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What benefits are being stripped?

The tens of millions who lost their jobs benefited from these new programs:

President Biden has not spoken much about the benefits during a busy weekend, but for a long time it was unknown whether they would continue past the deadline or not. Even two weeks ago, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the decision to extend them had not been made.

But for now they won't be extended. However, the President and his team have been making overtures to states about alternate paths to given out extra unemployment benefits.

Using released federal covid-19 funding, the door has been left slightly open for states to use this money to continue payments.

"There are some states where it may make sense for unemployed workers to continue receiving additional assistance for a longer period of time, allowing residents of those states more time to find a job in areas where unemployment remains high," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Labor Secretary Martin Walsh told congressional leaders in a letter.

As of publication, this has been refused by every state in the US.

While nothing has yet been said about the benefits in regard to the jobs report, more bad news in future months could lead to a return in extra unemployment support. In the meantime, there are still some schemes people can use if they need support.

The 96-strong progressive caucus is split about whether to push for an extension of the unemployment benefits in the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation. However, with the extremely narrow majorities in Congress and the House, deviation from the mainline Democrat course could imperil huge Democrat legislation.

The slim majorities mean smaller groups, like the right of the Democratic Party, hold much more power than they otherwise would. Senators Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema made sure that their wishes were acknowledged when it came to introducing a $15 minimum wage, and progressives moves against their wishes would stop any laws in their tracks.

"What we have right now is that the Biden administration has indicated they have almost no willingness to extend the pandemic unemployment assistance program," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told Insider. "We have a Senate that doesn't want to do it, a White House that doesn't want to do it it's going to take a very committed House."

Ilhan Omar, Democrat Congresswoman from Minnesota, said it was "necessary" to extend the benefits.

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What are Democrats saying about the expiration of the pandemic relief plans? - AS English

Texas Democrats say the states legislative districts cant be redrawn in 2021 and theyre asking a federal court to redraw them before the 2022 election.

The state has already begun work on redrawing its maps, but a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday argues the state can't legally do so until after the 2022 election. The suit also argues the state's maps violate federal election protections.

In light of that, state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin and state Sen. Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio asked a federal court Wednesday to redraw Texas' House and Senate districts.

After 2020 Census results were delayed, state lawmakers held off on redrawing maps. Gov. Greg Abbott signaled he will call a special legislative session to redraw the state's legislative boundaries, a process known as redistricting. The lawsuit argues Texas' constitution requires lawmakers meet in a regular session to redraw boundaries, not a special session. The next regular session isn't until 2023.

The governor is expected to call a special session in the next two weeks. The lawsuit wants a federal court to intervene before then and draw temporary maps for the state's 2022 elections. The suit would not affect the state's congressional redistricting process.

On top of that, now that Census numbers are out, Eckhardt and Gutierrez argue their now-overpopulated districts need to be redrawn to ensure their constituents have equal representation in the state's legislature ahead of the 2022 elections. The Tejano Democrats, a group representing Mexican-American voters and candidates, also joined the federal lawsuit in the hopes of ensuring minority voters statewide have equal representation as well.

Eckhardt says Article III of Texas' constitution and the state law that created Texas' redistricting board, which draws the new legislative maps, is "very specific" about the regular session requirement.

Because the next regular session of the Texas Legislature isn't until after the 2022 elections, Eckhardt told KUT that, in light of the state's growth, Texas' boundaries would violate the one-person-one-vote principle, which guarantees equal representation.

"That's a very basic tenet of the U.S. Constitution,that we have representative democracy," she said. "So, this is a basic issue that we must correct."

Texas' efforts to redraw its legislative boundaries have been tied up in courts every decade since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The state's last fight over redistricting maps ended at the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court ruled that state lawmakers did not intentionally discriminate against minority voters when redrawing its legislative boundaries.

This round of redistricting is going to be a fight as well. Texas' population boomed over the last 10 years, a boom that was driven by Texas' Latino population and urban expansion in left-leaning cities. Democratic groups say the state's GOP-led redistricting process will likely seek to break up some districts to maintain Texas Republicans' decades-long control of state government.

Hearings on Texas' redistricting process began earlier this year, but the process will begin in earnest over the next two weeks. As of today, lawmakers have access to 2020 Census data and both the House and Senate committees on redistricting have hearings scheduled over the next two weeks.

