Archive by Author

Massive summer travel demand drives skyrocketing costs

Most Americans are eager to travel this summer, but skyrocketing costs could upend their vacation plans. 

Airfares rose nearly 19 percent from March to April, according to recent Labor Department data, the largest month-over-month increase for plane tickets on record, and are up 33 percent from last year. Hotel and vacation rental prices are also rising, leaving travelers with few options to save money. 

Those price increases are being driven by massive demand for summer travel. Roughly 90 percent of U.S. travelers plan to take a trip in the next six months, and 35 percent expect to travel more this summer than last, according to data from the U.S. Travel Association.  

“Prices are having little impact on Americans’ summer travel plans, though some travelers will take fewer or shorter trips or adjust their travel budgets,” said Tori Emerson Barnes, the travel group’s executive vice president of public affairs and policy. 

The global travel and hospitality industry shed millions of jobs at the height of the pandemic as travel slowed to a crawl. With large numbers of Americans taking trips for the first time since the start of the pandemic this summer, airlines and hotels often don’t have the capacity to meet demand, driving prices higher.  

Airline executives predict that U.S. airports will process 3 million travelers on a single day for the first time ever this summer. Airfares skyrocketed in recent months as summer flights quickly sold out.  

Elevated costs may already be pricing some Americans out. The number domestic flight bookings dropped 17 percent from March to April, according to data from Adobe Digital Insights. Still, last month’s bookings were 5 percent higher than the same period in 2019.  

“An uncertain economic environment is pushing some consumers to reorient their travel plans,” Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, said in a note. “We see indications however, that some have chosen to delay their travel plans rather than to cancel them outright. While bookings for Memorial Day are down, summer travel is above pre-pandemic levels.”  

Travel firm Hopper predicted that airfares will rise another 6 to 12 percent before peaking in June. 

Hannah Walden, communications manager at Airlines for America, an industry trade group, noted that April prices were still 13 percent lower than the same month in 2019, before COVID-19 sent airfares plummeting.  

Record-breaking fuel costs, propelled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that spiked global oil prices, are being tacked onto airfares. The price of jet fuel soared 151 percent over the last year and rose 8 percent over the last month, according to data from S&P Global.  

Travelers have fewer seats to choose from than they did in the years leading up to the pandemic. Major airlines cut down on their spring and summer schedules to mitigate the impact of higher fuel costs and avoid a repeat of high-profile delays and cancellations that left travelers stranded last year. 

For the second quarter, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines trimmed their number of total seats by 14 percent and nearly 17 percent, respectively, compared to the same point in 2019, according to travel analytics platform Cirium.  

Airlines say that they don’t have enough pilots to expand their schedules. At the height of the pandemic, airlines gave early retirements to pilots who never returned to the workforce, despite receiving $54 billion in federal aid to keep workers on the payroll, which executives say wasn’t enough to cover all of their employees’ salaries. 

“The pilot shortage for the industry is real, and most airlines are simply not going to be able to realize their capacity plans because there simply aren’t enough pilots, at least not for the next five-plus years,” United CEO Scott Kirby told investors last month. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is preparing to unveil legislation that would raise the mandatory retirement age for commercial airline pilots by at least two years. Under federal law, pilots must retire at 65 years old, an age limit that Congress raised from 60 in 2007.  

Some in the airline industry have pitched the change as one way to prevent the shortage from getting worse, but they acknowledge that it wouldn’t make an impact on airlines’ capacity this summer.  

Red-hot inflation is seeping into other goods and services travelers rely on.  

Last week’s Labor Department report found that hotel and motel prices rose by nearly 23 percent since April 2021. The price of rental cars and trucks soared more than 10 percent annually as the global chip shortage continued to limit the nation’s supply of vehicles. 

Experts expect both figures to climb further as summer reservations sell out. After a price spike late last month, average nightly hotel rates in the U.S. are up 42 percent from the same period last year, according to Hopper.  

Meanwhile, Airbnb’s average daily rates are 37 percent more expensive than they were at the same point in 2019 and up 5 percent from last year, the company’s chief financial officer, Dave Stephenson, told investors earlier this month.  

“We think that [prices] will likely moderate throughout the back half of the year as the mix continues to adjust more toward cities, more cross-border, which have lower average daily rates, but price appreciation has remained high and stickier,” he said.

Source: TEST FEED1

Facing geopolitical pressure, chipmakers look to expand US production

As tremors in global supply chains continue to rattle everything from auto manufacturing to baby formula, the especially intricate domestic semiconductor industry is looking to Washington for help bringing more of its production to the U.S. and getting insulated from geopolitical hazards.

