President Biden's Infrastructure Plans

[laughing dog]

55 Corporations in 2020 that paid no federal corporate income tax

What is the definition of "some large corporations"?

I'm nothing like an expert.
But my understanding is that it refers to corporations with over a billion in profit per year.
Tom

Please show me an example of a corporation with over a billion in taxable profit that didn't pay any taxes last year.

Here is a link - 55 corporations in 2020 that paid no federal corporate income tax . I count over 10 that had over a billion dollars with no taxes. Xcel energy and Charter Communications are two from the list.

Well, I googled Charter Communications. Yes, they had great pre-tax revenue in 2020. But their taxable profit was reduced by very heavy depreciation (they had been on quite a capital investment spending spree) and heavy carry forward losses. These allowed expenses reduced their taxable profit to near zero. Nike was also on the list (love Nike! Love the Ducks!). Nike also had very little 2020 profit due to carry forward, R&D tax credits, and trump tax cuts (that allowed greater sheltering of off shore profits.

Too bad families don’t get similar tax breaks.

 

[lpetrich]

Dark Money Group Targets Unwary Greens on Climate Bill | Climate Denial Crock of the Week

Alexander Kaufman on Twitter: "Just received this text for United for Clean Power Inc., the GOP-linked dark money group pressuring House progressives to kill the Manchin deal.

For context, I live in Astoria in what is now @AOC's district and I vote in every local election, which are matters of public record. (pic link)" / Twitter
Ad text:

No more half-measures. No more wasting time. We must act NOW. Our planet is in danger, and this may be the last chance we get to do something about it. We MUST demand action by Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to get true environmental justice or block the Reconciliation package. Tell her to take action on real planet-saving climate change legislation today at https://takethefacts.com/tmlfg Reply STOP to opt-out.

Back to the article:

We’ve finally got a (game changing if imperfect) climate bill, and the fossil fueled right wing is already working to sabotage it, seeking to exploit the left’s self-defeating penchant for “purity”

Showing ads with "Demand environmental justice, or kill the reconciliation bill", with pictures of Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and

A message from United for Clean Power, Inc.:

The time to take action on planet-saving climate change legislation is NOW. Demand true environmental justice from your Democrat colleagues or block the Reconciliation bill. Over the past decade more than 83% of all disasters around the world were caused by extreme weather and climate-related events. A Reconciliation package without comprehensive climate change provisions would be a catastrophic failure. Demand real climate change action in the Reconciliation package, or kill it altogether.

 

[lpetrich]

Beware of this fake pro-climate group - by Emily Atkin

United for Clean Power looks a lot like a progressive advocacy group. After all, many climate-justice focused groups have raised alarm about the deal because of its many gifts to the oil and gas industry, courtesy of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin.

But United for Clean Power is not a progressive advocacy group. According to reporting from Nick Seymour and Kyle Tharp at the FWIW newsletter, United for Clean Power is a Republican-linked dark money group, and most likely an attempt at deceptive astroturfing.

In other words, Republicans are trying to kill historic climate legislation by tricking progressive voters into believing that’s the best thing to do for the climate. And platforms like POLITICO, Facebook and Google are aiding in that deception by allowing the ads to spread unchecked.

Fortunately, they failed. Every Democrat in Congress voted for it, even their targets IO, RT, and AOC.

 

[Harry Bosch]

55 Corporations in 2020 that paid no federal corporate income tax

What is the definition of "some large corporations"?

I'm nothing like an expert.
But my understanding is that it refers to corporations with over a billion in profit per year.
Tom

Please show me an example of a corporation with over a billion in taxable profit that didn't pay any taxes last year.

Here is a link - 55 corporations in 2020 that paid no federal corporate income tax . I count over 10 that had over a billion dollars with no taxes. Xcel energy and Charter Communications are two from the list.

Well, I googled Charter Communications. Yes, they had great pre-tax revenue in 2020. But their taxable profit was reduced by very heavy depreciation (they had been on quite a capital investment spending spree) and heavy carry forward losses. These allowed expenses reduced their taxable profit to near zero. Nike was also on the list (love Nike! Love the Ducks!). Nike also had very little 2020 profit due to carry forward, R&D tax credits, and trump tax cuts (that allowed greater sheltering of off shore profits.

