House Republicans rang in the New Year with a craven attempt to pander to their corporate cronies, making the 118th Congress’ very first vote one to defund the IRS and protect tax evaders. This comes after the agency finally received much-needed funding in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act after years of being under-resourced.
A corporate tax break that could give some of Wall Street’s wealthiest people a $200 billion gift over ten years is under consideration as part of the omnibus budget negotiations underway in Congress this month. At issue are provisions of the 2017 Trump tax bill that took effect this year, and the private equity’s lobbying effort to overturn the parts of the law that limit a key tax break.
This week, the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee are each holding hearings to discuss the fallout from the collapse of the major crypto exchange FTX: what happened, why, and what should be done about it. There is a real opportunity here for Congress to reset crypto policy discussions and focus on first principles. To do that, Congress should keep the following points in mind:
Today, the Department of Labor (DOL) helped safeguard the savings of millions of workers who participate in private-sector employee benefit plans by finalizing a rule related to the consideration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors.
Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity owner of Albertsons grocery stores, is quickly moving to extract an unusually large amount of money from the grocer that would leave Albertsons in a much worse position to repay the massive debt load put on by its private equity owners. This move puts many of Albertsons’ workers and their pensions at risk.
Ask a reasonable person if discrimination on the basis of race or religion is unfair. The odds are good – very good, according to this AFR poll, – that you’ll get a resounding “yes,” a polite “of course,” or even an incredulous “are you kidding?” Yes. Discrimination. Is. Unfair. But if you try to convince big-bank lobbyists that discrimination is unfair, you won’t get a “yes.” You get a lawsuit, with multiple awful lines of attack, that stands a good chance of succeeding. And that’s not satire.