But it won’t be easy. State-of-the-art chipmaking and packaging has long been centered in East Asia and particularly in Taiwan, where powerhouse fabricator TSMC has been working for decades to position itself as an indispensable mass producer of chips for client companies including AMD, Apple and Texas Instruments.

“Tiny microchips are in everything and right now there’s a global shortage,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) told a conference on a technology and trade bill last week that could include significant tax breaks for chip manufacturers. 

“This means that consumer goods like cars, washing machines, your cellphone are just more expensive. And it threatens our national security, with production lines for advanced fighter jets and other weapons systems delayed or reliant now on microchips that are made overseas,” he said.

Kelly and several other senators are working to get two different semiconductor subsidy packages, which include $50 billion in grants and a 25 percent tax credit for domestic chip manufacturing, funded and passed into law.

But the White House-backed bill, known currently as the Bipartisan Innovation Act, is likely at least a few drafts shy of a vote, as some Republicans resist what they see as another spending push by the Biden administration.

“There are lots of positive things in the bill,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said in an interview. “I had roughly a dozen different amendments that were adopted that were incorporated in one form or another. But ultimately, the bill got a lot worse.”

“It includes far too much pork barrel spending and corporate welfare. The House version of it is even worse. We’ll see what comes out of conference, but the direction it’s moving is not encouraging,” Cruz said.

TSMC founder and former CEO Morris Chang dismissed the new U.S. initiative to increase domestic market share of global chipmaking last month as “a very expensive exercise in futility.”

“The U.S. will increase onshore manufacturing of semiconductors somewhat, but all of that will be a very high-cost increase, high unit cost. It will be noncompetitive in the world markets where you compete with factories like TSMC,” Chang said at an event co-hosted by the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies, two Washington think tanks.

According to market research firm TrendForce, TSMC had 55 percent of chip fabrication, also called foundry, revenues for 2021, while Samsung had 17 percent. Together, they made up more than 70 percent of the global foundry market, while the total output of Korea and Taiwan made up more than 80 percent.

Chang’s assessment of his company’s importance is echoed by analysts and industry professionals in the U.S., who caution that Washington’s chipmaking ambitions should stay grounded in reality.

“Anyone who says that the U.S. is going to succeed in short order in onshoring all semiconductor manufacturing, or anything close to that, is wrong,” Chris Miller, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) who specializes in the geopolitics of semiconductors, said in an interview. “The type of funding that the U.S. government is considering is a tiny fraction of what would be necessary to do that, and that’s not really a realistic goal.”

“It is reasonable for the U.S. to do what it’s trying to do, which is close the cost gap between opening a facility in the U.S. and opening one in other countries, and thereby reduce the incentive that currently exists to build more manufacturing facilities abroad,” he said.

It’s not just the volume of chips produced in Taiwan and East Asia that’s responsible for the region’s dominance. It’s also manufacturing technology and practical industry know-how that allows foreign companies to build on smaller scales, resulting in more powerful chips.

One industry expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that even the phase of the moon and its location relative to a fabrication facility can affect the viability of a microchip wafer and needs to be adjusted for in the production process.

There’s also the issue of packaging semiconductors into circuit boards after they’re fabricated, much of which is done by companies in east Asia.

“Only 3 percent of semiconductor packaging is done in the U.S.,” Travis Kelly, chairman of the Printed Circuit Board Association of America trade group, said in an interview. “So if we have to ship the semiconductors back to Asia anyway, how does this fix the supply chain issue?”

But experts say that the irreplaceability of the Taiwanese and Korean chip markets is only one of the forces behind the U.S. initiative to wedge itself into the chipmaking sector, despite a geographic concentration of the industry that’s contributed to global shortages.

“It’s really about China, because it’s China right now that is pouring government subsidies into its own chip [fabrication facilities], doing so in a way that is not at all connected to market forces, and potentially is going to put real cost pressure not only on American firms, but really the entire world, because they’re going to have this slew of capacity for building chips,” the AEI’s Miller said.

“Finding a way to begin to move the needle against that is really the key goal of this legislation. And this is just one part of a broader effort to use trade mechanisms, export controls, a broad front of measures the U.S. has been imposing to restrain its semiconductor ambitions,” Miller added.

In 2014, China’s Ministry of Finance set up its National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, known in China as the Big Fund, to invest in its own domestic semiconductor industry.

While the fund’s total capital investments are difficult to confirm, the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Association trade group estimated last year that the fund to date has “invested $39 billion, of which 69.7 percent has been for front-end manufacturing with the goal to increase China’s share of global semiconductor production. In addition, China has announced more than 15 local government [integrated circuit] funds for a total of $25 billion in dedicated funding to Chinese semiconductor companies.”