Too bad families don’t get similar tax breaks.

Well, individuals get different types of tax breaks. Individuals aren't taxed on a "net income" the way a business is. So, R&D, depreciation, carry forward wouldn't help them.

 

[Swammerdami]

I'm definitely for reforming tax laws the don't make sense. . . . I personally favor allowable reductions for carry forward losses, depreciation, and R&D.

From the cited link, I copied a few of the tax breaks that enabled some corporations to pay so little.
* Stock option valuation? — Companies "low-ball" investors but "high-ball" the tax man.
* Depreciation schedules? — Claim 100% depreciation in the first year.
* Carry forward? — Have you heard of carry back, using losses in low-rate years to get retroactive rebates from old high-rate years?
Are any of these loopholes plugged? Or is the idea just to bypass them with the 15% minimum?

• More than a dozen used a tax break for executive stock options to sharply reduce their income taxes last year. These include Advanced Micro Devices, Archer Daniels Midland, Booz Allen Hamilton, Charter Communications, Nike, and Salesforce.com. This tax break allows companies to write off stock-option related expenses for tax purposes that go far beyond expenses they report to investors.
  
• A provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act allowing companies to immediately write off capital investments -- the most extreme version of accelerated depreciation -- helped several companies reduce their income tax substantially. Consolidated Edison, Williams, PPL and Sealed Air all used depreciation tax breaks to substantially reduce current income tax expense, as did at least a dozen other companies.
  
• . . .
  
• Besides the standard array of tax breaks described above, the 2020 data introduce a new factor driving down corporate tax bills: the CARES Act, ostensibly designed to help people and businesses to stay afloat during the pandemic. Some companies used a CARES Act provision to "carry back" 2018 or 2019 losses to offset profits they reported in prior years, resulting in a rebate that reduced their 2020 taxes, in some cases to less than nothing.
  
• The CARES Act loosened rules for the treatment of losses not just in 2020, but also retroactively for losses reported in 2018 and 2019, which have nothing to do with the pandemic. Even worse, it allows corporations to carry back losses as far as five years. This means losses incurred in 2018, 2019, and 2020 can offset income taxed at the higher 35 percent tax rate in effect before 2018. Taxing profits at one rate while allowing losses to produce savings at a higher rate is an invitation for companies to play games, moving profits and losses around from one year to another on paper to reduce their tax bills.

 

[laughing dog]

55 Corporations in 2020 that paid no federal corporate income tax

What is the definition of "some large corporations"?

I'm nothing like an expert.
But my understanding is that it refers to corporations with over a billion in profit per year.
Tom

Please show me an example of a corporation with over a billion in taxable profit that didn't pay any taxes last year.

Here is a link - 55 corporations in 2020 that paid no federal corporate income tax . I count over 10 that had over a billion dollars with no taxes. Xcel energy and Charter Communications are two from the list.

Well, I googled Charter Communications. Yes, they had great pre-tax revenue in 2020. But their taxable profit was reduced by very heavy depreciation (they had been on quite a capital investment spending spree) and heavy carry forward losses. These allowed expenses reduced their taxable profit to near zero. Nike was also on the list (love Nike! Love the Ducks!). Nike also had very little 2020 profit due to carry forward, R&D tax credits, and trump tax cuts (that allowed greater sheltering of off shore profits.

Too bad families don’t get similar tax breaks.

Well, individuals get different types of tax breaks. Individuals aren't taxed on a "net income" the way a business is. So, R&D, depreciation, carry forward wouldn't help them.

Right, households are basically taxed on gross income not net. Depreciation of a house would certainly help any homeowner. And making income averaging easier would certainly help households.

My point was that there are companies with billions in profits that pay no taxes. You may feel that their tax treatment is appropriate, but many others do not.

 

[Harry Bosch]

I'm definitely for reforming tax laws the don't make sense. . . . I personally favor allowable reductions for carry forward losses, depreciation, and R&D.

From the cited link, I copied a few of the tax breaks that enabled some corporations to pay so little.
* Stock option valuation? — Companies "low-ball" investors but "high-ball" the tax man.
* Depreciation schedules? — Claim 100% depreciation in the first year.
* Carry forward? — Have you heard of carry back, using losses in low-rate years to get retroactive rebates from old high-rate years?
Are any of these loopholes plugged? Or is the idea just to bypass them with the 15% minimum?

