Category Archives: Fiscal Freedom

The first two months of the Biden administration have taught Republicans a painful lesson: Yes, elections have consequences, but elections that are not conceded have even worse consequences. Former President Trumps insistence that he won in a landslide cost the Republicans control of the Senate, derailed a necessary post-mortem discussion about how the party can do better (after losing the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential elections), and has crippled the partys ability to combat an increasingly radical progressive agenda. Rather than owning the libs, the GOP is getting owned.

In short order, the Biden administration pushed through a massive $1.9 trillion stimulus packagea Keynesian spending orgy more than twice the size of Obamas stimulusthat used the COVID emergency to advance an ambitious progressive wish list. The package expanded Obamacare, laid the groundwork for universal income and day care, and included a brazen federal power grab that prevents states from lowering taxes by mandating that states who do cut taxes cannot receive aid.

That was just the first act in an administration that wants to be as ambitious as FDRs. As Biden described in his first press conference, Democrats are now gearing up to push a massive infrastructure package, followed by a sweeping domestic proposal focused on universal pre-K and free college. Together, they would cost about $3 trillion. Rather than paying for this by reducing government waste and cutting lower-priority spending, Biden wants to raise taxes for individuals and businesses. Democrats are aiming not just to transform our physical infrastructure (i.e., roads and bridges) but our nations social and political infrastructure. Their aim is liberal supremacy across the boardin culture, politics and economics.

The only thing more alarming than the size and scope of these proposals is the degree to which Republicans are sleeping through them. While a few Republicans such as Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey deftly documented the excess of the Biden stimulus, the clearest response was a secret vote in the Republican conference to bring back earmarks. So much for contrast.

The way forward for conservatives is to go back to first principles. Reacquainting ourselves with our foundational doctrines beginning with limited government and our founders revolutionary conception of rights and equality would go a long way toward thwarting a progressive movement that is untethered from reality and politically overconfident.

The Republican Partys limited-government muscles atrophied during the Trump era but can be rehabilitated fairly quickly. Focusing on limited government requires a commitment to fiscal conservatism, but fiscal conservatism, properly practiced, is much more than a myopic green eyeshade focus on mere numbers. Fiscal conservatism isnt just a branch of conservatism but its root system. Our founders were preoccupied not just with the balance of power between branches of government but between the people and their government. More government meant less freedom, and you cant expand government without funds.

Republicans used those limited-government muscles very well in two fairly recent fights. The first was the struggle to enact an earmark ban that forward-thinking senators like Ohio Sen. Rob Portman want to keep in place. When I was a staffer for the late U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, we lost the Bridge to Nowhere vote by a margin on 82-15. But that iconic example of waste continues to be a part of the national conversation 15 years later, because we connected it to larger themes. It wasnt about money. It was about freedom and even justice. That amendment and many others that Coburn offered were designed to create permanent reasonable doubt about governments ability to set priorities and solve problems. Our message to voters still rings true: If you love freedom, justice, equality, and prosperity, then choose less government, not more.

The second example was the partys response to the Obama stimulus. By November 2010, voters were not only displeased about Obamacare taking away their doctors and insurance plans but were exposed to the Republican Partys principled, disciplined, and entertaining critique of the Recovery Act. Coburn teamed up with U.S. Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) on a series of oversight reports on Recovery Act that were widely covered by the media. Silly and low-multiplier effect stimulus projects (cocaine for monkeys, sidewalks to nowhere, and so on) sowed reasonable doubt about governments competence among centrist audiences.

This strategy worked because Republicans were willing to do the hard work of documenting waste and presenting it in an honest and clear narrative that connected with voters.

Its time for Republicans to get back to work. Republicans would do themselves a favor by spending as much time in the oversight gym as TV green rooms. We need new icons, but the spirit of the message should be the same: Can you trust a government that wants to build Bridges to Nowhere to take over health care and day care? If Republicans take the time to look and communicate, examples of failed progressive government and counterfeit compassion arent hard to find.

On climate, for instance, Republicans have easy openings. The Green New Deal is an unworkably heavy-handed, top-down, more government proposal that wont work. For starters, the science tells us carbon dioxide doesnt respect borders. Ending all emissions in the U.S. would do almost nothing to lower global temperatures as long as China is building new coal plants. The answer is more innovation, less government and trusting markets over mandates.

The second challenge for Republicans is to counter Democrats racial justice arguments with soundand constitutionalarguments about human dignity and equality. On immigration, for example, Republicans feel like theyve struck political gold with Bidens border crisis, but it will pay off with non-base voters only if Republicans transcend Trumps nationalistic framing of the problem. Trump was right that you cant have a country without borders. But it is equally true that you cant have America without its beliefs. We arent a mere country. We are an idea. The only way to defeat the lefts obsession with critical race theory and identity politics is by reasserting the radical American idea that our rights come not from the state but natural law or natures God.

If Republicans go into 2022 focusing on first principles, theyll have a much easier time countering the progressive advance in every area ranging from climate to taxes. What Republicans cant afford are more unforced errors like holding secret votes to bring back earmarks (thankfully that ban is still technically in place in the Senate). Historical trends suggest the GOP has an excellent chance of retaking the House in 2022. Since 1982, the presidents party has lost an average of 30 House seats during a new presidents first midterm election. The lone exception was 2002, when Republicans gained eight seats in the wake of 9/11. In 2022, Republicans need only to flip five seats to take the House. As The Dispatch noted, Republicans could get there through new maps and redistricting alone.

