Can We Have Those Expanded Tax Brackets Now?:
The ink is not even dry on the far-reaching domestic policy law that President Trump signed on Friday, and already state governments are bracing for impact as Washington shifts much of the burden for health care, food assistance and other programs onto them.
Even before the bill’s final passage, state capitals were contending with a slowing economy and federal spending cuts implemented by the Department of Government Efficiency run by Elon Musk. Now they will be expected to administer complex new work requirements for Medicaid and food aid; rework some state health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act; and decide how much they can do to keep their citizens insured and fed once they start losing federal assistance.
But in recent weeks, states have been balancing budgets that are fraught with uncertainties. Most state governments’ fiscal years began on Tuesday, but governors and legislators have had to keep an eye on specific provisions in the federal bill that could have outsize effects, such as a $50 billion fund for rural hospitals to offset the impact of Medicaid cuts (which was ultimately included) and the sale of millions of acres of public lands (which was not).
Now that the fine print in the president’s package is coming into focus, Carl Davis, the research director at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning research group, said that states would have three main options for dealing with the new law.
“They can scale back their investments in health and food assistance that are directly affected by the federal legislation,” he said. “They could shuffle money around to preserve health insurance — ‘Hey, we don’t want 600,000 North Carolinians to lose health insurance, but we’re going to take money away from education to do it.’”
“Or,” he said, “we can see tax increases.”
Some states will use “a mix of all three,” Mr. Davis added.
Search and rescue missions continued into the early hours of Saturday after flooding in Central Texas killed at least 24 people and left others, including at least 20 girls attending a summer camp, unaccounted for. The missing girls were attending Camp Mystic on the banks of the Guadalupe River near the city of Kerrville when heavy rains caused the river to surge — rising from seven to 29 feet in one location. Flood warnings remained in place for some parts of the Austin-San Antonio region overnight, as Texans questioned why Kerr County did not have a flood warning system in place.
These 16 Rethug ‘Moderates’ Vowed To Vote Against ‘Big Beautiful Bill’:
As Senate Majority Leader John Thune tries to get his conference in line for the reconciliation bill, a group of House Republicans is warning that they won’t support the Senate bill over that chamber’s proposed Medicaid cuts.
A group of 16 House Republicans — led by more moderate Rep. David Valadao — sent a letter to Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday suggesting they are prepared to vote against the legislation that comes out of the Senate if it includes a cut to the Medicaid provider tax.
“Throughout the budget process, we have consistently affirmed our commitment to ensuring that reductions in federal spending do not come at the expense of our most vulnerable constituents. We write to reiterate that commitment to those we represent here in Washington,” the members wrote.
While all the members who signed the letter voted for the House’s reconciliation bill, which included roughly $700 billion in Medicaid cuts over the next 10 years, the GOP lawmakers say the Senate’s proposal “undermines the balanced approach taken to craft the Medicaid provisions” in the House bill.
Spoiler Alert: All 16 voted for the final bill. Failure to challenge any of the 16 would be political malpractice.
Which reminds me: The Republican Party is solely dedicated to promoting the Fascist vision of Donald Trump. They, in fact, are no longer a political party. Every race must be about Donald Trump. Starting with the 20th RD Special Election. If the Democrats don’t make this race a referendum on protecting vulnerable people against the relentless assault coming from Trump, they’re doomed to fail. The issue isn’t even the two candidates, per se, it’s needing all hands on deck to counteract Republican cruelty. Now that the race is on, it must be all about Trump and all about Republican cruelty every single day.
Guess Whose Financial Disclosure Statements Are Not Available To The Public:
Earlier this year, Delaware state Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton became curious about the financial interests of a fellow Delaware lawmaker.
So she went to the website of the state’s Public Integrity Commission. That’s the government body, known as the PIC, which receives and keeps the financial disclosure statements filed annually by some 350 elected and appointed state officials and candidates for Delaware office.
Under Delaware law, the filings are public documents. But when Wilson-Anton searched the PIC’s website for the lawmaker’s reports, they were nowhere to be found.
That’s because to see the reports, the Bear-area Democrat had to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the state.
“I didn’t realize that it was behind a FOIA wall,” she said. “I thought it was just online the way that lobbyist reports are online and searchable. It seems like a no-brainer to me. I think Delawareans should be able to just go online and look and not have to know something’s up and then request to learn more.”
So Wilson-Anton, now in her third two-year term in the House, decided to seek a change. In May, she introduced a bill that would require the PIC to post all financial disclosure reports on its website.
Her effort gained a powerful ally — Senate President Pro-Tem Dave Sokola — who signed on as a sponsor. The PIC also supports the bill.
WHYY News has obtained Delaware officials’ financial disclosure reports periodically in recent years, and every time requested the reports without saying why they were being sought. For this story, WHYY News obtained all of the reports filed for 2024.Those reports can be viewed here in one file, with the officials’ names in alphabetical order.
Shout-out to Cris Barrish. Now, let’s pass this bill…
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