• More than a dozen used a tax break for executive stock options to sharply reduce their income taxes last year. These include Advanced Micro Devices, Archer Daniels Midland, Booz Allen Hamilton, Charter Communications, Nike, and Salesforce.com. This tax break allows companies to write off stock-option related expenses for tax purposes that go far beyond expenses they report to investors.
• A provision in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act allowing companies to immediately write off capital investments -- the most extreme version of accelerated depreciation -- helped several companies reduce their income tax substantially. Consolidated Edison, Williams, PPL and Sealed Air all used depreciation tax breaks to substantially reduce current income tax expense, as did at least a dozen other companies.
• . . .
• Besides the standard array of tax breaks described above, the 2020 data introduce a new factor driving down corporate tax bills: the CARES Act, ostensibly designed to help people and businesses to stay afloat during the pandemic. Some companies used a CARES Act provision to "carry back" 2018 or 2019 losses to offset profits they reported in prior years, resulting in a rebate that reduced their 2020 taxes, in some cases to less than nothing.
• The CARES Act loosened rules for the treatment of losses not just in 2020, but also retroactively for losses reported in 2018 and 2019, which have nothing to do with the pandemic. Even worse, it allows corporations to carry back losses as far as five years. This means losses incurred in 2018, 2019, and 2020 can offset income taxed at the higher 35 percent tax rate in effect before 2018. Taxing profits at one rate while allowing losses to produce savings at a higher rate is an invitation for companies to play games, moving profits and losses around from one year to another on paper to reduce their tax bills.

I'm not going to comment on stock option valuations as I don't know much about it. I'm not a super big fan of accelerated depreciation. I could live with going back to allowing rational depreciation expenses again. But governments allow accelerated to encourage companies to invest more in capital assets (helping the economy). I'm not sure what you mean by carry back. Carry forward losses are real. No one likes losses. No rational person would create a $1 loss in order to get a $.40 write-off. That doesn't make sense.

 

[Harry Bosch]

55 Corporations in 2020 that paid no federal corporate income tax

What is the definition of "some large corporations"?

I'm nothing like an expert.
But my understanding is that it refers to corporations with over a billion in profit per year.
Tom

Please show me an example of a corporation with over a billion in taxable profit that didn't pay any taxes last year.

Here is a link - 55 corporations in 2020 that paid no federal corporate income tax . I count over 10 that had over a billion dollars with no taxes. Xcel energy and Charter Communications are two from the list.

Well, I googled Charter Communications. Yes, they had great pre-tax revenue in 2020. But their taxable profit was reduced by very heavy depreciation (they had been on quite a capital investment spending spree) and heavy carry forward losses. These allowed expenses reduced their taxable profit to near zero. Nike was also on the list (love Nike! Love the Ducks!). Nike also had very little 2020 profit due to carry forward, R&D tax credits, and trump tax cuts (that allowed greater sheltering of off shore profits.

Too bad families don’t get similar tax breaks.

Well, individuals get different types of tax breaks. Individuals aren't taxed on a "net income" the way a business is. So, R&D, depreciation, carry forward wouldn't help them.

Right, households are basically taxed on gross income not net. Depreciation of a house would certainly help any homeowner. And making income averaging easier would certainly help households.

My point was that there are companies with billions in profits that pay no taxes. You may feel that their tax treatment is appropriate, but many others do not.

LD: I always thought that you were an economist? Tax payers aren't taxed on their gross. I'm not a CPA, but it's my understanding that most if not all get standard deductions (as well as other deductions). Secondly, depreciation is not a deduction. Companies expenses reduce their taxable income. When a company buys cleaning supplies, it's net income goes down that year. When it buys a capital asset, it generally recognizes only a portion of cost each year (depreciation). The thinking here is that cleaning supplies only last a year, so should be expensed. Whereas capital assets last for years, and hence should be realized over time. If you eliminated depreciation, you'd allow companies to expense 100% their capital assets in the same year as purchased. That would be a huge tax deduction.

