WTF Just Happened Today

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

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1/ Joe Manchin panned a proposed billionaire income tax to help pay for the social safety net and climate change bill, which is expected to cost about $1.75 trillion. Manchin called the plan “convoluted,” saying he didn’t like “targeting different people” with higher taxes just because they’re wealthy. Instead, Manchin floated a 15% “patriotic tax” on corporations. The billionaire tax idea gained traction after Kyrsten Sinema blocked conventional tax rate increases for corporations and individuals. Sinema had reportedly supported the proposed tax on the 700 people in the U.S. with more than $1 billion in assets. Together, Manchin and Sinema’s objections have injected uncertainty into Biden’s domestic agenda and halved what had been a $3.5 trillion package. (New York Times / Bloomberg / Politico / Associated Press / Axios / ABC News)

2/ Senate Democrats dropped paid family and medical leave from Biden’s Build Back Better spending package. The plan initially included 12 weeks of paid family leave, which lawmakers later considered reducing to four weeks to overcome opposition from Joe Manchin, who said he didn’t want to create a new entitlement program. When asked about the provision, Manchin replied: “I just can’t do it.” Plans to bolster Medicare and Medicaid benefits have also been scaled back due to opposition from Manchin and industry groups. Manchin has reportedly soured on Medicare vouchers to help cover annual dental costs. (Bloomberg / Washington Post / NBC News / CNN / Wall Street Journal)

3/ Biden – again – refused to exert executive privilege over documents that Trump has tried to keep away from the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol. White House counsel Dana Remus informed National Archivist David Ferriero that Biden “has determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States […] Accordingly, President Biden does not uphold the former president’s assertion of privilege.” The National Archives is set to begin turning over records to the House on Nov. 12. Trump previously tried to assert privilege on more than 40 documents and sued to attempt to block the House from accessing them. The committee is also expected to subpoena John Eastman, the lawyer who outlined a scheme for overturning the election results in two memos, which served as the basis of an Oval Office meeting on Jan. 4 bet...

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