Treasury Secretary Yellen: We can spend right now, despite the debt. Secretary Janet Yellen told a Senate panel that the US has the “fiscal space” to spend trillions of dollars more despite an historically high national debt. In 2017, she expressed concern about the US public debt hitting 75 percent of Gross Domestic product. Now it’s over 100 percent. “My views … have changed somewhat since 2017… Interest payments on that debt relative to GDP have not gone up at all, and so I think that's a more meaningful metric of the burden of the debt on society and on the federal finances.”
Manchin: We need an “enormous” infrastructure package and new taxes. Sen. Joe Manchin says he favors an “enormous” infrastructure package and wants to do “everything that we possibly can” to pay for it. The chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee recommended “adjustments” to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, including an increase in the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to at least 25 percent.
No new tax pledges are a bad idea.… TPC’s Len Burman argues that President Biden’s promise to exempt those earning less than $400,000 from any tax increases puts nearly three-quarters of the income tax base off limits. And it imperils both his domestic policy initiatives and good tax policy. Says Len, “Drawing any red lines about future tax changes is a terrible idea, whether it is Republicans promising no new taxes on anyone ever or Democrats vowing not to raise taxes on those making less than some arbitrary amount.”
Young will be acting OMB director. The White House says Shalanda Young, just confirmed by the Senate as deputy director of OMB, will serve as “acting” director until Biden chooses a new candidate to head the budget shop. His first choice, Neera Tanden, withdrew in the face of Senate opposition.
New York state’s business leaders are anxious about a tax increase. A group of 250 chief executives and other business leaders wrote Governor Andrew Cuomo and legislators to sound “alarm” at what they say could be the biggest spending and tax increase in New York history. They urged politicians to delay any tax increases until after the state and New York City have more fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and workers return to their pre-pandemic workplaces.
Tax deadlines in Indiana, and probably Idaho, to follow federal filing delay to May 17. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed an executive order to align the state’s deadline with the federal government’s. In Idaho, lawmakers must pass a bill to delay the state’s tax deadline. But leaders say it will be a top priority when the legislature returns to session on April 6.
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