The big unknown is whether Donald Trump will further undermine Republicans hopes in 2022 by pushing vengeance primaries against Republicans he views as insufficiently pure (i.e. disloyal to him). The media would love nothing more than to cover rage primaries rather than policy arguments that make Democrats look foolish and out of touch. Fortunately, 76 percent of Republicans (and 94 percent of college-educated Republicans) oppose retaliation primaries. Lets hope Trump decides to be loyal to his own base.

The defining question in the post-Trump era is not whether we are tired of winning, but whether we are tired of losing, and what we can do to start winning again. Returning to first principlesand remembering how those principles were successfully applied in recent fightsis a good place to start.

John Hart is the co-founder of the Conservative Coalition for Climate Solutions and served as Tom Coburns longtime communications director and co-author.

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How the GOP Can Reverse the Progressive Advance - The Dispatch

Late last week,a ruling came down from the California Supreme Courtthatwill permanently change the way that thestate deals with cash bail.

The heart of the case, originally brought by a man named Kenneth Humphrey, and joined by then Attorney General Xavier Bacerra, among others, is the contention that no person should lose the right to liberty simply because that person really and truly cannot afford to post bail.

The circumstances underlying the Humphrey case began on May 23, 2017, when 66-year-old Kenneth Humphrey, who had fallen off the wagon and was back to struggling with drugs and drink, and was arrested. Humphreywas charged withfirst degree residential robbery and burglary against an elderly victim, inflicting injury on an elder adult, and for misdemeanor theft from an elder adult.

According to 79-year-old Elmer Johnson, Humphrey followed the older man into his apartment in a residential hotel in the Fillmore District of San Francisco. Then Humprey reportedly demanded cash, threatening to put a pillowcase over Elmers head if Elmer didnt produce some money. When Elmer said he had no money, Humphrey allegedly took Elmers cell phone and threw it hard to the floor.

The phone throwing persuaded Johnson to hand over $2. After that, Humphrey allegedly managed to find an additional $5, and a bottle of cologne, both of which he took with him when he exited Johnsons apartment.

Before leaving, Humphrey moved Elmer Elmer Johnsons walker into the next room, presumably in order to inhibit Elmers ability to report his victimizer.

But Johnson did manage to contact the cops, and Humphrey was arrested.

The $600,00 bail

Humphreys arraignment took place on May 31, 2017, at which time, though his public defender, he sought release on his own recognizance (OR), asking that no money bail would be set. His attorney pointed to Humphreys advanced age, his community ties as a lifelong resident of San Francisco, and the fact that he had been law abiding for fourteen years.

Yes,Humphrey had four prior felony convictions, some of which were strikes. Yet, the most recent of those convictions was in 1992, a quarter century in the past. And, as mentioned above,Humphrey had no arrests at all for 14 years.

The prosecutor, in response, requested bail in the amount of $600,000 as well as a criminal protective order directing Humphrey to stay away from Elmer.

The judge dismissed the OR request, and approved the $600,000 bail. Humphrey and his attorney asked for another bail hearing.

Humphrey, who had long struggled with drugs, said hed been accepted into that a residential substance abuse and mental health treatment program, beginning the day after the date set for another the bail hearing. So, if bail was refused, he would be unable to attend.

At the new bail hearing, the prosecutor argued that Humphreys substance abuse issues and inability to address them constituted a great public safety risk, and that Humphrey was a flight risk because he faced a lengthy prison sentence based on his prior strike convictions, so he would likely vanish before trial.

The judge reduced the bail to $350,000 bail, which was no easier for Humphrey to pay than the more than half million earlier bail amount.

The discrepancy between the seriousness of the crime and the now still more than a quarter million bail amount caught the attention of the San Franciscos public defenders office, which was at the time, still overseen by the late Jeff Adachi, who before his death in early 2019, had become near legendary as a gifted justice reformer who was fearless in his defense of the rights of everyday people.

And so it was the PDs office along with the nonprofit Civil Right Corps, filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus for Humphrey in the First Appellate District of California, Division Two.

Requiring money bail as a condition of release at an amount the accused cannot pay, Humphreys lawyers argued, is the functional equivalent of a pretrial detention order which can be justified only if the state establishes a compelling interest in detaining the accused and demonstrates that detention is necessary to further that purpose.

If not, the judge violates the 14th Amendments guarantees of equal protection and due process.

Initially, then California Attorney General Becerra opposed Humphreys petition. But then Becerra took a hard look at the case and changed his mind. Furthermore, Bacerra stated that his office would no longer defend any application of the bail law that does not take into consideration a persons ability to pay, or alternative methods of ensuring a persons appearance at trial. Period. Full stop.

The appeals court sided with Humphrey, andruled that, since the trial court had not considered whether Humphrey could realistically come up with the required bail, there must be a new hearing, which had to include the defendants financial situation.

The trial court conducted the ordered new hearing and, after considering the fiscal variables, ruled that Humphrey could be released, with a few non-financial restrictions, because of his earlier convictions, even through they were so many years in his past. The restrictions included electronic monitoring, an order to stay away from Elmer J., plus an order to participate in a residential substance abuse program for seniors, which Mr. Humprey was agreeable with anyway.

