Daily Archives: August 25, 2022

The 2022 primary season is finally waning down. With only a handful of races left to be decided, Democratic chances of keeping their majorities in the U.S. House and Senate and winning key state and local races in November are growing, thanks to a strong field of highly qualified candidates with records of leadership and problem-solving who embrace moderate positions.

In contrast, in several key states and races across the country, Republican primary voters have nominated far-right extremists who in many cases embrace defeated former President Donald Trumps false claim that he won the 2020 presidential election and was robbed of victory by both Republican and Democratic state and local officials who rigged the election.

Many of these radical Republicans have never run for office before and are less qualified for government positions than I am to be an NFL quarterback. Still, Democrats must become much more aggressive in talking to and motivating voters of all backgrounds to support them this fall.

Here are a few of my recommendations to Democratic campaign managers and others working across the country.

First, take our campaigns directly to Democratic, Republican and Independent voters using GOTV, which stands for Get Out the Vote drives, not just Go On Television. Focus particular attention on people who often skip voting in midterm elections. The time to begin these voter drives is now, not two weeks before Election Day. We should remember that millions of people will start votingnext monthand many more will be voting absentee in October. Again, this is a big change from the pre-pandemic years.

Second, Democrats have positive cases to focus on, including the major achievements of the administration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats in Congress, including:

Third, remind voters that the disruption and deaths caused by the pandemic are easing, gasoline prices haveplummetedby more than $1 a gallon since June, inflation isslowing, the unemployment rateis downtoonly 3.5 percentin July (the lowest since before the pandemic), supply chain bottlenecks areclearing up, Biden has rallied the world in support of Ukraine against Russian aggression and expanded the NATO alliance, and al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri waskilledin a U.S. drone strike ordered by Biden.

Lastly, Democrats mustdraw attention to how millions of Americans would suffer if Republicans take control of one or both chambers of Congress or state houses because of the GOPs radical positions of opposing the common sense solutions discussed above. It needs to be stressed that all of these accomplishments took place while Democrats held a razor-thin majority in the House and had to deal with an evenly split Senate. Under the circumstances, the Democrats legislative achievements are truly astonishing, but further progress will be impossible if Republicans make even minimal gains in November.

In primary races, Trump has attacked Republicans who might be able to win general election campaigns and thrown his support to sycophantic candidates who accept his Big Lie that he was reelected two years ago and shower him with praise. This has producednomineespopular with Trumps base but not with the rest of the electorate.

Some Trump-endorsed candidates who have won their partys nominations have said they would haverefusedto certify Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential race and have given indications they would declare Trump the winner if he runs in 2024 regardless of what voters decide. They dont just oppose Democrats; they oppose democracy.

In addition, some Republican nominees have called forendingentitlement funding for Social Security and Medicare (meaning funding could be cut), advocated forreduced aidto public schools, called for sugarcoating American history in public schools to cover up the role ofracism, and favortax cutsfor the rich that would result in soaring deficits and less funding for vital programs.

The Republican civil war fueled by Trump has left the party disunited, with Republicans like Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who is term-limited, saying he will not vote for Dan Cox, the Trump-endorsed GOP nominee for governor. Hoganhas calledCox a nut and a QAnon whack job who is not, in my opinion, mentally stable. Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has decried the sadcandidate qualityof the current crop of GOP nominees.

To take advantage of the weak GOP field, Democrats must focus on the issues and put party labels aside to demonstrate to voters which party can accomplish the most for the American people. From fighting inflation to getting people vaccinated to reopening schools and repairing roads, bridges and tunnels, to connecting every community, its Democrats who are driving forward and looking at the road ahead, while many Republicans are focused on the rearview mirror and Trumps election defeat.

These developments, along with the willingness of Democrats to campaign everywhere, should leave the party optimistic that, unlike in most midterm elections, the party in the White House will come out stronger in November. The mixture of a marvelously productive two years for Democrats and the weakness of Republican nominees has created the opportunity for historic wins in 2022. We need to grasp that opportunity.

Donna Brazile is a political strategist, a contributor to ABC News and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. She is the author of Hacks: Inside the Break-ins and Breakdowns That Put Donald Trump in the White House.

Follow this link:

Democrats are on a roll: Heres how to ride the wave to November - The Hill

In 2018, Democrat Amy McGrath nearly accomplished the unthinkable when she came within three points of unseating Republican Representative Andy Barr in Kentucky's 6th Congressional District, a once-competitive pocket of the state that, for the last decade, has been dominated by Republicans.

