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Biden is viewed as a drag on Democratic midterm hopes 

President Biden is once again being viewed as a serious drag on his party’s midterm prospects, after a late summer bump had some thinking he would be less of an anchor around Democratic lawmakers seeking reelection. 

With three weeks to go until Election Day, Democrats say they are worried that Biden’s shaky approval ratings will end up hurting their chances in the House and Senate races. 

And as inflation soars and fear of a recession continues to mount, Democrats say the president will end up being “the fall guy,” as one source put it, even if some in the party don’t think the criticism is entirely fair. 

“It’s all about the economy, and at the end of the day, everything is more expensive than it was a year ago, retirement accounts are plummeting, and gas prices are lower but they’re inching up again,” one Democrats strategist acknowledged. “And President Biden is in charge, so of course people are going to point to him, unfairly or not.” 

A New York Times-Siena College poll released Monday showed that 49 percent of likely voters said they would select a Republican for Congress and 45 percent said they expected to vote for a Democrat. The poll indicates an improvement for Republicans since last month, when Democrats held a 1-point lead among likely voters. 

The poll gave new worries to Democrats focused on the midterms and also has many reassessing Biden’s strength as a candidate for reelection in 2024. 

The same survey showed former President Trump beating Biden 45 to 44 percent in a hypothetical rematch in two years. 

Biden’s national polling average has risen slightly in recent weeks, according to the political site FiveThirtyEight, but it is still hovering around 42 percent, with 53 percent of those surveyed disapproving. 

Some Democratic strategists say voters have been able to separate Biden’s performance from candidates such as John Fetterman, the Democrat running against Republican Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, and Sen. Raphael Warnock (D), who is being challenged by Republican Herschel Walker in Georgia. 

“What’s been interesting this cycle is watching candidates like Fetterman and Warnock in strong positions while Biden’s numbers have dragged,” said Democratic strategist Christy Setzer. 

“It seems like voters were already mentally divorcing Biden’s performance from that of Democratic Senate and House candidates, which means he’s not and hasn’t been a drag, but he’s also not helping bolster poll numbers for the Mandela Barnes of the world,” Setzer said, referring to the Democratic candidate for Senate in Wisconsin. 

“That job still, apparently, falls to Barack Obama,” Setzer added, as the former president is expected to make a trip to Wisconsin to help boost the party’s candidate. 

Obama is also expected to campaign in Detroit and Atlanta in the final weeks before the midterm elections. 

Some Democrats don’t want Biden at their campaign events, believing his presence in public is more of a harm than a help. 

Rep. Tim Ryan (D), who is running for Senate in Ohio, gave a blunt answer earlier this month when asked if he would be inviting Biden on the trail with him. 

“No, I’m not, and I’m really not inviting anybody,” Ryan said in interview on Fox News. 

Biden has participated in a mix of events this month to rally Democrats. While he did appear alongside candidates including Rep. Katie Porter (Calif.), Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rep. Karen Bass and Tina Kotek, the Oregon governor candidate, most of his help has been in fundraising for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee. 

The president will travel to Philadelphia on Thursday to participate in a reception for Fetterman. But it’s unclear if he will appear on camera with the candidate. 

On Tuesday, the White House sought to keep the issue of abortion at the forefront of the election season when Biden delivered an address hosted by the Democratic National Committee. A day earlier, Biden held an event at the White House to draw attention to a new website his administration launched for student loan borrowers to have as much as $20,000 of their debt canceled. 

Last week, Biden traveled to the West Coast for a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reception in Los Angeles, as well as a grassroots volunteer event with Oregon Democrats and a reception for Kotek. 

Democrats close to the White House acknowledge that many candidates have intentionally kept their distance from the president, relying instead on surrogates, including first lady Jill Biden, for help. 

And political observers say Biden isn’t the only president who has found himself in such a position.

“It is normal that presidents are a drag for the party during the first midterms,” said Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. “The exception in modern times really revolves around when they are not, when some sort of issue like Sept. 11 in 2002 overwhelms the historical trend.”Democratic strategist Jim Manley agreed, adding “The story is as old as time. There are some places that a president can go to help folks running for election.

“However, sometimes it doesn’t make sense strategically,” he added.

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats ready for midterm blame game

Three weeks out from a midterm election that is beginning to look more and more like a big victory for Republicans, Democrats are starting to play the blame game.   