On to the CA Supremes

Meanwhile Humpreyscase moved on to the CaliforniaSupreme Court, which heard the case in January, and on March 25,affirmed the judgement of thelower court of appeal.

The informatively-written ruling by Justice Mariano-Florentino Cullar with which Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Corrigan, Liu, Kruger, Groban and Jenkins concurred noted that those who are incarcerated pending trial who have not yet been convicted of a charged crime unquestionably suffer a direct grievous loss of freedom in addition to other potential injuries.

In principle, theCal Supremes wrote, pretrial detention should be reserved for those who otherwise cannot be relied upon to make court appearances or who pose a risk to public or victim safety.

But, in practice, thecourt observed,thats not what usually happens at all.

So, theCal Supremes wrote,if the trial courtdoes not consider what an arrestee can pay, money bail becomesthe functional equivalent of a pretrial detention order.

In other words, its the same as the court declining to set bail at all.

Thus, thecommon practice of conditioning freedom solely on whether an arrestee can afford bail, the court concluded, is unconstitutional.

And just like that the world of bail changed in the state of California.

(Yes, there are still bail related issues that need to be addressed, and well talk about that in a minute.)

In Los Angeles County, both the countys public defender, Ricardo Garcia, and the LA DA George Gascn issued statements praising the California Supreme Courts ruling.

We are confident that the judges in Los Angeles County will implement this important decision, protecting the rights of presumed innocent Angelenos, wrote Garcia in an emailed statement. The front-line lawyers in my office will implement this decision in every case, for every client, in every court, where our clients, many from communities of color, are locked up solely because they cannot post bond.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Gascn emailed his own statementregarding the ruling, which he said ended an unjust practice that favors the wealthy and punishes those with limited means.

We cannot have equal protection under the law, Gascn wrote, when fundamental aspects of our criminal justice system hinge so decisively on financial status.

As for Kenneth Humphrey, sincecompleting the court-mandated residential treatment in December 2018, he has been reportedly staying clean after decades of drug and alcohol addiction.

Mr. Humphrey not a threat to public safety, hes an asset, San Francisco Public Defender Mano Raju told reporters after last weeks ruling.

Since his 2018 release, Raju said, Humphrey had taken on the role of friend and mentor to many in the community who found themselves in his circumstances.

Mr. Humphreys success while out of custody shows what can happen when we invest in people, not cages,said Raju.

So whats next?

Despite the importance of the ruling, the struggle over bail in California is not completely over. In January of this year, a trio of California lawmakers introduced bills that would set bail at $0 for all misdemeanors and categories of low-level felonies.

The bills are the latest in a multi-year battle to get rid of the states unjust cash bail system.

In 2018, legislators passed and then-Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 10, a hideously watered down bill that would have replaced cash bail with controversial algorithm-based pretrial risk assessments.

The law was scheduled to go into effect in 2019. But then the bail bond industry managed to get Proposition 25 on the 2020 ballot, in order to get rid of SB 10. (A no vote on 25 was a no vote on the passed and signed SB 10)

Last November, Californias voters rejected Proposition 25, and in doing so, got rid of SB 10, much to the relief of most of the states justice reformers, who believed that the badly amended version of the bill created more problems than it solved.

The new ruling, in contrast, is viewed by justice advocates as a remarkable step in the direction of banishing cash bail altogether, rather than, as Civil Rights Corps founder Alec Karakatsanis put it, putting a new facade on the same pretrial human caging, surveillance tech, and wealth extraction from the most vulnerable people in our society.

So there you have it.

Photo by WitnessLA

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A Deeper Look at the Landmark Ruling on Cash Bail by the Cal Supremes | - witnessla.com

Tax Burden is a measure of the tax burden imposed by government. It includes direct taxes, in terms of the top marginal tax rates on individual and corporate incomes, and overall taxes, including all forms of direct and indirect taxation at all levels of government, as a percentage of GDP. Thus, the fiscal freedom component is composed of three quantitative factors:

Fiscal freedom scores are calculated with a quadratic cost function to reflect the diminishing revenue returns from very high rates of taxation. The data for each factor are converted to a 100-point scale using the following equation:

Fiscal Freedomij= 100 (Factorij)2

where Fiscal Freedomij represents the fiscal freedom in country i for factor j; Factorij represents the value (based on a scale of 0 to 100) in country i for factor j; and is a coefficient set equal to 0.03. The minimum score for each factor is zero, which is not represented in the printed equation but was utilized because it means that no single high tax burden will make the other two factors irrelevant.

As an example, in the 2013 Index, Mauritius has a flat rate of 15 percent for both individual and corporate tax rates, which yields a score of 93.3 for each of the two factors. Mauritiuss overall tax burden as a portion of GDP is 18.5 percent, yielding a tax burden factor score of 89.7. When the three factors are averaged together, Mauritiuss overall fiscal freedom score becomes 92.1.

Sources. Unless otherwise noted, the Index relies on the following sources for information on taxation, in order of priority: Deloitte, International Tax and Business Guide Highlights; International Monetary Fund, Staff Country Report, Selected Issues and Statistical Appendix, and Staff Country Report, Article IV Consultation, 20092012; PricewaterhouseCoopers, Worldwide Tax Summaries, 20092012; countries investment agencies; other government authorities (embassy confirmations and/or the countrys treasury or tax authority); and Economist Intelligence Unit, Country Commerce and Country Finance, 20092012.