It was a major spiritual victory for Democrats, propelling McGrath to a Senate run against Mitch McConnell and a fresh enthusiasm in the district after Republicans wrested the district from Democratic control during the Obama administration.

Four years and a crushing 2020 defeat later, and the Kentucky Democratic Partyand the state's Democratic governor, Andy Beshearhave all but abandoned the district after refusing to support or endorse the candidacy of their party's nominee, Geoff Young, a former state engineer.

Not because of his progressive politics. Not because the perennial candidate has never won a race. And not because of his anemic fundraising against a powerful incumbent. It's because he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of neighboring Ukraine was not only justified, but warranted, mirroring talking points pushed by the Kremlin designed to bolster public support for the war.

In Young's view, Russia is not an imperialist state, but a nation acting in its own self-defense against Western aggression and seeking to liberate the Ukrainian people from an oppressive totalitarian governmentclaims closely resembling those in Russian propaganda supporting the war. And he has bought in to Russian allegations that the Ukrainian government is controlled by Nazis, a claim the U.S. State Department has described in official materials as a "particularly pernicious kind of Russian disinformation."

"My position is that ever since 2014, the main aggressors and mass murderers in Eastern Europe have been the United States, NATO and a group of well-armed Ukrainian Nazis supported by and armed by the United States," Young told Newsweek.

"We're not defending democracy. We're not defending the Ukrainian people. We are trying to, or have been trying to for the last eight years, set up a NATO base consisting of the entire territory of Ukraine, and point those weapons at Russia."

While Russian perspectives on the war have primarily found inroads in the right wing of American politics, Young's beliefs represent an increasing subset of the anti-war left that has become receptive to narratives perpetuated by countries like China and Russia critical of American imperialism.

A prominent example is found on Reddit, where popular progressive forums like /r/WayOfTheBernwhere Young held a Q&A with subscribers Monday nighthave beenincreasingly dominated by content advancing foreign interests while denigrating the United States. Other subsets of leftist politics have emerged that have bought in to the policies of Soviet bloc countries during the 20th century, earning them the online slang designation as "tankies."

But there are cultural factors playing into the phenomenon as well. Mary Blankenship, a Ukraine native and disinformation expert at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told Newsweek that the source of many of the Russian narratives surrounding Ukraine arose from a limited number of suspicious accounts online that were posted about February 24, when Russia's military first entered the country, signifying a concerted effort to shape the narrative around the invasion.

What makes people vulnerable to buying in to them, however, is the current health of people's trust in institutions. Since reaching a high of 77 percent in 1964, public trust in government has fallen to 20 percent as of May of 2021, according to Pew data, while trust in the mainstream media has collapsed to an all-time low in 2022, leading members of the public to seek out other sources of information that comport with their worldview.

"There's a propensity to think that everything is an inside job," Blankenship said. "Many people become susceptible to different conspiracy theories and disinformation not just around the war, but on a lot of different topics. I think you have a lot of the same sentiments that carry from domestic issues and domestic events and the grievances that both left-wing and right-wing people have in the U.S. that kind of carry through into foreign policy and foreign events."

But part of the allure, experts say, also lies with the rise of anti-establishment figures in American politics like Noam Chomsky on the left and Ron Paul on the right, whose criticisms of American imperialism have found a loyal audience on both ends of the political spectrum.

In one notable example from the 2016 presidential election, a University of Minnesota study found that Donald Trump, who pitched himself as an anti-war president, had some of his most significant successes as president in regions that suffered disproportionately high levels of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Some on the left, like Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, have called the prospect of increased military aid "potentially disastrous." Other progressives who initially participated in Congress' consensus on the war have begun to tread carefully around other planks of the American response, with progressive members of "The Squad" voting against measures like bans on importing Russian oil and opposition to broad-based sanctions on the Russian government, for fear they could have disproportionately negative effects on the country's citizenry.

After U.S. military failures in the Middle East and countries like Vietnam, longtime media critic Jeff Cohenfounder of media watchdog FAIRsaid in an interview, the public has become more receptive to candidates willing to buck the American foreign policy establishment.

"The problem that we have in our country is that there's almost no debate on foreign policy, that there's a bipartisan consensus," Cohen told Newsweek. "And that bipartisan consensus is usually wrong. And the reason I can say that so bluntly is that if you look at almost any foreign policy adventure, every major intervention, 10 years later, even the mainstream media that was cheerleading for it at the time was wrong."

Young, and others, have equated criticisms of their beliefs to censorship. On July 14, the Ukrainian government's Center to Counter Disinformation released a since-deleted list featuring Young alongside figures who questioned U.S. involvement in the warlike journalist Glenn Greenwald and former Representative Tulsi Gabbardas Russian propagandists for questioning the United States' increasing involvement in the war.