Former President Obama stepped into the spotlight over the weekend by warning fellow Democrats and progressives not to be a “buzzkill” by constantly scolding people for being politically incorrect.   

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is eyeing a potential run for president in 2024, says the party is spending too much time talking about abortion rights and not enough talking about economic inequality and that it didn’t go big enough in passing legislation to help Americans struggling to afford health care, prescription drugs and other basic needs. 

Meanwhile, younger House Democrats who are scrambling to keep their seats in Congress, including Rep. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.), argue the party leadership has fallen out of touch with many voters and have called for “a new generation” and “new blood” in charge of the party.   

And many Democratic lawmakers have pointed to President Biden’s low approval rating as a drag on their own prospects. 

It all comes as recent polling has shown a Republican resurgence in key Senate and House races and left Democrats worrying they peaked too soon. 

Obama and Sanders both expressed a concern that’s becoming more and more widespread across the party: Did Democrats err in focusing on cultural fights and issues like abortion while ceding the stage to Republicans on inflation? 

“When we’re talking about putting together … durable majorities, we have to be able to speak to everybody about their common interests,” Obama said in an interview with “Pod Save America.” “Where we get into trouble sometimes is when we try to suggest that some groups are more — because they historically have been victimized more, that somehow they have a status that’s different than other people.   

“And that we’re going around scolding folks if they don’t use exactly the right phrase, or that identity politics becomes the principal lens through which we view our various political challenges,” he said.   

“Sometimes Democrats are [a buzzkill],” Obama observed.   

Obama’s first major interview of the midterm campaign season immediately generated media buzz at a time when party strategists are trying to put Republicans on the defensive instead of reflecting on the divisions of their own party.   

Mike Lux, a Democratic strategist and Clinton White House adviser, said, “I don’t disagree with the former president.”   

“I think the language police stuff gets a little silly, but I would also say that in the focus groups that I have done and the polling that I have been working on … voters are not mostly focused on that stuff. That’s what Twitter is focused on,” he said. “My sense of what voters are focused on is economic issues, abortion, stuff that really matters to them and their lives.”  

One senior Republican strategist said Obama is getting out ahead of what is likely to be an intense debate within the Democratic Party if it loses control of the House and possibly the Senate as well.   

“If Democrats get wiped out, you’ll probably see a lot of people in their party pointing back to that message as a way to find renewal,” the strategist said.   

“I think he’s doing it because they’re expecting huge losses in the election and he wants to take a leadership role in guiding the party after the losses. It basically sets him up as the smart guy who understood why Democrats were about to lose but people didn’t necessarily listen to him,” the source added. “It empowers him to be a powerbroker heading into 2024.”   

After Democrats lost nine seats and control of the Senate in the 2014 election, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said his party was wrong to focus too much on health care reform in the midst of the Great Recession.   

“We were in the middle of a recession and people were hurting and said, ‘What about me? I’m losing my job. It’s not health care that bothers me. What about me? My income is declining and I can’t do the things I used to do. It’s not my health care at issue,’ ” Schumer told reporters at the National Press Club in late November of 2014, before he ascended to become Senate Democratic leader.   

Democratic strategists say they’re still optimistic about keeping control of Congress. 

Jonathan Kott, a Democratic strategist and former Senate aide, argued that Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate candidate in Georgia, is “imploding,” while the Senate race in Ohio — a state that has trended Republican in recent election cycles — “is now on the table,” and that incumbent Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is ahead of his Democratic opponent by only 3 points in one recent poll.   

Yet Kott said “there always is” a reevaluation of strategy after an election, especially when a party loses, and advised “Democrats should take a lesson from President Obama — he spoke to the entire country, he didn’t speak to one group on Monday, [another] group on Tuesday.”  

“President Obama is absolutely correct. We need to start talking to the entire country, all the voters, and say here’s all the things we done,” said Kott, who advised centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). 

Manchin, a Democrat who represents a state former President Trump won by large margins in 2016 and 2020, has urged his Democratic Senate colleagues for more than a year to pay more attention to voters’ concerns about inflation — on which Kott said Manchin was “absolutely right” to focus. 

“One of the reasons  he was right is he talks to his constituents every day, multiple times a day, and hearing directly from people is probably [a better] indicator than any economic forecast you can get,” he said.   

The political picture has gotten worse for Senate and House Democrats since they left Washington three weeks ago still feeling confident in their chances, buoyed by getting a bold new tax reform and climate bill signed into law and hopeful there would be a voter backlash against the conservative Supreme Court and “MAGA” Republicans.  