The Texas Legislature's second special session this summer ends on Labor Day. It's expected Abbott will call lawmakers back to tackle redistricting soon after that.

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Democrats Sue Texas In Attempt To Get Federal Courts To Redraw Legislative Districts Before 2022 - KUT

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has called on Democrats to pause the effort to push through a $3.5 trillion budget. J. Scott Applewhite/AP hide caption

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has called on Democrats to pause the effort to push through a $3.5 trillion budget.

Sen. Joe Manchin has called on Democrats to take a "strategic pause" in advancing their historic $3.5 trillion budget plan, putting in peril President Biden's most ambitious effort to stabilize the U.S. economy and boost the middle class.

In an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, the West Virginia senator criticized his party as being shortsighted and hypocritical in its pursuit of passing the multitrillion-dollar budget, which Democrats see as vital to tackling climate change, child care affordability and fair housing.

"The nation faces an unprecedented array of challenges and will inevitably encounter additional crises in the future," Manchin wrote. "Yet some in Congress have a strange belief there is an infinite supply of money to deal with any current or future crisis, and that spending trillions upon trillions will have no negative consequence for the future. I disagree."

Manchin wrote that because of the challenges posed by the nation's high inflation rate as well as the unpredictable nature of the pandemic particularly as it pertains to the rapidly emerging variants of the virus Democrats should not "rush" to use spending as a fix for the nation's current woes. Rather, lawmakers should take a longer-term view about how today's fiscal policy could impact future generations.

Democrats have said the budget will be paid for with tax increases on corporations and the wealthy as well as other proposals.

Under the reconciliation process, budget bills can pass the Senate with only a simple majority rather than a 60-vote supermajority. Republicans used the process in 2017 to pass then-President Donald Trump's tax bill, facing criticisms from Democrats for pushing through deeply partisan legislation.

"Respectfully, it was wrong when the Republicans did it, and it is wrong now," Manchin wrote.

If Manchin defects, as he has signaled before that he would, Democrats would have to sway at least one Republican to vote for the budget a tall order in the highly partisan chamber.

"If we want to invest in America, a goal I support, then let's take the time to get it right and determine what is absolutely necessary," Manchin wrote.

The West Virginia Democrat has often been at odds with more progressive members of his party, and he has emerged as a critical swing vote. Democrats control the 50-50 Senate, with the vice president working as a tie-breaker.

House Democrats, who also hold a slim but not quite as precarious majority, quickly decried Manchin's suggestion.

In a tweet, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez referenced the deadly Hurricane Ida that washed ashore in Louisiana before striking deadly blows across the Northeast and Manchin's coal interests.

Jamaal Bowman of New York also pointed to Hurricane Ida's destruction and the evidence that climate change is fueling more and deadlier natural disasters.

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Manchin Calls On Democrats To Hit Pause On The $3.5 Trillion Budget Package - NPR

The proposed map of six Oregon congressional districts crafted by Democrats on the Legislatures redistricting committees would likely result in five Democrats and a lone Republican being elected to the U.S. House.

The draft map, released Friday, would pack all of the states most heavily Republican areas into one district and spread Democratic voters among the other five districts in a way that all of them would lean Democratic, although some narrowly so, multiple analyses including one by The Oregonian/OregonLive found.

The proposed map is significantly more partisan than the current map of five districts as evidenced by the fact it would likely yield an Oregon U.S. House delegation that is 86% Democrats, even though Oregon voters in recent years have given the Democratic candidate from 50% (Gov. Kate Brown in 2018) to 56% (President Joe Biden in 2020) of the statewide vote in competitive elections. (Republicans won 44% and 40% of the votes in those two contests, with the remainder going to candidates from minor parties.)

Not surprisingly, the map proposed by Republican lawmakers on the redistricting committees looks starkly different and would likely yield a very different Oregon line-up in the U.S. House. The Republicans would keep heavily Democratic areas of Hood River County and Bend in the same district as heavily Republican eastern Oregon, as is now the case. And it would pack heavily Democratic Multnomah and Washington counties into two overwhelmingly Democratic districts, leaving the remaining three districts fairly competitive. The most likely scenario, depending on the strength of candidates who were to run, would be a three-three Republican-Democratic split.

