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☆ 'Nobody's getting wealthy on Social Security,' lawmaker says. The November election may influence the program's future
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-27 | by ( Lorie Konish | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Protect Social Security!" In 1983, when the last major Social Security reforms were enacted, there were no benefit enhancements, Larson argued. Today, annual earnings of up to $168,600 are subject to a 6.2% payroll tax toward Social Security paid by both workers and employers. Larson's plan also calls for closing loopholes that allow wealthy taxpayers to avoid paying Social Security taxes on other income. Larson said the public is well aware that Social Security benefits are theirs and they've paid for them.

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The report comes as access to sensitive taxpayer information has sparked calls for investigations — and calls for reform on taxes for the wealthy. Littlejohn had applied to work as a contractor to get Trump’s tax returns and carefully figured out how to search and extract tax data to avoid triggering suspicions internally, prosecutors said in court documents. Werfel said that since the agency has received funding through Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act, it has been able to markedly improve the security of sensitive information, including audit trail deficiencies. “Our data security and environment is dramatically better today than it was in 2017 to 2020 when this unauthorized access occurred," Werfel said. "And it’s dramatically better today because we now have the resources to make the right investments to strengthen our data security.

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He spent part of the previous day meeting with GOP lawmakers who were concerned about features of the bill, namely the expanded child tax credit. Democrats focused on boosting the child tax credit. The tax credit is $2,000 per child, but not all of that is refundable. Households benefitting as a result of the changes in the child tax credit would see an average tax cut of $680 in the first year, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Democrats pushed to restore the more generous tax credit they passed in 2021 in President Joe Biden's first year in office with payments occurring on a monthly basis.

Persons: Mike Johnson, Johnson, Athina Lawson, Jason Smith, “, ” Smith, Joe Biden's, ”, Suzan DelBene Organizations: WASHINGTON, Senate, New, Republicans, China, Center Locations: United States, “, Palestine , Ohio

“It’s an ongoing effort,” said White House chief of staff Jeff Zients. “Under his leadership, we’ve attacked inflation from every angle.”The question is whether voters are feeling the improvement and will reward Biden. Or will they penalize him because inflation became a problem on his watch as the U.S. emerged from pandemic shutdowns? Past and current Biden administration officials say the decline in inflation since then was a result of a set of choices. Much of the public saw inflation through the lens of their grocery stores, strip malls and gas stations, but the White House considered it a worldwide issue.

Persons: Joe Biden, he's, Biden, ”, Jeff Zients, we’ve, Jason Smith of Missouri, Donald Trump, ” Trump, “ We're, Bharat Ramamurti, shutdowns, “, Jared Bernstein, White, Ben Harris Organizations: WASHINGTON, White, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Biden, Federal Reserve, House, National Economic Council, Congressional, Medicare, Factories, Shipping, White House Council, Economic Advisers, White House, U.S, Republican, Treasury Department, Associated Press, NORC, for Public Affairs Locations: “, U.S, Los Angeles, Long Beach , California, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Red

☆ America’s Debt Crisis Burns While Congress Fiddles
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-20 | by ( Tim Smart | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +9 min

Last month, the Penn Wharton Budget Model from the University of Pennsylvania came out with an analysis of the debt crisis entitled “When Does Federal Debt Reach Unsustainable Levels?”Their answer? The concern is that punting the problem into the future, continuing to raise debt even as interest rates rise further or hold at higher levels for longer, the debt will grow even faster in a “snowball” scenario. Similar proposals have been offered over the years but at the same time they seem to lack political support – indeed, Republicans have recently voiced the idea of cutting Social Security. The debt crisis is rapidly worsening at a time when the bond market is having its own set of problems. A recent government auction of debt, an occurrence that is becoming more common as the U.S. borrows more, saw weak demand.

Persons: Dick Cheney, Richard Neal, Democrats –, Blu Putnam, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Jerome Powell, ”, Gene Steuerle, Richard B, Fisher, probity, Kevin McCarthy, Kent Smetters, Boettner, Smetters, Richard Robis, Donald Trump Organizations: Capitol, Democratic, Massachusetts, The New York Times, Federal Reserve, Partisans, Democrats, Fed, CME Group, Social Security, Medicare, Urban Institute, California Rep, Penn Wharton Budget, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Wharton, Social, Republicans, Treasury, Hamas, BCA Research, White House Locations: U.S, United States, Washington, China, Japan, Israel

☆ Inflation Reduction Act spurs $500 billion in investments — and much is going to underserved communities, Treasury says
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-16 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department on Wednesday announced that billions of dollars slated for investments in clean energy, electric vehicles and batteries under the Inflation Reduction Act will go to relatively underserved communities throughout the country. The announcement comes as the IRA, the Biden administration's landmark law targeting manufacturing, infrastructure and climate change, turns one year old. The more than $500 billion in announced investments, $200 billion of which is in the clean energy sector, is a key goal of the legislation, according to the Treasury. A senior Treasury official told reporters on Wednesday that the agency is also seeing meaningful private investment in the efforts. He also contended it would benefit the Chinese Communist Party, as the U.S. relies on Chinese imports of key inputs for clean energy technology.

