in an analyst note.

The most recent inflation figures are unlikely to rattle the Biden administration or the Federal Reserve, both of which argue that prices will continue to rise as the economy recovers from the depths of the coronavirus crisis.

Yellen says inflation could reach 3 percent this year as recovery continues

“While, no doubt, the topline increase in inflation will command the attention of policymakers at the Federal Reserve, the underlying tone and tenor of the data will not result in any change of policy,” wrote Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, in an analyst note.

The price of used cars and trucks continued to surge, rising 7.3 percent in May compared to April. That followed a 10 percent increase in April.

A complicated and unusual range of factors have seized on the market for used cars and rental cars, triggering nationwide shortages. Many rental car companies sold their fleets during the pandemic, leaving them scrambling as Americans start traveling again. On the supply chain side, a shortage of semiconductors has also made it hard for companies to restock their lots.

Prices for household furnishings and services increased 1.3 percent in May, its largest monthly increase since January 1976, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The indexes for domestic services, along with categories tracking furniture and bedding, helped drive the increase.

One way companies are concealing higher prices: Smaller packages

The Fed is charged with keeping prices stable and the unemployment rate low. And for now, it is not rushing to control inflation until substantial progress has been made in the labor market, which is still down 7 million jobs.

On Saturday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said inflation could rise as high as 3 percent over the entire year, which would be considered high for the United States. Still, it’s unclear just how high inflation will be allowed to climb, and for how long, before policymakers in the administration and the Fed see cause for concern.

Once Trump’s ‘enemy,’ Fed emerges as White House ally in rejecting concerns about overdoing stimulus

Fed and administration officials point to factors that, they say, are temporarily driving prices up. Demand for goods and services — including on things such as concert tickets and restaurants — is rebounding as more people become vaccinated and are eager to unleash pent-up savings. Meanwhile, supply chains are struggling to catch up. Economists say that those bottlenecks will smooth out over time — and require patience from consumers and policymakers alike.

“Consumers will still have to deal with transitory price increases and either accept them or make other choices,” Brusuelas wrote.

Airline tickets are a prime example. Prices rose 7 percent in May after surging 10.2 percent in April.

But in some instances, prices are already starting to cool down. Data show that prices for hotels and motels rose 7.6 percent in April. They increased only 0.4 percent in May.

Some economists are eyeing the cost of rent, which makes up a large share of many Americans’ budgets. Rental prices didn’t swing wildly during the pandemic and only increased 0.2 percent in May. But it’s still up 1.8 percent over last year. Once rent rises and tenant are locked into leases, it may be harder for rent to fall back down. Only time may tell.

Generally, policymakers expect inflation figures to taper off in the year to come. That’s in part because the super-low readings from the pandemic’s early days will gradually shift out of the calculation.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure deal has been thrown in doubt as Republican senators said they felt “blindsided” by his insistence that it must move in tandem with his bigger package. The White House doubled down on the strategy, meanwhile, saying it should have come as no surprise.

The rare accord over some $1 trillion in investments faced new uncertainty Friday, barely 24 hours after Biden strode to the White House driveway, flanked by 10 senators from a bipartisan group, with all sides beaming over the compromise.

Senators were described as “stunned,” “floored” and “frustrated” after Biden publicly put the conditions on accepting their deal, according to two people familiar with the private conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the reactions.

“I’ve been on the phone with the White House, my Democratic colleagues, my Republican colleagues, all darn day,” said Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, the lead Republican negotiator, in an interview Friday.

“My hope is that we’ll still get this done. It’s really good for America. Our infrastructure is in bad shape,” he said. “It’s about time to get it done.”



White House press secretary Jen Psaki, who was asked at her briefing about the GOP dismay, said senators should not have been surprised by the two-track strategy that Biden has publicly discussed on many occasions.

“That hasn’t been a secret. He hasn’t said it quietly. He hasn’t even whispered it,” she said.

Psaki said the president plans to stand by the commitment he made to the senators. “And he expects they’ll do the same,” she said.

The path ahead is now uncertain.

