Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD): House and Senate tax reform bills are “rotten”
The bipartisan battles on Capitol Hill are heating up as the end of the year approaches, and Congress must agree on a budget bill to avoid a government shutdown. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told Cheddar on Tuesday that a shutdown would be “a big mistake.”
“While there are, of course, many differences on this,” he said, “we need to find a way to bridge them in order to keep the government going.”
The congressman noted that there are plenty of pressing issues that need to be addressed by the end of the year, including the Republican Tax Plan, and the DREAM Act. Van Hollen says that DACA should be at the top of the list, and criticizes the Republicans for pushing the tax bill through so quickly.
The bill was first introduced to the House in early November, and passed the Senate within a month, with a tally of 51-49 votes. The next step is for a committee to reconcile the differences between both bills before it reaches President Donald Trump’s desk. Many critics argue that the bill favors the rich, and will be a burden for the middle class in the long run. Meanwhile, some Republicans contend that the tax will encourage corporations to bring business home, and offer greater tax relief.
Van Hollen agrees with Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi that the bills should be scrapped. He argues that both tax bills introduced to Congress, which would increased the national deficit by $1.3 trillion, are “rotten.” Beyond increasing debt, Van Hollen says that by 2019, the bill will make foreign stockholders $31 billion richer, at the cost of the middle class. The congressman says the reason is that over one-third of stocks held in U.S. corporations are owned by foreign stockholders.
“In that same, year those Americans that are going to be paying more in taxes are going to contribute about $29 billion,” he said. “Take it from the pocket of a middle class American family, transfer it to foreign stockholders.”
Peter Zalzal, associate vice president for clean air strategies at the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, joined Cheddar to discuss the Biden Administration's unveiling of stricter fuel-efficiency standards for new automobiles. "The administration estimated that these rules will reduce about 2.5 billion tons of climate pollution by 2050, and using less fuel also means that we have to go to the gas pump less often. And so it means we save money, thousands of dollars in avoided fuel costs each year for consumers," he noted.
The relatively robust March jobs report showed that despite the low unemployment rate, Black, Hispanic, and women job seekers are still having difficulty finding work. William M. Rodgers III, the vice president and director of the Institute for Economic Equity at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis noted that participation rates in the labor force ticked up for minorities, adding to other positive signs of growth. He also spoke to Cheddar News to discuss further the jobs figures, the state of the labor market, and rising inflation.
U.S. markets opened higher to kick off the second quarter, despite a miss on the March Jobs Report. The economy added $431,000 in the month, slightly lower than the $490,000 analysts had expected. The unemployment rate also ticked down to 3.6% from 3.8%. Kevin Simpson, Founder & Chief Investment Officer, Capital Wealth Planning joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
President Biden is going after billionaires in his 2023 budget request to congress. The proposal would establish a 20% minimum tax rate on all households worth more than $100 million, as well as raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%. Rhett Buttle, Small Business for America's Future Senior Advisor, Business Policy Expert & Biden Campaign Business Advisor, breaks down the proposal, what it aims to accomplish, and how small businesses might feel about it.
The Biden administration has announced the U.S. will accept up to 100,000 refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine and provide more than 1 billion dollars in new funding for the growing humanitarian crisis. The move comes as President Biden meets with his western counterparts in Europe to demonstrate a united front against Russia and show support for Ukraine. Altagracia Pierre-Outerbridge, Immigration Attorney for Outerbridge Law, explains how this is going to work.
The DOJ has endorsed an antitrust bill targeting tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Meta, and Google. The legislation would ban the companies from favoring their own products and services over their competitor's, making it more difficult them to dominate the marketplace. Greg Day, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at the University of Georgia, breaks down the bill and its potential impact on anti-competition in the tech sector.
Catching you up with what you need to know on Apr 1, 2022, with Ukrainians hoping to flee the besieged city of Mariupol with a ceasefire is in place, President Biden orders the release of oil from U.S.reserves, LGBT activists suing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the "Don't Say Gay" Law, U.S. passports offering an "x" option for gender, and more.
America’s employers extended a streak of robust hiring in March, adding 431,000 jobs in a sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of a still-destructive pandemic and the highest inflation in 40 years.
