Welcome to The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.
My name is Susan DuQuesnay Bankston. I live in Richmond, Texas, in the heart of Tom DeLay's old district. It's nuttier than squirrel poop here.
I am honored and privileged to know Miss Juanita Jean Herownself, hairdresser extraordinary and political maven. Since she does not have time to fiddle with this internet stuff, I type her website for her and you can read it if you want to. If you don't, she truly does not give a big bear's butt.
A lot of what I post here has to do with local politics, but you probably have the same folks in your local government.
This ain't a blog. Blogs are way too trendy for me. This is a professional political organization.
It will still have to go back to the House
Now that a deal has been reached, the Senate will likely move with urgency to get it across the finish line with a vote. Then, it still must clear the House, where Democrats have been discussing passing the bill by unanimous consent — both to expedite the bill’s passage and to protect members by keeping them at home.
There is still a ways to go until the bill lands on President Donald Trump’s desk ready to be signed, but the biggest hurdle has now been cleared.
Not the biggest!!!!!
1Death Ogre video: “Look I’ll be the oversight, I’ll be the Oversight.”
Hmmm….I wonder if they are going to count those of us who get retirement income as those who will get a check, too. Maybe, maybe not.
But I have to wonder if the hand that giveth, also taketh away with extra federal income tax on the same money next year.
2Half a trillion for “major corporate liquidity”? You could fit all the people who will benefit from that line item in a high school gym, and still have room for cheerleaders and a pep band. America’s real rulers got paid first, and most, and don’t even have to hide it, now that Bernie has been shut down and Liz Warren is unlikely to advance past the Senate. You can bet Trump and McConnell and Cornyn will be calling on those billionaires for a dole to the RNC, all paid for by Joe and Jane Taxpayer.
3Papa @2
Edit: The plan’s provisions are very simple. Adults would get $1,200 each and children $500 each. At higher incomes, the checks would get smaller: The benefit would start decreasing at a rate of $5 for every additional $100 in income. The phaseout starts at $75,000 in adjusted gross income for singles, $112,500 for heads of household, and $150,000 for married couples filing jointly; it would phase out entirely by $99,000 for singles and $198,000 for couples (with no children).
For example, a single childless person with an AGI of $85,000 would get $700 because $500 of the benefit was phased out by their higher income.
Unlike some early Senate Republican proposals, there is no minimum income (which would’ve excluded very poor people), and the check amounts don’t “phase in,” so the middle class doesn’t get more than the poor.
The phase-out for top earners will be done using 2019 tax returns or 2018 returns if the taxpayer in question hasn’t filed their 2019 taxes yet. The bill says that taxpayers relying on Social Security as part of retirement or through the Social Security Disability Insurance program can have their Social Security Administration data used directly; beneficiaries of Supplemental Security Income, which often benefits old or disabled people in poverty, are not included in the current version.
But it’s important to note that a large minority of Americans don’t file taxes. The Tax Policy Center estimates that in 2019, about 43.8 percent of American “tax units” owed zero or negative income taxes. Most of those Americans will still file taxes to get refundable credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit or to retrieve taxes withheld by their employer that they don’t actually owe. But millions of Americans — 12 percent is a decent estimate — will not file taxes, either because there’s no reason to or because they’re among the millions eligible for the EITC who don’t receive it.
The Senate bill as written would require these people to file 2019 returns to get their coronavirus checks. That’s a potentially significant burden, especially at a time when the IRS’s volunteer tax prep centers for low-income people are largely shut down due to social distancing (I should know — I’ve been volunteering this tax season and haven’t gone in since March 14).
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/3/23/21190955/stimulus-checks-from-government-approved
4Moscow Mitch didn’t receive as much pork as he would have liked for the corporate welfare class and he had to give up a few crumbs for low & middle class wage earners, so a definite victory for Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats. A mini h/t to Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer because it was a good call to have Manchin serve the notice on Moscow Mitch that Democrats wouldn’t cave. Mitch, when Manchin is on the side of “we the people” you know your soap won’t fly.
Wish there had been more for you retirees because that is what real economic stimulus should look like. Also wish there had been more of a distinction between money being sent to non-profit hospitals and the conglomerates. But overall did like the “stick this in your eye to Donnie* and Mnunchin” aspect of the total package.
5megasoid @4 thank you for the additional info. Will see what we can do to help people here file both their unemployment claims and 2019 taxes. (gives us another shot at complaining to our Senators about some of the problems still remaining with e-file)
6My only regret is that I have but one live to give so that Dan Patrick’s grandchildren can continue to enjoy the finest country clubs.
7Cross Purposes – recycled from laminated tax forms. Wash your hands for twenty minutes after reading.
Trump Coronavirus “GUIDELINES” Land in West Coast Mailboxes and megasoid’s East Coast mailbox.
When he’s in front of cameras, President Trump has been lying over and over again about coronavirus, minimizing its lethality, promising the illness will miraculously disappear soon, and claiming his administration has done things (like invoking the Defense Production Act) when, in fact, it has not.
This week, the president also said he wants strict social distancing measures to end soon so that people can go back to work, alarming public health experts.
