Offering asides, recommended links, blogworthy quotations, and more, In Brief is the Northwest Progressive Institute's microblog of world, national, and local politics.
Ultra MAGA lackeys of Donald Trump who currently control the United States House of Representatives want to force the Senate and the Biden administration to reverse the investments made to Amtrak and clean drinking water infrastructure as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is unacceptable to Democrats.
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Attorney General Bob Ferguson, State Senator Manka Dhingra, State Representative Vandana Slatter, Alicia Hupprich, and Courtney Normand of Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates joined NPI’s Andrew Villeneuve to unveil our April 2023 My Health, My Data Act poll finding at a press conference in Olympia.
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Jonathan Levin of Bloomberg explains why a billionaire’s decision to symbolically move his firm’s headquarters is not actually about taxes, despite his grandstanding.
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Read this Washington Post article about IRS preparations for “a normal tax season,” made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act that was passed into law solely with Democratic votes.
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Watch the speaking program of the January 26th, 2023 rally to support our state’s capital gains tax on the wealthy organized by Invest in Washington Now.
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Via Oregon Public Broadcasting: “Attendees asked about her thoughts on issues ranging from homelessness to wind-powered energy to abortion. District residents submitted their questions in writing, which a moderator seated on a dais read aloud.”
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“Repealing capital gains tax would give King County’s uber wealthy a huge, unnecessary tax break,” explains Washington State Budget & Policy Center senior fellow Andy Nicholas.
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Permanent standard time is better than daylight saving, sleep experts say “Sleep experts widely agree with the Senate that the country should abandon its twice-yearly
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“According to statistics from the Brookings Institution and CQ Roll Call’s own calculations, the 116th Congress was actually the most productive since the 80th in 1947–48, the farthest back Brookings’ data goes,” Jim Saksa writes for CQ Roll Call.
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“Sanders, just weeks from his eightieth birthday, is on the cusp of leaving an indelible mark on the federal government, having shepherded a $3.5 trillion spending blueprint through the Senate this week,” The Washington Post’s Mike DeBonis reports.
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“That’s why they freaked out over Democrats linking two separate infrastructure bills,” David Dayen writes. “But to succeed, the left must also erase privatization from the agenda.”
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ProPublica reports it that has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth — sometimes, even nothing.
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Twenty years after joining the United States Senate, Senator Maria Cantwell now chairs one of the institution’s most powerful committees. This clip shows her taking up the gavel.
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A new paper from the London School of Economics reinforces what progressive activists and economists already know: Trickle down doesn’t. Tax cuts for the wealthy do not create jobs. In fact, they result in greater wealth hoarding and income inequality. It’s time to require the wealthy to pay their fair share in dues to our world community.
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When it was her turn to spar with Trump’s enforcer, Pramila Jayapal made the most of it. Watch her take Bill Barr apart in this three minute video.
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Paul Krugman brings the truth in a New York Times column about the IOKIYAR principle (Debt, doomsayers and double standards)
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Imagine if Tim Eyman became governor and began taking an axe to Washington’s public services. That’s what is happening in Alaska, where right wing extremist Mike Dunleavy is using his line item veto power to force through a 41% cut to the University of Alaska system, plus gut Medicaid, behavioral health, and the Alaska State Ferry system.
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“Fully 60% of millionaires support Warren’s plan for taxing the wealth of those who have more than $50 million in assets,” CNBC reports.
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Congratulations to Representative Kim Schrier, who presided over the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time on May 9th, 2019.
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The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank finally trains his ire on a deserving figure for once.
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Michigan State University economist Mark Skidmore, discussing his team’s startling finding about the Pentagon’s expenditures (MSU scholars find $21 trillion in unauthorized military spending; Defense Department to conduct first-ever audit).
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