Tax Bill Has the Votes, Rebuild the FBI
Saturday, December 16, 2017
Vol. 6, No. 337
The Tax Men: Tennessee’s Sen. Bob Corker and Florida’s Marco Rubio have signed on to the Republican tax reform, which may give the bill enough votes to pass.
Rubio won an expansion of the child tax credit. It’s unknown why Corker changed his mind. He had opposed the bill because it grows the national deficit by $1.5 trillion, but yesterday he said the bill is a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.”
The Republicans want to push it to a vote next week with little public debate or discussion. Polling says more than half the country opposes the bill.
What’s In It:
-Tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy
-Doubles the standard deduction to $25,200 for a married couple
-A $10,000 limit on the deduction for all state and local taxes
-Elimination of the health care insurance mandate in 2019
-Expansion of the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000
-Elimination of the estate tax for inheritance up to $22 million
Commander in Chief: Appearing at the FBI’s training center in Quantico, Va., President Trump told reporters yesterday that “it’s a shame what’s happened” with the FBI, and that, “We’re going to rebuild the FBI. It’ll be bigger and better than ever.”
Trump is in a twist over the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and the anti-Trump text messages between two employees, one of who was a senior investigator in both the Clinton and Russia investigations.
He said, “You have a lot of angry people that are seeing it. It’s a very sad thing to watch.”
CNN commentator Jeffrey Toobin said, “You know who ‘a lot of people’ are? ‘A lot of people’ are the people who watch Fox News. Other than that, a lot of people are actually not upset about this investigation. That’s shown over and over again in the polls.”
Speaking later at a graduation ceremony for state and local law enforcement officers, Trump said he is “more loyal than anyone else could be” to police.
Bottom’s Up: A grand jury report says Penn State University showed “a shocking apathy” to dangers from excessive drinking by students and that its failure to do anything allowed the occurrence of criminal acts.
The report was done in response to the drunken hazing death of 19-year-old Timothy Piazza in February. Local District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said, “If they didn’t know, it was a deliberate, like, ‘don’t want to know.’”
Penn State’s administrators issued a 70-page counter-report saying they have vigorously battled dangerous drinking, which makes you wonder whether they have ever attended one of their own football weekends.
Top, Top People: President Trump always says he appoints the best people. Making the rounds of the internet is a video of his nominee to the US District Court for the District of Columbia.
Matthew Petersen, who’s a member of the Federal Election Commission, admitted that he has never presided over a jury trial in either state or federal court.
Petersen failed on the basics of legal knowledge. “Do you know what a motion in limine is?” asked Republican Sen. John Kennedy, referring to a common court motion to request testimony be excluded from a trial.
“My background is not in litigation,” Petersen said. “I haven’t had to do a deep dive.”
The Weinstein Effect: Accusations of sexual misconduct are mounting up against the treasured actor Dustin Hoffman, who’s been with us since he made “The Graduate” in 1967.
Variety reported that three women accuse Hoffman of assault and indecent behavior.
Cori Thomas, a 16-year-old friend of Hoffman’s daughter at the time, said the actor exposed himself to her in a hotel room in 1980.
Melissa Kester said Hoffman sexually assaulted her at a recording studio in the late 80s, and a third unnamed woman says Hoffman pressured her into a sexual encounter she says left her feeling traumatized.
God’s Candidate: Defeated Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore is trying to raise money to prove there was voter fraud in Tuesday’s election before the results are certified later this month. A full recount would cost him a million dollars because Doug Jones’s margin of victory was three times the threshold for automatic recount.
Moore has said he’s waiting for God to control his fate. Maybe God already has.
The Seven Dirtiest Words: The Trump administration has given the Centers for Disease control a list of seven words they are not allowed to use in official documents preparing for next year’s budget. They are: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”
Those words must be really baaaaad …..
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