August, 12 2022, 05:50pm EDT
CEPR Applauds Real Progress in the Inflation Reduction Act, Optimistic About the Future
The Center for Economic Policy and Research supports today's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) by Congress. This historic legislation will reduce the costs of health care, prescription drugs, and home energy bills while making real progress on climate change, creating millions of good jobs over the next decade, and making the tax code fairer.
WASHINGTON
The Center for Economic Policy and Research supports today's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) by Congress. This historic legislation will reduce the costs of health care, prescription drugs, and home energy bills while making real progress on climate change, creating millions of good jobs over the next decade, and making the tax code fairer.
Even as CEPR supports the passage of the IRA, much more is needed to address the overlapping crises of climate change, care, and inequality. And much more would have been done if the Senate had the two more votes necessary to approve the Build Back Better Act (BBB) passed by the House last year.
Our experts examine the possible impact the IRA will have on these three crises and beyond, while addressing where more action is needed. The passage of the IRA and the otherwise broad support for the earlier Build Back Better Act leaves us guardedly optimistic about the future.
Co-Director Mark Weisbrot sees the work ahead: "Of course, there is still more to be done, and with two more votes in the Senate, it would be. The original Build Back Better Act that passed the House would have produced even larger climate improvements and done much more to increase economic security.
"The historic nature of this moment is also seen in the Republican Party's unanimous opposition to the bill, and their failure to even put forth any alternative, as if the urgent, life-threatening problems addressed by this legislation did not exist. They even blocked the inclusion of a very reasonable cap on the cost of insulin for people with diabetes who have private insurance."
CLIMATE
"There's no doubt that the IRA is historic legislation, certainly the biggest the federal government has ever passed on climate, and will help to reduce carbon emissions in the US by 40 percent in 2030 (from 2005 levels)," said Weisbrot, addressing the impact the act will have on climate change.
"Key climate provisions include rebates, tax credits, and vastly increased government investment that will expand the use of electric vehicles, renewable energy for utilities, and make rooftop solar panels and energy efficiency more affordable. The bill also includes tens of billions of dollars for environmental justice. By 2030, it will save several thousand lives annually from the cleaner air that we will breathe, and will improve the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of people."
Director of Race and Economic Justice, Algernon Austin, highlights how the act increases environmental equity. "With daily news of floods, droughts, forest fires, and extreme heat--all exacerbated by climate change--it should be clear that everyone is at risk from more frequent and worsening natural disasters. It is also the case that climate change will cause disproportionate harm to low-income people and people of color residing in the lower half of the contiguous United States, Alaska, and Hawaii.
"The IRA's historic investments in climate change mitigation efforts will benefit all, but will be particularly important for people of color. The act also has specifically designated funding for disadvantaged communities. Thankfully, some of our elected officials take the climate change threat to people and the planet seriously."
Research Associate Hayley Brown expands on how the IRA's climate provisions will boost the labor market. "The IRA is an important step toward equitably addressing climate change. It will create millions of quality green jobs and substantially reduce economic burdens for working- class people and their families. Future legislators must move quickly to build on the IRA with steeper emissions cuts and additional protections for the most vulnerable during the transition. Lawmakers must also work swiftly to correct some of the IRA's more concerning elements. These include undue investment in additional fossil fuel infrastructure and insufficient protections for frontline and indigenous communities during the scaling up process for renewable energy, among others."
TAX FAIRNESS
"The tax provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act denote a historic turn in tax policy towards greater fairness," said Co-Director Eileen Appelbaum, addressing how the act will rein in Wall Street profiteers. "The near doubling of Internal Revenue Service staff, plus resources to upgrade IT capacity, means the agency will be able to investigate potential tax fraud in complex Wall Street firms. IRS campaigns to crack down on private equity firm's improper use of management fee waivers for investors and monitoring agreements with portfolio companies will no longer be stymied by a lack of resources.
"Unfortunately, the carried interest loophole for private equity billionaires and the exemption from the corporate minimum tax for some private equity-owned companies was blocked by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who got at least $2 million in donations from the securities and investment industry.
"Despite this, the IRA made a historic breakthrough in taxing the wealthy and encouraging good behavior. Top executives of publicly-traded companies will face a one percent tax on stock buybacks when they use company profits to increase the company's share price and enrich themselves instead of investing in technology, training, and raising workers' wages."
