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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh (now), Vivian Ho and Joanna Walters (earlier)

US treasury pushes back as budget office warns Biden’s bill will swell deficit - as it happened

Nancy Pelosi speaks about the Build Back Better Act in Washington DC.
Nancy Pelosi speaks about the Build Back Better Act in Washington DC. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Today's politics recap

  • The House is expected to vote this evening on the $2tn Build Back Better. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is saying that contrary to Biden’s promise that the climate change and social policy package would pay for itself, it would increase the federal deficit. The Treasury Secretary disagrees. This point is expected to come up as lawmakers debate the package.
  • The White House is discussing a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Meanwhile, senators Todd Young and Tim Kaine appear to be working on a diplomatic boycott separate from the White House.
  • The governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, has granted clemency to Julius Jones, a death row inmate who faced execution on Thursday afternoon. Following a recommendation from the state pardon and parole board, Stitt, a Republican, acted with hours to spare before the scheduled state killing.

‘Zero-Covid is not going to happen’: experts predict a steep rise in US cases this winter

A steep rise in Covid-19 cases in Europe should serve as a warning that the US could also see significant increases in coronavirus cases this winter, particularly in the nation’s colder regions, scientists say.

However, there is more cause for optimism as America enters its second pandemic winter, even in the face of likely rises in cases.

Evidence shows vaccine-conferred protection against hospitalization and death remains high several months after inoculation, vaccines for children older than five can reduce Covid transmission, and new antiviral medications hold the promise of making Covid-19 a treatable disease.

“I do expect to see cases increasing – we’ve started to see this in the last week or so,” said Dr David Dowdy, an associate professor of epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. “I don’t think what we’re seeing in Europe means we’re in for a huge surge of serious illness and death as we [saw] here in the US,” last winter.

In the last three weeks, new cases have increased in several cold weather states across New England and the midwest. However, vaccines remain roughly 85% effective at preventing hospitalization and death.

“Even if cases go up this winter, we’re very unlikely to see the overcrowded [intensive care units] and morgues of a year ago,” said Dowdy.

Vaccine-conferred immunity against infection may allow cases to rise, he said, but far fewer people will need hospitalization. The vast majority of people who were hospitalized or died from Covid-19 this summer, more than 90% in one CDC study, were not fully vaccinated.

Read more:

So what does this all mean?

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is saying that contrary to Biden’s promise that the Build Back Better climate change and social policy package would pay for itself, the plan would increase the federal deficit by $160b over the next decade (or $367b not counting revenue recouped from tax enforcement).

The CBO found that the bill’s tax cuts and spending programs were almost paid for by tax increases and savings in spending on prescription drugs. But those alone wouldn’t fully pay for the package, the CBO says.

But the budget office disagrees with the White House on how much of the deficit the Internal Revenue Service would make up by cracking down on big tax dodgers. The Treasury secretary says it would be a lot – more than enough.

While the CBO estimates the IRS can rake in an extra $207b over 10 years, the White House says it’s $400b that the IRS could grab over the same period.

Updated

In a new statement today, Yellen reiterated her previous message. Countering the CBO’s top line, she said:

The combination of CBO’s scores over the last week, the Joint Committee on Taxation estimates, and Treasury analysis make it clear that Build Back Better is fully paid for, and in fact will reduce our nation’s debt over time by generating more than $2 trillion through reforms that ask the wealthiest Americans and large corporations to pay their fair share. A particularly salient aspect of the revenue raised by the legislation is a historic investment in the IRS to crack down on high-earners who avoid paying the taxes that they owe, which Treasury estimates would generate at least $400 billion in additional revenue.

With this bill, members of Congress have a unique opportunity to put our economy on a path to increased growth, productivity, labor force participation, and equity, while ensuring we do not burden future generations with unsustainable debt. I urge them to pass it.

The Congressional Budget Office is estimating that enacting Biden’s Build Back Better plan would result in a net increase in the deficit totaling $367b during the period from 2022 to 2031.

That is not counting any additional revenue generated by increased tax enforcement.

Earlier this month, the Treasury secretary Janet Yellen said, “The investments and revenue provisions of the Build Back Better package would raise over $2tn in offsets, making the entire package paid for over ten years and would reduce deficits over the long term. By making our tax system more fair and asking the highest-income earners and big corporations to pay what they owe, Congress has put together a package that is fiscally responsible and critical to the future prosperity of our economy.”