 

[Toni]

This is the Center for Progress but I will trust that the overall figures are accurate and fair:

These 19 Fortune 100 Companies Paid Next to Nothing—or Nothing at All—in Taxes in 2021

Analysis shows that during a year of high corporate profits, many of the biggest corporations in America either paid minimal or no federal income taxes.

www.americanprogress.org

All of these companies paid less than 10% in federal income tax while earning over $1B (after state and local taxes are paid). Several paid negative income taxes, some thing that individuals with sufficiently low incomes are able to do. However, individuals do not have access to the many tax breaks or accounting shifts that corporations do.

 

[laughing dog]

55 Corporations in 2020 that paid no federal corporate income tax

What is the definition of "some large corporations"?

I'm nothing like an expert.
But my understanding is that it refers to corporations with over a billion in profit per year.
Tom

Please show me an example of a corporation with over a billion in taxable profit that didn't pay any taxes last year.

Here is a link - 55 corporations in 2020 that paid no federal corporate income tax . I count over 10 that had over a billion dollars with no taxes. Xcel energy and Charter Communications are two from the list.

Well, I googled Charter Communications. Yes, they had great pre-tax revenue in 2020. But their taxable profit was reduced by very heavy depreciation (they had been on quite a capital investment spending spree) and heavy carry forward losses. These allowed expenses reduced their taxable profit to near zero. Nike was also on the list (love Nike! Love the Ducks!). Nike also had very little 2020 profit due to carry forward, R&D tax credits, and trump tax cuts (that allowed greater sheltering of off shore profits.

Too bad families don’t get similar tax breaks.

Well, individuals get different types of tax breaks. Individuals aren't taxed on a "net income" the way a business is. So, R&D, depreciation, carry forward wouldn't help them.

Right, households are basically taxed on gross income not net. Depreciation of a house would certainly help any homeowner. And making income averaging easier would certainly help households.

My point was that there are companies with billions in profits that pay no taxes. You may feel that their tax treatment is appropriate, but many others do not.

LD: I always thought that you were an economist? Tax payers aren't taxed on their gross. I'm not a CPA, but it's my understanding that most if not all get standard deductions (as well as other deductions).

A standard deduction is a flat rate - it does not address expenses that households incur that are similar to businesses and which are not permitted as itemized deductions. The federal tax system treats households and firms differently for tax purposes. Whether that is good social or economic policy is a matter of judgment.

Secondly, depreciation is not a deduction. Companies expenses reduce their taxable income. When a company buys cleaning supplies, it's net income goes down that year. When it buys a capital asset, it generally recognizes only a portion of cost each year (depreciation). The thinking here is that cleaning supplies only last a year, so should be expensed. Whereas capital assets last for years, and hence should be realized over time. If you eliminated depreciation, you'd allow companies to expense 100% their capital assets in the same year as purchased. That would be a huge tax deduction.

Depreciation is a deduction. Homeowners do not get to depreciate their homes.

There is no necessary reason to permit anyone or any business to deduct capital expenses in total or in part (depreciation). While are rational economic rationales for permitting depreciation of capital assets, there are rational social reasons to have a minimum tax rates for companies that earn large profits. Tax policy is a tradeoff between economic and social concerns.

 

[Swammerdami]

• Besides the standard array of tax breaks described above, the 2020 data introduce a new factor driving down corporate tax bills: the CARES Act, ostensibly designed to help people and businesses to stay afloat during the pandemic. Some companies used a CARES Act provision to "carry back" 2018 or 2019 losses to offset profits they reported in prior years, resulting in a rebate that reduced their 2020 taxes, in some cases to less than nothing.
• The CARES Act loosened rules for the treatment of losses not just in 2020, but also retroactively for losses reported in 2018 and 2019, which have nothing to do with the pandemic. Even worse, it allows corporations to carry back losses as far as five years. This means losses incurred in 2018, 2019, and 2020 can offset income taxed at the higher 35 percent tax rate in effect before 2018. Taxing profits at one rate while allowing losses to produce savings at a higher rate is an invitation for companies to play games, moving profits and losses around from one year to another on paper to reduce their tax bills.

. . . I'm not sure what you mean by carry back. Carry forward losses are real. No one likes losses. No rational person would create a $1 loss in order to get a $.40 write-off. That doesn't make sense.