But a New York Times-Siena College poll published Monday showed that independents and women are shifting to the Republican Party despite the spotlight Democrats have put on abortion rights and that Biden’s low approval rating is a major headwind for Democrats.   

The survey found that 49 percent of registered voters nationwide said they would vote for a Republican to represent them in Congress, while 45 percent said they would vote for a Democrat. It was conducted from Oct. 9 to Oct. 12.   

It showed that 24 percent of registered voters think the nation is on the right track, while 62 percent think it’s moving in the wrong direction. Twenty-six percent of respondents said the economy is the most important problem facing the country right now, and 19 percent said inflation is the biggest problem. Only 4 percent said they saw abortion as the most pressing issue.   

Sanders — Manchin’s rival in setting policy priorities within the Senate Democratic Caucus — said recently that Democrats are putting too much emphasis on abortion rights when many voters are more worried about the economy.   

“I don’t believe it can be the only issue,” Sanders told “CNN Tonight with Jake Tapper” in a recent interview. 

“At a time when we have an economy in which the wealthiest people, the billionaire class, are getting much, much richer while working people are struggling to put food on the table, it goes without saying that we have to focus on the economy,” he said.   

Faiz Shakir, a Democratic strategist and senior adviser to Sanders, argued that Democrats have a potent economic message to use against Republicans but need to employ it more regularly to overcome the political headwinds facing them this fall.   

“When the country is at two-thirds wrong track and by most accounts Republicans are up by 15 to 20 points on the economy … we got to change that,” he said. “We got to at least make the compelling economic argument about what [Republicans] want to do to Social Security, what they want to do to Medicare, what they want to do to student debt relief and prescription drug costs.”

“It doesn’t feel like — when you look at the ads on air by Democrats — they’re fighting aggressively on the economic contrasts,” he said.    

He said polls also show Latino voters and young voters are worried about inflation and the economy and added that “you got to get out there and talk about it.”   

Not all Democrats are buying into Sanders’s advice and are instead sticking with an abortion-first strategy.   

Biden delivered a speech at Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C., that put the spotlight once again on the abortion issue and promised that if Democrats keep their Senate and House majorities, the first bill he will send them would codify the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which established the right to an abortion.   

“We’ve got work to do,” Shakir said when asked about Biden’s abortion-focused speech.   

Lux, the Democratic strategist, said there would be a careful review of party strategy after the election, no matter how Democratic candidates perform.   

“There’s always discussion after you lose an election and there should be discussion if we win the election,” he said. “Just because you win doesn’t mean you did everything right. The party will have good discussions in either scenario and go forward from there.”   

Source: TEST FEED1

Five takeaways from the fiery Demings-Rubio debate in Florida

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and his Democratic rival, Rep. Val Demings (D-Fla.), faced off in a bitter debate on Tuesday that underscored the stakes of the U.S. Senate contest in one of the country’s most unpredictable states.

The debate — the only face-to-face showdown between the two candidates — touched on everything from abortion rights to Florida’s wavering property insurance market, and gave both candidates ample opportunity to go on the offensive mere weeks before Election Day.

Here are five takeaways from the Senate debate in Florida.

Bitterness spills into public view

The race between Rubio and Demings has often taken a backseat to Senate contests in other battlegrounds like Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania. But Tuesday night’s debate made clear it’s anything but a sleepy affair.

Demings sought to go on the attack throughout the night, delivering an aggressive performance in which she cast Rubio as little more than a career politician and reliable “yes” vote for the GOP in Washington.

Rubio, meanwhile, was anything but restrained. He repeatedly took swipes at Demings, claiming that she’s never passed a single piece of legislation in her six years in the House.

When it came to passing the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the stimulus bill approved early on in the coronavirus pandemic, Rubio said that Demings was sitting at home “in her pajamas,” while a GOP-controlled Senate worked to save struggling U.S. businesses.

Overall, the debate put into stark relief the animosity between Rubio and Demings, making public the tensions that have been simmering between the two politicians for months.

Demings looks to cast doubt over Rubio’s record

If there was a throughline in Demings debate performance, it was her effort to raise doubts about the Florida Republican’s 12 years in the Senate.

“The senator, who has never run anything at all but his mouth, would know nothing about helping people and being there for people when they are in trouble,” Demings said early on in the debate.

