Author: PolitCens

President Joe Biden on Tuesday spoke in Philadelphia, the birthplace of the U.S. constitution, to charge that Republican maneuvering is putting democracy in the worst peril since the Civil War.The speech in the city where the founding document of the U.S. democratic system was drawn up and signed in 1787 was Biden’s highest profile foray yet into a controversy that both Republicans and Democrats describe in dire terms.According to the White House and congressional Democrats, Republicans are using state legislatures to restrict voting rights across the country under the guise of increasing election security.Republicans — led by former president Donald Trump and his unprecedented campaign, based on lies, to overturn his election loss to Biden — insist tougher voting rules are needed to crack down on voter fraud.This means things like cutting back on mail-in voting, shortening hours at polls and imposing heavy fines against poll workers who make mistakes. While Republicans say such measures would clean up U.S. elections, Democrats point to an already extremely low incidence of fraud and say the measures target Black and other non-white voters, who tend to vote Democrat.White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday that Biden would “lay out the moral case for why denying the right to vote is a form of suppression and a form of silencing.”Biden sees this as “the worst challenge to our democracy since the Civil War,” she said.It’s not clear, however, what difference Biden can make.Democrats in Congress have tried and failed to enact federal laws that would protect access to polls, but with only a razor-thin majority they failed.The impasse has put a spotlight on the Senate rule known as the filibuster where by custom — though not law — it takes 60 out of the 100 senators to pass most legislation. This ensures that Republicans can easily block any bill, since the chamber is split 50-50, but Biden has been reluctant to press for change.In the most dramatic episode of the ongoing struggle over voter access, Democratic lawmakers in Texas fled the state on Monday to prevent a quorum in the legislature, where the Republican majority was about to vote in new restrictions.The Democrats’ exodus was the second time they’d used the unusual tactic to derail the bill. The Texans headed for Washington where they were lobbying congressional lawmakers to push ahead on federal voting protection laws.
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Democrats in the Texas Legislature bolted Monday for Washington, and said they were ready to remain there for weeks in a second revolt against a GOP overhaul of election laws, forcing a dramatic new showdown over voting rights in America.  Private planes carrying a large group of Democrats took off from an airport in Austin, skipping town just days before the Texas House of Representatives was expected to give early approval to sweeping new voting restrictions in a special legislative session. Hours after they took off, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott told an Austin television station he would keep calling special sessions through next year if necessary, he and raised the possibility of Democrats facing arrest upon returning home.  More than 50 Texas lawmakers landed in the Washington suburb of Sterling, Virginia, Monday evening and were taken on two large charter buses from a private terminal to a parking lot near the main terminal of Dulles Airport. Most wore street clothes rather than formal dress. “We are determined to kill this bill,” said state Rep. Chris Turner, who said he and his colleagues will remain away from their state until the special session ends early next month.  By leaving, Democrats again deny the GOP majority a quorum to pass bills, barely a month after a walkout thwarted the first push for sweeping new voting restrictions in Texas, including outlawing 24-hour polling places, banning ballot drop boxes and empowering partisan poll watchers.  “This is a now-or-never for our democracy. We are holding the line in Texas,” said Democratic state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer. “We’ve left our jobs, we’ve left our families, we’ve left our homes. Because there is nothing more important than voting rights in America.” The decision to hole up in Washington is aimed at ratcheting up pressure on President Joe Biden and Congress to act on voting at the federal level.  Biden is set to deliver a major address on the issue Tuesday in Philadelphia, after facing growing criticism for taking what some on the left call too passive a role in the fight. Turner said the state lawmakers were calling on Congress to pass the Democrat-backed, federal voting rights law before they go on August recess, which is around the same time Texas’ special session will end. He said the group would meet with Democrats across Washington, but a White House official said there are no current plans for a White House visit.  Turner said in order to pass the voting rights expansion law, the Senate may have to modify its procedural rules, but added, “I don’t really care how they do it.” The mass exodus lays bare how Democrats are making Texas their last stand against the GOP’s push to enact new voting restrictions in response to former President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. More than a dozen states this year have passed tougher election laws — but only in Texas have Democrats put up this kind of fight.  This is the first time since 2003 that Texas Democrats, shut out of power in the state Capitol for decades, have crossed state lines to break quorum.  Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan promised to use “every available resource” to secure a quorum. He did not elaborate, but some House Republicans signaled they would take action when the chamber reconvenes Tuesday. When Democrats fled the state two decades ago — in a failed attempt to stop new GOP-drawn voting maps — state troopers were deployed to bring them back. In an interview with Austin television station KVUE, Abbott said he was prepared to keep calling special sessions though next year’s election.  “If these people want to be hanging out, wherever they’re hanging out on this taxpayer-paid junket, they’re going to have to be prepared to do it for well over a year. As soon as they come back in the state of Texas, they will be arrested, they will be cabined inside the Texas Capitol until they get their job done,” Abbott said.  His spokeswoman did not immediately return a message.  Over the weekend, Texas Republicans began advancing measures that also bring back provisions to ban drive-thru voting, add new voter ID requirements to absentee ballots and prohibit local elections officials from proactively sending mail-in ballot applications to voters. Abbott also gave lawmakers a lengthy to-do list this summer, heavy on hot-button conservative issues including restrictions over how race is taught in schools and banning transgender athletes from playing in girls’ sports. The decision to flee carries risks, and no guarantee of victory in the long run. Abbott, who is up for reelection in 2022, could keep calling 30-day special sessions until a bill is passed. He also punished Democrats after their May walkout by vetoing paychecks for roughly 2,000 Capitol employees, which will begin taking effect in September unless the Legislature is in session to restore the funding. Staying away for an extended time could also carry repercussions in next year’s midterm elections, although many Texas Democrats are already expecting a difficult cycle in 2022, particularly with Republicans set to begin drawing new voting maps this fall that could cement their majorities.  As Democrats prepared to settle in for a possible long haul in Washington, it was not immediately clear who was footing the bill for the exodus. Democratic state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer said he would use his own campaign funds to pay for hotels for House members but declined to comment on who funded the chartered flights. Vice President Kamala Harris applauded Texas Democrats for their “courage and commitment” before they boarded the flight. Back in Texas, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick signaled that he would still try to pass a voting bill as early as Tuesday in the Senate. It was unclear whether Democrats in that chamber would continue showing up.  