I'd never heard of carry-BACK losses either. Apparently, a corporation can carry a 2019 loss BACK and get a rebate on the tax paid in 2017. This would be preferable to carrying FORWARD to a year when the tax rate was less than in 2017.

As for nonsensical losses: (a) Some companies did in fact lose money during the pandemic, (b) corporations can structure transactions to move profits from one year to another.

Anyway, IIUC the new law doesn't prohibit some of these loopholes — the article just gave them as examples of what corporations do. The law bypasses the loopholes by imposing a minimum tax. Obviously the tax is NOT on sales, but how they define taxable income I don't know.

Trying to analyze the details of loopholes, countermeasures, and counters to the countermeasures is beyond our scope here. The key point is that some corporations are very profitable yet pay little or no taxes. The law tries to find a way to circumvent that. Did they do a perfect job? It would take huge expertise and hundreds of hours for us to answer that here, but the answer is probably: Imperfect, but it sounds like they did a pretty good job toward their goal: getting large PROFITABLE corporations to pay a "fairer" tax.

It almost sounds like you are unhappy with that goal.

 

[lpetrich]

GOP-linked dark money group targets House progressives to kill reconciliation bill

There is scarce information online about who is behind the organization. The organization’s Facebook page was created in early 2015, but it has no real information on the group, and their posts this week criticize the Inflation Reduction Act as “only a small fraction of what this administration said they were going to accomplish” and “this plan doesn’t do nearly enough.”

...
Whoever created United for Clean Power laid the digital groundwork for pop-up campaigns like this years ago in case they ever needed a climate-focused brand to utilize. Several readers flagged for us that the group ran some type of campaign in an Ohio state legislative race years ago, spent several thousand dollars in an Oklahoma State Senate campaign, and received money from a now-defunct right-wing dark money group in 2015. In November 2020, they ran YouTube ads backing a spoiler Green-party candidate in a competitive Oregon State Senate race, whose candidacy ultimately cost the Democratic nominee the election.

That last one seems like another example of this sabotage strategy. Support a Green to run against a Democrat as not good enough, to split the left-wing vote and let the Republican win.

How Republicans Are Trying to Use the Green Party to Their Advantage - The New York Times - 2020 Sep 22 - "The G.O.P. has sought to help Green Party candidates in previous election cycles to siphon votes from Democrats. This year is no different — but it hasn’t always worked."

The Green Party’s biggest fan? In some states, it’s the G.O.P. - The New York Times - a day later

FWIW was able to locate the organization’s 2018 and 2019 IRS 990 forms, which reveal the organization’s only major expenditure was to pay Republican firm Majority Strategies $135,000 for “advertising.”

According to FEC data, Majority Strategies has worked to elect countless Republican climate deniers to Congress and other elected offices, including recently for Sarah Palin’s campaign for Congress in Alaska this year. The firm last week published research urging their clients to invest in digital ads instead of exclusively focusing on traditional TV ads.

 

[lpetrich]

Kyrsten Sinema delivers a 'gift to private equity' in Democrats' big agenda bill - 'In the final stretch, the Arizona centrist secured two big changes to the Inflation Reduction Act affecting investment funds, including preserving the "carried interest" tax break.'

It included a policy she had quietly objected to — limiting what critics call the “carried interest loophole,” which lets private equity managers pay a much lower tax rate on their earnings than most people do on ordinary income.

Lobbyists sprang into action. Sinema stayed silent for about a week, making some Democrats nervous that she might torpedo the entire bill. Behind the scenes, she was fighting to protect the $13 billion tax break. And she succeeded, with Schumer ultimately releasing a revised version of the package to win her critical vote.

"We have agreed to remove the carried interest tax provision," Sinema said in her Aug. 4 statement announcing her support.

Sinema also secured a change to the 15% corporate minimum tax under the Manchin-backed legislation that would exempt entities owned by private equity funds, which estimates project would save the industry $35 billion.

From a Green Party Code Pink progressive to a corrupt centrist.