Senior Economist Dean Baker also sees increased fairness in the tax provisions of the IRA. "The increased funding for the IRS will reduce tax evasion by wealthy individuals and corporations. We are losing close to $600 billion a year ($6 trillion over a decade) in unpaid taxes. The overwhelming majority of working people in this country pay their taxes when they are deducted from their paycheck. It is time that we stop letting the wealthy get away with not paying the taxes they owe."
Brown applauds the increased IRS funding, but sees the need for increased funding in other departments. "The IRA's increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service will help ensure that wealthy individuals and corporations comply with federal tax law. But it is disappointing that similar, long-needed increases in funding to enforce federal employment standards and labor law weren't provided to the National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Labor."
HEALTH CARE
Baker calls the IRA "an important breakthrough in negotiating prescription drug prices in Medicare. The United States pays more than twice as much for prescription drugs as people in other wealthy countries. This is a step towards ending it."
Shawn Fremstad, Senior Policy Fellow, highlights the importance of provisions that will "lock in reductions in the cost of health insurance for more than 10 million people who purchase it through Affordable Care Act health insurance exchanges."
CARE
Appelbaum, widely cited in discussions of national paid family and medical leave policy, was especially disappointed when the paid leave provisions of the act were dropped: "A disappointment is that the IRA omits the care economy. The US came very close to joining the rest of the industrialized world by enacting a national paid family and medical leave program. Not including a robust paid leave program as the nation continues to struggle with public health crises and in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade places unreasonable burdens on all workers and especially on low-income workers unlikely to have access to benefits through their jobs."
Fremstad shared that disappointment. "The IRA is a huge win for the planet and for America's diverse working class. At the same time, it is disappointing that the IRA does not include any expansion of social insurance, outside of the legislation's important health care reforms."
"The United States has lagged far behind other wealthy countries when it comes to providing essential family benefits like universal child allowances, paid leave, housing assistance, and home and community-based long-term care services. Benefits like unemployment insurance and Supplemental Security Income need to be modernized and improved. The failed Clinton-Gingrich "welfare reform" block grant (TANF) needs to be repealed and replaced. Going forward, Congress and the President need to build a comprehensive social security system that increases security, opportunity, and freedom for all of us."
Economist Julie Cai shares this view and notes that not including the BBB's universal childcare provision will "continue to depress US mothers' employment rates, and leave working-class mothers particularly vulnerable to economic insecurity."
The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. In order for citizens to effectively exercise their voices in a democracy, they should be informed about the problems and choices that they face. CEPR is committed to presenting issues in an accurate and understandable manner, so that the public is better prepared to choose among the various policy options.
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'Racist POS' Mike Collins Cheers Video of Ole Miss Mob Attack on Black Student
"This is not about Israel, Palestine, or Gaza. This is old-fashioned American racism and misogyny," said one observer. "These are the types of young white men who will grow up to be Republican governors, senators, and members of Congress."
May 03, 2024
Republican Georgia Congressman Mike Collins came under fire Friday over a social media post applauding video of white University of Mississippi students racially abusing a Black woman participating in a campus protest for Palestine.
Collins posted the video—in which numerous people can be heard grunting like apes and one young man is seen jumping up and down like a monkey in front of the Black woman—with the caption, "Ole Miss taking care of business."
Collins—or whoever's in charge of his social media accounts—sparred with Black leaders who called out his racism. When former Democratic Ohio state senator Nina Turner said the video showed "anti-Blackness," the congressman shot back, "*Anti-terroristness."
When Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) accused Collins of "fueling white supremacy," the Republican retorted, "Don't take down any more signs at our workplace, please" along with a photo of the Democrat triggering a fire alarm in a House of Representatives office building last year.
Around 30 protesters were rallying in support of Palestine in the Ole Miss Quad when counter-protesters gathered near the demonstrators. Some booed and chanted, "We want Trump!" Others singled out the Black woman—who NBC Newssaid is a graduate student at the school—chanting "Lizzo, Lizzo, Lizzo," "take a shower," "your nose is huge," "fuck you, fat bitch," and "lock her up!"
The counter-protesters also sang the "Star-Spangled Banner." Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves shared a separate video of the singing students on social media, captioning his post, "Warms my heart" and "I love Mississippi."