But her criticism didn’t stop there. She blamed him for doing little to curb rising property insurance costs in Florida and ignoring the issue of gun violence in a state that has seen multiple mass shootings.

And in her closing statement, Demings touched on a talking point that has been repeated by Democratic candidates over the past couple of months, accusing Rubio of voting against an effort to cap insulin prices.

Rubio ties opponent to the far left

Throughout the debate, Rubio turned to a familiar playbook for Republicans: casting his Democratic opponent as a socialist.

“I don’t know what word you prefer: socialist, Marxist, crazy? I don’t know, I’m open to suggestions,” Rubio said.

That line of attack isn’t novel. Republicans have used it for years to describe Democrats, whom they accuse of supporting out-of-control government spending and unreasonable regulations. 

Still, it’s one that has proved effective in Florida in the past. Republicans made huge gains in the Sunshine State two years ago, particularly among Hispanic voters in South Florida, by painting the modern Democratic Party as sympathetic toward — if not outright allied with — socialists and communists.

Demings for her part aggressively shot down those claims, hitting Rubio for using a tired GOP playbook.

“You’re repeating yourself,” she said. “We’ve seen this show before. ‘Socialist, socialist, crazy, Marxist.’”

Abortion, guns, foreign policy get top billing

For all the state-specific issues raised in the debate, national — and even international — hot-button topics received top billing.

Rubio was put on the defensive over his support for a bill introduced by fellow Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Meanwhile, Demings attacked Rubio over what she described as his inaction on gun violence, referencing the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that left 49 people dead.

“Senator, you used the Pulse nightclub shooting as your inspiration to run again for the Senate in 2016,” she said. “Pulse is in my district. And yet, you’ve done nothing. Nothing to help address gun violence and get dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people.”

The debate also featured a lengthy discussion on foreign policy, a topic that tends to get little attention in congressional races, but one that often shows up in Florida politics. Rubio and Demings both insisted on the need to respond to Russian aggression amid that country’s invasion of Ukraine, but differed on exactly what that would entail.

“We have to hold those who are not our friends accountable, and senator, that does include Russia,” Demings said. “It’s not just China.”

Rubio, meanwhile, insisted that any response to Russian aggression would have to be an “allied response” coordinated with other members of NATO.

The debate doesn’t appear likely to change much

Demings, a rising Democratic star, has struggled to chip away at Rubio’s base of support in the way she’ll need in order to win in November. Tuesday’s debate doesn’t seem likely to change that.

The Republican senator received several rounds of applause throughout the debate, and maintained a relatively cool demeanor in the face of Demings’s most aggressive attacks. 
Conversely, Rubio didn’t do much to alter perceptions of Demings, sticking to a tested list of Republican talking points throughout the debate.

That’s not exactly what Demings was hoping for. Polling shows her trailing Rubio by around 4 or 5 percentage points, and Republicans have been the beneficiaries of a winning streak in Florida in recent years. On Tuesday, the Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan election handicapper, shifted the race into its “Likely Republican” column.

Still, the Sunshine State is known for its unpredictable — and ultra-close — electoral contests, and even Republicans acknowledge the race is still in play.

Source: TEST FEED1

Warnock takes the gloves off against Walker in Georgia

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) is signaling that he’s ready to ditch his typically restrained persona in favor of more direct attacks on his Republican opponent Herschel Walker as the Georgia Senate race enters its final stretch.

 In recent days, Warnock, who has built his campaign around his work in the Senate and a record of bipartisanship, has shifted toward more open confrontation with Walker. He used a Sunday debate that Walker did not attend to hammer the former football star over his history of domestic violence and leveled another series of attacks on Monday, accusing Walker of lying about everything from his academic credentials to his claim that he has worked in law enforcement.

 “I guess he expects the people of Georgia now to hallucinate and imagine that he is also a United States senator,” Warnock told reporters after casting his ballot on the first day of early voting on Monday. “He’s clearly not ready.”

The more pugilistic approach is likely to come as a relief to some Democrats, who have privately complained about Warnock’s tendency to play nice and argue that the incumbent senator needs to do more to highlight Walker’s liabilities in an ever-tightening race.

“I think a lot of what voters appreciate about Raphael Warnock is that he’s a good man; he doesn’t play into the shit show,” one Democratic strategist who has worked on Senate campaigns said. “But at some point, there’s no payoff for being nice, especially when Republicans are going to do everything they can to bring you down.”

