Taxing Question: The 25 richest Americans, including Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, and Elon Musk, paid relatively little and sometimes no federal income taxes between 2014 and 2018, according to analysis from the news organization ProPublica  based on tax data evidently purloined from the Internal Revenue Service. 

  Rather than commenting on how the rich manage to skate, the IRS said it’s launching an investigation into the leak of information.

  The country’s richest people are allowed to let their wealth grow tax free until they sell an assets like stocks, homes, and other investments. Analysis revealed that the nation’s richest executives paid just $13.6 billion in federal income taxes during a time when their collective net worth increased by $401 billion, according to calculations by Forbes. Even then, there are loopholes in the tax code that can limit or erase all tax liability.

  And even when they do pay taxes, the rich are often able to take advantage of legal loopholes that minimize their exposure.

  President Biden has proposed raising the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6 percent from 37 percent, reversing the Trump era reduction. 

Communications Breakdown: President Biden has abandoned talks with moderate Republican leaders who have refused to crowbar their wallets and agree to bigger spending on his giant infrastructure bill.

  Biden expressed disappointment that Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia and other Republicans refused to significantly increase the amount of new money they would spend on the nation’s roads, bridges, and other public projects or offer specifics on how to pay for it.

  White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement, “He informed Senator Capito today that the latest offer from her group did not, in his view, meet the essential needs of our country to restore our roads and bridges, prepare us for our clean energy future, and create jobs.” She said Biden was disappointed that Republicans wouldn’t increase their numbers by just $150 billion when he had already agreed to trim more than $1 trillion off his initial $2.3 trillion plan.

  Biden immediately turned to a more bipartisan group of senators, hoping to hammer out a deal. He spoke later in the day with Sen. Bill Cassidy, Republican of Louisiana, and Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both Democrats.Viral News: A highly transmissible coronavirus variant first identified in India accounts for 6 percent of new infections in the United States, the Biden administration said Tuesday. 

  Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s infectious-disease expert,said the India variant is slowed by vaccination. “It’s essentially taking over” in the United Kingdom, Fauci said at a briefing. “We cannot let that happen in the United States, which is such a powerful argument” for vaccination, he said.

  By yesterday, 64 percent of Americans had received at least one vaccination shot. The vaccination campaign appears to have broken down into a political divide. States wone by Donald Trump in the 2020 election are the ones where people are less likely to get vaccinated.

  The top 22 states including the District of Columbia with the highest adult vaccination rates all went to Joe Biden. 

  With 33.4 million reported cases of Covid-19 so far, the US is on the brink of hitting the mark of 600,000 deaths. As of this morning, 598,330 Americans have died of the disease.

The Spin Rack: While greeting people along a rope line in a small town in southern France, a man was able to slap French President Emanuel Macron in the face. Two men were arrested, both identified as members of the Yellow Vest workers movement that has dogged Macron politically and personally. — After 19 years hosting The Bachelor and its spinoff television shows, Chris Harrison is out after fumbling a racial controversy involving one of his guests who had attended a slavery-era plantation themed party. When fans protested that the contestant had not been vetted for racist behavior Harrison criticized “the woke police,” and that was the beginning of his end. — The press flight taking reporters to Europe to cover President Biden’s first trip abroad was delayed because cicadas had filled the plane’s engines.

Just a Little Stick: A Cleveland doctor testified yesterday before an Ohio House that the new Covid-19 vaccines can leave a person magnetized. Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, a known anti-vaxxer, said, “I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures all over the Internet of people who have had these shots and now they’re magnetized. They can put a key on their forehead. It sticks. They can put spoons and forks all over them and they can stick.”

  Tenpenny also said the vaccines interface with 5G cellular towers. “There’s been people who have long suspected that there’s been some sort of an interface, ‘yet to be defined’ interface, between what’s being injected in these shots and all of the 5G towers,” she said.

  One legislator said, “What an honor to have you here.”