No racist language can be heard in the video shared by Reeves.
The Daily Mississippianreports the demonstrators were escorted off the Quad after counter-protesters threw water bottles at them.
Collins is no stranger to accusations of racism. Earlier this year, he suggested murdering migrants by throwing them from helicopters into the sea, in the manner of U.S.-backed South American dictators in the 1970s.
He also
introduced the Restricting Administration Zealots from Obliging Raiders (RAZOR) Act, which would ban the federal government from removing or altering "any state-constructed barriers installed to mitigate illegal immigration," such as the razor buoys installed in the Rio Grande by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Collins was also
accused of antisemitism after he amplified an anti-semitic social media post by an avowed neo-Nazi targeting a Washington Post reporter for being Jewish.
Ole Miss said Friday that "statements were made at the demonstration on our campus Thursday that were offensive and inappropriate."
"We cannot comment specifically about that video, but the university is looking into reports about specific actions," the school added. "Any actions that violate university policy will be met with appropriate action."
The Ole Miss incident comes amid rapidly spreading campus protests across the U.S. and around the world in response to Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, which has killed, maimed, or left missing around 5% of the embattled strip's 2.3 million people, most of them civilians, while forcibly displacing nearly 9 in 10 people and driving hundreds of thousands to the brink of starvation.
While numerous Ole Miss students said they did not understand what the pro-Palestine protesters hoped to accomplish, others voiced support for the demonstrators—and for Palestine.
"As we've seen throughout history, time and time again, the student movement is never wrong. Time and time again, anytime there's a student protest, and you're against it, you're on the wrong side of history," Xavier Black, a junior majoring in international studies, told
The Daily Mississippian. "So I would like to be on the right side."
One Palestinian American Ole Miss student was teary-eyed as she thanked the protesters.
"Hey guys, I know that what just happened was really intimidating, and it was a little scary, but I just want to say I'm so proud of you guys," the student—who gave only her first name, Jana—said,
according toMississippi Today. "This wasn't going to happen... without all of you guys. Palestine was being heard. And I just want to thank you guys so much."
"I know that was such a big risk, but this is the most that people have ever thought for us, so don't give up," she added. "I know that was really hard, but we need to keep fighting. This was just the start of it, okay?"
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UK Voters Send 'Shout' for Change to Tories as Labour Sweeps in Local Elections
"We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years," said one analyst.
May 03, 2024
Nearly two weeks after the British Conservative Party pushed through a proposal to deport asylum-seekers to Rwanda in what one lawyer called "performative cruelty" in the name of winning the general election expected later this year, the local election results announced throughout the day Friday made increasingly clear the ploy hadn't worked.
Elections expert John Curtice projected the Tories could ultimately lose up to 500 local council seats as vote counting continues into the weekend, following elections in which voters cast ballots for 2,661 seats.
The Conservatives have lost around half of the seats they are defending Curtice told BBC Radio.
"We are probably looking at certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, Conservative performances in local government elections for the last 40 years," the polling expert said.
Curtice added that if the results were replicated in a general election, Labour would likely win 34% of the vote, with the Tories winning 25%—five years after the right-wing party won in a landslide in the last nationwide contest.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said the results represented a decisive call for "change" from British voters, particularly applauding the results of a special election in Blackpool South, where Labour candidate Chris Webb won nearly 11,000 votes while Conservative David Jones came in a distant second with just over 3,200.
Webb's victory represented a 26% swing in favor of Labour.
"That's the fifth swing of over 20% to the Labour party in by elections in recent months and years. It is a fantastic result, a really first class result," Starmer said. "And here in Blackpool, a message has been sent directly to the prime minister, because this was a parliamentary vote, to say we're fed up with your decline, your chaos... your division and we want change. We want to go forward with Labour."
"That wasn't just a little message," he added. "That wasn't just a murmur. That was a shout from Blackpool. We want to change. And Blackpool speaks for the whole country in saying we've had enough now, after 14 years of failure, 14 years of decline."
The Conservatives also lost ground in the northern town of Hartlepool, where they lost six council seats. The region swung toward the Tories after the party led the push for Brexit, the U.K.'s exit from the European Union.
