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A House vote on a budget deal? The House could vote today on the budget deal reached between Speaker John Boehner and the White House, though the Freedom Caucus called on “all candidates running for Speaker of the House to oppose this legislation and go on record showing they do not support this approach to governing.” TPC’s Howard Gleckman sees a plan filled with fiscal gimmicks and wonders whether conservatives would have been better off with the 2012 Boehner/Obama Grand Bargain.
The House is poised to elect Ways & Means Chairman Paul Ryan Speaker. That vote may come tomorrow. Assuming Ryan wins, the House will turn to replacing him as chair of the Ways & Means Committee.
House Republicans offer a resolution to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. Oversight Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz and 18 others want him out for what they say is lying to congressional committees over the Lois Lerner flap. It is not clear whether the House will proceed on the resolution, which could ultimately result in a public trial. Just a little something for the new Speaker to address.
Also on the Hill. The Senate Finance Committee holds a hearing on welfare and poverty. Pam Loprest of the Urban Institute, Aretha Jackson of Washington DC, Luke Shaefer of the University of Michigan, and John Pierpont of the Utah Department of Workforce Services will testify.
“For Puerto Rico, with love…” but not enough. TPC’s Tracy Gordon examines the White House plan to aid the island territory, which started losing jobs and people about ten years ago. She concludes that “by not specifying a price tag for the plan and a way to pay for it, the Administration may have missed an opportunity to avoid a messy default and put the island on more sound economic footing.”
In Chicago, both a borrower and a tax hiker be? Out of a $588 million proposed property tax increase, $45 million would fund school construction for Chicago Public Schools. Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the district will probably borrow that $45 million to fund a bigger expansion effort. The school district carries a heavy debt load, a large budget deficit, and a junk credit rating.
United Kingdom’s Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne: Time to regroup and recast? The House of Lords voted to delay Osborne’s proposed cuts to the nation’s welfare and tax credit programs. Cuts to earned income tax credits were key to Osborne’s effort to cut the deficit, but Osborne will now have to adjust the cuts. Said Warwick University’s Wyn Grant: “The package is not as well designed as the government claims, but it’s mainly an error of political judgment.”
Tax reform comes to Indonesia. President Joko Widodo wants to spur investment, so next year, the government plans to lower income- and value-added tax rates and improve tax compliance. The exact amount of the reduction remains unclear. Indonesia’s tax revenues will likely be short of their 2015 target, by about $11 billion. Out of a population of 250 million, only 27 million Indonesians have tax identification numbers.
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