 

[Harry Bosch]

• Besides the standard array of tax breaks described above, the 2020 data introduce a new factor driving down corporate tax bills: the CARES Act, ostensibly designed to help people and businesses to stay afloat during the pandemic. Some companies used a CARES Act provision to "carry back" 2018 or 2019 losses to offset profits they reported in prior years, resulting in a rebate that reduced their 2020 taxes, in some cases to less than nothing.
• The CARES Act loosened rules for the treatment of losses not just in 2020, but also retroactively for losses reported in 2018 and 2019, which have nothing to do with the pandemic. Even worse, it allows corporations to carry back losses as far as five years. This means losses incurred in 2018, 2019, and 2020 can offset income taxed at the higher 35 percent tax rate in effect before 2018. Taxing profits at one rate while allowing losses to produce savings at a higher rate is an invitation for companies to play games, moving profits and losses around from one year to another on paper to reduce their tax bills.

. . . I'm not sure what you mean by carry back. Carry forward losses are real. No one likes losses. No rational person would create a $1 loss in order to get a $.40 write-off. That doesn't make sense.

I'd never heard of carry-BACK losses either. Apparently, a corporation can carry a 2019 loss BACK and get a rebate on the tax paid in 2017. This would be preferable to carrying FORWARD to a year when the tax rate was less than in 2017.

As for nonsensical losses: (a) Some companies did in fact lose money during the pandemic, (b) corporations can structure transactions to move profits from one year to another.

Anyway, IIUC the new law doesn't prohibit some of these loopholes — the article just gave them as examples of what corporations do. The law bypasses the loopholes by imposing a minimum tax. Obviously the tax is NOT on sales, but how they define taxable income I don't know.

Trying to analyze the details of loopholes, countermeasures, and counters to the countermeasures is beyond our scope here. The key point is that some corporations are very profitable yet pay little or no taxes. The law tries to find a way to circumvent that. Did they do a perfect job? It would take huge expertise and hundreds of hours for us to answer that here, but the answer is probably: Imperfect, but it sounds like they did a pretty good job toward their goal: getting large PROFITABLE corporations to pay a "fairer" tax.

It almost sounds like you are unhappy with that goal.

Meh. We disagree a little on an issue. Not the first time, won't be the last time. But yea, I am very pro-business, pro-economic development, pro-jobs. Larger corporations pay far better than smaller; have better benefits; compete better against international companies, generally have better more liberal work values. As an aside, we're seeing a lot of US companies trying to take back their supply chain by finding suppliers in the US. All the conflict in Europe and Asia (China threatening war) is causing American companies to "re-shore" their supply chain when they can. I actually think that American companies are going to be relatively good shape compared to Europe and Asia.

 

[ZiprHead]

Joe Biden just signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law.

 

[Elixir]

GQP blather is so incoherent... I am starting to suspect they might do the impossible, and blow the November elections.

Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act delivers five winning issues to the GOP

So... the first thing they think is weak about the Dems' IRA is that the FBI raided Merde-a-Lardo, distracting from the glory of the IRA:

The FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago was a reckless political stunt meant to show the left that Attorney General Merrick Garland will keep the heat on former President Donald Trump. It was unprecedented, seemingly unnecessary, and infuriating to the millions who saw the heavily armed agents’ 10-hour search vividly spotlighting our uneven application of justice.

The raid was also incredibly stupid. Among other things, the furor completely overshadowed passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Democrats are hawking as President Joe Biden’s greatest legislative accomplishment.

The next worst thing about it is its name:

Its very name is so non-credible that even liberal media outlets like CNN and the New York Times have dumped the "Inflation Reduction Act" handle, and now describe it as the "Climate and Healthcare Bill."

And on it goes. Hunter Biden this, Nancy Pelosi that... and of course their "anal lists" say it wont work anyhow. Not a single mention of the headline (that I saw).

 

[ZiprHead]

Hemlock Semiconductor, the largest producer of polysilicon in the United States, is about fifteen miles west of me. I think it's time for me to invest in them.

 

[lpetrich]

Joe Biden just signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law.

Going right to the source:
Bill Signed: H.R. 5376 - The White House
and
Remarks by President Biden At Signing of H.R. 5376, The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 - The White House

I checked on the govtrack.us 2020 ideology scores of those that he credited in the first link.