According to a statement from the Chinese government, “the fund implements market-oriented operation” and has “a management system and operation mechanism in line with the laws of the market economy.”

However deep-pocketed the Chinese investment in its domestic chip industry proves to be, the Taiwanese market is likely to remain an influential force on the Chinese mainland just as it is in the U.S.

And while Taiwan views its chip dominance as a “Silicon shield,” as Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen described it in an article in Foreign Affairs last year, it could just as easily be viewed as a spoil of potential conquest in a country that China regards as merely an unruly province.

Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.) led a six-member delegation of U.S. lawmakers on a two-day visit to Taiwan last month, a visit that prompted a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson to say that the U.S. is headed further down a “dangerous path.”

“There are people who point out that maybe Taiwan is not safe,” TSMC’s Chang said last month. “Now, that’s of course another topic. Now, I’m assuming that there will not be any war. Frankly, if there is a war in Taiwan Strait, then I think the United States will have more than chips to worry about.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Five things to watch in North Carolina, Pennsylvania primaries

Voters in five states will head to the polls on Tuesday to cast their ballots in some of the most crucial nominating contests of the 2022 midterm elections. 

Some of the biggest primaries will unfold in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, where Democrats and Republicans are slated to choose their nominees to fill two Senate seats. But the night will also see voters make key decisions on the future direction of both parties. 

Here are five things to watch in the May 17 primary elections.

Does Trump suffer another major loss?

Former President Trump was dealt a blow last week when his preferred candidate in Nebraska’s GOP gubernatorial primary, Charles Herbster, lost to a Republican backed by the state’s current Gov. Pete Ricketts. 

On Tuesday, he’ll face another test of his sway among GOP voters, this time in Pennsylvania. 

Trump has endorsed celebrity physician Mehmet Oz in the state’s closely watched Republican Senate primary. And while recent polling shows Oz with a narrow lead in the race, he still faces some stiff competition. 

Former hedge fund manager David McCormick has trailed Oz by low-single-digit margins for more than a month, and he’s still not far behind him. Even more recently, though, conservative commentator Kathy Barnette has surged in the polls, putting up the latest challenge to Oz’s front-runner status.

If Oz is able to pull off a win on Tuesday, it could help sharpen Trump’s argument that Herbster’s loss in Nebraska was nothing more than an anomaly in his track record. But a defeat for Oz would likely raise further questions about just how closely Republican voters are taking cues from the former president.

Does Biden’s endorsing power take a hit?

Biden has weighed into this year’s Democratic primary battles only sparingly. But his endorsing power will be on the line on Tuesday in Oregon’s 5th District, where moderate Rep. Kurt Schrader is facing a challenge from his political left. 

Progressives are lining up behind Jamie McLeod-Skinner, arguing that Schrader is an unreliable vote for Democrats’ agenda at a time when the party can’t afford any defections. 

McLeod-Skinner has racked up a number of endorsements, including from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and four of the six county Democratic parties in the district. 

Despite that, she has been heavily outspent by Schrader in the run-up to the primary. From April 1 to 27, Schrader’s campaign dropped more than $1.5 million compared to McLeod-Skinner’s $343,000, according to their latest federal filings.

A loss for Schrader on Tuesday would almost certainly be seen as a bad omen for Biden’s influence over his party, especially in a year in which his low approval ratings are already viewed as a liability for Democrats.

Can progressives notch much-needed wins?

Progressives are looking to make a comeback on Tuesday at a pivotal moment for the Democratic Party. 

While the party’s left flank has seen its profile rise in recent years, progressives have continued to run up against roadblocks in key races. Earlier this month, voters in the Cleveland area sent Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) back to Washington in a closely watched primary, passing up progressive Nina Turner for a second time in less than a year.

On Tuesday, however, progressives are hoping to reverse their fortunes. 

In Pennsylvania, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who has drawn the support of many in his party’s left wing, is heading into the state’s Democratic Senate primary as the clear favorite to win the nomination. Progressives are also backing state House Rep. Summer Lee in the primary to succeed retiring Rep. Mike Doyle (D). 

At the same time, progressives are hoping to knock off Schrader in Democratic primary for Oregon’s 5th District, arguing that the seven-term congressman’s moderate politics are out of step with the majority of his party.

Whether voters actually want to take the party in a more progressive direction, however, is one of the biggest questions heading into the primaries.

Will voters punish Cawthorn?

Rep. Madison Cawthorn drew several rivals for the Republican nomination in North Carolina’s 11th District after he decided to run in another district closer to Charlotte, only to return to his old territory later.