But Trump is no stranger to pushing out multiple, conflicting messages over different mediums. He also lacks consistency, including when it comes to coronavirus policy. The one Trump constant, both before and after becoming president: he loves seeing his name in big letters.
So perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that “PRESIDENT TRUMP’S CORONAVIRUS GUIDELINES FOR AMERICA” are now arriving in west coast mailboxes, including the mailbox of Slog reader Roberto, who lives in Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood.
Listen and follow the directions of your STATE AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES.
IF YOU FEEL SICK, stay home. Do not go to work.
IF YOUR CHILDREN ARE SICK, keep them at home. Contact your medical provider.
***********************************
Oh Hell, just pack those churches like sardines in a can.
full article: with pitchers of your junk mail.
https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/03/25/43244007/trump-coronavirus-guidelines-land-in-west-coast-mailboxes
8So the big Corporations get cash, with no pay back???
And the little businesses get to take a loan but they have to pay back?? Wow such a deal.
Aren’t they a bunch of generous @%$^*&$ers.
9Two Punches to the nose for flinching!
GOP Senate Trio Threatens to Delay Stimulus Bill Because Unemployment Benefits Amid Pandemic Are Too Generous.
Edit: “Senate Republicans are just so inhumane they can’t imagine policymakers intentionally providing working people with enough money to temporarily live on in the event they’re laid off.”
Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, Tim Scott, and Ben Sasse on Wednesday threatened to delay the Senate’s multi-trillion-dollar coronavirus stimulus bill because they believe the legislation’s unemployment provisions are too generous.
In a joint statement, the GOP senators claimed there is “a massive drafting error in the current version of the coronavirus relief legislation could have devastating consequences: Unless this bill is fixed, there is a strong incentive for employees to be laid off instead of going to work.”
As Vox’s Matt Yglesias noted on Twitter, “That’s not how layoffs work. You can quit your job, but then you’re not eligible for [unemployment insurance]. You can’t lay yourself off.”
The trio of Republicans went on to say that they “must sadly oppose the fast-tracking of this bill until this text is addressed, or the Department of Labor issues regulatory guidance that no American would earn more by not working than by working.”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/25/gop-senate-trio-threaten-delay-stimulus-bill-because-unemployment-benefits-amid
10megasoid, if Republicons were not such colossal hypocrites, they’d rethink that “no American would earn more by not working than by working.” I would endorse such a policy, if it were properly applied to Senate Republicons, IQ .000045*, his* family, maladministration and a whole boatload of corporate grifters and WATB trust fund sycophants.
Working people? Until they are paid commensurate with what their labor contributes to the common good there is no reason to quibble over the pennies on the dollar this bill would provide to them. We would still owe them.
11So hospitals get 26% of what the major corporations do.
Hospitals and the AMA probably haven’t donated to Trump’s campaign.
Nuff said.
12Jane & PKM @ 11 “That’s not how layoffs work. You can quit your job, but then you’re not eligible for [unemployment insurance]. You can’t lay yourself off.”
comments section
Also in the Republican stimulus package: “Companies would also be able to defer payment of the 6.2% Social Security payroll tax”. Another nail removed in the decades long movement to privatize or kill Social Security. The only real plannedemic impacting the world is this vile government and its metastasizing cruelty to workers and retirees.
13“We can call it a bailout. But this is so big it is more like Congress is creating a new government for our economy, replacing our old government. And this one doesn’t have any meaningful democratic protections. A pandemic coup.”
—Zephyr Teachout, Fordham Law
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14https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/03/25/43244007/trump-coronavirus-guidelines-land-in-west-coast-mailboxes
Wrong link to Zephyr Teachout should be:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/25/senate-corporate-bailout-package-robbery-progress-warn-critics
15megasoid, can’t speak for other states, but people in NV are not “quitting” for the most part; the casinos shut and locked the doors, so they should be able to collect unemployment.
16Just another corporate give away.
17Big corp’s will be able to get checks cut by Fed. Reserve almost as soon as bill is passed.
Small businesses have to apply to the Small Busines admin with all supporting paperwork for review before any cash disbursement.
Add a clause that big corp’s canNOT get 1 penny until ALL small business claims are resolved and all the money is disbursed.
Not committed or promised but actually in the hands/bank accounts of small businesses.
p.s Ensure that whack job scammers such a glenn beck or alex jone or their dirty scammer advertisors can NOT receive anything ever.
For those who wonder I just read that SS recipients will get a check the same way you get your SSCheck. Direct Deposit.
Yes, you will get one.
18Thanks, MaryAnne @ 18.
I’d been wondering about that.
Not that it makes one whit of sense, of course. Those of us on SS are the least affected people in the country — so long as we self-isolate.
We aren’t dependent on a business staying open. Our SS checks will arrive. Period. At least until the Republicans manage to do away with the system entirely.
But hey, old people vote. That’s as good a reason as any, I suppose.
19Mattt Gaetz doesn’t disappoint.
https://www.theroot.com/rep-matt-gaetz-is-big-mad-that-howard-university-is-ge-1842507743
20