Updated

From Guardian staff and agencies:

A bipartisan coalition of US state attorneys general has opened an investigation into Facebook for promoting Instagram to children despite the company’s own awareness of its potential harms.

The investigation, which involves at least eight states, comes as Facebook faces increasing scrutiny over its approach to children and young adults. Documents leaked by a former employee turned whistleblower recently revealed the company’s own internal research showed the platform negatively affected the mental health of teens, particularly regarding body image issues.

The investigation will cover whether the company violated consumer protection laws and put young people at risk and will be led by a coalition of attorneys general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont. “For too long, Meta has ignored the havoc that Instagram is wreaking on the mental health and wellbeing of our children and teens,” said California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, in an emailed statement. “Enough is enough. We’ve undertaken this nationwide investigation to get answers about Meta’s efforts to promote the use of this social media platform to young Californians – and to determine if, in doing so, Meta violated the law.”

Facebook, now known as Meta, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read more:

Updated

Today so far

The House rules committee is set to meet at 5:30pm local time on the Build Back Better Act, now that the Congressional Budget Office has come back with all the final estimates on the bill. From there, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the package.

  • Both the White House and members of Congress are discussing a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games.
  • The governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, has granted clemency to Julius Jones, a death row inmate who faced execution on Thursday afternoon.
  • Joe Biden met with Mexico president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Updated

We’ve got an update on the Build Back Better Act: it looks like the pieces are in place for, at the very least, a vote to take place in the House of Representatives today.

To recap, members of the House were all waiting for the final estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO set a Friday deadline for itself, but it appears they have beaten it.

Updated

Despite court challenges to the federal order, White House press secretary Jen Psaki urged large businesses to continue with pushing forward with their Covid-19 vaccine mandates for their workforces.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said earlier this week that it would suspend enforcement of vaccine mandates after a federal appeals court reaffirmed its decision to suspend the mandate.

“Our message to businesses right now is to move forward with measures that will make their workplaces safer and protect their workforces from Covid-19,” Psaki said. “That was our message after the first stay issued by the fifth circuit. That remains our message and nothing has changed.”

Updated

Joe Biden is now meeting with Mexico president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki addressed the negotiations over the Build Back Better Act, which could possibly advance in the House of Representatives today.

In question at this point in negotiations is Salt deductions - the deduction of state and local tax. Salt deductions are a way for taxpayers to bypass double-paying on taxes by allowing individuals to deduct their state and local taxes from their federal income taxes.

Democrats in states with high state and local taxes - cough, California and New York - are supportive of a high cap. However, the argument now is that raising the cap on deductions would primarily benefit the wealthy.

“It obviously wasn’t what he proposed in his initial package,” Psaki said. “It’s been conveyed to him by leaders in the House and the Senate that this needs to be included in order for this legislation to move forward.”

Updated

Diplomatic boycott of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics possibly in the works

Joe Biden said earlier today that a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is “something we’re considering”.

Meanwhile, senators Todd Young and Tim Kaine appear to be working on a diplomatic boycott separate from the White House.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the talk about a diplomatic boycott “doesn’t say anything” about the recent meeting with Xi Jinping.

Read more about what a diplomatic boycott means here:

Updated

White House press secretary Jen Psaki is at the podium now for the White House press briefing to tout the economy recovery under Joe Biden.

She noted that the country is in its seventh consecutive week of decline for new unemployment claims.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development put out a new report today that the US has returned to pre-pandemic size of its economy earlier than other countries.

Psaki touched on the supply chain issue as well. “New data shows we are moving more goods than ever before, ports are moving these goods more quickly and large retail stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy and TJMaxx are fully stocked,” she said. “Americans should feel good about the progress being made in addressing these disruptions and ensuring that shelves are stocked at these big retail stores around the country.”

Three decades have passed since Republicans’ hero, Ronald Reagan, went to Berlin to exhort Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall!”, the Soviet Union collapsed and America claimed victory in the cold war.

For the GOP in Washington, however, these appear to be mere historical footnotes. On Thursday they dusted off the “red scare” playbook to portray Joe Biden’s choice to run one of the agencies that oversees the banking industry as a dangerous communist.

Saule Omarova, 55, was nominated in September to be America’s next comptroller of the currency. If confirmed, she would be the first woman and person of colour in the role in its 158-year-history.