Senators launched into calls Friday seeking answers from the White House after a tumultuous past month of on-again, off-again negotiations over Biden’s $4 trillion infrastructure proposals, his top legislative priority.

The Democrats’ two-track strategy has been to consider both the bipartisan deal and their own more sweeping priorities side by side, a way to assure liberal lawmakers the smaller deal won’t be the only one.

But Biden’s vow to essentially veto or refuse to sign the bipartisan accord without the companion package being negotiated by Democrats, which is now eyed at nearly $6 trillion in child care, Medicare and other investments, was an additional step that throws the process into doubt.

“No deal by extortion!” tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Friday.

Biden reached out Friday to the lead Democratic negotiator, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and reiterated his strong support for the compromise agreement, according to a readout from the White House.

Tensions appeared to calm later in the day, after senators from the group of negotiators convened a conference call, according to another person who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private meeting.

A bipartisan accord has been important for the White House as it tries to show centrist Democrats including Sinema, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and others that it is working across the aisle before Biden tries to muscle the broader package through Congress under special budget rules that allow majority passage without the need for GOP votes.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky set the tone for the sudden turn of events, signaling late Thursday where the party was headed.

He framed the argument in a floor speech and a subsequent Fox News interview, declaring that Biden’s messaging from his two news conferences Thursday “makes your head spin.”

McConnell has been highly skeptical of Biden’s agenda, vowing his “100%” focus to defeat it. He is not part of the negotiating team of five Republican and five Democratic senators who have been laboring for months on a potential deal.

Senators who were part of the bipartisan group were initially thrilled at striking the compromise. Many of them spoke about how it would be good not just for rebuilding the nation’s roads and bridges, but also for showing the world that the United States government was functioning well.

Only after senators tuned in later to Biden’s second news conference, where he outlined the path ahead, did frustrations mount and frantic phone calls begin.

At the press conference, Biden was asked what he meant by having the two packages move through Congress to his desk in “tandem.”

“If they don’t come, I’m not signing. Real simple,” Biden said.

Senators from the group were never told of such an explicit linking of the two packages, the two people familiar with the discussions said.

It never came up in their talks with the White House advisers or with Biden himself during Thursday’s meeting of the group of 10 key negotiators, they said.

“There’s a lot of conversations taking place right now as to what the president meant,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., in an interview with a Fox affiliate in New Orleans shared by his office.

Cassidy noted that the president may have misspoken and said he hoped “it won’t be as if we crafted something just to give the president a point of leverage to get something that Republicans disagree with.”

Ten Republican senators would be needed to pass the bipartisan accord in the 50-50 Senate, where 60 votes are required to advance most bills.

While the senators in the bipartisan group are among some of the more independent-minded lawmakers, known for bucking their party’s leadership, it appears McConnell’s criticism of Biden’s approach could peel away Republican support.

The White House insisted that senators have been well aware of the two-bill strategy, which has been openly discussed for months. They all but dared the Republicans to argue their way out of supporting what appeared to be a popular compromise of shared priorities.

“That’s a pretty absurd argument for them to make,” Psaki said. “Good luck.”

Democrats plan to push the broader package through using a special budget process that would allow passage of their own priorities on a simple majority vote of 51 senators, with Vice President Kamala Harris a tiebreaker.

Progressive lawmakers have pushed for the more robust investments and could withhold their votes, as well, on any bipartisan package unless they have guarantees the $1 trillion effort won’t be the end of the road.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said Friday that the bipartisan infrastructure bill “simply isn’t enough.”

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LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) — President Joe Biden declared there is an urgent need for a “generational investment” in the nation’s infrastructure, as he looked to sell voters Tuesday on the economic benefits of the $973 billion bipartisan package that still faces an uncertain future in Congress.

Biden traveled to La Crosse, Wisconsin, population 52,000, and toured its public transit center, highlighting projects — including hybrid buses and road repair equipment — that would receive additional funding from the infrastructure bill. He argued that the package, which is held together in large part by the promise of millions of new jobs, is a way for the United States to assert both the principles of democracy and the economic might that can come from dramatic investments in the country’s future.

