Overhauling the tax code is a task Republicans in Congress have been attempting to accomplish for 30 years. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump unveiled his administration’s tax plan, called the “Unified Framework For Fixing Our Broken Tax Code.” The plan is reported to cost an upwards of $5 trillion dollars and has been described by his officials as “completely designed with the middle class … Read More
Ivanka Is Either A Fake Or Stupid On Equal Pay
A few months ago: #EqualPayDay is a reminder that women deserve equal pay for equal work. We must work to close the gender pay gap! https://t.co/CcwsoBXWdF — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) April 4, 2017 From TPM: First daughter Ivanka Trump, who made wage equality and workplace protections for women one of her signature issues on the campaign trail and in her … Read More
This. Yes.
From the New York Times:
Breaking: The Senate Health Care Bill Gets Scored
The House Bill said 23 million would lose insurance under the House GOP plan to replace Obamacare. Now the Senate version has been scored and it is…. just as bad. The Senate bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act would increase the number of people without health insurance by 22 million by 2026, a figure that is only slightly lower than the 23 … Read More
Grover Goes To School
A story in tweets:
Meanwhile, Republicans Are Giving America Back To Wall Street
Republicans in the House of Representatives passed the Choice Act yesterday, a sweeping deregulation of the financial sector. It passed 233-186, with no Democratic support. One Republican, Walter Jones of North Carolina, voted no. This bill rolls back or weakens most of the protections put in place since the 2008 financial crisis through President Barack Obama’s Dodd-Frank Act. Though it … Read More
Two Bills Signed Into Law By Trump So Far
(1) Repeal of the “Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers” Rule. The rule was that oil, gas and mineral companies had to disclose (to the Securities and Exchange Commission) any payments (taxes, royalties, fees, bonuses, etc) given to foreign governments relating to commercial development of oil, natural gas, or minerals. Designed to prevent companies from engaging in corruption with … Read More
Trump’s Carrier Deal Is The Opposite Of Capitalism
So a few days ago, President-elect Donald Trump tweets that Carrier is not moving to Mexico and it is keeping jobs here. He pats himself on the back for delivering on a campaign promise. Except now we learn the truth: The Carrier deal, brokered by President-elect Donald Trump, may not have saved as many factory jobs as was presented … Read More
Drug Price Gouging
EpiPens, made by a company called Mylan — are allergy injectors — sold two per pack — that contain epinephrine, a drug used to relax muscles. It can open the airways, and reduce swelling during a severe allergic reaction. Over the years, the price of an EpiPen standard two-pack gradually grew to about $600. The same two-pack cost only about $100 in … Read More
More Brexit Fallout
The Dow dropped another 250 points today, as it (and other world markets) assessed the fallout from the UK’s decision to leave the EU. At one point, it dipped to well below 300 points off. In addition, Standard & Poor’s announced that it had lowered the United Kingdom’s sovereign credit rating from “AAA” to “AA,” citing last week’s referendum. Fitch, meanwhile, moved … Read More
The World Turned Upside Down
The United Kingdom voted to leave the EU last night, and even though negotiations to leave will take years, the impact is felt now. The pound sterling has dropped in value about 10 percent. Prime Minister David Cameron, who proposed the referendum as a way to remain in office (even though he was against leaving), is quitting. Scotland voted overwhelmingly … Read More
Too Big To Fail Banks Being Pressured
Great news: Federal Reserve officials strongly signaled they will toughen big-bank capital requirements even more than they have since the 2008 crisis, a move that will add to the pressure on the largest U.S. banks to consider shrinking. Fed governors Daniel Tarullo and Jerome Powell, in separate public comments on Thursday, said the Fed would require eight of the largest U.S. … Read More
Trump Says He Would Allow America To Default On Its Loans
He didn’t actually say the word “default”, but what he is describing here is a default (“not repaying loans in full”): One day after assuring Americans he is not running for president “to make things unstable for the country,” the presumptive Republican nominee,Donald J. Trump, said in a television interview Thursday that he might seek to reduce the national debt … Read More
What’s The Panama Papers All About?
The leak amounts to 2.6 terabytes of information — perhaps the largest whistleblower leak in history. Also, it might topple a country or too. So it might be interesting to learn what the Panama Papers leak is all about. It starts with a company called Mossack Fonesca. That’s a Panamanian law firm that has long been well-known to the global financial … Read More