“You’ve got to let people know what they’re going to get from Herschel Walker,” the strategist added.

For his part, Walker, who has dealt with his fair share of controversies since launching his Senate bid, has run a campaign almost singularly focused on casting Warnock as an out-of-touch politician who has stood in lockstep with President Biden amid towering inflation and rising crime. 

While Warnock has largely ignored Walker’s attacks, preferring to run as a steady hand for Georgians in Washington, the potential shortcomings of that strategy became apparent Friday, when he met an aggressive Walker for their first and only face-to-face debate.

That showdown saw Walker frequently interrupt and fiercely criticize a cautious Warnock, who seldom went on the attack and focused more on touting Democratic policy achievements, like the passage of a sweeping tax and climate bill over the summer. 

While Walker hit the occasional snag — at one point, he was scolded by the moderator for brandishing an honorary sheriff’s badge in violation of a rule against using props — his debate performance was seen by Republicans as one that could help him quiet doubts about his ability to serve in the Senate.

“I think it gave some comfort to people who had some angst about his ability simply to stand up and articulate and look like he’s fundamentally in charge of both himself and the key issues in a way that matches Georgia,” said Chuck Clay, a former state senator and Georgia GOP chair.

“He overperformed in a way that assured people he’s a competent candidate and can go to the Senate and provide leadership on things that traditionally a majority of Georgians have cared about — the economy, jobs and job security,” Clay said. 

Most polling in the race shows Warnock with only a narrow lead over Walker, and few surveys show either candidate receiving the majority support they’ll need to win the election outright in November and avoid what would likely be a chaotic and expensive runoff.

What’s more, early voting is already underway in Georgia and Election Day is fewer than three weeks out, meaning that the window for either candidate to expand his base of support is rapidly closing. 

Jon Reinish, a Democratic strategist, said that Warnock’s primary mission in the closing weeks of the campaign should be to remind voters of Walker’s personal and political baggage, arguing that a policy-focused closing argument alone may not be enough to bring the race to a close.

“Warnock is a singular figure. He’s a pastor, he’s a person of faith, he’s a man of principles,” Reinish said. “But you have to fight, and you have to score knockout punches, and you have to make sure you’re consistently defining your opponent as part of your closing argument, and Warnock finally seems to be doing that now.”

To be sure, Walker’s turbulent personal life hasn’t gone untouched. Warnock’s campaign has aired ads attacking Walker, while Democratic-aligned groups are spending $36 million hammering the GOP candidate. 

Republicans, meanwhile, have countered with personal attacks of their own. 34N22, a PAC aligned with Walker, dropped $1.5 million on an ad last week featuring police body camera footage of a March 2020 altercation between Warnock and his ex-wife. 

Some Democrats say that the attacks on Walker will be more powerful coming directly from Warnock in the final weeks of the campaign, believing that the outcome of the race could come down to a handful of moderates and swing voters, who may have reservations about both candidates.

“I think the strategy is: We’re going to go hard, we’re going to be more aggressive at the candidate level; we’ve got to turn the heat up to show we’re emotionally invested in this, and it needs to come from the candidate himself,” one Democratic consultant said.

Still, Republicans have stood behind Walker in the face of negative headlines and campaign-trail gaffes. After a report from The Daily Beast earlier this month detailed allegations that Walker had paid for his then-girlfriend to have an abortion in 2009, top Republican groups put out statements of support for Walker, accusing Democrats and the media of trying to smear him.

Clay, the former Georgia state senator, noted that Walker has “been hit with just about every torpedo you can toss at him, and it hasn’t brought him down.” He cautioned that Warnock should be careful not to go too negative against Walker, warning that doing so could damage his bipartisan appeal.

“I think it’s a little more difficult to turn him into a raging bull without losing a little bit of credibility, losing who he is and who he wants to be portrayed as,” Clay said. “If you go too far, people will see it as desperation.”

Source: TEST FEED1

US to announce release of 15M barrels of oil from strategic reserve

The U.S. will release 15 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserve, Biden administration officials plan to announce Wednesday.

The 15 million barrels are the final tranche of a disbursement of 180 million announced in March and comes as energy prices threaten to rise again less than a month before Election Day.

Rising prices have emerged as a drag on Democrats as polls show the economy is one of the issues most top of mind for voters as they head to the ballot box. Early voting began in some states this week.