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President Joe Biden on Friday fired the commissioner of Social Security after the official refused to resign, and Biden accepted the deputy commissioner’s resignation, the White House said.Biden asked Commissioner Andrew Saul to resign, and his employment was terminated after he refused the Democratic president’s request, a White House official said.Deputy Commissioner David Black agreed to resign, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.Both officials had been put in place under President Donald Trump, a Republican.Biden named Kilolo Kijakazi as acting commissioner while the administration searches for a permanent commissioner and deputy commissioner.Kijakazi currently is the deputy commissioner for retirement and disability policy at the Social Security Administration.Saul’s removal followed a Justice Department legal opinion that found he could be removed, despite a statute that says he could be fired only for neglecting his duties or malfeasance.The opinion — researched at the request of the White House — concluded that a reevaluation because of a recent Supreme Court ruling meant that Saul could be fired by the president at will.Political reactionBiden’s move got immediate support from the Democratic senator who would be in charge of confirming a successor to Saul. Republican senators accused Biden of politicizing the agency and pointed to Saul’s confirmation by a bipartisan Senate vote in 2019.Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in a statement that “every president should choose the personnel that will best carry out their vision for the country.”To fulfill President Biden’s bold vision for improving and expanding Social Security, he needs his people in charge,” Wyden added, pledging to work to confirm a new commissioner “as swiftly as possible.”Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, and Representative Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, issued a joint statement calling Biden’s decision “disappointing.” The pair contended, “Social Security beneficiaries stand the most to lose from President Biden’s partisan decision to remove Commissioner Andrew Saul.”Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the personnel move an “unprecedented and dangerous politicization of the Social Security Administration.”The agency, headquartered in Baltimore, pays benefits to about 64 million people, including retirees, children, widows and widowers, according to its website. The agency has a staff of about 60,000 employees and the benefits are funded by a tax on wages paid by employers and employees.Saul was confirmed by a Senate vote of 77-16 in 2019 to a six-year term that would have expired in January 2025, tweeted Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
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U.S. civil rights leaders emerged Thursday from a White House meeting with President Joe Biden vowing a “summer of activism” to battle new voting restrictions enacted in Republican-led states in recent months.Vice President Kamala Harris also said Thursday that the Democratic Party would invest $25 million in voter registration and education efforts.Harris, whom the president assigned to lead the administration’s efforts on voting rights, made the announcement at her alma mater, Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington.Vice President Kamala Harris speaks about voting rights at Howard University in Washington, July 8, 2021.Biden and Harris met with civil rights groups including the NAACP, National Urban League and National Action Network to “discuss the fight to protect the constitutional right to vote,” the White House said in a statement.”This will be a summer of activism, a summer of getting back in the streets, a summer of saying to the Senate and the Congress: ‘You may be going home, but it’s going to be warmer politically than you think,’ ” the Reverend Al Sharpton told reporters after the meeting.’Ongoing struggle’NAACP President Derrick Johnson said that the meeting was “encouraging” but that it was now up to Congress to act with urgency to pass legislation that protects the right to vote.”Time is of the essence. We cannot forget that justice is an ongoing struggle, and democracy, an ongoing fight,” Johnson said.Biden’s fellow Democrats have struggled along with civil rights groups to fight a spate of voting restrictions in states including Georgia and Florida that critics say are aimed at Black, Hispanic and younger voters, who have helped elect Democrats.Republican state legislators say their new voting laws are designed to enhance election security, citing former President Donald Trump’s false claims that his November election defeat was the result of widespread fraud. Multiple courts, state election authorities and Trump’s own administration have rejected those claims.Last month, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic-backed national election reform bill that would have expanded opportunities to vote before Election Day, made certain campaign contributions were more transparent and reformed the process for the drawing of congressional districts. Republicans said it violated states’ authority to set their own election laws.
