“The backlash to the Republican tax agenda is already getting Democrats elected — in Oklahoma. On Tuesday night, 26-year-old mental-health counselor Allison Ikley-Freeman won election to the Sooner State’s Senate, in a district that backed Donald Trump by 40 points last November. Ikley-Freeman did not win on the strength of her fundraising or political experience. She boasted little of the former and none of the latter. But like the three other Oklahoma Democrats who have evicted Republicans from state-house seats this year, Ikley-Freeman enjoyed one decisive advantage: She bore no responsibility for the regressive tax policies that had left the state in fiscal ruin.” More …
Month: November 2017
Reagan Adviser: GOP Tax Cuts Set Stage for an All-Out Attack on Welfare State
“The Republican budget already assumes $4 trillion in cuts to mandatory spending over 10 years, a euphemism for Social Security and Medicare.” More …
How Medicare Could See a Cut Thanks to the GOP Tax Plan
“The tax plan that congressional Republicans and President Donald Trump are pushing may do more than cut taxes — it could also cut spending for programs including Medicare and student loans. Here’s why: Budgetary rules known as statutory paygo (short for pay-as-you-go) call for automatic spending cuts if Congress enacts bills that have the net effect of increasing the deficit by the end of the year.” More …
GOP Tax Plan Could Save Trump and His Family More Than $1 Billion
“Trump and his family could stand to save more than $1 billion under a tax proposal passed by House Republicans, according to an analysis commissioned by NBC News.” More …
GOP Tax Bill Gives Private Jet Owners a Tax Break
“The new Senate tax bill will give those who own or lease private planes breaks on the amount they pay to companies for maintenance, storage, fueling and even when they want to hire pilots and a crew onboard.” More …
Ivanka and the Fugitive from Panama
“How an alleged fraudster in Panama, working with Donald Trump’s daughter, helped make Trump’s first international hotel venture a success. The broker was in business with a money-launderer and two criminals from the former Soviet Union. Then he fled.” More …
A Panama Tower Carries Trump’s Name and Ties to Organized Crime
“An NBC News investigation into the Trump Ocean Club, in conjunction with Reuters, shows that the project was riddled with brokers, customers and investors who have been linked to drug trafficking and international crime.” More …
GOP Tax Plan Contains More Bad News for Student Borrowers
“The headline in the New York Times seemed sympathetic: “The House Just Voted To Bankrupt Graduate Students”. The piece by Erin Rousseau, a graduate student at M.I.T., detailed an insidious little virus buried in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, just passed by Republicans in the House. The law would repeal section 117(d)(5) of the tax code, which exempts graduate students’ tuition waiver from taxation.” More …
GOP Tax Plan Got a Triple Whammy of Brutal Reviews
“Three different groups offered critical analyses of the bill’s potentially negative effects on the federal budget, Americans’ taxes, and the broader US economy. While the Senate is still expected to make changes to the legislation, each of the new studies shows that the Senate’s bill has some significant underlying problems.” More …
Drilling Reawakens Sleeping Faults in Texas, Leads to Earthquakes
“For 300 million years faults showed no activity, and then wastewater injections from oil and gas wells came along.” More …