But despite the fact that he’s running as an incumbent, things haven’t gotten easier for him. 

Cawthorn infuriated many of his GOP colleagues earlier this year when he insinuated during a podcast interview that some of his fellow lawmakers were attending orgies and snorting cocaine. He’s also been the subject of a series of salacious revelations, including a leaked nude video.

Cawthorn has sought to brush off the attacks against him as an effort by the so-called political establishment to undermine him. Still, the risks he is facing are very real. 

The top Republicans in the state General Assembly have endorsed one of his rivals, state Sen. Chuck Edwards, in the primary, while both of his state’s U.S. senators have spoken out against him. 

Cawthorn has the endorsement of Trump, however, who doubled down on his support for the first-term congressman this week. Given his district’s conservative tilt, that could go a long way toward saving him from defeat on Tuesday.

How far right have Republican voters moved?

A handful of races on Tuesday are slated to test just how far to the right GOP primary voters have moved, with or without Trump’s influence.

In Pennsylvania, Barnette is surging in the closing days of the primary, threatening to overtake Oz in the race for the Senate nomination. While Oz may have Trump’s endorsement, Barnette has ties to her party’s far-right flank; she’s made past disparaging remarks about Islam and gay people, and previously promoted the conspiracy theory that former President Obama was secretly a Muslim.

Likewise, in the state’s GOP gubernatorial primary, Republican Doug Mastriano, who advocated for the 2020 presidential election results to be overturned, appears to be the favorite to clinch the nomination to take on Democrat Josh Shapiro in November. He scored Trump’s endorsement on Saturday.

And in Idaho, Trump’s preferred gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin, is running to oust incumbent Gov. Brad Little in a closely watched primary. Little isn’t exactly a moderate, but McGeachin has run to his right and the two have a history of tension. 

More than once, when Little has left the state, McGeachin has signed executive orders related to the coronavirus pandemic as acting governor, only to have them rescinded by Little later on.

Regardless of who emerges from the Tuesday primaries, the contests are almost sure to say something about where GOP voters stand in the aftermath of Trump’s four years in the White House.

Source: TEST FEED1

The Memo: Democrats cross their fingers in Pennsylvania

Democratic hopes are on a knife-edge in the U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania, where both parties hold their primaries Tuesday.

On one hand, Democrats believe Republican voters could do them an unintentional favor in whomever they choose as their nominee. 

The top tier of the GOP field is comprised of TV personality Mehmet Oz, conservative commentator Kathy Barnette and businessman David McCormick — all of whom Democrats believe have potentially fatal flaws.

On the other hand, the shock has not yet faded in Democratic circles that the clear front-runner in their Senate primary, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, suffered a stroke on Friday at the age of 52. 

Fetterman says he is on the road to recovery and that he did not “suffer any cognitive damage.” But the development, so close to the primary, has jangled Democratic nerves. 

“A stroke over the weekend is not good, but we don’t know how bad it was except for him saying he will be up and about,” said Democratic strategist Jerry Austin. 

Austin said the 6’8” Fetterman, with his shaved head and penchant for shorts and hoodies over suits and ties, “is a strong candidate. He may be our ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ but in a more positive sense in Pennsylvania than [GOP Senate nominee] J.D. Vance in Ohio.”

Fetterman has a large polling lead over U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb and state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta in the Democratic primary.

Fetterman’s stroke was the latest dramatic development in one of the most intriguing races in the country. 

Pennsylvania gives the Democrats a rare chance to pick up a Senate seat at a time when the upper chamber is split 50-50. The seat is currently held by Sen. Pat Toomey (R), who is retiring.

Democrats can’t deny they face a very challenging environment nationwide. 

President Biden’s approval ratings are mediocre at best, inflation has soared to its highest levels in four decades and, historically, the party that holds the White House struggles in the first midterms after a presidential election.

Yet Democrats are buoyed when they look at the GOP field in the Keystone State.

“I am not sure they put up their A-list for this,” said Mark Nevins, a Philadelphia-based Democratic consultant, with a laugh. 

But Nevins also warned — citing former President Trump as an example — that there are dangers in underestimating an opponent “who you think is the person you want.”

Joe Trippi, a veteran Democratic strategist, was even more bullish on his party’s chances.

“Each of them has some real flaws, so we are having arguments over which one is the weakest,” Trippi said of the GOP field. “But it’s not an argument of ‘If this one wins, it would be a big problem for us.’ It’s more of an argument over who is more vulnerable than the others.”

Trippi said he himself is leaning toward Barnette as the weakest candidate for Democrats to face.