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Former U.S. President Donald Trump has announced class-action lawsuits against three major tech companies, accusing them of wrongfully censoring him and other conservatives.“We’re asking the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to order an immediate halt to social media companies’ illegal, shameful censorship of the American people,” said Trump on Wednesday.Trump is the lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuits against Facebook, Twitter and Google (which owns YouTube), as well as their chief executive officers, respectively, Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai, whom Trump sarcastically described as “three real nice guys.”There has been no immediate comment from the California-based companies or their executives.’Pivotal battle’ seenTrump, outdoors at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, predicted the legal actions “will be a pivotal battle in the defense of the First Amendment and in the end, I’m confident that we will achieve a historic victory for American freedom and, at the same time, freedom of speech.”During the final weeks of his presidency, Twitter and Facebook banished Trump after his followers stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The companies cited concerns that the president’s social media posts would incite further violence.FILE – Former President Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd as he speaks at the North Carolina Republican Convention, June 5, 2021, in Greenville, N.C.Trump, who left office January 20 with the inauguration of Joe Biden as president, remains banned from the platforms.The lawsuits are also “for Democrats and even progressives whose speech should be protected under the First Amendment,” said Pam Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, who was among several of the plaintiffs, lawyers and supporters who appeared with Trump at Wednesday’s announcement.The former president said he had recruited “a lot of tobacco lawyers” to push the claim, including John Coale, who was a key litigator in multibillion-dollar lawsuits against cigarette manufacturers.It’s ‘a stunt’Some in the legal community and free-speech advocates were doubtful that Trump and his fellow plaintiffs would prevail.“This lawsuit is a stunt and it’s unlikely to find traction in the courts,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University.“There is an important debate to be had about what kinds of obligations the First Amendment may impose on private actors that have so much influence over public discourse and about how much leeway the First Amendment gives to Congress to regulate the activities of those private actors. But this complaint is not likely to add much to that debate,” Jaffer said.“Procedurally, it has been filed in the wrong venue. And even if the complaint had been filed correctly, it doesn’t state any claim on which relief can be granted,” said Gabriel Malor, a federal litigator and writer based in Virginia. “The First Amendment protects against state action. Facebook is not a state actor, no matter how large it is and no matter how many users it excludes. So, the First Amendment doesn’t provide any support for Trump’s complaint.”Included among those contending the lawsuit has no merit was the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit law and advocacy organization focused on protecting human rights and democratic principles in the digital age.🚨 BREAKING: Trump’s new lawsuits are a cynical ploy to punish & harass tech companies that held him to account for his statements in advance of the disgraceful attack on the Capitol in January. They have no merit & his claims go against both public interest & the 1st Amendment. pic.twitter.com/A8scClpPoT— Center for Democracy & Technology (@CenDemTech) July 7, 2021In addition, Trump is arguing that a provision of federal law (known as CDA § 230) violates the First Amendment because it protects Facebook’s decision to exclude content it does not like.’Zero chance’ of success“This is a frivolous argument. Facebook is protected by the First Amendment from being forced to publish user content it does not want to. Section 230’s liability shield easily comes within that First Amendment protection. Quite simply, there is zero chance that Trump prevails in this lawsuit,” Malor predicted.From a constitutional standpoint, the legal filings are “a joke,” according to Rebecca MacKinnon, a digital rights advocate who is the founder of Global Voices.”Trump’s lawsuit has nothing to do with winning in court. The audience is his base. It provides a foothold for more disinformation by his supporters on Fox News and elsewhere,” said MacKinnon, author of “Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom.”Trump told those at Wednesday’s event he was not looking to settle the matter before going to trial, and that even if he prevailed and the companies were ordered to restore his social media accounts, he was not sure he would use the platforms again.Before his accounts were removed, Trump was able to instantly and directly reach tens of millions of followers. He has not been active on several new social media platforms that have attracted some of his political supporters. Instead, he has been relying on short press releases, reminiscent of his tweets, distributed via email to journalists and others, to continue to make baseless claims of victory in last year’s presidential election.Election officials in various states, his own attorney general and numerous judges, including some that Trump appointed, have stated there is no evidence of the mass voter fraud he repeatedly alleges took place in the 2020 presidential contest.
 
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken met virtually on Tuesday with Uyghur Muslims who were detained in camps in China’s Xinjiang region to hear about their experiences and seek advice on how best to pressure China to halt repression there. The State Department said Blinken wanted to hear directly from the seven former detainees, relatives of others and advocates about conditions that they and the Uyghur community more broadly face. “The secretary thought it important to meet with these individuals to hear firsthand their stories, to hear firsthand their impression of the ongoing atrocities in Xinjiang and the internment of a million Uyghurs,” department spokesperson Ned Price said. “Also, it’s an opportunity for these participants to offer any recommendations they may have.” FILE – Demonstrators hold a protest in front of the State Department to urge the U.S. and the international community to take action against China’s treatment of the Uyghur people, May 5, 2021.China has come under severe international criticism and sanctions for detaining more than 1 million Uyghurs and other minorities for political reeducation in Xinjiang. Price said the meeting showed continuity in American policy on the matter between the widely divergent Biden and Trump administrations.  Both administrations have termed the campaign in Xinjiang a “genocide” and slapped sanctions on China for human rights abuses. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met several times with Uyghur ex-detainees during his tenure as America’s top diplomat. “America has spoken out very clearly and consistently about the abuses, about the atrocities, about the ongoing genocide that is taking place in Xinjiang,” Price said. “And, as we deem appropriate, I suspect we’ll be employing additional tools going forward to hold to account those officials responsible for what has taken place there.” Since the Trump administration, the U.S. has steadily ramped up pressure on China on a number of fronts, notably over repression in Xinjiang and a clampdown on political dissent and human rights in Hong Kong. Actions have included travel bans, financial sanctions and commercial restrictions on Chinese imports to the U.S. 