For information on tax burden as a percentage of GDP, the primary sources (in order of priority) were Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development data; Eurostat, Government Finance Statistics data; African Development Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, African Economic Outlook 2012; International Monetary Fund, Staff Country Report, Selected Issues, and Staff Country Report, Article IV Consultation, 20092012; Asian Development Bank, Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific, 20092012; and individual contacts from government agencies and multinational organizations such as the IMF and World Bank.

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Fiscal Freedom - The Heritage Foundation

The Iranian regime is shutting down the internet yet again this monththis time in response to the desperate protests in the Baluchistan and Sistan provinces. Tehran is methodically implementing a repressive playbook, imported at great expense from Beijing: first, label protesters as criminals; second, shut down the internet to prevent information from getting in or out; third, detain, torture and murder with impunity until the uprising is exhausted. But this time, the United States has the technology, resources and capacity to circumvent this oppression via satellite-provided internet, and give the Iranian opposition the ability to communicate freely. Deploying this capability would send the strongest possible message to the region and the world that America stands with those fighting for their freedom.

Also this month, perhaps not coincidentally, it was reported that the People's Republic of China is ramping up efforts to dominate the emerging frontier of satellite internet access. Presumably, the move reflects Beijing's concern that this new capability would undermine the regime's "great firewall" and put at risk the PRC's, and its clients', ability to isolate and fragment domestic resistance. Given our experience with Huawei and the 5G network, this should motivate the United States to exploit, not surrender, our technological edge to give the people of Iran a voice, but also to potentially offer it to others from Venezuela to Burma.

In June 2009, thousands of brave Iranians took to the streets to protest an obviously fraudulent presidential election. The strength and size of the protests took the Iranian regime by surprise, and the mullahs moved swiftly and brutally to suppress this "Green Revolution." Over the next decade under President Hassan Rouhani, who masterminded the suppression of the 1999 student revolt, Tehran, supported by Beijing, systematically built up a modern police state to monitor and break up any attempted uprising. When protests flared up again in late 2019, the regime was ready. Only, this time its tools were not only arrests, torture and executionalthough these were aggressively employedbut also communications. In an unprecedented act of censorship, Tehran cut off the nation's internet for more than three days by shutting down the state-controlled National Information Network (NIN), effectively silencing protesters' attempts to organize and communicate.

From our positions on President Donald Trump's National Security Council Staff at the time, it was intensely frustrating not to have a ready-made response to the mullahs' suppression of the Iranian people's ability to receive and transmit information. The Trump administration was outspoken in support of the demonstrations and in condemnation of the regime's draconian tactics, but we could not restore the communications protesters desperately needed to sustain their efforts.

In the months after the protests were suppressed, the NSC worked to remedy this failure, and establish a secure and reliable means to bypass Tehran's Beijing-style censorship and firewall. While previous efforts had focused on circumventing the NIN as the sole source of bandwidth in Iran, we began to look to new capabilities to bypass it altogether.

We gained valuable insights from the catastrophic 2017 Atlantic hurricane season (the three most aggressive stormsHarvey, Irma and Mariacaused billions of dollars of damage and took thousands of lives). The recovery effort posed the challenge of providing communications access to remote or disrupted areas. Private enterprise and the federal government deployed experimental technologies to restore communications. Existing satellite constellations can now provide remote internet bandwidth virtually everywhere, and can be configured to work with commercially available remote very-small-aperture terminals or portable modems and antennae, which can employ Virtual Private Networks at encryption levels that will protect users and allow them to access the internet completely independent of Tehran's NIN.

This project to harness this new capability and provide secure and reliable internet access to the Iranian people, which comes at a relatively modest cost, was initiated at the end of the Trump administration. The new administration should aggressively pursue it in light of the most recent uprising in Iran, as well as the threat from China to circumvent dissent. The project has broad, bipartisan congressional support; in 2019 the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs increased the funding for Global Internet Programs in its appropriations bill for the 2020 fiscal year to $70.5 million, an increase of $10 million from the previous fiscal year. These and other resources can be expeditiously reprogrammed to restore communications to the oppressed protesters in Baluchistan and Sistan.

Offering a voice to the Iranian people would hardly be an act of aggressionit would simply be a demonstration of America's commitment to the basic principle of the freedom of speech, a cornerstone of our Bill of Rights. That freedom should be a signature export for us, just as despotic censorship is for the PRC. Furthermore, the people of Iran will head to the polls this June for another presidential election. In the event there is a revival of the Green Revolution, getting this capability into place now could both circumvent and expose any attempt by the Iranian regime and their Chinese patrons to revert to their well-worn playbook of repression and brutality.

Victoria Coates is a Principal Member of Vie et Arte Solutions, LLC, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy. Robert Greenway is a Principal Member of Vie et Arte Solutions, LLC, and an Adjunct Fellow at the Hudson Institute.

The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.