Omarova was born in Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet Union and moved to the US in 1991. For John Kennedy of Louisiana, a member of the Senate banking committee, this was like a red rag to a bull.

Questioning whether Omarova was still a member of communist youth organisations, Kennedy said: “I don’t mean any disrespect: I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”

The remark prompted gasps in the hearing room on Capitol Hill.

Omarova replied, slowly and firmly: “Senator, I’m not a communist. I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born.

“I do not remember joining any Facebook group that subscribes to that ideology. I would never knowingly join any such group. There is no record of me actually participating in any Marxist or communist discussions of any kind.”

Huma Abedin, one of Hillary Clinton’s closest long-time aides, has defended vice president Kamala Harris against the political and media chatter that she is underwhelming in the job and runs a dysfunctional team.

Huma and Hillary earlier this month in New York.
Huma and Hillary earlier this month in New York. Photograph: Gregory Pace/REX/Shutterstock

In an interview earlier on CNN, Abedin said: “Her team, I would publicly and privately support the work that they are trying to do. There is always..”

CNN anchor Kate Bolduan interjected to ask if Abedin thought there was sexism in the reports undermining Harris.

“Absolutely I see sexism in some of the ways we talk about women leaders,” Abedin said.

She went on to say: “And I’ve seen it with Hillary and...and I end the book [Abedin’s new book] with, you know, my belief that we really need to be supporting our vice president. She is extremely smart, talented, you know, a history-making figure and I resent every time there is a negative accusation made, but personally I do see sexism in it.”

Abedin is estranged from her husband, the disgraced Anthony Weiner, former congressman and candidate for mayor of New York.

Read the Guardian’s recent interview with Abedin here.

Julius Jones granted clemency in Oklahoma

The governor of Oklahoma, Kevin Stitt, has granted clemency to Julius Jones, a death row inmate who faced execution on Thursday afternoon.

Following a recommendation from the state pardon and parole board, Stitt, a Republican, acted with hours to spare before the scheduled state killing.

Stitt reduced Jones’s sentence for the murder in 1999 of Paul Howell, a businessman in the affluent Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond, to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The parole board had recommended life with the possibility of parole.

Jones, 41, has maintained his innocence for more than two decades but had been scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in McAlester.

Full story:

Summary

  • Debate began in the House of Representatives for the Build Back Better Act. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is optimistic that the last piece needed for a vote - final estimates from the Congressional Budget Office - will be in today and that the House will be able to vote on the package.
  • Vice president Kamala Harris went on ABC to push back on criticism that she’s being underused.
  • Joe Biden signed into law three bills related to law enforcement while announcing that the Justice Department was giving $140m in community policing grants to 183 law enforcement agencies, allowing for the hiring of more than 1,000 law enforcement positions.
  • GK Butterfield, a Democrat congressman from North Carolina, announced his retirement, making him the second Democrat member of the House of Representatives to do so this week and putting the Democrats’ thin majority at risk.
  • Saule Omarova, Biden’s pick to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is before the Senate banking committee today and facing some heated, red-baiting questions accusing her of being a communist because she was born in Kazakhstan.

GK Butterfield, Democrat congressman, announces retirement

GK Butterfield, the Democrat congressman from North Carolina, announced his retirement today after 10 terms in office.

His announcement comes two days after his colleague Jackie Speier announced her retirement as well, putting the Democrats’ thin majority margin (221 Democrats to 213 Republicans) in the House of Representatives at risk.

In his retirement video, Butterfield condemned the state’s Republican-majority legislature for its new Congressional map.

“The map that was recently enacted by the legislature is a partisan map. It is racially gerrymandered,” Butterfield said. “It will disadvantage African American communities all across the first congressional district. I am disappointed, terribly disappointed, with the Republican majority legislature for once again gerrymandering our state’s congressional districts and putting their party politics over the best interests of North Carolinians.

“While I am hopeful that the courts will ultimately overturn this partisan map and see that a fair map is enacted, I have made the difficult decision that I will not seek reelection to the United States House of Representatives. It is time for me to retire and allow the torch to be passed to someone who shares the values of the district and can continue the work that I have labored so hard for the past 18 years.”

Here’s a look at the effects of gerrymandering:

Today in xenophobia: Senator John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, told Saule Omarova, the Kazakh-American nominee for comptroller of currency: “I don’t know whether to call you professor or comrade.”