“This deal isn’t just the sum of its parts. It’s a signal to ourselves, and to the world, that American democracy can come through and deliver for all our people,” said Biden. “America has always been propelled into the future by landmark investments.”

He said there is a critical need to improve crumbling infrastructure — from overwhelmed power grids to lead-filled water pipes to traffic-clogged roads — and stressed that a plan needs to be ambitious to not only improve Americans’ daily lives now but also to combat the growing challenges of climate change.

“We’re not just tinkering around the edges,” Biden said.

He also made his pitch in personal terms, reminiscing about driving a bus during law school and noting the 1972 traffic accident that killed his first wife and daughter, as he called for improvements to make the nation’s roads safer.

The visit to Wisconsin was the beginning of what the White House has declared would be a series of presidential trips to sell the bipartisan bill — and to reassure the nervous Republicans who helped craft it.

“I’m going to be out there making the case for the American people until this job is done, until we bring this bipartisan bill home,” said the president, though he allowed that “there will be more disagreements to be resolved, more compromises” to be made.

The process briefly fell into disarray late last week as Biden suggested the deal would be held up until he also received a separate package for infrastructure, jobs and education that would be determined solely by Democrats through the budget reconciliation process.

Biden said Saturday that this was not a veto threat, and by Sunday the package appeared back on track. But there were still anxieties on both sides of the aisle.

Some Republicans have questioned the wisdom of signing onto a bipartisan bill if it is linked to a party-line reconciliation bill that will contain a host of Democratic priorities. And GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, who has often declared his steadfast opposition to the Biden agenda, has questioned the process.

Meanwhile, a balancing act awaited among Democrats as well: Some more liberal members of the party have urged Biden to push for a Democrats-only reconciliation bill at least as large as his previously stated $4 trillion goal, while some more moderate members have signaled they’d want a much smaller number. With the Senate deadlocked 50-50, with ties broken by Vice President Kamala Harris, the White House can’t afford to lose a single vote.

As Biden trumpeted the deal in public, the White House also furiously worked behind the scenes to keep it on the tracks.

Senior West Wing aides have had calls this week with more than 60 Democratic and Republican members and chiefs of staff and other aides, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday aboard Air Force One en route to Wisconsin. And she said the White House was going along with the timeline outlined by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has said he wants to have both packages on the floor for debate next month.

An internal White House memo highlights how the administration contends the largest investment in transportation, water systems and services in nearly a century would boost growth. The memo notes that the total package is four times the size of the infrastructure investment made a dozen years ago in response to the Great Recession and the biggest since Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s.

It also emphasizes an analysis suggesting that 90% of the jobs generated by the spending could go to workers without college degrees, a key shift as a majority of net job gains before the pandemic went to college graduates.

“This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America,” the memo says.

The visit to La Crosse was indeed a blue-collar political play, with faux traffic construction signs that said “American Jobs Plan” dotted across the venue. The president has long connected with working-class voters, while Wisconsin is one of the trio of Great Lakes states — along with Michigan and Pennsylvania — that Biden narrowly reclaimed for the Democrats after they were captured by Donald Trump in 2016.

Biden, making an impromptu stop for ice cream after his speech, received a suggestion to order the rocky road flavor as a nod to the infrastructure bill but he quipped “it’s been a rocky road, but we’re going to get it done” and instead ordered cookies and cream and strawberry.

Potential economic gains were a shared incentive for the group of Democratic and Republican senators who agreed to the deal last week. McConnell said he has not yet decided whether he will support the bipartisan package, but he wants Biden to pressure House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schumer to say they will allow the bipartisan arrangement to pass without mandating that the much larger and broader follow-up bill be in place.

“I appreciate the president saying that he’s willing to deal with infrastructure separately, But he doesn’t control the Congress,” McConnell said this week.

The two bills had always been expected to move in tandem, and that is likely to continue as Biden drops his veto threat but reaches across the aisle for the nearly $1 trillion bipartisan package as well as his own broader package. The Democratic leaders are pressing ahead on the broader bill, which includes Biden’s families and climate change proposals, as well as their own investments in Medicare, swelling to some $6 trillion.