The sale comes after OPEC+ announced a production cut of 2 million barrels of oil per day earlier in October. Oil prices had dipped as low as $75 per barrel in September before rebounding after the OPEC announcement to more than $90. West Texas Intermediate crude is now at $83 per barrel.

Asked about the possibility of limiting oil exports, officials also said they’re keeping “all tools on the table.”

The U.S. oil reserve is now at its lowest level since the mid-1980s and senior administration officials announced Tuesday evening a plan to buy back crude oil to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, sending a market signal to producers to keep pumping oil ahead of the midterm elections in November.

Officials said repurchases would begin when prices are between $67 and $72 per barrel, indicating that the administration would like to see the price of oil decline. 

Presiden Biden wants the energy sector to “take the signal and increase production” and to make sure that they are giving “the consumer the appropriate price” as they are “taking these profits,” one senior administration official said.

“The profit that energy refining companies are now capturing on every gallon of gasoline is about double what it typically is at this time of year, and the retailer margin over the refinery price is more than 40 percent above the typical level,” administration officials said in a statement. 

“These outsized industry profit margins – adding more than $0.60 to the average price of a gallon of gas – have kept pump prices higher than they should be. Keeping prices high even as input costs fall is unacceptable, and the President will call on companies to pass their savings through to consumers – now,” the statement continued.

The Department of Energy will also institute a rule that allows it to enter fixed price contracts through competitive bids for crude oil products to be delivered at futures dates.

Geopolitical forces are bearing down on energy markets now as the northern hemisphere prepares for winter.

The war in Ukraine is playing out in the European energy supply, which has been heavily dependent on Russian gas exports in the past. Reports of pipeline sabotage came in over the summer as fighting intensified between Russia and Ukraine.

OPEC’s production cut resulted in accusation against its most influential member, Saudi Arabia, that it was siding with Russia in the war.

Chinese demand for imported also may also be ramping up as the country continues to life various Covid restrictions.

Updated at 7:54 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Tax filers can keep more money in 2023 as IRS shifts brackets  

The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday announced rule adjustments to account for inflation for the 2023 tax year, including shifts for tax brackets and the standard deduction.  

The IRS releases inflation adjustments annually, but this year’s announcement comes amid heightened economic concerns about high inflation and a potential recession.  

The adjustments apply to the 2023 tax year, for which tax returns will generally be filed in 2024. They’re aimed at warding off “bracket creep,” when salary increases aimed at accounting for a higher cost of living end up pushing taxpayers into higher tax brackets.  

The standard deduction will increase by $1,800 for married couples filing jointly, by $1,400 for heads of households, and by $900 for single taxpayers and married taxpayers filing separately. 

The income thresholds for tax brackets are among the provision changes “of greatest interest to most taxpayers,” according to the IRS. The tax rates themselves are unchanged from last year, ranging from 10 percent to 37 percent, but the income cutoffs have shifted. 

The top rate of 37 percent applies to individual single taxpayers with income over $578,125 and married couples filing jointly with income over $693,750 — figures up from last year’s $539,900 and $647,850, respectively. 

The lowest rate of 10 percent applies to single taxpayers with income $11,000 or less and married couples filing jointly with income $22,000 or less — up from last year’s $10,275 and $20,550, respectively. 

A single taxpayer making $90,000 in the 2022 tax year would face a top tax rate of 32 percent, while the same income in the 2023 year will face a top rate of 24 percent. 

Other announced IRS changes also affect the Earned Income Tax Credit, estate taxes and flexible spending accounts, among other provisions.

Source: TEST FEED1

Watch live: Rubio, Demings face off in lone Florida Senate debate

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R) and Florida Rep. Val Demings (D) are facing off Tuesday in the state’s lone Senate debate of the midterms.

The debate starts at 7 p.m.

Watch the video above.

Source: TEST FEED1

Cato Institute sues Education Department over student loan cancellation

Libertarian think tank the Cato Institute on Tuesday sued the Department of Education over the Biden administration’s plan to cancel some student loan debt.

“Forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab for other people’s college loans is bad policy, but in the case of President Biden’s order, it is also illegal, because neither President Biden nor the Department of Education has the power to cancel student loans without congressional authorization,” Cato Institute President and CEO Peter Goettler said.

The organization filed the suit in a Kansas federal court and is represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a group that assists in cases “protecting civil liberties from unlawful administrative power,” according to the Cato Institute.

The Biden administration officially launched its student debt relief application on Monday. The White House said that as many as 8 million people have already applied for forgiveness through the Department of Education as of Monday, and Biden said on Tuesday that an additional 4 million people had applied.