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Offer Iranian Freedom Fighters the Connectivity Beijing Wants to Take Away | Opinion - Newsweek

BY THE NUMBERS

U.S. stock futures dropped Tuesday after the Dow and S&P 500 broke two-session losing streaks. The Nasdaq logged a second straight session of gains, recovering about half of Thursday's 3% decline. Tech stocks benefited over the past two sessions from the 10-year Treasury yield retreating from last week's 14-month high. (CNBC)

* Morgan Stanley's Wilson: Some expensive stocks may stay below highs for years (CNBC Pro)* Investor Howard Marks on where he's finding opportunity, valuations and bitcoin (CNBC Pro)

Tuesday marks one year since the Covid low in the stock market, which ended the fastest bear market ever and ushered in another bull market. The S&P 500 has gained 76% since the March 23, 2020, close of 2,237. Over the past year, two presidents, Congress and the Federal Reserve put extraordinary fiscal and monetary policies in place to support the economy during the pandemic.

Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testify Tuesday before the House Financial Services Committee on the economy at noon ET. Yellen, who was Powell's predecessor, said she sees both growth and possibly full employment next year and credits President Joe Biden's Covid relief package. Powell's prepared remarks struck a cautiously optimistic tone, saying the economy is "much improved" but the recovery is "far from complete." (Reuters)

* Powell, at digital banking forum, calls cryptocurrencies 'not really useful stores of value' (CNBC)

On today's economic calendar, the government is out with new home sales for February at 10 a.m. ET, with forecasts calling for a 5.7% drop to an annual rate of 870,000 units. New home sales increased by 4.3% in January. In its first quarterly results since this year's Reddit-fueled short squeeze surge, GameStop (GME) reports after-the-bell this afternoon.

* GameStop loses second senior executive as shakeup deepens (Reuters)

AstraZeneca (AZN) said Tuesday it will work with an independent group of U.S. health advisors who expressed concern about possible outdated information in the U.K. drugmaker's Covid vaccine trial results. The company said it would "issue results of the primary analysis within 48 hours." The questions came one day after the company said a late-stage trial in U.S. and Latin America showed 79% efficacy for its two-shot regimen. (CNBC)

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told ABC News on Tuesday that AstraZeneca's inoculation is "likely a very good vaccine." However, he added, U.S. health advisors became concerned that data in AstraZeneca's public statement was "somewhat outdated and might, in fact, be misleading a bit." (ABC News)

* Regeneron and Roche antibody cocktail shown effective in Covid patients (Reuters)

Pfizer(PFE) CEO Albert Bourla told The Wall Street Journal the drugmakerwould expand its mRNA vaccine businessto target other viruses and pathogens beyond the coronavirus. Bourla said the company gained a decade's worth of experience in working with Germany'sBioNTech(BNTX) on the Covid vaccine and now ready to proceed on its own.

Covid cases are once again on the rise across more than half of the U.S. as health officials warn about reopening too soon and race to vaccinate more people before highly contagious strains become prevalent in the country. As of Sunday, the seven-day average of new cases rose by 5% or more in 27 states, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (CNBC)

* Mayor Bill de Blasio to end remote work for 80,000 in signal to rest of NYC (NYTimes)* New York to open Covid vaccine eligibility to people 50 and older (CNBC)

Biden is assembling the next big White House priority, a $3 trillion infrastructure package. That would be on top of his recently signed $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus. The president met privately late Monday with Senate Democrats as Congress has already begun laying the groundwork with legislation for developing roads, hospitals and green energy systems. (AP)

ViacomCBS(VIAC) will raise $3 billion from stock offerings, following a recent runup in its stock price. Media companies with streaming services, like the company's recently rebranded Paramount+, have been ramping up spending on new content. Viacom fell 5.3% in premarket action.

A U.S. federal agency is considering as evidence a formerTesla(TSLA) employee's complaint about how the company managed and communicated about fire risks and defects in its solar installations, CNBC has learned from documents received through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Microsoft(MSFT) is in talks to buy videogame chat community Discordfor more than $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to Bloomberg. One person familiar with the matter said Discord is more likely to go public than to sell itself, however.

Boeing(BA) struck a deal for a $5.28 billion two-year revolving credit agreement, higher than the $4 billion that the jet maker was originally said to be seeking. Boeing shares fell 1% in the premarket.

Baidu(BIDU) made its debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange following a secondary listing that raised $3.1 billion for the China-based internet company. Baidu's U.S. shares sank 2.3% in premarket trading.

Bilibili(BILI) is set to raise $2.6 billion following the pricing of a Hong Kong secondary listing, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke to Reuters. The price for the online video site operator's stock was said to be 2.6% below its Monday close in U.S. trading.

Tencent Music Entertainment(TME) reported quarterly results that came in slightly below Wall Street forecasts. The music streaming service also announced a multi-year licensing agreement with Warner Music and the formation of a joint venture music label with Warner in China. Tencent shares dropped 3.2% in premarket trading.

Peloton(PTON) recently bought three companies in a flurry of acquisitions, according to a Bloomberg report. The fitness equipment maker's acquisitions involved artificial intelligence, wearables and hardware.

Twitter(TWTR) CEO Jack Dorsey's first tweet, offered for sale as a NFT, nonfungible token, was sold Monday for 1,630.58 ether, a cryptocurrency. That's equivalent to about $2.9 million based on ether's price at the time of sale. Dorsey said he will convert the proceeds to bitcoin and will then donate that to Give Directly's Africa Response fund. (CNBC)

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What to watch today: S&P 500 set to drop on anniversary of stock bull market - CNBC

Dustin Miller, Guest columnist Published 5:00 a.m. CT March 22, 2021

During her weekly COVID-19 news conference on March 10, 2021, Gov. Kim Reynolds says the state on track to give 1 million vaccination doses. Des Moines Register

U.S. News and World Report ranked Iowa as the No. 1 state for opportunity recently, continuing the consistent positive trend from the past several years. Unfortunately, this type of positive news can be drowned out by noise on other, splashier headlines, arguing thatIowa is opposed to growth.

