Biden / Harris Focused Discussion

[Milchshake]

It's over! RollingStone is calling a lid on Darth Brandon, it's cringe now.
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture...ringe-1394273/

RollingStone is also a bunch of country club types pretending they're hippies or flannel wearing grunge guys.

[Edge-]

I mean...it's kinda is, though? It's funny as an effort to reclaim a bad meme, but it was a bad meme to begin with, even ignoring its origins.

It can be funny and all, but only relevant to mostly terminally online people. Though I'd hardly argue Rolling Stone is some big Trump booster of a media outlet given their overall political coverage. That's more than a stretch.

[Breccia]

Gas prices fall below $4 per gallon.

Thanks, Biden!

[Kathandira]

Gas prices fall below $4 per gallon.

Thanks, Biden!

I was pretty surprised. I was in Virginia over the weekend, and gas was around $3.50/gal. But when I got back to NJ, It is still around $4.15/gal near home. NJ usually has some of the lowest fuel prices in the country, but for some reason, we are still on the high end.

[Edge-]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/10/polit...unding-audits/

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday directed the Internal Revenue Service not to use any of the new funding allocated in the Democrats' new health care and climate bill to increase the chances of Americans making less than $400,000 a year getting audited, according to a copy of the letter obtained exclusively by CNN.

The letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig comes amid attacks from Republicans that the $80 billion the Inflation Reduction Act would give to the IRS over the next 10 years would result in more middle-class Americans and small businesses getting audited. The Biden administration has repeatedly said the IRS would focus on increased enforcement activity on high-wealth taxpayers and large corporations and not target households who earn less than $400,000 a year.

"Specifically, I direct that any additional resources—including any new personnel or auditors that are hired—shall not be used to increase the share of small business or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels," Yellen wrote in the letter to Rettig. "This means that, contrary to the misinformation from opponents of this legislation, small business or households earning $400,000 per year or less will not see an increase in the chances that they are audited."

Enforcement resources, Yellen said, will instead "focus on high-end noncompliance."

The new IRS funding is projected to raise $124 billion in additional tax revenue over the next 10 years, which is a key way Democrats plan to offset the cost of their plan to lower prescription drug costs and combat climate change.

Welp, this won't stop conservative media from panicking about ARMED IRS AGENTS WITH A LICENSE TO KILL BANGING ON YOUR DOOR, but that's not happening. Even if you make over $400K that's not happening, but you might get audited.

This is exactly the kind of thing that additional IRS funding needs to go to. The IRS needs more funding to enforce compliance and get tax cheats, just not the low-level offenders and folks making minor mistakes on low/middle incomes. But the actual wealthy who have basically been shielded for years because the IRS has been unable to hire sufficient numbers of people and more specifically people qualified to go after those larger, sprawling, more complex tax returns.

Those are the people who need to be paying their taxes, but aren't. The IRS should spend a lot less time going after someone making $30K a year who made a few minor mistakes and a lot more time going after someone making $500K a year who is dishonestly not claiming half of that income.

[D3thray]

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/10/polit...unding-audits/



Welp, this won't stop conservative media from panicking about ARMED IRS AGENTS WITH A LICENSE TO KILL BANGING ON YOUR DOOR, but that's not happening. Even if you make over $400K that's not happening, but you might get audited.

This is exactly the kind of thing that additional IRS funding needs to go to. The IRS needs more funding to enforce compliance and get tax cheats, just not the low-level offenders and folks making minor mistakes on low/middle incomes. But the actual wealthy who have basically been shielded for years because the IRS has been unable to hire sufficient numbers of people and more specifically people qualified to go after those larger, sprawling, more complex tax returns.

Those are the people who need to be paying their taxes, but aren't. The IRS should spend a lot less time going after someone making $30K a year who made a few minor mistakes and a lot more time going after someone making $500K a year who is dishonestly not claiming half of that income.

I mean it’s not like this administration said nearly the exact same thing last year under similar circumstances but then the IRS increased audits on the little guy anyway…

[Edge-]

I mean it’s not like this administration said nearly the exact same thing last year under similar circumstances but then the IRS increased audits on the little guy anyway…

What similar circumstances last year? And what increased audits on low-income folks compared to previous years?

The IRS has only been able to go after small filers because they don't have the funding necessary for the staffing or expertise to go after more complex tax returns that will include lengthy court cases as folks fight the audits.

Miss me if I'm not inclined to talk what Republicans say at face value, given that they've been consistently shown to lie and engage in bad faith.

[Kallisto]

I was pretty surprised. I was in Virginia over the weekend, and gas was around $3.50/gal. But when I got back to NJ, It is still around $4.15/gal near home. NJ usually has some of the lowest fuel prices in the country, but for some reason, we are still on the high end.

Tax differences between states on gas?

[Edge-]

Tax differences between states on gas?

That's possibly part of it, NJ has a .43c gas tax, though Virginia has a .28c gas tax so that's only a like 1/3 of the difference. It's simply location-based pricing, you see it in CA all the time. Prices can vary up to a few dollars depending on where you purchase it because it's priced for the local very local market.

[Endus]

That's possibly part of it, NJ has a .43c gas tax, though Virginia has a .28c gas tax so that's only a like 1/3 of the difference. It's simply location-based pricing, you see it in CA all the time. Prices can vary up to a few dollars depending on where you purchase it because it's priced for the local very local market.