 
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President Joe Biden focused on cherries Saturday during a trip to Michigan — and cherry pie and cherry ice cream — and voters who were mask-free as coronavirus restrictions have eased. It had all the hallmarks of a campaign stop that he couldn’t make last year.Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer greeted Biden when he arrived midday in Traverse City, which is hosting the National Cherry Festival, an event that attracted Presidents Herbert Hoover and Gerald Ford in the past.They skipped the festival in favor of a cherry farm in nearby Antrim County, where Biden pitched his immigration plans while chatting with two couples from Guatemala who were picking fruit. He then greeted a long line of enthusiastic supporters stretched out behind a rope.President Joe Biden holds an ice cream cone as he visits Moomers Homemade Ice Cream in Traverse City, Mich., July 3, 2021.His trip was billed as part of a broader campaign by the administration to drum up public support for his bipartisan infrastructure package and other polices geared toward families and education. But the president was out for direct contact with voters and refrained from delivering remarks about his policy proposals.Whitmer told reporters she spoke to Biden about infrastructure, although not about any projects for Michigan specifically.”I’m the fix-the-damn-roads governor, so I talk infrastructure with everybody, including the president,” she said. In recent flooding, she said the state saw “under-invested infrastructure collide with climate change” and the freeways were under water.”So this is an important moment. And that’s why this infrastructure package is so important. That’s also why I got the president rocky road fudge from Mackinac Island for his trip here,” she said.Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow also said she spoke with the president about the infrastructure package as they toured the cherry farm, noting that her cellphone signal dropped to one bar and that the proposed broadband buildout was needed.Biden’s host at King Orchards, Juliette King McAvoy, introduced him to the two Guatemalan couples, who she said had been working on the farm for 35 years. He told them he was proposing a pathway to citizenship for farmworkers. Biden then picked a cherry out of one of their baskets and ate it. He later bought pies at the farm’s market, including three varieties of cherry.Before leaving Michigan, he stopped at Moomers Homemade Ice Cream in Traverse City, where he bought Cherries Moobilie cones for Stabenow and Gary Peters, Michigan’s other Democratic senator. But for himself it was vanilla with chocolate chips in a waffle cone.Told it was cherry country, Biden said, “Yeah, but I’m more of a chocolate chip guy.”Preparations take place for an Independence Day celebration on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, July 3, 2021.First lady Jill Biden also was on the road Saturday, traveling to Maine and New Hampshire, while Vice President Kamala Harris was visiting a union training center in Las Vegas.The president has said the key to getting his $973 billion deal passed in Congress involves taking the case straight to voters. While Republicans and Democrats might squabble in Washington, Biden’s theory is that lawmakers of both parties want to deliver for their constituents.White House officials negotiated a compromise with a bipartisan group of senators led by Republican Rob Portman of Ohio and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.The agreement, announced in June, features $109 billion on roads and highways, $15 billion on electric vehicle infrastructure and transit systems and $65 billion toward broadband, among other expenditures on airports, drinking water systems and resiliency efforts to tackle climate change.It would be funded by COVID-19 relief that was approved in 2020 but unspent, repurposed money for enhanced unemployment benefits and increased enforcement by the IRS on wealthier Americans who avoid taxes. The financing also depends on leasing 5G telecommunications spectrum, the strategic petroleum reserve and the potential economic growth produced by the investments.Biden intends to pass additional initiatives on education and families as well as tax increases on the wealthy and corporations through the budget reconciliation process. This would allow the passage of Biden’s priorities by a simple majority vote, avoiding the 60-vote hurdle in a Senate split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. 
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As U.S. President Joe Biden looks for revenue sources to fund his proposed social spending programs, America’s richest people are facing the possibility that popular methods of passing enormous wealth from generation to generation while avoiding taxes could be disappearing.The Biden administration has made no secret of its belief that capital gains — money earned from the sale of assets, like stocks, that have appreciated in value — don’t deserve to be taxed at a lower rate than earnings from labor as they are under current law.Capital gains are taxed at a maximum of 20%, compared with a maximum federal marginal tax rate of 37% for income acquired through labor.However, raising tax rates is a politically poisonous task in Washington.As an alternative, the administration is pushing an effort to make more capital gains subject to taxation in the first place, and it is tying that effort to the president’s American Families Plan, a legislative initiative that would fund child care, early childhood education, higher education, health care and more.’People want to get ahead of this’The outline of a plan to capture taxes on capital gains has come into sharper focus in recent weeks, and appears to go further than many observers realized at first.In March, the Treasury Department revealed a proposal to do away with a controversial treatment of inherited assets — called the “step-up in basis” — and paired it with proposed changes to the tax treatment of trusts, the estate planning vehicles that the wealthy would most likely turn to as an alternative.FILE – A Fidelity Investments office in Los Angeles, June 16, 2016. Wealthy individuals are checking in with financial advisers about suggested changes in tax treatment of capital gains and trusts.As a result, attorneys who help wealthy individuals with estate planning are being besieged by clients demanding to know what to expect in the future and how to minimize the impact of any pending changes.“It’s the busiest I’ve been in 25 years,” said Randall A. Denha, who runs a boutique estate planning firm in Michigan. “There are a lot of people asking questions, especially those that have a more substantial estate, because people want to get ahead of this.”’Basis’ explainedUnder current law, appreciated assets that are passed from generation to generation receive special treatment that eliminates what, in some cases, would otherwise be huge tax obligations for wealthy Americans.Purchased for $315 in 1980, a single share of Berkshire Hathaway, the giant holding company run by billionaire Warren Buffett, would have been worth nearly $420,000 when the markets closed on June 30 of this year. If the owner were to sell that stock today, he or she would have to pay capital gains tax on the difference between the current share price and the “basis” cost —the $315 that was paid for it in 1980.If that same owner were to die today and pass the share on to an heir, the gain would be effectively wiped away because of what is called a “step-up in basis.” Heirs inherit an asset at its market value at the time of inheritance. If an heir sold that share of Berkshire Hathaway immediately on receipt, the $420,000 would be the heir’s virtually tax-free.By eliminating the step-up in basis, hundreds of thousands of dollars suddenly become taxable where previously they were not.A rich person’s problemPractically speaking, the changes the Biden administration is considering would have no real effect on the overwhelming majority of Americans. The proposals being considered would exempt the first $1 million in gains from capital gains taxes, a far larger amount than the entire value of the average estate.FILE – For the very wealthy, one way of shielding assets from taxation is to place them in a trust, which is a legal entity that holds the assets without transferring ownership.For the very wealthy, one way of shielding assets from taxation is to place them in a trust, which is a legal entity that holds the assets on behalf of beneficiaries without transferring ownership. Some, known in the financial industry as “dynasty” trusts, can span generations, allowing enormous wealth to grow tax-free for decades.In a world in which the step-up in basis rules cease to exist, trusts would be the obvious