pianogonzology: reform

Showing posts with label reform. Show all posts

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Beginning . . .

(from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-democratic-house-wants-to-reform-democracy-its-not-a-panacea--but-its-a-start/2019/01/03/54a0cb54-0fa0-11e9-8938-5898adc28fa2_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a48043b81dd1)

". . . THE NEW Democratic majority House gaveled in [in January] with reform on its agenda — not so much of policy but of democracy itself. Admirably, the majority aims both to repair House rules and to improve the functioning of democratic institutions more broadly. Given the coarsening discourse and widening polarization, the challenge is immense. . . [H.R. 1 addresses] campaign financing, voting rights, election cybersecurity and more. . . [and] mandate[s] that political action committees report their donors. It would mend the big hole that the Supreme Court ripped in the Voting Rights Act, which had guaranteed access to the voting booth to generations of minority Americans. It would help states replace old election equipment, curb extreme partisan gerrymandering and encourage small-dollar campaign donations. . . None of this is a panacea. H.R. 1 will be dead on arrival in Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) Senate. . . But all are worthwhile first steps — toward persuading the Senate to accept some of the House’s ideas, tightening ethics standards and encouraging bipartisan groups to exert more pressure when House leaders suppress majority bills. Especially measured against the last House’s early drive to destroy Obamacare and recklessly cut taxes, this is a welcome beginning. . . "

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Monday, March 19, 2018

Sanctity . . .

. . . when life begins and sanctity ends . . .

(from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctity_of_Life_Act)
". . . The Sanctity of Life Act . . . would have amended the federal judicial code to remove Supreme Court and district court jurisdiction to review cases arising out of any statute, ordinance, rule, regulation, or practice, or any act interpreting such a measure, on the grounds that such measure: (1) protects the rights of human persons between conception and birth; or (2) prohibits, limits, or regulates the performance of abortions or the provision of public funds, facilities, personnel, or other assistance for abortions. . . "

(from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fiscal-entitlements/u-s-tax-revamp-still-incomplete-as-republicans-eye-social-program-cuts-idUSKBN1E22MD)
". . . “Next year, we’re going to have to get back to entitlement reform,” Ryan said on a radio talk show on Wednesday. . . In Republican parlance, “entitlement” programs mean food stamps, housing assistance, Medicare and Medicaid health insurance for the elderly, poor and disabled, as well as other programs created to assist the needy. . . Republicans will attempt to pay for their tax overhaul . . . by pivoting to seeking cuts in entitlement spending. . . "

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Saturday, December 2, 2017

Average . . .

(from https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2017-11-10/2017-gop-tax-reform-bill-ignores-lessons-of-ronald-reagans-1986-bill By Claudine Schneider)
". . . This Isn't Reagan's Tax Reform . . . I know this firsthand because I voted to do just that when I was a member of the House of Representatives in 1986, the last time Congress passed major tax reform legislation. But my fellow Republicans don't seem to have learned the lessons of President Ronald Reagan's reform efforts. The 1986 reform rested on a bipartisan deal to lower tax rates in exchange for closing loopholes and exemptions. Revenue neutrality was at the core of the deal, and the reform was meant to be broadly distribution neutral as well, meaning that everyone would benefit, not just the richest. The main driver for our bill was clearly to increase the efficiency of our tax system – something no one can argue against – and not to score partisan points. . . In the 30 years since bipartisan tax reform last passed, the global economy has gone through dramatic changes. Technology and trade have made it easier to move goods, ideas and capital across the globe and to locate them wherever the tax laws are most lax or beneficial. Emerging economies have lifted millions of people out of poverty and reshaped the global political order. And policy decisions driven by an increasingly narrow set of powerful interests have driven economic inequality to dangerous heights leaving us with a world where only eight men own as much wealth as half of humanity, according to Oxfam. . . Indeed, adjusting our tax code to fit the times is necessary. But the bill introduced in the House of Representatives with President Donald Trump's support is not good for the average citizen or for our country. . ."

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Wednesday, November 29, 2017

More Taxes . . .

(from https://www.snopes.com/tax-plan-graduate-students/)
CLAIM
The Republican tax reform plan would increase the tax burden on graduate students by counting waived tuition as personal income.

WHAT'S TRUE
The House of Representatives' 16 November 2017 version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would tax graduate tuition waivers, and has passed the House.

WHAT'S FALSE
As of 20 November 2017, the Senate version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act keeps the current exemption from taxation on graduate tuition waivers.

WHAT'S UNDETERMINED
Whether the final version of the tax bill, if passed, will include an end to the exemption of tuition waivers from taxation.

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Monday, February 17, 2014

True Colors? . . .

(from http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/12/confidants-diary-clinton-wanted-to-keep-records-for-revenge/?hpt=hp_t2)
"Shortly before Hillary Clinton’s effort to pass health care reform died in the summer of 1994, the first lady asked a close friend and confidant for advice on “how best to preserve her general memories of the administration and of health care in particular.”

When asked why, according to the friend’s June 20, 1994, diary entry, Clinton said, “Revenge.”

That exchange is among thousands of pages of notes, letters, and diary entries penned by Diane Blair, a political science professor and longtime Clinton friend whose papers were donated to the University of Arkansas after her death in 2000. . . "

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Thursday, August 2, 2012

Outlaws. . .

(from IT'S EVEN WORSE THAN IT LOOKS; HOW THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONAL SYSTEM COLLIDED WITH THE NEW POLITICS OF EXTREMISM by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein)

". . . A new law that flatly outlaws the super PACs would be the best route. But as the DISCLOSE Act vote in the 111th Congress shows, passing any campaign reform law without sixty Democrats in the Senate and a Democratic majority in the House is next to impossible. Also close to impossible would be reform of the FEC or a new set of commissioners, at least as long as Mitch McConnell remains Senate Republican Leader; he has made it clear that protecting the FEC as it now exists, that is, as a lawless agency, is a top priority for him. As Public Citizen's Craig Holman has noted, "[McConnell] is really the whole key to the FEC. . . . He realized several years ago that a very effective way to minimize the effect of federal laws is to undermine the regulator." So absent a recess appointment strategy on the part of the president, the government has to look for other options to provide disclosure and prevent brazen and illegal coordination. As a first option, the Justice Department could prosecute violations of the coordination bans in cases where the brazen behavior has been most evident. Justice does not need to wait for the FEC. . . "

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