Property value in terms of rents/mortgages for the station also factor in pretty heavily, even in the same State. I used to drive from Halifax to farm country back when I lived in Nova Scotia, and gas was always a good $0.10-0.20 cheaper than in the city, just based on property value.

Mind you, that's per liter, not gallon, so we're talking a 30% drop.

[Poopymonster]

Tax differences between states on gas?

Drove through Trenton today, place near home was 4.39 a gallon, just north of the shitty part of a shittier part of Trenton, 4.19 a gallon.
I'd have stopped for gas, but DWC is a capitol offense, regardless of the time of day.

[Milchshake]

Some people would claim that "Doug Ford is to the left of Biden or Pelosi"... Bees and Nature would disagree.


'It's buzzing in there': Doug Ford swallowed a bee while discussing Ontario's health care crunch

Uh by "discussing" health care, the CBC means He "wants to privatize it."
Internet philosophers might say "he's moving the Overton window on Canadian Healthcare". /s

In the sense of being a Classical Overton. /s

[Draco-Onis]

Drove through Trenton today, place near home was 4.39 a gallon, just north of the shitty part of a shittier part of Trenton, 4.19 a gallon.
I'd have stopped for gas, but DWC is a capitol offense, regardless of the time of day.

There's no standard for gas prices sometimes there's almost a dollar difference from one station to the next even though they are 15 minutes away from each other.

[Edge-]

https://www.axios.com/2022/08/12/gop...-reduction-act

Why it matters: The move is Republicans' way of showing their base that they're going to great lengths to kill the legislation, which is likely to be unanimously opposed by House Republicans.

"I would be shocked if anybody [in the GOP] voted for it," said Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), the House Republican chief deputy whip.
Driving the news: Republicans, led by members of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, plan to get "as many members as possible to vote by proxy" in order to deny Democrats a physical quorum, two senior Republican aides told Axios.

The bill would still pass, but Republicans hope a company affected by the tax provisions in the bill will then sue to challenge the law's constitutionality.
Fueling their plan is the fact that so many members are voting by proxy: there were 187 active proxy letters as of Friday afternoon, according to the House Clerk's office.
Context: The Constitution requires Congress to have a simple majority of its members present to pass legislation — in other words, a quorum.

However, the House passed a resolution at the start of the 117th Congress that stipulates proxy votes count towards that quorum.
Flashback: The Supreme Court in January declined to hear a challenge to proxy voting brought by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), leaving in place a lower court ruling that the House's ability to make its own rules under the Constitution's speech or debate clause is not subject to judicial review.

However, one of the aides noted that a court has not weighed in on whether proxy votes count towards a quorum under the Constitution — buoying their hope that the matter could at least be adjudicated in court.

House Republicans are planning to try to sabotage the IRA (yes, still a bad acronym) by denying a quorum. How? By using proxy votes in the hopes they won't count as "present" for the purposes of having half the House present to pass laws. You know...that thing McCarthy and Republicans sued to end a few years back?

Strange that they suddenly discovered they like it.

[Zan15]

I mean it’s not like this administration said nearly the exact same thing last year under similar circumstances but then the IRS increased audits on the little guy anyway…

Tell me where you got the insider information on IRS audits?

Based on everything I read it's still well below historical norms and was lower than 2019.

Also, most audits that drive-up low-income audits is because of automated audits that catch people incorrectly applying for earned income tax credit.

You realize the simpler your tax return is the easier it is that you can build an automated audit process to catch mistakes, right?



Any bump in % audited on the low-income side is relative to the lower amount of auditors who were available to go after high income, more complex tax returns.

[Paranoid Android]

I give it to Sinema. She really want me to hate her more than Manchin.

In some cases, the families of private equity managers joined in. David Belluck, a partner at the firm Riverside Partners, gave a $5,800 max-out contribution to Sinema one day in late June. So did three of his college-age kids, with the family collectively donating $23,200, records show.

I'm glad this person's kids, who go to college, instead of going out on weekends and eating pizza and beer with friends, scraped together $5,800 to be politically conscious and donate to such an important issue.

This article is about her blatant money grab from Wall Street Investors who really own her. I guess many Senators have this problem, but she is being very open or stupid about it.

[Beefhammer]

Tell me where you got the insider information on IRS audits?

His ass per usual.

[Paranoid Android]

Breaking: Chairs Thompson and Maloney say the Trump-appointed DHS IG has refused to cooperate with their inquiry into missing Secret Service texts — even blocking employees from testifying — and threaten to use "alternate measures" to ensure compliance.

This is why I hate Biden and the Dems so much. They should have purged the government of any Trump appointee hire at the start. Remember when I went full red on the Plan F of Trump doing this next term and this will be fascism. Well, different here, but the purge is warranted in this was likely going to happen. Here in a very important position since, well the SS turned to becoming a traitor and not the IG is obstructing.

The IG position is a confirmation position. Anyways I find many articles asking "why hasn't Biden fired Cuffari.. I swear I had Biden's DHs IG nominee, but cant' find it but it was from a WH Gov and dated June or July which means now of course they are on break so no nominations.

This is why the Dems are the worst thinking a person who was appointed by a person who swore loyalty to an authoritarian, will now obstruct justice.

[Milchshake]

Biden signing the IRA today.

[Elegiac]

Biden signing the IRA today.

Honestly have to credit Schumer for trying to normalize menswear that isn't some variant of black.