Barnette has surged in the last couple of weeks before primary day, despite being vastly outspent by Oz and McCormick. 

Her new prominence has brought scrutiny, uncovering many problematic comments in her past. 

Barnette has alleged that gay men are “not normal,” falsely stated that former President Obama is Muslim and asserted that pedophilia is a “cornerstone” of Islam.

Her primary opponents have seized on the idea that Barnette could be a disaster in a general election. A super PAC supporting Oz is airing an ad blasting her, McCormick has noted her heavy defeat in a 2020 House race and Trump — who has endorsed Oz — has also said she is not electable.

Barnette’s rise appears to be driven by her appeal to GOP base voters as the most authentic and compelling representative of MAGA-style populism. Oz has a history of appearing to advocate less conservative positions than he now claims to hold, while McCormick’s critics charge that he lacks charisma.

A new Emerson College poll on Monday underlined that the GOP primary is a three-way jump ball. The poll had just 6 percentage points separating Oz, Barnette and McCormick, who were on 32 percent, 27 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

The fierce nature of the primary, meanwhile, is gladdening Democratic hearts — even as party strategists know there are no easy general election wins amid such a challenging political landscape.

The leading Republican candidates “have spent an enormous amount of money chewing each other up,” said Democratic strategist Mark Longabaugh. “I think anytime you see a party do that, it is helpful. But I still think it is going to be a tough environment. It is a tough and competitive state.”

Longabaugh made no attempt to minimize the problems Democrats face.

“Inflation and the rocky economy is number one,” he said. “Obviously, the generic polling numbers do not look great. The president’s job approval does not look great. So by some basic, fundamental measures, it looks to be a very tough case.”

Salvation for Democrats — or at least avoidance of a worst-case scenario — could come from weak GOP candidates.

That’s why party strategists are so eagerly waiting for Tuesday’s results from the other side of the partisan divide.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden-Bezos feud escalates

A simmering feud between President Biden and Jeff Bezos has spilled into the open after the Amazon founder went on the offensive to criticize the White House’s approach to inflation and taxing wealthy corporations. 

Biden has frequently used Amazon as a foil as he pushes for higher taxes on the richest Americans and big companies to help fund his economic agenda, and he recently vocally backed unionization efforts at the company. 

But Bezos’s tweets accusing the president of “misdirection” and of risking worse inflation with his economic proposals, and the White House’s sharp response, marked an escalation in what has become an increasingly adversarial relationship.

“It doesn’t require a huge leap to figure out why one of the wealthiest individuals on Earth opposes an economic agenda for the middle class that cuts some of the biggest costs families face, fights inflation for the long haul, and adds to the historic deficit reduction the President is achieving by asking the richest taxpayers and corporations to pay their fair share,” deputy White House press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement.  

“It’s also unsurprising that this tweet comes after the President met with labor organizers, including Amazon employees,” Bates added. 

Bezos shot back on Monday afternoon, accusing the White House of trying to change the topic and again hitting its economic policy. 

“Remember the Administration tried their best to add another $3.5 TRILLION to federal spending,” Bezos tweeted. “They failed, but if they had succeeded, inflation would be even higher than it is today, and inflation today is at a 40 year high.”

Monday’s back-and-forth followed multiple tweets over the weekend, in which Bezos took issue with the White House’s argument that raising taxes on major corporations would help lower inflation. He argued the two were unrelated, and he suggested a government disinformation board should investigate a Biden tweet making that case. 

Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, asked about Biden’s tweet, spoke broadly about the benefits of a fairer tax code for working Americans and for tackling climate change. 

The White House found support from former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who had been critical of the administration’s early economic rescue package and had cautioned against the risk of inflation for much of last year. 

“I think @JeffBezos is mostly wrong in his recent attack on the @JoeBiden Admin,” Summers tweeted Monday. “It is perfectly reasonable to believe, as I do and @POTUS asserts, that we should raise taxes to reduce demand to contain inflation and that the increases should be as progressive as possible.” 

While tackling inflation has vexed the White House, a public spat with Amazon is one the administration would seem to welcome. Biden has used the tech and retail giant as a consistent foil. He has repeatedly singled out Amazon for not paying federal taxes as part of a broader stump speech pushing for the wealthiest corporations and individuals to pay their fair share. 

And Biden, long an advocate for organized labor, has in recent weeks been a public supporter of efforts to unionize among Amazon workers.

“Amazon, here we come,” Biden said to applause at a North America’s Building Trades Unions legislative conference last month after workers at one of its Staten Island, N.Y., sites voted to be represented by a union. 

Earlier this month, Biden hosted Amazon Labor Union President Christian Smalls at the White House. 

