Biden's infrastructure deal gives no clarity on corporate or individual tax rates
25 June 2021
President Biden yesterday announced "we have a deal" on an infrastructure bill, while surrounded by a bipartisan group of senators in the White House driveway.
Between the lines: No they don't. Unless you want to make the word "deal" as squishy as the word "infrastructure" has become.
Why it matters: There is still no clarity on corporate or individual tax rates, including for income already earned in 2021.
State of play: Yesterday's agreement primarily focuses on new spending for physical infrastructure, including broadband. The IRS would get extra resources to close the so-called "tax gap," but there aren't any rate hikes. Carried interest is not addressed in the information disclosed so far.
Wait, that sounds like a deal: Biden says he wants to dance a legislative two-step. Get this $1.2 trillion infrastructure package through with GOP support, but only if he can also get a separate bill passed via reconciliation. Which may be like saying I came to an agreement with the Lamborghini dealer, so long as I can get one other thing done first.
- Indeed, some Senate Republicans are already saying they won't be held hostage to such an arrangement, with Lindsay Graham calling it a "deal breaker."
Timing: Congress is likely to work through the August recess and into the fall, per Axios' Hans Nichols. And with each passing day, the prospective of retroactive taxes becomes more complicated. Same goes for investors seeking to make decisions related to the prospective infrastructure spend.
The bottom line: Infrastructure Week may never end.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.