But the list also featured figures like New York Senate candidate Diane Sare, who attended conferences sponsored by the left-wingt Schiller Institute, a highly controversial political organization that has sought to build a collaborative economic order between nations like China, Russia, India and the United States.

Sare, who participated in the Reddit Q&A with Young, echoed several of Young's claims about the Ukrainian government in an interview with Newsweek, includingcontested claims that the Ukrainian military was bombing its own citizens in an effort to secure the country.

But Sare said her opinions questioning the United States' involvement in Ukraine were intended to warn against the likelihood of nuclear war between the two countries, which she believed to be a likely conclusion of a full-scale engagement between the two superpowers.

"The idea of saying that I'm an information terrorist, that somehow I am a war criminal for saying we should not have a nuclear war...that's what they are asserting," Sare said.

See more here:

Meet the Democrat Siding With Putin on the Ukraine War - Newsweek

Some Democrats running in competitive reelection races in November are still reluctant to attach themselves to President Biden, even as he and the White House have been buoyed by a few weeks of good news.

Biden has in recent weeks racked up a series of major legislative victories, and hes seen his poll numbers rebound slightly from all-time lows earlier in the summer. But that has yet to translate to enthusiasm among Democrats to embrace him on the campaign trail.

There have been some signs of that changing as primary season comes to a close, and a few experts believe Democrats are better off embracing Biden in the wake of his recent hot streak.

Democrats cant possibly think that Republicans wont put them in ads with Biden even if he physically doesnt appear with him. Theyre going to be linked to Biden, so they might as well make the most of it, said Michael Cornfield, a political scientist and associate professor at George Washington University.

The benefits I think clearly outweigh the costs, he added.

During a recent trip to Ohio, Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nan Whaley both skipped Bidens event. Neither has appeared alongside Biden on the campaign trail in recent weeks.

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who did appear alongside Biden at an event earlier this year, recently sought to distance herself from the president in a campaign ad that states, She doesnt work for Joe Biden. She works for you.

Biden has had limited travel in recent weeks, as he was sidelined by COVID-19 and more recently spent two weeks on vacation. But the president has not appeared alongside Senate candidates this summer in key races in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Arizona.

A Democratic strategist argued that incumbents and candidates will appear with Biden when it makes the most sense for their campaign strategy.

I think every candidate is going to look at it from his or her perspective in a very different manner and, particularly, if my demographic to win the race, for example, is white college-educated women and Im playing on a Roe v. Wade-related issue, it may make sense to bring the president in as a rallying cry, the strategist said.

The president has been something of a political drag in recent months, as rising costs of gas, housing, food and other goods helped sink his approval rating to a low average of 37 percent as recently as July 21, according to an average of polls from RealClearPolitics.

But momentum has started to shift, as Biden saw a flurry of congressional action in late July and early August, paired with declining gas prices and a successful counterterrorism mission that killed a top al Qaeda leader.

Bidens poll numbers have started to rebound: A Yahoo News-YouGov poll released Wednesday found the presidents approval rating at its highest level since May, though it still sits at 40 percent.

Xochitl Hinojosa, former communications director at the Democratic National Committee (DNC), argued that Democrats should be using Biden on the campaign trail, considering the wins he has delivered.

Because of the leadership of President Biden and Democrats in Congress, Democratic candidates have a long list of accomplishments to run on, whether its a strong economy, policies that lower costs, infrastructure investments and historic climate investments, she said. Democrats should be doing everything to tout and embrace that agenda, including utilizing President Biden and his Cabinet on the campaign trail.

With the presidents brand starting to bounce back, a few Democrats have begun to signal they are willing to embrace Biden as campaign season heats up.

Hes a great man. Hes a great president. I cant wait for him to get down here. I need his help. I want his help. Hes the best Ive ever met, Rep. Charlie Crist told CNN on Wednesday after clinching the states Democratic gubernatorial nomination.

Maryland Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wes Moore is set to join Biden on Thursday at a DNC event in Montgomery County, Md.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who is in one of the most closely watched Senate races, gave a lukewarm endorsement of the president coming to visit him on the campaign trail.

I will welcome anybody that comes to Arizona, travel around the state at any time, as long as Im here, if Im not up in Washington in session, and talk about what Arizona needs, Kelly said Sunday on CNN.

A Democratic operative described Bidens lack of appearances with lawmakers as systematic and part of a strategy ahead of November.