The fact is, the bills that have seen the most intense, breathless coverage this year do not appear likely to advance through both legislative chambers, including the bill restricting use of bathrooms and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and bills aimed toward eliminating tenure at universities. More important work, to lean into the opportunities that exist in Iowa, have been overwhelmingly bipartisan, and their prospects seem much more likely, with far less fanfare.

Child care has become an extremely important workforce development issue to integrate moms and dads into the workforce by ensuring safe and affordable options for their children. Gov. Kim Reynolds has outlined an additional $3 million in spending in her budget for Child Care Challenge Fund, andmultiple other bills would provide a variety of tools to address this complex problem. The Housesent eight bills to theSenate for consideration that would address the child care needs by creating incentives for employers and developers, providing grants, and addressing the cliff effect.

ANOTHER VIEW: Anti-LGBTQ legislation damages Iowa's reputation

Housing needs exist across the state in both rural and urban communities. The Governors Economic Recovery Advisory Board outlined broad needs for housing, and the Legislature is working, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner, to provide up to an additional 25,000 units through a diverse housing omnibus bill.

With work from home and virtual classes for some students, the COVID-19 pandemic further brought into focus the vast needs for broadband in both commercial, residential and industrial settings. The governors bold push for $450 million over three years will put Iowa ahead of neighboring states and provide a necessary competitive advantage for manufacturing and economic development potentials. Both Republican and Democratic legislators have supported the governors proposal and continue to work together to find an agreeable solution.

Combined, these three efforts have accumulated over 800 votes in support through subcommittees, committees and on the floor of a chamber with less than 50 votes against in total. There is still much work to be done, but there is no doubt these incredibly important baseline efforts will pass.

In addition to these efforts being bipartisan, these proposed investments have all been done in a fiscally responsible manner at the same time thatother states in the Midwest struggle to meet basic budgetary requirements. Iowa was ranked the best state in the country to respond to COVID-19 from the nonpartisan Council of State Governments after ending the fiscal year with a $305 million surplus. Despite the pandemic, businesses have continued to see growth opportunities and remain open for business. Iowa leaders continued efforts to remain fiscally responsible provided the opportunity to make large investments and assist both Iowans and businesses during the pandemic.

Iowa continues to address economic needs for both Iowans and businesses in Iowa to ensure the recovery and continued growth. It is important to accentuate the positive steps forward the state is taking rather than the less favorable bills that have failed to gain traction. Iowa continues to remain affordable and a leader in economic opportunity.

Dustin Miller(Photo: Special to the Register)

Dustin Miller is an attorney with Nyemaster Goode Law Firm and the executive director of the Iowa Chamber Alliance. As legislative counsel, Dustin primarily represents Iowa-based associations as a lobbyist at the Iowa Legislature and with the agencies of the state of Iowa. His work involves a wide range of public policy issues, such as water quality, environmental issues, economic development, taxation, public finance, and utilities.

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Opinion: Headlines don't capture the bulk of the Legislature's work to benefit Iowans - Des Moines Register

March 23, 2021 Op-Ed By Brent OLeary

In our second year of pandemic life, having lost over half a million Americans lives, we face a cycle of surge and mutation alongside a significant burden of illness and deaths for years to come.

There has never been a more compelling time for health reform. We need to pass the New York Health Act now.

The New York Health Act will provide comprehensive health care coverage for every person who lives or works full time in New York State.

It is all too apparent how staggering injustices baked into our pre-pandemic norms cost us tremendously. While life expectancy dropped last year, that figure is twice as high for Latinos and three times higher among Black Americans. Our broader economy does not escape the generational damage done by deep-rooted disparities.

We need a functional healthcare infrastructure and to achieve that, decades of disinvestments aimed at our vulnerable communities must stop.

Our healthcare system fails at its most basic functions, despite being expensive and accelerating in cost.

Consider how patient care is based on insurance status instead of care standards. Basic benefits like paid sick days or parental leave are at discretion of employers.

Life choices like the freedom to work independently or start a business is limited because of fear of losing coverage or access to preferred providers. These arrangements are discordant with health goals or the needs of a rapidly changing workforce.

Despite increasing health insurance coverage, fewer people can afford care because of skyrocketing premiums, deductibles, and co-pays.

The result is delays in seeing a doctor until illness has progressed and require more intervention, by which point treatment is cost prohibitive. Profit tracks alongside illness severity, so that even the wealthy are just one accident or diagnosis away from significant asset loss.

This system is breaking our clinicians and healthcare workforce. Physicians increasingly cant practice independently and find themselves expendable in a revenue-driven environment whose goals are at odds with health and wellness. Administrative tasks tied to insurance arrangements mean clinicians spend less and less time with patients.

The very subsidies that were designed to support our poorest zip codes are instead diverted to private hospitals serving the fewest but wealthiest patients. During a pandemic many healthcare workers were furloughed while community clinics and primary care practices were forced to close.