solution for wealthy individuals looking to protect valuable assets from taxation — something the Biden administration has plainly anticipated.The reason, said Beth Shapiro Kaufman, a partner with the law firm Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, is simple: “The trust never dies.” And the Biden administration, she said, “doesn’t want trusts to be the loophole if they go forward” with changes to capital gains taxes.New treatment of trustsUnder current law, assets held in trust are not taxed as they appreciate, and even when the trustee decides to transfer ownership of some of the trust’s assets, such as stocks, to a beneficiary, no tax is paid on the gains until the beneficiary actually sells the asset.The Biden administration proposes treating that interim step — the transfer of ownership — as a “realization” event, requiring the beneficiary to treat the transaction as income subject to capital gains tax.Even more significant for the extremely wealthy is a requirement that all trust assets be taxed on their appreciation once every 90 years. It’s a way of getting around the fact that the trust never dies by effectively creating the equivalent of a “death” once in what amounts to a longer than average lifetime.Uncertain futureIf the administration is able to push these changes through, it will face some challenges implementing them, warned Garrett Watson, senior policy analyst at the Tax Foundation in Washington.“There have to be adequate provisions for folks who don’t have the cash to pay taxes when there is a ‘realization event,’ ” he said. Additionally, there will inevitably be cases where heirs have no way of knowing the basis for an asset that they have inherited. “Is there going to be sufficient protection in the law for those folks who are in good faith in a situation where they don’t have that information?” he said.And further, he pointed out, what policymakers in Washington do during one administration can be undone in another, meaning there is no guarantee that changes in the tax treatment of inherited wealth will endure.“I think even advocates will want to make sure they get it right, because they are relying on it as a revenue source to fund permanent programs,” he said.
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Women make up 60% of the White House staff appointed by President Joe Biden, while people from racially or ethnically diverse communities account for 44%, the White House said Thursday as it released an annual personnel report to Congress. The White House said the report — which includes the names, titles and salaries of all political appointees — showed that the Biden administration was the most diverse in U.S. history, in line with the Democratic president’s commitment to build an administration that looks like America. The report also showed a pay gap between men and women of just under 1%, with the women earning $93,752 on average, while men earn $94,639. White House press secretary Jen Psaki and chief of staff Ron Klain are among the top earners, drawing a salary of $180,000 a year, as is Elizabeth Hone, a longtime Federal Communications Commission attorney hired as a special adviser on broadband, who gets $183,164 a year. The administration hired 1,500 presidential appointees across the federal government in the first 100 days in office, double the number hired by any prior administration in that time period. The Biden administration’s “roughly equal” pay for women and men stands in sharp contrast to the former Trump administration, which had a gender pay gap of 20%, and the Obama administration, which had a gender pay gap of 11% in its final year in office. The Pew Research Center reported in May that the overall pay gap for women and men in the United States was about 16%, which means it would take an average woman 42 extra days of work a year to earn what a man did. Women and people of color have slightly less representation in the 59 senior staff members at the White House, with women accounting for 56%, and people from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds accounting for 36%. 
 
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After months of disagreement, the U.S. House is set to vote on a select committee to investigate the events of Jan. 6, when supporters of former President Donald Trump rioted at the U.S. Capitol. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to create a select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump as lawmakers were certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated him in last November’s election.  The vote, formalizing creation of the committee that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week, was 222-190, split almost entirely along party lines. Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger voted with the majority.Under the House resolution creating the committee, it will have 13 members, eight of them appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and five named by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, “in consultation” with Pelosi, meaning she could veto his selections. A Pelosi aide said she was considering naming a Republican among her eight selections. FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy at the Capitol, May 13, 2021.It remained unclear whether McCarthy plans to appoint any Republicans. He declined to answer questions about it on Tuesday, telling reporters, “The speaker has never talked to me about it.” A key House Republican leader, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, on Tuesday recommended that Republican lawmakers oppose creation of the select committee, and some of the Republicans who favored creation of a bipartisan commission say they would vote against the select committee. The vote on the select House committee came after the House, but not the Senate, approved creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack on the Capitol, when about 800 people stormed past law enforcement officials, some of them smashing windows and doors, ransacking congressional offices and scuffling with police. FILE – Supporters of President Donald Trump gather outside the US Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.Five people were left dead from the chaos, with one protester shot dead by police. More than 500 people have been charged with an array of criminal offenses, some as minor as trespassing and others more serious, such as assaulting police or vandalizing the Capitol, which sustained $1.5 million overall in property damage. Many of the suspects were identified by friends and relatives in scenes captured on security cameras or in videos shot by the rioters themselves and posted on social media. Most of the criminal cases have yet to be adjudicated, although defense lawyers have been negotiating dozens of deals with federal prosecutors for their clients to plead guilty.  Trump’s role in inciting the riot is expected to be a key consideration for the select committee, as well as security failures at the Capitol. At a rally near the White House an hour before the mayhem unfolded 16 blocks away at the Capitol, Trump urged supporters to “fight like hell” to block Biden’s certification as winner of the Electoral College vote that determines the outcome of U.S. presidential elections. McCarthy’s phone call with Trump as the riot unfolded could be explored as well. To this day, Trump has made baseless claims that vote fraud cost him a second four-year term in the White House. He never called Biden to formally concede the election outcome and did not attend Biden’s January 20 inauguration. Now Trump is mulling whether to make another run for the presidency in 2024 and retains a wide base of support among Republican voters. Trump has started to endorse some congressional candidates who are opposing lawmakers who either voted to impeach or convict him in connection with the January 6 attack. The House impeached him for his role in the insurrection that day, but the Senate acquitted him in February after Biden had already assumed the presidency.   FILE – Rioters storm the Capitol, in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.”It is imperative that we seek the truth of what happened,” she said. “To do that, we had hoped that Congress would establish an independent, bipartisan 9/11-type commission. We were successful with a strong bipartisan vote in the House, but [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell asked [Republican] senators to ‘do him a personal favor’ and vote against the commission. Despite the support of seven Republican senators, there is no prospect for a commission at this time.” She said the select committee “will investigate and report upon the facts and causes of the attack. It will report on conclusions and recommendations for preventing any future assault. And it will find the truth.” 