Among the analysts who have reached those or similar conclusions about the proposed maps, based on voter registration data and recent election outcomes, are PlanScore, a project of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal System; polling, politics and sports statistics website fivethirtyeight.com; and The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Neither of the lawmakers proposed maps, nor the maps each of the parties has proposed for state House and Senate districts, are final. Lawmakers on the House and Senate redistricting committees will hold 12 joint public hearings over four days starting Wednesday and wrapping up Sept. 13. Then the committees will decide, if they are able, on final maps.

Sen. Kathleen Taylor, a Portland Democrat who chairs the Senate Committee on Redistricting, noted Friday morning when releasing her partys proposed maps that they are a work in progress.

Her committee can approve any maps that its Democratic members want, since Democrats hold the majority. So the map as proposed Friday could pass that committee.

But that map wont pass the House Committee on Redistricting, as would be required to get the proposal to the House floor for a vote. Thats because, to bring an end to Republican delay tactics during the legislative session, House Speaker Tina Kotek handed Republicans a favor. Instead of giving her party a majority of seats on her chambers powerful redistricting committee, as is customary, she gave Republicans half the seats.

Thus, any map that House and Senate Democrats favor will have to please House Republicans enough that their three redistricting committee members wont tank it.

Republicans have good reason to get new state House and Senate districts passed in the Legislature, however, even if its not a plan they love, since the job would pass to the secretary of state, Democrat Shemia Fagan, if lawmakers fail.

Even if Republicans agree to a compromise with Democrats and pass a plan through both chambers of the Legislature, Brown could veto it, which would also have the effect of passing the map drawing to Fagan.

Lawmakers tentatively plan to hold a special session the week of Sept. 20 to pass the plans. They face a Sept. 27 deadline under a Supreme Court ruling earlier this year.

-- Betsy Hammond; betsyhammond@oregonian.com; @OregonianPol

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Oregon Democrats propose a congressional district map that would likely give their party 5 of 6 seats in U.S. - OregonLive

Democrats are scrambling to craft their multitrillion-dollar social spending package while seeking to avoid any points of contention that could threaten party unity.

Many key aspects of the package pertain to taxes. Democrats want to extend expansions of tax credits benefiting low- and middle-income households that were enacted under President BidenJoe BidenElder pledges to replace Feinstein with Republican if he wins California recall election Overnight Defense & National Security Out of Afghanistan, but stuck in limbo On The Money Delta variant wallops job market MOREs coronavirus relief law earlier this year. They also want to pay for their proposed spending and tax cuts which focus on areas such as health care, child care and climate through tax increases on corporations and high-income individuals.

The House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over taxes, is expected to start considering its portion of the bill next week. The panel has yet to release any legislative text.

Democratic lawmakers will need to ensure that all of their provisions can garner support from both moderates and progressives sinceDemocrats will need almost every party vote in the House and all 50 in the Senate.

Thats easier said than done, especially since some members have started to raise concerns about several of Bidens proposed tax increases. Lawmakers will also have to figure out how they want to design provisions that would cut taxes.

Here are five tax issues to watch as Democrats draft the legislation.

Child tax credit

Democrats broadly support extending the one-year expansion of the child tax credit enacted earlier this year. However, lawmakers face questions about the duration of an expansion.

As a result of Bidens $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief law, the maximum credit amount was increased from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under 6 and $3,000 for older children. The credit was also made fully available to the lowest-income households, and the IRS started issuing advance payments of the credit on a monthly basis. These changes are in place only for 2021.

Many Democratic lawmakers want to make the expansion of the credit permanent. But the longer the extension of the expansion, the greater the cost.

The White House proposed making the credit permanently fully available to the lowest-income households while extending the increased credit amount only through 2025. The Treasury Department has estimated that would cost nearly $450 billion over a decade.

Id prefer permanency, but I know that there are competing views from the White House and others, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard NealRichard Edmund NealProgressives prepare to launch counterattack in tax fight Democrats brace for new spending fights over Biden agenda Pelosi sets up risky House vote to deem .5T budget approved MORE (D-Mass.) told reporters in late August.