Robyn Shapiro, a spokesperson for the American Economic Liberties Project, said Bezos’s Twitter feud with Biden is an effort by the Amazon chief to show his own political power. 

“Whether it’s on Twitter or in other venues, what we’re watching is Bezos flex political power that accompanies the extreme economic power that he maintains,” she said.  

“And I don’t find it shocking at all to see someone who maintains such extreme corporate power push back at a time when there is an enormous debate about the role that extreme corporate [power] plays in inflation,” she added.  

Bezos’s criticism comes as the tech industry pushes against antitrust reform proposals. 

The Computer and Communications Industry Association, of which Amazon is a member, is tying record inflation to its campaign against the American Innovation and Choice Online Act. The group released an ad Monday, backed by a seven-figure campaign, warning the bill could raise already soaring prices on consumers.  

The Biden administration has thrown its weight behind the legislation, which would bar tech giants, including Amazon, from preferencing their own products and services on their platforms.  

Versions have advanced out of the Senate and House judiciary committees with bipartisan support but face a tough road ahead and a dwindling time frame to pass Congress with midterm elections approaching.  

Amazon, and Bezos himself, have become targets in progressive pushes to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans and most profitable companies.  

In the last four years, Amazon reported a total federal tax rate of 5.1 percent on more than $78 billion of U.S. income, according to a report released by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.  

Amazon reported record profits of more than $35 billion last year, 75 percent higher than its 2020 profits, and paid just 6 percent of those profits in federal corporate income taxes, according to the report.  

Bezos himself reportedly paid zero in federal income taxes in 2007 and 2011, according to a bombshell report ProPublica published last year citing IRS data.  

Between 2014 and 2018, Bezos reported $4.22 billion income and paid $973 million in taxes. In that period, the Amazon founder and then-CEO’s wealth grew by $99 billion, according to the report.  

“I think he doesn’t want the public talking about the fact that wealthy people should pay taxes on their earnings, just like middle-class people do, or that profitable corporations should pay taxes on their profits,” said Amy Hanauer of the Institute of Taxation and Economic Policy.  

“I think it’s very appropriate for the White House to be talking about having a tax code that collects the resources that we need to get the kind of programs that we think are going to help the economy,” she added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Peloton, booze delivery perks for House staff draw GOP ire

New perks and services in the works for House staff — particularly Peloton app memberships and direct-to-office alcohol delivery — are getting pushback from Republicans.  

The House’s food services vendor Sodexo, which operates House cafeterias, restaurants and in-house catering, is now offering same-day orders for alcohol online.  

A sign noticed by Republicans outside the Food Service Administration in the Rayburn House Office Building on Friday advertised “6 pack & more,” with “drinks on demand at drinks.house.gov.” 

The ordering website notes that drinks — beer, wine, liquor, juice, soda and more — can be ordered “for pick up or delivery to your office.” Valid identification is required to buy alcoholic beverages, it notes.   

In addition, a draft memo obtained by The Hill that was expected to go out to House staff last week said that the House Center for Well-Being will make Peloton Corporate Wellness benefits available to House staff, including district staff and members of U.S. Capitol Police. The Peloton All-Access and Peloton App membership do not include or require a bike but do include thousands of on-demand classes.  

Each of the programs is under the purview of the House’s chief administrative officer, which did not respond to a request for comment. It is not clear why the memo about Peloton memberships has been delayed.  

The two offerings prompted outrage from some House Republicans, who blamed Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for misplaced priorities. The House chief administrative officer is nominated by the Speaker, elected by the House and subject to oversight by the House Administration Committee. 

“Millions of Americans are experiencing increased financial burden due to inflation, and Pelosi is wasting tax dollars on providing Peloton memberships and a liquor store to House staff,” said Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.).  

Pelosi’s office referred The Hill to the House Administration Committee when contacted about the programs. The committee referred The Hill to chief administrative officer.  

GOP sources said that each office’s Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA), a taxpayer-funded pot of money that can be used on official expenses like staff salaries, travel and office space, cannot be used to purchase the alcohol. House rules prohibit the MRA from being used on personal expenses or activities that are primarily social in nature.  

Republicans, though, argued that the new option to order alcohol amounts to opening a taxpayer-funded liquor store on Capitol Hill because official resources allocated toward Sodexo will support it.  

“Americans can’t afford to buy groceries or put gas in their cars, and Nancy Pelosi decides now is a good time to open a Congressional liquor store on Capitol Hill,” tweeted Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.). “Washington Dems couldn’t be more out of touch.”  

Details of the cost of the Peloton app were not made available in the draft email provided to The Hill. A GOP source said that the chief administrative officer has not provided those details to Hill offices.   

