Beware the Ides of March -- U.S. Politics March 2021

and whatever you do, don't just go here and sort the "Trifecta Status by State" table

https://ballotpedia.org/State_government_trifectas

The EITC has been relatively uncontroversial for 40 years now with multiple expansions

it hasn't really expanded much in the past 20 years, amounts and thresholds have increased with cost of living, but, that's about it. In fact, more due diligence and documentation is required now than 20 years ago, to the point where if someone is claiming EITC on their taxes, they can't just file in January as soon as they get their w-2(s) and get a refund right away. I don't think it reflects attitudes about the tax credit, and more that because it is free money (a refundable credit that could be as high as about $5k) -- there is/has been a lot of fraud.

utah - GOP trifecta since 1985
ND, SD, and Idaho - since 1995

either the House or Senate held on longer in Texas than you'd expect after it stopped electing Democrats statewide ('94), it took 9/11 to flip whichever one held on

Honestly, can we just get rid of the Trump tax bill of 2017 and go back to having exemptions as opposed to the stupid increased standard deduction which just screws up a lot of things, some of which didn't occur to the policymakers when they passed it.

which didn't occur to the policymakers when they passed it.

You mean ex-Speaker Ryan (R-WI) wasn't the policy genius that the media kept trying to palm off on us?

xp don't know what you mean exactly about exemptions but the elimination of state and local income tax deductions was a deliberate measure to punish high tax (democratic) states

and that was kind of genius move on their part

wooooow

NEW: Entire staff of Nevada Democratic Party quits after democratic socialist slate won every seat https://t.co/SN1by5EhKB by me and @akela_lacy

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) March 9, 2021

you know how you used to get an exemption for each person claimed on the tax return? ... approximately $3000 per person that is deducted from your taxable income? And people who file tax returns that are actually dependents of someone else (e.g. high school students who have a summer job or work after school but are supported by their parents) don't get that deduction, because their parent(s) get it? ... And you could have 8 kids, and have that $3k x 8? ... Whereas under this stupid plan, you don't?

They didn't eliminate the state and local tax deductions -- they limited them. So that if you were in a high tax blue state and made a middle class salary and paid property taxes on a home, you could only deduct $10k as opposed to ... a lot more in some cases.

As for the "they didn't think of that" stuff -- this goes back to the elimination of exemptions and kiddie tax. They left the kiddie tax rules more or less the same, in that, they still used the amount of the exemption as a "floor" ... but then they got rid of exemptions, so they had to determine the amount of the exemption, that no longer existed, except for as a floor to calculate income subject to kiddie tax.

Nice

xp

okay I know I take tax code changes way too personally ...gonna step back

they did eliminate unreimbursed employee business expenses ... and considering so many employees are now working from home it's uh ... maybe it's worth putting it back in the tax code?

Death to machine politics btw

nah machines worked at a time when the parties weren't sored out ideologically

which means I guess we agree

there ain't no good guys
there ain't no bad guys

gotta think they're ultimately better off without all these crybabies and their contacts sticking around anyway

That Nevada story is interesting. If it follows normal lines, the new slate will have a lot of struggles of their own and will end up being accused of compromise and selling out by their fellow DSAers. Worst-case scenario, they lose a congressional race and end up being blamed for it and are swept out at the next go-round. But who knows? Maybe they are wildly successful and become a template for progressive takeover of other state parties.

I'd be curious to know what's made the Nevada left in particular so effective (electorally speaking)

Harry Reid's dark magick is failing as he ages

Indeed. #TransWomenareWomen pic.twitter.com/KLsTj5c1jr

— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) March 8, 2021

serious question: does anyone actually find this funny? like just on a basic level I don't understand what the joke is supposed to be. if it wasn't a known chud shithead I would assume this was a parody of right wingers.

I’m not clicking play on that

yeah don’t

a known chud shithead

It's times like these that I'm glad I'm far less online than the avg ilxor.

Today in "You say that like it's a bad thing":

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EwCwSToWYAYobP1.png

Roy Blunt's not running for reelection next year.

Feinstein dying after newsom is recalled and replaced with a Republican is the way they deserve to lose the 50th vote

Sen. Dianne Feinstein calls the witness DOJ nominees at Senate Judiciary Committee 'young women.' Monaco is 53. Gupta is 46. (Feinstein is 87.)

— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) March 9, 2021

I'm 46 and I think of myself as young so ...

hi!

house to vote on the stimulus bill tomorrow ...

finally, sheesh

i hope they don't fuck with the part about unemployment being non-taxable.

I would think it'd have been the Senate who fucked with that if anyone but who even knows anymore

isn't the house vote mainly to approve changes made in the Senate? I didn't think they were going to try to tinker with it more

i hope they aren't going to tinker with it more ...

Since I've heard nothing about the bill being sent to a joint House-Senate conference committee, I'm going to work on the assumption that this is the Senate version, intact, and this House vote would be final.

Yeah I think the plan is to get it through and to Biden asap.

Did Major bite a Secret Service agent? The stories are a little vague: ..described as a "biting incident" with a member of White House security.

ha i saw that headline while trying to find the latest news about the stimulus bill -- dogs sent back to Delaware

one thing that was nice about the trump white house is that they didn't have any pets. because they were definitely the kind of family to send their new $20 million puppy to the pound because it shit in the corner

Jared Kushner can't be around dogs because, well, look at him.

for reasons no one can understand, all canines - even those that are well-trained and have made the cover of Dog Magazine in two different decades - attack Jared Kushner on sight

Lol

White House on $1,400 stimulus payments: "The checks will be signed by a career official at the Bureau of Fiscal Service"

Not Biden's name. Dems have talked about making clearer that they are responsible for government aid -- but not this way, I suppose

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) March 9, 2021

I really can’t believe that this matters at all. Maybe (doubt it) close to an election but not now.

that guy's going to be our next president

Dems very much need to push the fact that every GOP Senator voted against one of the most popular bills in US History

Stupid west wing watcher decision. They should call them bidenbucks and have his face on the checks. I’m serious.

Nah, that was an authoritarian move by Trump to slap his name on the checks, some of that shit needs to be rolled back.