Corporate tax rate

Biden has proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent after the GOP tax law in 2017 cut it from 35 percent to 21 percent.

Some moderates have indicated that they want a smaller rate increase than what Biden has proposed. Notably, Sen. Joe ManchinJoe ManchinPresented by Schneider Electric Overnight Equilibrium/Sustainability Mars rover drills first successful sample Alyssa Milano blasts 'Texas Taliban' over new abortion law More than 100 Democrats back legislation lowering Medicare eligibility age to 60 MORE (D-W.Va.), a key moderate, has said he would prefer a corporate tax rate of 25 percent.

The smaller the corporate rate increase, the less revenue would be generated that could be used to offset the cost of Democrats spending priorities. The Treasury Department estimated that raising the corporate rate to 28 percent would bring in about $858 billion over 10 years.

SALT deduction

Democrats are expected to include some type of change to the $10,000 cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction that Republicans enacted as part of their 2017 tax law. But it remains to be seen exactly how lawmakers plan to roll back the cap.

Many lawmakers from high-tax states, such as New York, New Jersey and California, strongly oppose the cap, and some have threatened to vote against the final bill if it doesnt repeal the $10,000 limit.

But fully repealing the cap is expensive, and analysts across the ideological spectrum have estimated that doing so would primarily benefit high-income households. When the House voted on a bill to temporarily repeal the cap in 2019, a handful of Democratic lawmakers, including some moderates and progressives, voted against it.

Democrats have several options if they want to make changes to the cap but not fully eliminate it. For example, they could decide to raise the limit, or they could undo the cap only for people under a certain income level.

Capital gains changes

Democrats have some major issues to wrestle with when it comes to capital gains taxes, which are taxes that people pay on investment gains.

One issue is where to set the top capital gains tax rate. The current top rate is 20 percent, but Biden has proposed significantly increasingitso that capital gains and ordinary income are taxed at the same rates for individuals and households with income above $1 million. Biden has proposed a top rate for ordinary income of 39.6 percent.

Some Democratic lawmakers would prefer a smaller increase in the capital gains rate. For example, Manchin has said hed prefer an increase to 28 percent.

A second issue relates to the tax treatment of capital gains at death. Capital gains are not taxed at death, and when heirs sell investments they inherited, they have to pay tax only on the difference between the sales price and the value of the investments when they received them.

Biden has proposed taxing capital gains at death, with an exemption of $1 million per person. Under the presidents proposal, taxes would not be due on gains on the value of family-owned businesses and farms until the businesses are sold or cease to be family owned and operated.

Even though Bidens proposal includes provisions aimed at protecting family farms, some Democrats from agriculture-heavy areas have raised concerns about the proposal.

A document obtained by The Hill outlining Senate Finance Committee Democrats revenue-raising options calls for providing more generous exemptions than Biden has proposed. The document floats an exemption of $5 million per person from taxing capital gains at death. It also suggests a potential $25 million exemption per couple for family farms, which would be in addition to the general exemption.

A separate item on Senate Democrats list calls for billionaires to pay taxes on their investment gains annually, as opposed to when the investments are sold. Biden has not offered a similar proposal.

International tax changes

Biden and many congressional Democrats have taken issue with the international provisions in the GOPs 2017 tax law and want to increase taxes on U.S. companies foreign earnings. But Democrats have yet to reach consensus on all of the details.

The White House has proposed increasing a minimum tax on U.S. companies foreign earnings to 21 percent. At the same time, the administration is negotiating an agreement with other countries, through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, for a global minimum tax rate of at least 15 percent.

A group of House Democrats, including several Ways and Means Committee members, raised concerns last month about raising the rate on the U.S. tax to a level that is higher than the rate established by a multilateral agreement.

Treasury Secretary Janet YellenJanet Louise YellenClimate hawks pressure Biden to replace Fed chair Medicare reserves unchanged despite COVID-19 pandemic Social Security reserves estimated to be depleted earlier than previously expected MORE defended the White Houses proposal on Friday.

The U.S. can impose a 21% tax on U.S. corporate foreign earnings -- still far less than what's paid by businesses on Main Street that make their profits at home and still have our corporations be more competitive than they were before,she tweeted.

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Five tax issues to watch as Democrats craft $3.5T bill | TheHill - The Hill