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Donald Rumsfeld, a forceful U.S. defense secretary who was the main architect of the Iraq war until President George W. Bush replaced him as the United States found itself bogged down after 3.5 years of fighting, has died at age 88, his family said in a statement on Wednesday.”It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman and devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather,” the statement said. “At 88, he was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico.”The statement did not say when Rumsfeld died.Rumsfeld, who ranks with Vietnam War-era defense secretary Robert McNamara as the most powerful men to hold the post, brought charisma and bombast to the Pentagon job, projecting the Bush administration’s muscular approach to world affairs.Then President George W. Bush makes a statement to reporters while Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld look on following a Cabinet meeting, March 20, 2003.With Rumsfeld in charge, U.S. forces swiftly toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein but failed to maintain law and order in the aftermath, and Iraq descended into chaos with a bloody insurgency and violence between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims. U.S. troops remained in Iraq until 2011, long after he left his post.Rumsfeld played a leading role ahead of the war in making the case to the world for the March 2003 invasion. He warned of the dangers of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction but no such weapons were ever discovered.Only McNamara served as defense secretary for longer than Rumsfeld, who had two stints – from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, for whom he also served as White House chief of staff, and from 2001 to 2006 under Bush.Rumsfeld was known for imperious treatment of some military officers and members of Congress and infighting with other members of the Bush team, including Secretary of State Colin Powell. He also alienated U.S. allies in Europe.In 2004, Bush twice refused to accept Rumsfeld’s offer to resign after photos surfaced of U.S. personnel abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. The scandal triggered international condemnation of the United States.The United States faced global condemnation after the photos showed U.S. troops smiling, laughing and giving thumbs up as prisoners were forced into sexually abusive and humiliating positions including a naked human pyramid and simulated sex. One photo showed a prisoner forced to stand on a small box, his head covered in a black hood, with wires attached to his body.Rumsfeld personally authorized harsh interrogation techniques for detainees. The U.S. treatment of detainees in Iraq and foreign terrorism suspects at a special prison set up under Rumsfeld at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, drew international condemnation, with human rights activists and others saying prisoners were tortured.He was a close ally of Bush’s vice president, Dick Cheney, who had worked for Rumsfeld during the 1970s Republican presidencies of Richard Nixon and Ford.Rumsfeld became a lightning rod for criticism and, with the Iraq war largely a stalemate and public support eroding, Bush replaced him in November 2006 over Cheney’s objections.Days after vowing Rumsfeld would remain for the rest of his term, Bush announced his departure a day after mid-term elections in which Democrats took control of Congress from Bush’s Republicans amid voter anger over the Iraq War.Robert Gates, a soft-spoken but demanding former CIA director, took over from Rumsfeld in December 2006 and made sweeping strategic and military leadership changes in Iraq.Many historians and military experts blamed Rumsfeld for decisions that led to difficulties in Iraq. For example, Rumsfeld insisted on a relatively small invasion force, rejecting the views of many generals. The force then was insufficient to stabilize Iraq when Saddam fell.Rumsfeld also was accused of being slow to recognize the emergence of the insurgency in 2003 and the threat it posed.The U.S. occupation leader under Rumsfeld, L. Paul Bremer, quickly made two fateful decisions. One dissolved the Iraqi military, putting thousands of armed men on the streets rather than harnessing Iraqi soldiers as a reconstruction force as originally planned.The second barred from Iraq’s government even junior members of the former ruling Baath Party, essentially emptying the various ministries of the people who made the government operate.Rumsfeld also oversaw the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 to oust the Taliban leaders who had harbored the al Qaeda leaders responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. As he did in Iraq two years later, Rumsfeld sent a small force to Afghanistan, quickly chased the Taliban from power and then failed to establish law and order.U.S. forces during Rumsfeld’s tenure also were unable to track down Osama bin Laden. The al Qaeda chief slipped past a modest force of U.S. special operations troops and CIA officers along with allied Afghan fighters in the Afghan mountains of Tora Bora in December 2001. U.S. forces killed him in 2011.Critics argue that had Rumsfeld devoted more troops to the Afghan effort, bin Laden may have been taken. But as he wrote in “Rumsfeld’s Rules,” his compilation of truisms dating to the 1970s: “If you are not criticized, you may not be doing much.”Another quote from “Rumsfeld’s Rules” was equally apt: “It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.”Rumsfeld was known for his rollicking news conferences in which he sparred with reporters and offered memorable quotes.Speaking in 2002 about whether Iraq would give weapons of mass destruction to terrorists, he said: “Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”Rumsfeld later titled his memoir “Known and Unknown.””Stuff happens,” he told reporters in April 2003 amid rampant lawlessness in Baghdad after U.S. troops captured the Iraqi capital.During his time away from public service, Rumsfeld became wealthy as a successful businessman, serving as chief executive of two Fortune 500 companies. In 1988, he briefly ran for the Republican U.S. presidential nomination.Rumsfeld also served as a Navy pilot, U.S. NATO ambassador and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He and wife Joyce had three children. 