All of these are underscored by record profits at the height of the coronavirus emergency by insurance and hospital corporations, all consolidating to outcompete each other over the price of care. When profits are driven by disease and suffering, patients are no longer healthcare consumers. Patients in this system are products whose health status are commoditized.

The practice of profiteering off our suffering must stop. We must reclaim our resources.

Poll after poll show that New Yorkers support the ideas in the New York Health Act. Meaningful health reform is possible with this key legislation. It passed in our State Assembly four times. We must do it again and get it passed in the State Senate.

The New York Health Care Act by providing health care to all New Yorkers takes on the inequities and injustices in our healthcare system that were exploited by this coronavirus. It re-allocates resources to serve all New Yorkers, not just the wealthy.

It ensures access to primary care services, medically necessary testing, prescribed treatments and vaccines. Benefits such as parental or sick leave will no longer be tied to employment status or wealth and it removes the massive administrative overhead and bureaucracy, re-aligning the relationship of nurses and physicians back to patients.

It represents a shift in emphasis from illness-based care to preventive primary care, and focuses on helping New Yorkers achieve our most optimal health and well-being.

Balancing the New York State budget should not fall on the backs of the working class. To put this imperative into context, tremendous pressure on our healthcare system will only grow in the new Covid normal.

Worse, the social and economic corollaries from widening gaps in equity, access and affordability are being eclipsed by emergent crises. Exponential change cant be addressed by conventional means. Equitable healthcare legislation is a bold and necessary action to safeguard our future.

For practicality, healthcare reform belongs to broader strategic conversations. Decades of brutal austerity measures devastated not just our public health infrastructure, it also destroyed other safety nets that we each paid into for just such events like a pandemic or extreme weather, when only a robust government response can protect us all.

New Yorkers deserve equitable opportunities toward health. We are at an inflection point. Serious threats will continue to push our healthcare system to the brink of collapse. I echo our Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi in asserting that this pandemic is both tragedy and testament to what can change when the will is there. I join this broad and rapidly growing coalition and movement, to demand fiscal equity and enact meaningful reform in healthcare.

Our strength in District 26 lies in our diversity, and we are only as strong as our most vulnerable. We owe ourselves and our youngest New Yorkers a shot at equitable opportunities towards health and wealth. The time to act is now. Join us in getting the New York Health Care Act passed.

Brent OLeary is a candidate running for City Council in the 26th District

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Op-Ed: We Need to Pass the New York Health Act Now - Sunnyside Post

BrownTogether gifts and grants have raised more than $20 million since the start of the last academic year to support priorities outlined in the Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan, the University announced in a Feb. 26 news release.

The University has committed more than $157 million to DIAP priorities over the past five years with a combination of donor contributions and operational funds, according to the release. Phase II of DIAP is expected to launch this year.

We have all experienced a year unlike any other, and I believe donors understand that what is happening in the nation and world impacts our campus, Shontay Delalue, vice president for institutional equity and diversity, wrote in an email to The Herald. These funds allow us to further our work in research, teaching and supporting the (diverse) constituents that live, study and work at Brown.

The BrownTogether gifts and grants will complement other University diversity and inclusion initiatives, including the Task Force on Anti-Black Racism and the Brown Corporation Committee on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

The $20 million raised will support centers and scholarships focused on priorities outlined in DIAP at Brown, which seeks to improve diversity and inclusion in areas that include people, academics and community.

Of this amount, a new five million dollar endowment established by Perri A. Peltz 82 will provide financial support for the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America.

This generous gift is transformational, CSREA Director Tricia Rose wrote in an email to The Herald. Endowed gifts of this size provide a strong foundation for the Centers longevity and stability.

These funds will allow for new curricula, programs and research to be established at the center. The CSREA will host a Humanities Lab that will support studies of race in connection to Brown courses and The Mass Incarceration Lab @ CSREA that will collect the stories of individuals who have been incarcerated, Rose wrote. Another lab will examine the role of mutual aid organizations in Rhode Island.

I want Brown students to be able to learn about the central role race plays in the world, Rose wrote. Imagine how powerful and transformational it would be if we all played a part in offering a deeper critical engagement with race in our classrooms.

In addition to the BrownTogether funds, a four million dollar grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded in December 2019 has enabled a collaboration between the CSREA and academic centers at Yale, Stanford University and the University of Chicago, The Herald previously reported. The grant aims to expand the study of race in the humanities across the four campuses.

The $20 million will also support the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice. At the recommendation of David Haas 78, the Wyncote Foundation and the Waterman II Fund of the Philadelphia Foundation established a five million dollar endowment to support the CSSJ, a lead gift in an effort to establish a $10 million endowment for the center. Another $1 million from Jerome Vascellaro 74 and Mary Vascellaro 74 will also support the CSSJ.

The CSSJ received a separate $4.9 million Mellon Foundation grant in February 2021, which funds a partnership with Williams College and the Mystic Seaport Museum, The Herald previously reported. The three institutions will explore the relationship between European colonization, Indigenous dispossession and racial slavery through maritime history.

The BrownTogether gifts and grants will also offer financial support for students from groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education, according to the news release. Financial support for the Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion Impact Fund which supports student-driven initiatives such as the Minority Peer Counselors program have quintupled in the last year.

Furthermore, donations to the Inman Page Black Alumni Council Brown Annual Fund Scholarship quadrupled in fiscal year 2020, according to the news release. The scholarship, which was launched in 2018 to support the education of Black students on campus, is now able to benefit seven students.