One of the Democratic moderates, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, reiterated Tuesday that he would be amenable to a party-line budget bill but did not address its size.

He told MSNBC that “I have agreed that that can be done.”

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Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) on Sunday said that he opposed a House infrastructure bill because Democrats want to "muck it up" with spending on health care and education.

"I think infrastructure is popular," McCaul told Fox News host Mike Emanuel. "I think it is bipartisan. I know the Senate working with the president is trying to work out a bipartisan agreement. That's our best chance for success here."

"I think what the House [Speaker Nancy Pelosi] put forward was a totally partisan measure," he continued. "One out of every two dollars went to the Green New Deal. Totally unacceptable to Republicans."

McCaul argued that Democrats should be focused on what he called "traditional infrastructure" like roads and bridges.

He opposed the Democratic bill because he said his opponents were going to "muck it up" with other types of infrastructure.

"Things that have nothing to do with infrastructure," McCaul complained. "I worry that they're going to expand health care and education that have nothing to do with infrastructure."

Watch the video below from Fox News.

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In this impoverished pocket of the United States, the most recent round of stimulus payments — $1,400 for Americans who earn up to $75,000 — was the difference between getting a medical treatment and not, enrolling a child in college and not. But political divisions are deep here, and Trump voters, who make up the great majority of residents, are blaming the payments for a range of ills.

Some here say the Biden stimulus checks are keeping people from work, fueling a sense that the undeserving are exploiting the system. As the price of basic goods climbs, others worry that the stimulus will lead to runaway inflation on wood, cars, even milk.

“My God-honest opinion was at first that it was nice that the government was helping people,” said Brad Jeffries, 50, a truck driver who was laid off for most of last year and used the stimulus to pay off bills. “But since we got that, everything has went up, so how is that helping people out?”

This former Democratic stronghold has shifted right recently, and many residents now refer to the area as “Trump country.” In 2020, President Donald Trump received an average of 72 percent of the vote in the 420 counties covered by the Appalachian Regional Commission, a joint federal-state agency that steers resources to the 13-state region.

Biden has promised to win some of those voters back with economic incentives like the stimulus and the expanded child tax credit program, which will begin monthly payments to parents in mid-July of $350 per-child under the age 6, and $250 per child for children between 6 and 17.

A Washington Post analysis estimates that more than 90 percent of Trump voters in Monroe County received stimulus checks, one of the highest rates in the region.

“The president understands when we raise the quality of life and achievement of rural America, we improve the quality of life for all Americans,” said Gayle Manchin, whom Biden appointed co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission this spring.

The economy isn’t going back to February 2020. Fundamental shifts have occurred.




In a county where home buyers can find properties for $25,000 and the top shopping destination is the Dollar Store, residents said their stimulus checks were put to good use.

Some bought lawn mowers or tractors. Many paid down debt, or used the money to finally make the hour-long trip to the doctor or dentist, a drive that takes them past hayfields and barns emblazoned with giant “Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco” ads.

One man in Sardis, who asked to be identified by only his first name, Edward, has been surviving on Social Security disability payments for 34 years. He suffered a brain injury and a collapsed eardrum when a former hunting buddy beat him in the head with brass knuckles during an alcohol-fueled dispute.

About half of Edward’s $500-a-month disability check goes to utility bills and rent for his government-subsidized one-bedroom apartment.

To get by, Edward, 59, mows his neighbors’ lawns in exchange “for free beer, a carton of cigarettes or a few dollars.” Last month, Edward used his stimulus check to buy new work boots, a bicycle, gasoline for his lawn mower and a weed eater in hopes of broadening his business.

“So, it definitely helped me out,” said Edward, who did not vote in the last election but generally liked Trump’s policies.

Biden stimulus showers money on Americans, sharply cutting poverty and favoring individuals over businesses

But like others, Edward also blames the stimulus for the rising price of essentials.

“Everyone keeps telling me we are going to pay this money back somehow, and I am already starting to see it with the price of gas, and the price of tomatoes,” he said. “I wonder if we are going to end up even worse off than before we got it.”

