Category: US Senate

Warren And Whitehouse Demand Probe Of Tax Avoidance By Ultra-Wealthy

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Two prominent members of the Senate Finance Committee are calling for an investigation into tax avoidance by the ultrawealthy, citing ProPublica‘s “Secret IRS Files” series.

In a letter sent today, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) wrote to the committee’s chairman, Ron Wyden (D-OR), that the “bombshell” and “deeply troubling” report requires an investigation into “how the nation’s wealthiest individuals are using a series of legal tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share of income taxes.” The senators also requested that the Senate hold hearings and develop legislation to address the loopholes’ “impact on the nation’s finances and ability to pay for investments in infrastructure, health care, the economy, and the environment.”

Last month ProPublica began publishing a series of stories about tax avoidance among the ultra-wealthy, based on a vast trove of tax data concerning thousands of the wealthiest American taxpayers and covering more than 15 years. ProPublica conducted an unprecedented analysis that compared the ultra-wealthy’s taxes to the growth in their fortunes, calculating that the 25 richest Americans pay a “true tax rate” of just 3.4 percent. Continue reading.

GOP Senator Objects To FBI Mobilization Against Violent Extremism

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Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) on Monday criticized the FBI for requesting the public’s help in combating violent extremism.

Blackburn appeared on the conservative Newsmax TV network’s National Report program and was asked by host Emma Rechenberg for her reaction to what she called “a quite controversial tweet” posted on the official FBI Twitter account that read, “Family members and peers are often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence. Help prevent homegrown violent extremism.”

The agency is currently in the middle of a massive investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Over 500 people have been arrested so far. Continue reading.

Senate Democrats, White House agree on $3.5 trillion budget package

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Biden headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for sales pitch; Warner says plan is ‘fully paid for’

Top Senate Democrats and White House officials reached agreement late Tuesday on an overall spending target of $3.5 trillion for a filibuster-proof budget reconciliation package that Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said will fund “every major program” President Joe Biden proposed in his economic plans.

Biden will come to the Capitol Wednesday to help Schumer and Budget Committee members pitch the spending target to the broader Senate Democratic Caucus over lunch. In a key selling point for his fellow centrists Democrats, Virginia Sen. Mark Warner told reporters the plan will be “fully paid for.”

The $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, combined with $579 billion new spending in a bipartisan infrastructure bill that is still being drafted, will bring the total new spending on infrastructure, climate, child care, education and paid leave programs to $4.1 trillion. That figure “is very, very close to what President Biden asked us for,” Schumer said. “Every major program that President Biden has asked us for is funded in a robust way.” Continue reading.

The bogus GOP claim that Biden is responsible for higher gasoline prices

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“As millions of Americans travel this holiday weekend, they are feeling the cost of Biden’s policies at the pump. Gas prices are at their highest level in 7 years.”

— Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, in a tweet, July 3

“Nowhere are Americans feeling the pain more than at the pump. Gasoline prices have spiked about 70 cents per gallon since President Biden was inaugurated. They will only continue to climb.”

— Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), in a Fox News opinion article, July 2

“Average gas price: June 2020: $2.21 June 2021: $3.07 President Biden’s economy!”

— Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), in a tweet, June 21

It’s that time of year again: Gasoline prices have spiked, and politicians are trying to make political hay.

The Fact Checker has had to deal with this faux issue for decades. We wrote about it in 1996 when then-Sen. Bob Dole campaigned for president and urged a repeal of the 4.3 cent gasoline tax because gasoline then was on track to reach $1.31 a gallon. We wrote about it in 2000 when gas prices appeared to have popped to the highest level ever. We wrote about it in 2012 when Republicans misleadingly complained that gasoline prices had doubled in President Barack Obama’s term.

And here we are again. President Biden has been president for only six months, and somehow his policies have already led to high gasoline prices. Continue reading.

Trump getting tougher for Senate GOP to ignore

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Senate Republican leaders have tried to put former President Trump in the rearview mirror, rarely mentioning his name and keeping focused instead on the Democratic agenda, but Trump’s iron grip on the party’s grassroots is making it tougher and tougher to keep ignoring him.

Mainstream Republicans are getting increasingly caught up in the party’s internal battle over Trump’s legacy, with even stalwart conservatives such as Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) getting called out as insufficiently loyal to Trump or “Republicans in name only.”