Some background from NPR: this particular nominee from Joe Biden is facing an uglier and more personal fight than usual. If confirmed, Omarova, a law professor at Cornell University who immigrated to the United States as a college student, would helm the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is responsible for regulating the assets held by more than 1,000 banks.

Progressive Democrats applauded Biden’s choice while Republican critics see her as a “radical” who wants to nationalize banking.

Her critics are bringing up Kazakhstan, her place of birth, as proof that she is a supporter of the dreaded C word of McCarthyism days – communism – but are also pointing to recent academic papers she has written on how the Federal Reserve could use a central bank digital currency and proposing a reinvention of the US financial system as proof she is too radical.

“I’m not a communist,” Omarova responded to Kennedy. “I do not subscribe to that ideology. I could not choose where I was born. I do not remember joining any Facebook group that subscribes to that ideology – I would never join any such group. There is no record of me ever actually participating in any Marxist or communist discussions of any kind.

“My family suffered under the communist regime. I grew up without knowing half of my family. My grandmother herself escaped death twice under the Stalin regime. This is what’s seared in my mind. That’s who I am. I remember that history. I came to this country. I’m proud to be an American. And that is why I’m here today, Senator. I’m ready for public service.”

Senator Sherrod Brown, chairman of the Senate banking committee, has been outspoken about these attacks on Omarova – if you watch to the end of the first clip, he and Kennedy have a heated exchange of senatorial courtesy. “Now we know what happens when Trumpism meets McCarthyism,” he said.

Updated

Let’s hear some debate on the Build Back Better Act.

ICYMI from yesterday: minutes after the House of Representatives voted to censure congressman Paul Gosar and strip him from his committees for tweeting an anime video depicting violence against Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez, the Republican allegedly retweeted the video.

Read more here:

House debate begins on the Build Back Better Act

In a letter to the Democratic caucus, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi provided an update on the Build Back Better Act, the bill formerly known as the reconciliation bill, which has also been referred to a time or two as the “human infrastructure” bill.

“Very soon, the American people will have an historic cause for celebration, with the passage of the transformative Build Back Better Act,” Pelosi wrote.

Debate in the House of Representatives on the bill began this morning, with a very optimistic hope of a vote tonight. A vote hinges on final estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, and when members will receive them - the CBO has given itself a Friday deadline.

“As soon as we receive the final CBO estimates for Member review, we can then proceed to votes on the revised Rule with the Manager’s Amendment and final passage,” Pelosi wrote.

Meanwhile, in the Senate, at least one of the two moderate Democrats who balked at the size of the reconciliation package is still unsure how to proceed. West Virginia senator Joe Manchin, who along with Arizona senator Krysten Sinema stymied negotiations, still appears to be very much a wildcard.

Updated

Joe Biden ended his remarks by asking bipartisan leadership to come together and “finally pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.”

“That’s next,” he said.

Biden had wanted to sign the bill into law before the one-year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, whose 2020 killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin sparked protests and demonstrations worldwide.

The legislation seeks to invest in police training, ban the use of chokeholds and establish a national database of police misconduct.

In signing into law these bills about law enforcement, the president made clear his stance on the movement to defund police: Joe Biden announced $140m in community policing grants from the Justice Department that will go to 183 law enforcement agencies and fund more than 1,000 new law enforcement positions.

In addition, these grants will fund other initiatives addressing gun violence, violent crimes and hate and domestic extremism as well as “enhance response to people in crisis”, Biden said.

“When you look at what our communities need and what our law enforcement is being asked to do, it’s going to require more resources, not fewer resources,” Biden said. “That is why my administration is investing in the community policing we know works and the training and partnership that law enforcement and our communities have requested, and in community-based programs and interventions that can stop violence before it starts.”

Read more about the defunding police movement here:

These are the bills that Joe Biden is signing into law today:

The Protecting America’s First Responders Act of 2021 updates the Public Safety Officers Benefits Program that was established in 1976 to provide death benefits to survivors of officers who die in the line of duty. Specifically, the new law will update the definition of disability, ensuring that officers who are permanently unable to secure meaningful gainful employment following an injury in the line of duty remain eligible for benefits.

The COPS Counseling act will provide confidentiality to federal law enforcement officers who use peer counseling services, while excepting admissions of criminal conduct or threats of serious physical harm.

The Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila Federal Officers and Employees Protection Act was named after US immigration and customs enforcement special agents Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila, who were attacked by Mexican drug cartels in San Luis Potosi, Mexico on 15 February, 2011. Zapata was killed, and though his killers were arrested and tried, a federal appeals court dismissed the murder convictions because the district court did not have jurisdiction over the crimes committed against law enforcement stationed overseas. This law will clarify that the Justice Department may try any attackers of federal officers and federal employees serving internationally in federal court.

Updated

Joe Biden is delivering some remarks now as he signs into law three bills: the Protecting America’s First Responders Act, the Confidentiality Opportunities for Peer Support Counseling Act (also known as the COPS Counseling Act) and the Jaime Zapata and Victor Avila Federal Officers and Employees Protection Act.

According to vice president Kamala Harris, she and Joe Biden have not even begun discussing 2024 yet.

Joe Biden tasked vice president Kamala Harris earlier this year with addressing the root causes of migration, but Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos pointed out that the past year had the highest number of illegal border crossings since they began being recorded since 1960.

“What are you doing to turn that around? How long will it take?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“It’s not going to be overnight,” Harris responded. “We can’t just flip a switch and make it better. The reality is we inherited an immigration system that was deeply broken and it’s requiring us to actually put it back together in creating a fair process that is effective and efficient.

“In the root causes piece, what we’re looking at is, frankly, people don’t want to leave home, George. When they do, it’s for one or two reasons: they’re fleeing some kind of harm or to stay at home, they simply cannot satisfy the basic needs of their family.”

Vice president Kamala Harris told Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos that the economy and skyrocketing prices is “one of the highest priorities for the president and for me”.

“It’s real and it’s rough,” Harris said. “The cost of groceries has gone up, the cost of gas has gone up. And this is all happening in the context of two years of a pandemic. It’s one of the highest priorities for the president and for me.

“We’re dealing with this issue in a number of ways. Short-term, one of the issues is the supply chain. We’re seeing a bottleneck and we need to relieve that bottleneck. We’re bringing people together everyone from the teamsters to Target to say, hey let’s bring everyone together from the truckers to the folks who are moving product and let’s open up some of our major ports for work, 24 hours a day and seven days a week. That’s happening and we’re seeing great results.

“Long-term, we need to bring down the cost of living. That’s a long-standing issue. We passed this week, the bipartisan infrastructure bill and that’s going to be about repairing roads and bridges and bringing high-speed Internet to all families but also we need to deal with the cost of childcare, the cost of prescription drugs, the cost of housing. That’s what we intend to do when we get the Build Back Better agenda passed.”

Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos asked vice president Kamala Harris about growing frustrations among her friends and allies who “think you can be more helpful than you’ve been asked to be.”

“Do you share that frustration?” Stephanopoulos asked. “What do you say to your friends who are frustrated?”

“This was a good week. This week, when we got this bipartisan infrastructure act passed and signed by the president, makes a statement about all the hard work that has gone into it,” Harris responded. “Month after month after month, I have traveled around the country, as has the president, we have convened members of Congress, we have convened people around our nation, asking, ‘What do you want’?

“This is a response to what they want, and it’s actually going to hit the ground in a way that’s going to have direct impact for the American people. We’re getting things done and we’re doing it together.”

“So you don’t feel misused or underused?” Stephanopoulos asked.

“No I don’t,” Harris chuckled. “I’m very, very excited about the work that we have accomplished but I am also absolutely, absolutely clear-eyed that there is a lot more to do and we’re going to get it done.”

Harris pushes back on jabs that she's underused as vice-president

Good morning, US politics live blog readers, it’s going to be another busy one in Washington today so please stay tuned.

Here’s what’s afoot.

  • US Vice-President Kamala Harris has just appeared for an interview on ABC News, pushing back against the build up of chatter in the media and politics circles that she’s, at best, on the sidelines in her job. Responding to Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos asking do you “feel misused or underused?” Harris said: “No, I don’t. I’m very, very excited about the work that we have accomplished,” but “there is a lot more to do, and we’re gonna get it done.” More on that in the blog this morning.
  • The US House of Representatives is expected to begin formally debating the Build Back Better $1.75tn mega-bill that is packed with social protection programs and action to tackle the climate crisis. House leaders are hopeful there will be a vote this week and determined that if not, then before Thanksgiving – or no break for lawmakers! If bill passes, it then goes back to the Senate.
  • Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are meeting today with Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador (sometimes known as Amlo), so we’ll bring you that news.
  • Biden will make remarks this morning as he signs several smaller bills at the White House.
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