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that consumer prices nationwide rose by 5 percent in May compared with a year earlier, the largest increase since 2008. Prices for household furnishings and services increased 1.3 percent in May, their largest monthly increase since January 1976.

Many residents here also say the payments have led to a labor shortage. Although Monroe County has a 7 percent unemployment rate, many store owners and managers here and across the Ohio River in West Virginia say they have been struggling to find workers.

Jeffries, for example, said his daughter and her husband quit their jobs in the spring “when they got IRS [tax refunds] and then their stimulus on top of that.”

“They haven’t worked in two months,” said Jeffries, who works in the natural gas extraction industry. “I love her to death, but she is living off the system as bad as anyone else.”

At Marv’s Place diner in Sardis, where residents gather for hearty meals including deep-fried green beans and $12.25 pot roast dinners, Carmella Ivey said the stimulus payment arrived at just the right time.



'We are just trying to burn money'

The stimulus boosted Americans’ household wealth to a record $136.9 trillion in the spring, according to the Federal Reserve. And Biden argues that the most recent jobs report — the U.S. ecenomy added 850,000 jobs in June — is a sign his strategy of “growing the economy from the bottom up” is working.



Retail workers are quitting at record rates for higher-paying work: ‘My life isn’t worth a dead-end job’




But like many rural counties in recent years, the area has surged right.

In the Trump era, amid a steady decline in union jobs and a booming natural gas industry, that trend accelerated. Trump received 76 percent of the vote here last year.

During the campaign, Biden argued that his populist policies would appeal to the White working-class voters who’ve fled the party.



The seven political states of Ohio

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WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says she will lead an effort by top U.S. regulators to assess the potential risk that climate change poses to America’s financial system, part of a wide-ranging initiative launched by the Biden administration.

Yellen says the regulatory review, which will be done by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, will examine whether banks and other lending institutions are properly assessing the risks to financial stability. She chairs the committee, which includes Treasury, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other financial regulators.

“The current financial system is not producing reliable disclosures,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for the Venice International Conference on Climate and released in Washington.

As part of President Joe Biden’s whole-of-government approach, Yellen said, the council will examine what should be done to improve current regulations on climate-related financial disclosures.

The council was created by Congress in 2010 to improve regulatory coordination in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Banking executives are concerned that the administration’s effort could lead to increased regulatory oversight that will drive up banks’ cost of doing business and lessen their ability to make loans.

Yellen said the United States also intended to enlist the support of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other multilateral development banks to focus more resources on combating climate change. The World Bank and the regional development banks are leading sources of the loans used by poor nations for dams and other development projects.

“Developing countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change with poverty, food security and health outcomes impacted by extreme weather shocks,” Yellen said.

She said the administration is backing international efforts to mobilize $100 billion per year from a variety of public and private sources to support efforts by developing countries to combat climate change.

Yellen said she planned to convene a meeting of the heads of the international lending institutions to discuss ways to better align their efforts with the Paris climate agreement. The Trump administration pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, but Biden reversed that decision after taking office this year.

Since taking over as Treasury secretary, Yellen has been one of the leading voices in the administration to boost government efforts to combat climate change.

The administration is also making a big push to include huge investments to slow global warming in the multitrillion-dollar infrastructure spending measures Biden is pushing Congress to approve. That effort has run into Republican opposition with various Biden climate initiatives striped out of a bipartisan infrastructure measure.

Environmentalists say a larger, Democratic-only package that is now being developed needs to meet Biden’s ambitious climate promises such as moving the country to carbon-free production of electricity and becoming a global leader in use of electric vehicles and the creation of millions of jobs in solar, wind and other clean-energy industries.

The Venice international conference on climate Sunday followed a meeting of finance officials from the Group of 20 major economies in Venice on Saturday. That group backed a sweeping revision of international taxation that includes a 15% global minimum tax on corporations to deter big companies from seeking out low-rate tax havens.

The measure is scheduled to be a key agenda item when Biden and other G-20 leaders meet for a summit in Rome on Oct. 30-31.

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