Daily Deduction Paying for Education and Health Care
Renu Zaretsky
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren would use some of her wealth tax to fund a new public education plan.  The Massachusetts Democrat and presidential hopeful has yet another use for her  tax on wealth. Earlier she said she’d use some of the revenue to pay for universal pre-K  free  public college, and the like. Now she wants to use $800 billion to fund public schools through 12th grade. She’d impose a 2 percent tax on wealth from  $50 million to $1 billion and  3 percent  on wealth above $1 billion. Revenues would fund, among other things,  an additional $450 billion over 10 years for high-poverty schools and an additional $20 billion annually for  the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Meanwhile, Warren promises to say within a few weeks how she’d fund the $32 trillion “Medicare for All” health care plan she supports.

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg says how he’d fund his health reform.. The mayor of South Bend, Indiana would return the corporate tax rate to 35 percent, its level before the  Tax Cuts and Job’s Act cut it to 21 percent. His campaign expects the plan to raise $1.4 trillion to help pay for his proposed $1.5 trillion health care plan, which he describes as “Medicare for all who want it.” He‘d also allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices. His proposal  would allow Americans to choose between a private health plan or a government plan.

Fast tracking one lawsuit over Trump tax returns. Politico reports that the Manhattan district attorney and the president’s lawyers have agreed to fast-track an appeal to the Supreme Court an upcoming federal appeals court ruling on whether the DA can enforce a subpoena for Trump’s tax returns. A federal district judge ruled for the DA and three-judge appeals court panel is schedule to hear the case tomorrow.  

Alaska communities want to collect sales tax from online retailers—even though Alaska has no state sales tax. It would be the first of its kind in the US: Cities and boroughs that have sales tax would join in a cooperative agreement to establish a statewide sales tax commission administered by the Alaska Municipal League. The commission would contract with a software company to process local sales taxes collected by online retailers and  distribute revenue back to the local governments. Companies with at least 100 sales or sales worth $100,000 in Alaska would be required to collect online sales taxes.

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