Persons: Sean Patrick Maloney, WASHINGTON —, Janet Yellen's, Harris administration's, Joe Biden's, Biden, Jason Smith, Smith Organizations: WASHINGTON, Treasury Department, Wednesday, Biden, Treasury, Chinese Communist Party Locations: Cold, , New York, U.S, China

☆ Focus: Key trade loophole keeps cheap Chinese products flowing to US
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Katherine Masters | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that de minimis shipments into the U.S. rose to 685.5 million in 2022, up nearly 67% over 2018. That equals roughly two to three million packages a day, Robert Silvers, Under Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security, told lawmakers in July. A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers in June introduced bills that would ban de minimis shipments from China upon enactment. Rival U.S. retailers also have grown increasingly concerned about the exemption as Shein and Temu have gained market share. In 2015, Congress raised the cap on de minimis shipments to $800 from $200, making the U.S. threshold one of the highest in the world.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Shein, Peter Pernot, Robert Silvers, minimis, Jason Smith, Temu, Steve Story, They're, Erik Autor, Katherine Masters, Anna Driver Organizations: REUTERS, PDD Holdings, U.S, Reuters, American Apparel and Footwear Association, de, U.S . Customs, Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security, Republican, Columbia, Apex Logistics International, UPS, FedEx, Barlow & Company, Thomson Locations: China, U.S, Beijing, Mexico, Canada

On the eve of Hunter Biden’s court appearance to enter into a plea deal for misdemeanor tax crimes that would allow him to avoid prison time, House Republicans and conservative groups sought to intervene in the case, urging a judge to throw out the agreement he reached with prosecutors. The highly unusual legal maneuvering — which experts said was unlikely to succeed — illustrated the lengths that House Republicans and their allied groups have been willing to go to as they have tried to use Mr. Biden’s legal and personal troubles to inflict political damage on his father, President Biden. Representative Jason Smith of Missouri, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, filed a brief in Federal District Court in Wilmington, Del., where Hunter Biden’s plea deal is to be considered by a judge on Wednesday. The committee has heard testimony from two Internal Revenue Service investigators who claim to be whistle-blowers and have told the panel that the younger Mr. Biden received preferential treatment from the Justice Department. Mr. Smith’s brief asked the judge to consider the testimony in deciding whether to approve the agreement.

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With the way cable news talking heads describe debt ceiling negotiations, one might think America is headed for an extinction-level event. Left-wing pundits argue that anything but a "clean raise" in the debt ceiling – extending America's credit card limit with no conditions – will bring about an economic apocalypse. As the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee with jurisdiction over the debt ceiling, Social Security, and Medicare, no debt ceiling legislation that passes through my committee will include cuts to these vital programs. Debt ceiling negotiations are something Democrats – and even then-Senator Biden – have agreed to multiple times in our nation's history. For Washington Democrats to engage in politics as usual is manifesting the very crisis they claim they want to avoid.

☆ House Tax Leader Denounces International Plan to Raise Minimum Corporate Tax
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Richard Rubin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Rep. Jason Smith said ‘Republicans will not tolerate’ changes that could let other countries collect more taxes from U.S. companies. WASHINGTON—The House’s top tax legislator criticized an international agreement to raise minimum taxes on corporations, saying Republicans in Congress wouldn’t accept the deal reached by the Biden administration and more than 130 countries. Rep. Jason Smith (R., Mo. ), who became chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee last month, said the agreement would help China gain a competitive advantage and hurt the U.S.

☆ What the pro-business tax agenda is chasing in a changing Congress
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-11 | by ( Cheryl Winokur Munk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Main Street could find itself stuck in gridlock next year in terms of advancing pro-business tax objectives. For House Republicans, legislative priorities are likely to include extending business-friendly provisions of The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed by the Trump Administration in 2017. Even so, a divided Congress means that major pro-business legislative changes will be difficult to enact. Rather, tax and policy professionals expect House Republicans to focus on a number of positioning moves next year — ones that will establish their pro-business agenda ahead of the 2024 presidential election. "There are a host of provisions in the tax code that businesses would like to see changed or revised," said Rochelle Hodes, a principal in Crowe's Washington National Tax office.

☆ Taylor Swift fans are angry at Ticketmaster's merger with Live Nation after the company's debacle around her concert tickets. An antitrust expert who testified against it said he thinks breaking it up
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Taylor Swift tickets queue was once a madhouse, before Ticketmaster canceled its public ticket sale. Some are pointing to Ticketmaster's merger with Live Nation as the reason that prices are high and competition low. An antitrust expert who testified against the merger told Insider that breaking it up "will be a major priority for the antitrust division" of the DOJ. "The value in going to the Taylor Swift concert is Taylor Swift," Balto said. The madness over Taylor Swift tickets has refreshed calls for the merger to be reexamined, with several lawmakers weighing in.

#TaylorSwiftTix” one fan wrote, echoing the frustration of thousands of “Swifties,” the nickname for diehard Swift fans, vying to see their favorite artist in her first concert tour since before the pandemic. Backlash against the ticketing companies has also grown: When a major artist announces a tour, fans inevitably complain on social media about Ticketmaster’s high fees and unchecked scalping. Users shared screenshots of emails from Ticketmaster that said “Your invitation to TaylorSwiftTix Presale powered by Verified Fan.” “You’ve been selected!” the email reads. As for the Swift ticket sales chaos on Tuesday, Ticketmaster urged fans on Twitter to avoid going through its homepage to get tickets. "If you received a code to the TaylorSwiftTix Presale, please login and access the queue through the link you received via text rather than entering through the Ticketmaster homepage," Ticketmaster tweeted.

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