Joe Biden is old school. He knows the value of campaigning for you or against you, whatever helps you win. The goal is to win, not to massage egos, the operative said.

Some administration officials have appeared with lawmakers to promote the Inflation Reduction Act at events around the country, which tend to draw very little attention compared to events with the president.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack participated in a roundtable discussion with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo) who is facing a tough reelection race in Grand Junction, Colo., last week. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a 2020 rival of Bidens, has also appeared in recent days with officials in Florida, New Mexico and Oklahoma.

Biden is expected to ramp up his travel after Labor Day to tout the benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, though the White House has yet to preview where he is going or who he might appear with.

But strategists expect the White House to carefully calibrate where Biden can be most useful in announcing new funding and how he can benefit the party with just two months until the midterms.

I think Joe Biden at the end of the day is going to be all about, how do I keep a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate? one Democratic strategist said. If I can help, Ill be there. If I cant help, I wont be there.

Here is the original post:

Democrats show reluctance to campaign with Biden - The Hill

Soon half of every dollar paid in federal income tax will be paying interest on the national debt (CNBC, Peter Tanous, 1/27/22). According to the US Treasury, $7.4 trillion is owed to China, Japan, oil exporting countries and Caribbean banking centers (Statista, Erin Duffin,8/2/22). The Social Security Trust Fund accounts for much of the rest of the $30.6 trillion debt (Statista).

When Obama began the debt was at $10.6 trillion and he left with an astounding $19.9 trillion (CNBC, J Cox, 2/2/19). The debt rose $7.9 trillion under Trump (WashPo, A Sloan, 1/14/21) mostly due to costs related to COVID and the pandemic stimulus. TheNYTimes (3/11/22) reported over $100 billion of that money hasnt ever been distributed by the Treasury. Why is that if we were told it was so imperative two years ago?

When Joe took office, the debt was $27.8 trillion rising $2.8 trillion to $30.6 trillion today. Who can say what his college debt forgiveness scheme will add? Didnt Madame Speaker say in 2021 Biden doesnt have the legal authority to forgive debt? Pelosi said Trump broke the law over a phone call (BBC News, 9/24/19) and the Democrats impeached him.

Dont expect Pelosi to bring articles of impeachment on Joe or any of them to care who is saddled with paying for it this folly. Thats because there is no debt cancellation, its a debt transfer to generations of those who didnt incur it and Pelosi said its illegal.

Al Gore announced in 2000 his top goal for being elected president was a steady reduction of the national debt (NYTimes, 4/26/00) which was only $5.6 trillion then. Joes debt transfer debacle wont fulfill Als dream nor will it lower inflation any more than his Inflation Reduction Act, but thats the cost of voting Democrat.

Ralph Miller

Read more:

The Cost Of Voting Democrat - The Chattanoogan

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

When Congress debated the "American Rescue Plan" in early 2021, Democrats insisted this partisan, $1.9 trillion debt-financed spending spree would not fuel inflation and was needed for an economy already in quick recovery.

As Republicans and many economists predicted, the economy overheated, inflation soared and gas prices doubled. We are now in a period of economic stagnation, with the majority of the country believing we are already in a recession.

Rather than working together on pro-growth and counter-inflationary policies, my Democratic colleagues broke with earlier commitments for unity and chose to double down on a partisan, tried-and-failed tax-and-spend strategy with doses of medical price controls that will crush innovation and drive shortages. The mislabeled "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022," which experts say does nothing to curb inflation, offers higher taxes, more spending, higher prices, and an army of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents.

The bill includes a staggering $80 billion infusion of mandatory funding for the IRS. This fundingsix times the agencys current budgetwill empower the agency to hire an army of auditors to squeeze $204 billion out of taxpayers of all income levels to fund Democrats wishful "green new deal" policies.

HILL REPORT CLAIMS REPUBLICANS ARE MAKING THE IRS A BOOGEYMAN

Of the $80 billion, $45.6 billion will be for enforcement, to collect Democrats desired $204 billion or more of federal revenue. The IRS outlined in earlier documents it would use the funding to hire 86,852 fulltime employees, and specifically referenced "hiring and training agents dedicated to complex enforcement activities." Such hiring would make the IRS larger than the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol combined.

Advocates argue the enforcement funding will be used to close the tax gapthe difference between taxes owed and taxes paidand then claim it is only about "wealthy tax cheats." Yet, the data tell a different story. Democrats will not achieve their desired tax revenue goals without also targeting the middle class, small businesses and taxpayers earning under $400,000 per year.

As Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, I asked the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) to estimate where most underreported income in the "tax gap" lies. The JCT determined 78-90 percent of under- or misreported-income comes from those making below $200,000, while only around 4-9 percent comes from those making $500,000 or more.

Much misreported income comes from less sophisticated small businesses and sole proprietors, many of whom make less than $400,000 per year and simply have trouble complying with an oppressive and overly-complex tax code. Small, cash-heavy businesses and those who cannot afford teams of lawyers and legal fees are the easiest targets for a supersized IRS. With American taxpayers having a steadily high voluntary compliance rate, most recently reported at nearly 86 percent, rhetoric about hordes of American taxpayers being "tax cheats" seems inconsistent with facts.

The Finance Committee examined the IRSs own data on its success in having courts sustain IRS claims that people across the income spectrum are cheating on their taxes. The IRS success rate is below 47 percent over the past twenty years. Thus, the IRS more often asserts tax deficiencies exist, with the courts disagreeing, which is hardly evidence for a multitude of tax cheats. Rather, it is firm evidence innocent taxpayers are often subjected to unnecessary and inappropriate scrutiny. They will be to an even greater extent with nearly 87,000 new IRS employees whose mission will be to squeeze revenue out of American taxpayers.

Democratic colleagues, the Administration and the IRS are protesting they are not going to increase audits on people making less than $400,000. However, when I offered an amendment to put into binding statute that increased funds could not be used to increase audits on those making less than $400,000, every Democratic senator voted "No." The most they would agree to was to say they did not "intend" such audits. Even this non-binding pledge was later stricken from the bill. Democrats know increased audits for the middle class, small businesses and those making less than $400,000 are inevitable under their legislation.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed this, estimating my amendment would result in at least tens of billions less in enforcement revenue. So, the nonpartisan CBO confirms "at least" tens of billions of the projected revenue coming from increased enforcement will come from those making less than $400,000 per year. Moreover, according to data from the IRS and Joint Committee on Taxation, between 78 and 90 percent of underreported incomethe largest component of the tax gap the Democrats funding purports to want to closeis associated with taxpayers making less than $200,000 per year. Despite those facts, proponents of the recently passed tax-and-spend bill remain in denial. The promise to not tax anyone earning less than $400,000 will be broken.

Meanwhile, only $3.2 billionunder four percentof the IRS funding influx will be dedicated to taxpayer services. Given Americans have long dealt with abysmal IRS service, the "paupers sum" for fixing IRSs customer service is indefensible. It lays bare that my Democratic colleagues have less concern about poor IRS service and utmost interest in the IRS squeezing more money from American taxpayers.

Yet, far greater concern for taxpayer service is warranted. In 2021, just over one in ten callers was ever able to reach the IRS by telephone. More than 250 million calls simply went unanswered. Those who managed to get through spent more than 29 minutes on hold. That same year, it took the IRS on average 251 days to respond to taxpayer correspondencemore than triple the already dreadful 74 days average of 2019. Nonetheless, Democrats opted to set aside just a sliver of their IRS funding bloat for taxpayer services.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE OPINION NEWSLETTER

While taxpayers are slighted, tax regulators will have a bonanza, with nearly $105 million to swell the coffers of the Treasury Office of Tax Policy for unaccountable bureaucrats in Treasurys tax-rules-and-regulation-writing machine. Americans already face too much regulatory red tape created by Washington, but Democrats instead chose to supercharge complexity and hassle. Flush with funding, Treasury "technocrats" could, and undoubtedly will, foist everything from higher audit rates to the resurrection of their bank reporting scheme on American taxpayers. Letting the IRS snoop into the bank accounts of all Americans who have more than $10,000 worth of transactions in a year would essentially give the IRS access to virtually all Americans bank accounts.

I will be introducing my amendment as a standalone bill to prevent the IRS from using any of the supersized $80 billion of funding for audits on hard-working American taxpayers, individuals and small businesses with taxable incomes below $400,000. The bill puts legislative teeth into an otherwise non-binding (and now-stricken) statement of intent or toothless and unenforceable edict from the Treasury Secretary.

My Democratic colleagues circumvented regular order and slipped through with the narrowest possible margin a partisan bill filled with an unbridled, supersized IRS, unvetted tax policies, and spending policies and price controls that will not work.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Americans should be very concerned, and brace for more audits, investigations and tax enforcement on taxpayers of all income levels. Taxpayers deserve better.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM SEN. CRAPO

Republican Mike Crapo represents Idaho in the United States Senate where he serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee.

See the rest here:

Democrats hire army of agents at IRS to squeeze honest taxpayers for Green New Deal - Fox News