Trump again showed his lock on the party’s activist base over the weekend by winning the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll with 70 percent of the vote, crushing the second-place winner, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who came in a distant second with 21 percent. Continue reading.

GOP bill for Capitol security cuts House version by two-thirds

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The Republican proposal would still largely reimburse the National Guard and U.S. Capitol Police

A Republican proposal to address security costs from the Jan. 6 insurrection would largely reimburse the National Guard and U.S. Capitol Police but cut roughly two-thirds from the House Democrats’ $1.9 billion version for other expenses.

The $632.9 million draft bill, obtained by CQ Roll Call and dated June 29, represents the latest milestone in the ongoing debate between Republicans and Democrats about how to cover costs associated with the attack on the Capitol and bolster security going forward.

But the GOP proposal likely won’t be the final agreement, with Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick J. Leahy saying it “doesn’t provide the necessary resources to appropriately secure the Capitol complex.” Continue reading.

Members of Congress demand immediate funding for Capitol Police, but face headwinds in the Senate

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Members of Congress are sounding the alarm over the need to immediately fund the U.S. Capitol Police and National Guard or risk both security departments running out of money, potentially leading to hundreds of furloughs and cuts that would mark the latest setback for the forces after a tumultuous year.

Money allotted yearly to an account that pays for the thousands of Capitol Police officers is running out faster than in previous years because of overtime incurred by officers after the Jan. 6 insurrection. The end of the fiscal year is Sept. 30, but Congress has been unable to pass all appropriation bills through both chambers by that date for the past several years, delaying necessary funding to keep the Capitol safe.

House Democrats, in particular, are pressuring the Senate to immediately consider passing a $1.9 billion emergency security supplemental measure during the July session that would quickly allot $31 million to cover overtime pay, a demand that can be made difficult by a packed summer legislative calendar. Continue reading.

Why There’s Even More Pressure Now on Congress to Pass a Voting Rights Bill

Congress faces growing pressure to pass new federal voting legislation in the wake of a Supreme Court decision last week that will make it more difficult to challenge a spate of new Republican-backed state-level voting restrictions. 

Democrats already wrestling with a loaded agenda on voting rights now face the additional complication of how to address the ruling, beyond a slew of stronglyworded statements. 

Congressional leaders say legislation to expand ballot access is their top priority in the aftermath of the 2020 election, but they have struggled to advance it. Last month, a sweeping package that would have set a new national baseline for election laws while overhauling campaign finance and government ethics provisions ran into a solid wall of Republican opposition in the closely divided Senate.  Continue reading.

Toyota to stop donating to GOP lawmakers who objected to certifying Biden’s win

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Toyota announced Thursday that its political action committee would no longer make donations to Republican members of Congress who objected to certifying the presidential election results in January, after uproar over newsthat the automaker’s corporate PAC had supported those lawmakers at a higher level than other PACs.

“Toyota is committed to supporting and promoting actions that further our democracy,” the company said in a statement Thursday. “We understand that the PAC decision to support select Members of Congress who contested the results troubled some stakeholders. We are actively listening to our stakeholders and, at this time, we have decided to stop contributing to those Members of Congress who contested the certification of certain states in the 2020 election.”

Supporters of President Donald Trump overran the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, in large part to protest the certification of Joe Biden’s victory because Trump asserted, and they might have believed, that the election was “stolen.” The violent siege left five people dead, including a police officer; two other officers who were on duty that day later died by suicide. Continue reading.

Senator’s Photos From Capitol On Jan. 6 Show Violent Insurrection Wreckage

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The pictures show yet again that the deadly riot at the Capitol was no “normal tourist visit,” as one Republican lawmaker previously put it.

Shattered glass. Overturned chairs. Broken furniture. This was some of the wreckage at the Capitol after the violent riot of Jan. 6, captured in newly released photos from a Democratic senator.

“I took these exactly six months ago – the morning after the insurrection,” Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown tweeted Wednesday, noting it was the first time he was sharing the footage. “This is what I saw in the Capitol.”

On Jan. 6, an armed mob of hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol where lawmakers were set to certify the results of the U.S. presidential election, which President Joe Biden had won. Five people died in the riots, including a Capitol Police officer.  Continue reading.