Fox Business reported that the contract cost is $10,000 plus $10 per month for each staff member who signs up. If paid entirely by the House, it could cost more than $100,000 per year, depending on how many people sign up.   

Peloton charges $12.99 per month for the app membership and $39 per month for the all-access membership that can be used with a Peloton bike. Peloton did not respond to a request for comment.  

The Peloton program is just one of many projects within the House Well-Being Center, GOP sources said. The program also offers staff members the Calm sleep, meditation and relaxation app; a FinFit app to help with financial health and planning; and the Foodsmart app that provides personalized advise based on eating habits. 

But the Peloton name, associated with luxury bikes, fed into GOP arguments that the Democratic-run House is catering to elites. 

“Instead of getting inflation under control by cutting government spending, the House will spend $100,000 a month on Peloton memberships,” tweeted Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.). “Putting the political elite over the American people once again.”  

The House also has a fitness center available to staff that requires them to pay out-of-pocket a membership fee.

Source: TEST FEED1

McConnell tries to stamp out Trump dissension on Ukraine

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is stamping out former President Trump’s efforts to sow dissension in the Republican Party over whether to send tens of billions of dollars in new assistance to Ukraine. 

McConnell is framing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a clear threat to U.S. national security interests, espousing the muscular foreign policy worldview that Republicans were known for before Trump took office in 2017.  

He traveled to the country over the weekend as part of an all-Republican Senate delegation to personally assure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that there’s strong Republican support for Kyiv, despite criticism of the latest Ukraine aid package from Trump and his allies, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).  

McConnell has feuded with Trump since he excoriated the former president on the Senate floor for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but he has mostly played defense, dodging repeated questions about Trump and ignoring the former president’s scathing mockery and attack.  

Now McConnell has a chance to go on offense by pushing his party to embrace the strong national security and foreign policy vision that it was known for under former Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, a worldview that Trump stepped away from.  

“Hopefully not many members of my party will choose to politicize this issue. I thought it was significant in the House that the House leadership voted for the package and the vast majority of House Republicans voted for the package,” McConnell told reporters after meeting with Zelensky, noting the House passed the $40 billion Ukraine package last week by a vote of 368-57.   

McConnell is arguing that standing up to Russian aggression is vital to U.S. interests and that failure to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin now could put European allies at risk, echoing the domino theory of communist expansion that was preeminent during the Cold War.  

“This is not some handout. This is to prevent this ruthless thug from beginning a march through Europe. And the first place to stop him is Ukraine, and that’s what we’re determined to do,” he said.  

A senior GOP aide noted that McConnell has spoken out for years against Russian aggression and Russian attempts to maintain a sphere of influence over former Soviet states.

McConnell warned about Putin’s designs in 2014 amidst Russia’s annexation of Crimea and predicted that “the leadership of Washington” would be of “critical importance in Ukraine.”

GOP strategists say most Republican voters agree with McConnell, giving him leverage in setting the tone for other GOP lawmakers in Congress.  

“McConnell did exactly the right thing, and I think that he was totally correct in suggesting that there’s strong Republican support for Ukraine,” Republican strategist Vin Weber said of McConnell’s weekend trip to Kyiv with Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).  

“The reason he had to do it is because there are a few voices that dispute that, and they are outsized voices,” he added, referring to critics of Ukrainian aid such as Trump, Greene and Fox News host Tucker Carlson.  

“I’ve talked to people on Capitol Hill, and Republicans are hearing occasionally from their grassroots questions about why we’re doing so much for Ukraine,” Weber said. “That is not the main Republican view.  

“McConnell is trying to underscore that and make it clear that this handful of voices that you hear out there complaining about our support for Ukraine don’t represent any significant part of the Republican Party,” he said.  

McConnell told reporters Sunday that he wanted to send a clear message to Zelensky in their meeting.  

“What I assured him — this was an all-Republican delegation — is that support for Ukraine in this war against the Russians is bipartisan,” he said. “I wanted to assure them that within the Congress there was very, very broad support for continuing the fight.”

It was a pointed rebuttal to Trump and other prominent voices on the right who have questioned the continued flow of military and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.  

McConnell has pushed back on Trump on the subject of Putin before. He memorably balked at Trump’s effort in 2017 to deflect criticism of Russia’s human rights record by claiming that past American leaders are also guilty of misconduct.  

“You think our country’s so innocent?” Trump asked then-Fox News host Bill O’Reilly shortly after taking office.  

McConnell pushed back hard, asserting: “I don’t think there’s any equivalency.”  