• Senate: Sanders VT 0.00, Durbin IL 0.19, Klobuchar MN 0.19, Wyden OR 0.19, Murray WA 0.21, Stabenow MI 0.26, Schumer NY 0.29, Carper DE 0.35, Warner VA 0.40, Manchin WV 0.57, Sinema AZ 0.68
• House: Castor FL 0.21, Pallone NJ 0.22, Clyburn SC 0.28, Yarmuth KY 0.29, Neal MA 0.30, Hoyer MD 0.34, Pelosi CA 0.36

The ones he credited are rather middle-of-the-road by Democratic-Party standards, with him also crediting Bernie Sanders on the left and Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema on the right.

 

[lpetrich]

There was plenty of drama llama that I could have posted on, but it seemed like BBB was going nowhere, so I didn't want to grasp at straws. But now that there is some resolution, I'll post some.

Furious AOC says Manchin has no authority to speak on climate ‘for the rest of our term here’ | The Independent - July 19

Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York criticised Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia on Tuesday for his call to pause discussions on climate negotiations, saying he has no authority to discuss climate change.

...
But Mr Manchin also said last week that he wanted to pause negotiations after the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that inflation increased 9.1 per cent in the past year. He said he wanted to wait until inflation numbers for the month of July were released.

What a worrywart.

Ms Ocasio-Cortez has since slammed Mr Manchin’s remarks.

“Manchin has paused all action for the United States to act on climate for the last four years”, she told The Independent. “So I don't think he has any authority to speak on climate for the rest of our term here.”

Declare a climate emergency?

“Declaring a national emergency provides the president broad authorizations to act on climate”, she said. “I think it's an essential step. And we also need to hear what he plans to do with that.”

But he decided against doing so.

Mr Manchin, for his part, said to wait for congressional action: “Let’s see what the Congress does. The Congress needs to act.”

But he is a member of Congress, not some outside observer.

 

[lpetrich]

Congressional Staffers Hit Schumer's Office in Climate Protest

• Saul Levin, who is a policy advisor for Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.)
• Aria Kovalovich, who is a staffer for for Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on the Oversight & Reform Committee
• Rajiv Sicora, who is a policy advisor for Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.)
• Courtney Koelbel, who is a staffer for Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) on the Oversight & Reform Committee
• Philip Bennett, who is a staffer for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)
• Emma Preston, who is a legislative assistant, also for Rep. Khanna

While making their stand in Schumer’s office, the protestors held up signs and banners saying things like “Keep negotiating , Chuck!,” “Climate Policy Now,” “our farms are flooding,” and simply “TRY.” They also sang a rendition of the union song “Solidarity Forever,” as captured in one video. (Note: some congressional staffers are in the middle of a push for unionization.)

Saul Levin:

Saul on Twitter: "BREAKING: we, staffers of the US Congress, are peacefully sitting in on Senator Schumer’s office to demand Dems pass climate justice policy this year.
We are putting our bodies on the line because we have no other choice. Follow along for updates from inside!" / Twitter

Saul on Twitter: "Right now, we Hill staffers are peacefully protesting Dem leaders INSIDE. To my knowledge, this has never been done.
We’ve also never seen climate catastrophe, so we’re meeting the moment. Follow along as we fight with everything we have to jumpstart climate negotiations. (pic link)" / Twitter

Saul on Twitter: "HAPPENING NOW: We’re asking Senator Schumer to negotiate like this is the coldest summer of the rest of our lives (it is). (pic link)" / Twitter

Aria Kovalovich on Twitter: "BREAKING: Congressional staff are staging a peaceful sit-in in @SenSchumer's office to protest our leaders' failure and inaction on climate policy and urge them to use every last negotiating tool to meet this moment.
The time to act is NOW. Staffers, come through. (pic link)" / Twitter

esp on Twitter: "Live from @SenSchumer’s office: Congressional staff are showing the Majority Leader what true public service looks like. We are doing everything in our power to pass bold climate policy and imploring our leaders to do the same. (vid link)" / Twitter

Keya Chatterjee on Twitter: "“My fellow staffers are still sitting in at @SenSchumer office because this is a #ClimateEmergency” (pic link)" / Twitter

Also Six House staffers arrested while protesting in Chuck Schumer's office
noting
Julia Jester on Twitter: "USCP arrested six House staffers this afternoon for protesting inside @SenSchumer’s office demanding the majority leader restart negotiations to pass climate legislation.
“He’s giving up, but some of us are going to live through the climate crisis,” @saaaauuull told @NBCNews (vid link)" / Twitter