Zakiyah Whitaker 23, a recipient of the scholarship, has found that it has given her more freedom to focus on her educational opportunities, she said.

I have a lot of financial needs, so I wouldnt be able to do half the things I do without it, Whitaker said. Its definitely helped me focus on my grades more.

The creation of scholarships like these that support diversity and inclusion allows students to find representation and community on campus, she said, adding that scholarships that promote a diverse study body help students from historically underrepresented groups feel more comfortable on campus.

As a result, campus can become a place where students will probably feel more comfortable rather than being that one-in-a-million minority person on campus, Whitaker said. I feel very supported.

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BrownTogether raises $20 million for diversity and inclusion initiatives - The Brown Daily Herald

Tuesday, 23 March 2021, 11:23 amPress Release: NZ Property Investors' Federation

By removing mortgage interest tax deductibility andincreasing the Bright Line test, Government is prioritisingfirst home buyers over renters. However the many people whocannot yet afford their first home and are therefore tenantsneed more rental properties. Private rental property ownersare not the problem. They are part of the solution to theproblem.

While the Bright Line test increase willdo nothing to stop property speculation, removing interestdeductibility will increase the cost of providing rentalproperties drastically, said Sharon Cullwick, theexecutive officer of the NZ Property Investors Federation(NZPIF)

Without the ability to claim the legitimateexpense of mortgage interest costs, the NZPIF estimates thatthe cost of providing a $600,000 rental property willincrease by around $6,000 a year.

Interestdeductibility for rental properties is not the loophole itis claimed to be. It does not allow rental propertyproviders to outbid home owners. The facts are that homeowners get the benefit of accommodation. Rental propertyowners get the benefit of rental income. Home owners do nothave an income from their homes and therefore have nothingto deduct interest costs from. Rental owners, like allbusiness owners, deduct their business expenses from theirbusiness income to work out how much tax theypay.

NZPIF will be very interested to see theGovernment calculations of what the new tax rules will be.IRD officials have indicated that the fiscal impacts havenot yet been established.

The provision of rentalproperty has already been affected through measures such asremoving depreciation claims, the previous Bright Line testof five years and ring fencing rental property tax losses.These were all introduced to stop house price growth. Thisresult has not been achieved so when will lack of supply beuniversally acknowledged as the real issue. Governmentcannot build the required number of houses New Zealandersneed and the demand side measures announced today are justgoing to reduce the supply of rental properties and increaserental prices.

The NZPIF is proud to support theprovision of good quality rental properties in New Zealand.Rental property providers are not speculators. NZPIFreaffirms that tenants need more rental properties andprivate rental property owners are not the problem. They arepart of the solution to theproblem.

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The Government has announced a housing package that will increase the supply of houses and remove incentives for speculators, to deliver a more sustainable housing market.This is a package of both urgent and long-term measures that will increase housing supply, relieve pressure on the market and make it easier for first-home buyers, Jacinda Ardern said... More>>

The Australian and New Zealand Governments today reiterate their grave concerns about the growing number of credible reports of severe human rights abuses against ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.In particular, there is clear evidence of severe human rights abuses that include restrictions on freedom of religion, mass surveillance, large-scale extra-judicial detentions, as well as forced labour and forced birth control, including sterilisation... More>>

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Unintended Consequences Of Today's Housing Announcements - Scoop.co.nz

The House Republican conference voted 102 to 84 Wednesday to end a ban on earmarks, which allow lawmakers to designate funds for specific projects within their districts.

Banned from Congress during the rise of the tea party in 2011, earmarks have long been associated with questionable spending deals like the infamous bridge to nowhere in Alaska, as well as scandals involving corrupt lobbyists. But Democrats, arguing that earmarks would help restore the power of the purse to the legislative branch, plan to bring them back this year, albeit with a new name (congressionally directed spending) and a variety of new rules intended to limit the potential for corruption.

House Republicans debated the issue behind closed doors, with some speaking in favor of maintaining the ban. Members of the House Freedom Caucus, which is ideologically aligned with the tea party conservative movement, were reportedly strongly opposed to ending it, decrying the practice as legislative bribery.

I think we've got $30 trillion in debt and people are tired of the swamp and the GOP should be ashamed of itself, if it jumps headfirst right back into the swamp, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), a member of the caucus, said.

But others said that refusing to use earmarks would allow the Biden administration to exert greater influence on spending while putting Republicans at a disadvantage during the budgeting process.

The Democrats want to bring [earmarks] back, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said. There's a real concern about the administration directing where money goes. This doesn't add one more dollar. I think members here know what's most important about what's going on in their district, not Biden.

The GOP House vote leaves Senate Republicans as the only group that is sticking with the ban, at least for the time being. Senate Appropriations Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said he is willing to dedicate half of the funds allocated for earmarks to Republicans, but its not clear theyre interested in taking him up on the offer. Republican senators voted on a permanent ban on earmarks in 2019, and some have indicated they want to maintain it.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) spoke out against the revival of earmarks last month. I represent the entire conference and I can tell you the overwhelming majority of the Republican Conference in the Senate is not in favor of going back to earmarks, he told Fox News. Im assuming those people even if Democrats craft the bill so that those are permitted will not be asking for them.

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House Republicans Vote to End Earmark Ban - The Fiscal Times