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The House of Representatives is poised Wednesday to create a select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of supporters of former President Donald Trump as lawmakers were certifying that Democrat Joe Biden had defeated him in last November’s election.  The vote, formalizing creation of the committee that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced last week, is likely to occur almost entirely along party lines, with the slim Democratic House majority voting in favor and most Republicans against. Under the House resolution creating the committee, it would include 13 members, eight of them appointed by Pelosi and five named by Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican minority leader, “in consultation” with Pelosi, meaning she could veto his selections. A Pelosi aide said she is considering naming a Republican among her eight selections. FILE – House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy at the Capitol, May 13, 2021.But it remains unclear whether McCarthy plans to appoint any Republicans. He declined to answer questions about it on Tuesday, telling reporters, “The speaker has never talked to me about it.” A key House Republican leader, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, on Tuesday recommended that Republican lawmakers oppose creation of the select committee, and some of the Republicans who favored creation of a bipartisan commission say they will vote against the select committee. The vote on the select House committee comes after the House, but not the Senate, approved creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the attack on the Capitol, when about 800 people stormed past law enforcement officials, some of them smashing windows and doors, ransacking congressional offices and scuffling with police. FILE – Supporters of President Donald Trump gather outside the US Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.Five people were left dead from the chaos, with one protester shot dead by police. More than 500 people have been charged with an array of criminal offenses, some as minor as trespassing and others more serious, such as assaulting police or vandalizing the Capitol, which sustained $1.5 million overall in property damage. Many of the suspects were identified by friends and relatives in scenes captured on security cameras or in videos shot by the rioters themselves and posted on social media. Most of the criminal cases have yet to be adjudicated, although defense lawyers have been negotiating dozens of deals with federal prosecutors for their clients to plead guilty.  Trump’s role in inciting the riot is expected to be a key consideration for the select committee, as well as security failures at the Capitol. At a rally near the White House an hour before the mayhem unfolded 16 blocks away at the Capitol, Trump urged supporters to “fight like hell” to block Biden’s certification as winner of the Electoral College vote that determines the outcome of U.S. presidential elections. McCarthy’s phone call with Trump as the riot unfolded could be explored as well. To this day, Trump has made baseless claims that vote fraud cost him a second four-year term in the White House. He never called Biden to formally concede the election outcome and did not attend Biden’s January 20 inauguration. Now Trump is mulling whether to make another run for the presidency in 2024 and retains a wide base of support among Republican voters. Trump has started to endorse some congressional candidates who are opposing lawmakers who either voted to impeach or convict him in connection with the January 6 attack. The House impeached him for his role in the insurrection that day, but the Senate acquitted him in February after Biden had already assumed the presidency.   FILE – Rioters storm the Capitol, in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.”It is imperative that we seek the truth of what happened,” she said. “To do that, we had hoped that Congress would establish an independent, bipartisan 9/11-type commission. We were successful with a strong bipartisan vote in the House, but [Senate minority leader] Mitch McConnell asked [Republican] senators to ‘do him a personal favor’ and vote against the commission. Despite the support of seven Republican senators, there is no prospect for a commission at this time.” She said the select committee “will investigate and report upon the facts and causes of the attack. It will report on conclusions and recommendations for preventing any future assault. And it will find the truth.” 
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Donald Trump’s company and his longtime finance chief are expected to be charged Thursday with tax-related crimes stemming from a New York investigation into the former president’s business dealings. That’s according to people familiar with the matter who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. 
The charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, appear to involve non-monetary benefits the company gave to top executives, possibly including use of apartments, cars and school tuition. The charges arise from a probe led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., a Democrat leaving office at the end of the year.
 
Donald Trump’s company and his longtime finance chief are expected to be charged Thursday with tax-related crimes stemming from a New York investigation into the former president’s business dealings, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
The charges against the Trump Organization and the company’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, appear to involve non-monetary benefits the company gave to top executives, possibly including use of apartments, cars and school tuition.
The people were not authorized to speak about an ongoing investigation and did so on condition of anonymity. The Wall Street Journal was first to report that charges were expected Thursday.
The charges against Weisselberg and the Trump Organization would be first criminal cases to arise from the two-year probe led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., a Democrat who leaves office at the end of the year.
Prosecutors have been scrutinizing Trump’s tax records, subpoenaing documents and interviewing witnesses, including Trump insiders and company executives.
A grand jury was recently empaneled  to weigh evidence and New York Attorney General Letitia James said she was assigning two of her lawyers to work with Vance on the criminal probe while she continues a civil investigation of Trump.
Messages seeking comment were left with a spokesperson and lawyers for the Trump Organization. Messages were also left with lawyers for Weisselberg and other company executives. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.
Trump’s spokesperson did not immediately response to a request for comment, but Jason Miller,  a longtime former senior adviser to the Republican, spun the looming charges as “politically terrible for the Democrats.”
“They told their crazies and their supplicants in the mainstream media this was about President Trump. Instead, their Witch Hunt is persecuting an innocent 80 year-old man for maybe taking free parking!” Miller tweeted, apparently referring to Weisselberg, who is 73.
Trump had blasted the investigation in a statement Monday, deriding Vance’s office as “rude, nasty, and totally biased” in their treatment of Trump company lawyers, representatives, and long-term employees.
Trump, in the statement, said the company’s actions were “things that are standard practice throughout the U.S. business community, and in no way a crime” and that Vance’s probe was an investigation was “in search of a crime.”
Trump, who’s been critical of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, was  scheduled to travel Thursday to Texas  to visit the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump Organization lawyers met virtually with Manhattan prosecutors last week in a last-ditch attempt to dissuade them from charging the company. Prosecutors gave the lawyers a Monday deadline to make the case that criminal charges shouldn’t be filed.
Ron Fischetti, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, told the AP this week that there was no indication Trump himself  was included in the first batch of charges.