Trump and McConnell have clashed over other major national security and foreign policy decisions, notably Trump’s desire to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which President Biden eventually did last year, leading to the swift collapse of the American-backed government.  

Trump issued a statement through his PAC Friday complaining that “Democrats are sending another $40 billion to Ukraine, yet America’s parents are struggling to even feed their children,” referring to the domestic baby formula shortage. 

Greene, a GOP backbencher who is popular with Trump supporters and frequently attends his rallies, has denounced Ukrainian aid as a “money laundering scheme” and suggested that Ukraine provoked the Russian invasion.  

Carlson has also invoked the baby formula shortage and called the $54 billion in total U.S. aid slated for Ukraine “a ludicrous amount.”  

McConnell, however, has waved off these criticisms as representing the isolationist strain of the Republican Party that has been a minority view within the GOP going back decades.  

“There have always been isolationist voices in the Republican Party prior to World War II, and that’s perfectly alright. This is a debate worth having. It’s an important subject, and I think one of the lessons we learned during World War II is that not standing up to aggression early is a huge mistake,” he said.  

Brian Darling, a GOP strategist and a former aide to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), said, “McConnell is representing the old Cold War view of how to deal with Russia.”

“Obviously there’s merit in the proposal to help out the Ukrainian people. I think there’s a strong will within the Republican Party to provide support to Ukraine,” he said. “But I think Rand Paul, Donald Trump and others make important points. If we’re going to spend money like this, we need to find offsets. We need to have some responsibility in how we spend money.”

“Where are we going to cut spending elsewhere to pay for this?” he asked.

Source: TEST FEED1

The 11 Senate Republicans who opposed advancing aid for Ukraine

Eleven GOP senators on Monday voted against advancing a nearly $40 billion aid package for Ukraine despite significant bipartisan support.

The senators opposed to the plan were Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), John Boozman (Ark.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Mike Lee (Utah), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.).

Eighty-one other senators from both sides of the aisle voted in favor of the package.

The measure had been stalled in the chamber after easily passing the House last week because of an objection by Paul. The vote in the Senate on Monday to end debate on a motion to proceed sets up a final vote on the aid package later this week.

Hawley defended his vote in a Monday tweet where he said “spending $40 billion on Ukraine aid – more than three times what all of Europe has spent combined – is not in America’s interests.” 

“It neglects priorities at home (the border), allows Europe to freeload, short changes critical interests abroad and comes w/ [sic] no meaningful oversight,” he added. 

On Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Hagerty said the day before the vote that he had wanted to see more money invested at home.

“I certainly don’t have anything against the Ukrainians. We want to see them win, but pumping more aid into that country when we’re not taking care of our own country — the best thing that [President] Biden could do is stop the war that he’s waged on American industry,” Hagerty said.

Paul had blocked advancing the bill last week because he wanted an inspector general authority to oversee the package’s spending. However, adding that provision would require another vote in the House which extended the timeline of the package’s passage. 

Biden administration officials wrote to Congress last week urging passage of the bill by May 19 before existing aid ran out.

McConnell voiced support of the package and of Ukraine’s requests for assistance. 

“Ukraine is not asking anybody else to fight their fight,” he said in a statement after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky in Kyiv over the weekend. “They only ask for the tools they need for self-defense.”

The assistance package passed with a large majority in the House by a vote of 368 to 57. Republicans there also made up all of the “no” votes. 

The request was larger than the $33 billion President Biden asked Congress to authorize last month that includes an additional $3.4 billion for military and humanitarian assistance.

Source: TEST FEED1

DeSantis threatens state control over Disney's special district

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said on Monday that he wants the state, not local governments to have control over Disney’s special district as he continues to feud with the entertainment company over its opposition to the education law he signed known by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

DeSantis signed into law last month a bill that strips Disney’s long-held municipal autonomy at their Orlando-based theme parks. The move was undertaken in direct response to Disney’s opposition to Don’t Say Gay. 

Disney officials have argued that it needed its independence to build its own theme park and city, warning that the state of Florida will take on billions in debt if the situation changes.

“I can tell you this, that debt will not end up going to any of these local governments. It’s not going to go to the state government, either. It’s going to absolutely be dealt with by [Disney and other businesses] that are currently in that district,” DeSantis said during an appearance at Seminole State College. 

“Disney will not control its own government in the state of Florida. Disney will have to follow the same laws that every other company has to follow in the state of Florida,” DeSantis added. 

“They will pay their fair share in taxes and they will be responsible for paying the debts and so at the end of the day, all we’re doing is putting them on a level playing field with all the other companies in Florida, making sure there are no special privileges, no special deals, but that debt will be honored.”

Source: TEST FEED1