A similar result was recorded in York and North Yorkshire, which includes the area Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak represented as a member of Parliament.
"Yorkshire voted for Brexit in 2016," wrote William Booth, London bureau chief for The Washington Post. "But long gone are the days when many Conservatives want to stand before the voters and extol the advantages of leaving the European Union, which has been, in most sectors, a flop."
Sunak, added Booth, is "betting that immigration is still an issue with resonance and has promised to 'stop the boats,' the daily spectacle of desperate migrants risking their lives on rubber rafts trying to cross the English Channel. Sunak's government plans to fly asylum seekers arriving by boat to Rwanda. No flights have taken off yet. But the Home Office last week began a self-proclaimed 'large scale' operation to detain asylum seekers destined for removal."
The Labour Party has called Sunak's Rwanda plan a "gimmick" and said it would reverse a Tory policy blocking refugees from applying for asylum.
Average wages in the U.K. last year were "back at the level during the 2008 financial crisis, after taking account of inflation," according toThe Guardian.
"This 15 years of lost wage growth is estimated by the Resolution Foundation thinktank to have cost the average work £10,700 ($13,426) a year," reported the newspaper in March. "The performance has been ranked as the worst period for pay growth since the Napoleonic wars ended in 1815."
Analysts noted one setback for Labour in Oldham, where the party lost some seats in areas with large numbers of Muslim voters to independent candidates, costing it overall control of the council.
Arooj Shah, the Labour leader of the Oldham Council, told the BBC that the party's support for Israel in its bombardment of Gaza was behind its losses.
"Gaza is clearly an issue for anyone with an ounce of humanity in them, but we've asked for an immediate cease-fire right from the start," said Shah. "We have a rise of independents because people think mainstream parties aren't the answer."
The losses "should be a wake-up call for the Starmer leadership: Every vote must be earned," said the socialist and anti-racist group Momentum. "That means calling for an immediate arms ban to Israel, calling out Israeli war crimes, and delivering real leadership on climate."
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Israel Briefs US on Plan for 'Ethnic Cleansing' of Rafah
"A military invasion in Rafah would be CATASTROPHIC... There can be no more 'evacuations.' There is no safe place to go," said Oxfam, calling for an immediate cease-fire.
May 03, 2024
Israeli officials have told the Biden administration and humanitarian organizations how they plan to start forcibly expelling Gazans from Rafah ahead of a likely ground invasion—a move critics have likened to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine's Arabs during the establishment of the modern state of Israel.
Politicoreported Friday that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officials informed the U.S. government and aid agencies that a plan is in place to remove Palestinians from Rafah, where approximately 1.2 million refugees forcibly displaced from other parts of Gaza are precariously sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents in the embattled strip's southernmost city.
According to an unnamed U.S. official and two other people familiar with the plan, Israel would "move people out of Rafah, the main humanitarian hub in the enclave, to al-Mawasi, a small strip of land on the southern Gaza coast." Politico also obtained a copy of a map containing some details of the plan.
The Wall Street Journalreported Friday that Israel has given Hamas until next week to submit to a cease-fire proposal or face an invasion of Rafah.
"Such an invasion could lead to horrific massacres and raise scenarios of a second Nakba," the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said recently. "After 200 days of horrific genocidal acts in Gaza, the real objectives of the attack are the continuation of the 76-year-long ongoing Nakba and the erasure and genocidal destruction of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Israel is laying the groundwork to fulfill its settler-colonial plan of colonizing Gaza."
Human rights defenders have warned that Israel may ultimately seek to ethnically cleanse as many Palestinians as possible from Gaza.
The situation in Rafah is already dire. Water and other necessities are in desperately short supply. According to James Elder, the global spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there is approximately one toilet for every 850 people in Rafah and one shower for every 3,500 people.
On Friday, Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters in Geneva that an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah would put hundreds of thousands of Palestinians "at imminent risk of death."
"Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death," Laerke said, warning of not only "a slaughter of civilians, but also at the same time an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip, because it is run primarily out of Rafah."
Around 5% of Gazans have been killed, maimed, or left missing by Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza, according to a report published Wednesday by the U.N. Development Program and the U.N. Economic Commission for Western Asia. That's more than 120,000 people, the vast majority of whom are innocent civilians, according to Palestinian officials and international human rights groups.
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