“There is no indictment coming down this week against the former president,” Fischetti said. “I can’t say he’s out of the woods yet completely.”
Weisselberg, a loyal lieutenant to Trump and his real estate-developer father, Fred, came under scrutiny, in part, because of questions about his son’s use of a Trump apartment at little or no cost.
Barry Weisselberg managed a Trump-operated ice rink in Central Park.
Barry’s ex-wife, Jen Weisselberg, has been cooperating with the investigation and turned over reams of tax records and other documents to investigators.
Allen Weisselberg has worked for the Trump Organization since 1973.
Prosecutors subpoenaed another long-time Trump finance executive, senior vice president and controller Jeffrey McConney, to testify in front of the grand jury in the spring. Under New York law, grand jury witnesses are granted immunity and can not be charged for conduct they testify about.
Prosecutors probing untaxed benefits to Trump executives have also been looking at Matthew Calamari,  a former Trump bodyguard turned chief operating officer, and his son, the company’s corporate director of security. However, a lawyer for the Calamaris said Wednesday that he didn’t expect them to be charged.
“Although the D.A.’s investigation obviously is ongoing, I do not expect charges to be filed against either of my clients at this time,” said the lawyer, Nicholas Gravante.
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U.S. President Joe Biden is holding talks Wednesday with a group of governors from eight Western states about wildfire preparedness as much of the region deals with drought. Biden and other administration officials will be speaking from the White House with the governors joining by video. WATCH LIVE at 11:00 EST White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters last week the meeting will “focus on how the federal government can improve wildfire preparedness and response efforts, protect public safety, and deliver assistance to our people in times of urgent need.” Those attending include Democratic governors Gavin Newsom of California, Jared Polis of Colorado, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico, Steve Sisolak of Nevada, Kate Brown of Oregon and Jay Inslee of Washington, along with Republican governors Spencer Cox of Utah and Mark Gordon of Wyoming. Not among the group are three other Republican governors from the region: Doug Ducey of Arizona, Brad Little of Idaho and Greg Gianforte of Montana. Gianforte tweeted Friday that he was “disappointed to learn in news stories” that the president “didn’t offer a seat at the table to Montana and other states facing a severe wildfire season.” Disappointed to learn in news stories that @POTUS didn’t offer a seat at the table to Montana and other states facing a severe wildfire season.I hope his call for working together wasn’t just lip service and Montana’s invitation is just lost in the mail.https://t.co/MLnCbeHBFw— Governor Greg Gianforte (@GovGianforte) June 25, 2021The National Interagency Fire Center, which coordinates the mobilization of resources to battle wildfires in the United States, has warned that many Western states are facing a greater than usual likelihood that significant wildfires will occur in the next few months. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports wide areas of Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah are experiencing extreme or exceptional drought. 
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U.S. President Joe Biden heads to the midwestern state of Wisconsin Tuesday, making a pitch for congressional passage of a bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure package to repair the country’s crumbling roads and bridges, and at the same time boost blue-collar employment.
 
Biden is visiting the small city of La Crosse, population 52,000, and will tour its public transit center before speaking about what he sees as the merits of the infrastructure package he negotiated last week with a group of 10 centrist U.S. senators, five Republicans and five Democrats. He told a group of Democratic donors Monday night the spending package “signals to the world that we can function, we can deliver. We can do significant things and show that America is back.”
 
The measure focuses on fixing deteriorating roads and bridges that Americans encounter every day. But Biden emphasized it also would greatly expand high-speed internet in the U.S. in rural communities, replace lead pipes that imperil drinking water systems, install electric vehicle charging stations and invest in public transit systems.A White House memo said the construction package is four times the size of the infrastructure investment adopted after the Great Recession of 2008-2009 and the biggest since the Depression of the 1930s spawned President Franklin Roosevelt’s massive New Deal spending.
 
The package includes the largest investment in passenger rail services since the creation of the country’s Amtrak system. In Wisconsin alone, the White House said, the measure would help repair 979 bridges and more than 3,100 kilometers of highways in poor condition.
 
The White House emphasized that 90% of the jobs generated by the infrastructure spending could go to workers without college degrees.
 
“This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America,” the memo says.
 Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 8 MB480p | 12 MB540p | 16 MB720p | 35 MB1080p | 65 MBOriginal | 74 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioBiden’s push for adoption of the infrastructure package got off to a rocky start last week.
 
He announced it jointly with the bipartisan group of lawmakers, only to shortly later tell reporters he would reject it if Congress did not also approve trillions of dollars in new social spending legislation that he wants to aid families and advance clean energy but that most Republicans adamantly oppose.
 
On Saturday, Biden said that his comments “created the impression that I was issuing a veto threat on the very plan I had just agreed to, which was certainly not my intent.”  Key Republican ‘Trusts’ Biden on Infrastructure Deal  Mitt Romney says he believes the US leader still stands by the roads-and-bridges repair package he negotiated with a centrist group of senators  
Biden walked back the infrastructure veto threat and said he wholeheartedly supports it and the still-developing social spending legislation, while recognizing that Republicans would try to defeat the so-called “human infrastructure” legislation. If Congress eventually approves the social safety legislation, it could be that only Democratic lawmakers vote for it.  
 
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that Biden is “eager” for Congress to approve both bills and that the president is going to “work his heart out” to make it happen.
 
“The president intends to sign both pieces of legislation into law,” Psaki said.
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The issue of reparations — making amends for historical wrongs perpetrated against a group or population — has always been highly controversial. But to the victims of atrocities like genocide and slavery, offering such compensation should be a no-brainer. VOA correspondent Mariama Diallo looks at examples of reparations as they relate to the debate over reparations for African Americans in the U.S.Henry Ridgwell   contributed to this report.
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