The president’s student loan forgiveness program, which he unveiled in August, is set to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers earning under $125,000 and as much as $20,000 for borrowers who received Pell Grants.

Other lawsuits have also sought to end the program, including one from six Republican-led states filed in September that argued it is unlawful because there is no statue from Congress authorizing the cancellation of student loan debt.

Additionally, the public interest firm Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit last month, challenging the administration through a plaintiff who is currently paying off loans and would be subject to an expensive tax in the event of debt relief because he lives in Indiana. Indiana is one of several states that considers debt cancellation taxable income.

Since those first set of lawsuits, the administration updated the plan to exclude borrowers with privately held federal student loans, saying loans not held by the Education Department are no longer eligible.

Biden on Monday, in remarks about the application launch, noted that litigation is underway, adding “our legal judgment is that it won’t” stop the program.

The White House has cited the Heroes Act to justify the forgiveness program in the face of legal challenges. The law allows the Education Department to waive or modify statutes or provisions related to student financial assistance programs during war or national emergencies, with the COVID-19 pandemic being one justification for debt cancellation.

—Updated at 5:39 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Primary Steele dossier source acquitted in loss for special counsel

Igor Danchenko, the primary source behind the Steele dossier, was acquitted Tuesday of lying to the FBI in a case brought by Special Counsel John Durham.

The case is the second such loss for the specially appointed prosecutor charged with investigating the FBI’s Trump-Russia probe.

Over the course of the three year investigation, Durham has lost two cases brought to trial. He was appointed to the role by former Attorney General Bill Barr in 2019 to review the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign during the 2016 elections. 

Danchenko was facing four counts of lying to the FBI. The jury brought back a not guilty verdict for each charge facing the think thank analyst that supplied the bulk of the information in the report. 

This story was updated at 5 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Trump attack leaves GOP wondering if he cares about Senate majority 

Former President Trump’s Monday assault against Joe O’Dea, the GOP’s Senate nominee in Colorado, is angering Republicans while leaving them wondering if he cares about the party winning back the majority in the upper chamber.

O’Dea, a pro-abortion rights moderate whom Democrats spent $4 million against in the primary, was already in an uphill fight against Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).

Now Republicans worry any chance he has of pulling off an upset are being extinguished by Trump, prompting frustration and exasperation with the ex-president.

“It certainly is not [helpful],” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), a Trump ally, told The Hill. “I would hate to see O’Dea lose to Sen. Bennet by a few votes just because Donald Trump urged Republicans not to vote and we came up short of the majority by one senator.”

“If [Sen.] Mitch McConnell [R-Ky.] opposed every Republican nominee who criticized him publicly, we wouldn’t stand a chance,” Cramer continued, referring to the Senate minority leader. “The nation has to be more important than individual personal offenses.”

In a post on his social media site, Trump labeled O’Dea a “RINO,” or “Republican in name only,” and said that “MAGA doesn’t Vote for stupid people with big mouths.”

The barb came in response to O’Dea saying that he would not support the former president if he ran again in 2024 and that he would actively campaign against him.

Adding to the trouble, the remarks came at the worst possible time for O’Dea as ballots started to be distributed in the state on Monday.

One GOP strategist involved in Senate contests likened Trump’s attack on O’Dea to his rhetoric surrounding the Georgia runoffs following his election loss in 2020, which many Republicans believe helped suppress turnout among Republicans.

“If O’Dea is literally the difference between a GOP majority and minority, you think about the profound policy ramifications that come along with that. To think you can be anywhere right of center and be willing to mortgage on a Republican majority just because someone says not nice things about you is pretty revealing,” a second GOP operative involved in Senate races said.

“It’s all about this fealty to him, and you don’t have to be a mathematician to realize how that went in Colorado two years ago,” the strategist added, referring to President Biden’s 14-point win over Trump in the state.

While O’Dea is considered one of the GOP’s best Senate recruits this cycle, he still faces a steep climb to defeat Bennet, a two-term incumbent, in what has become a blue state. No Republican has won a statewide general election in Colorado since 2014, when former Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) defeated former Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), which also led to GOP wins in the offices of state attorney general and secretary of state.

“To win a state like Colorado, you need everyone open to you to vote for you. Any sort of shooting inside the tent has potentially profound consequences,” the second GOP strategist said. “You need everyone.”

In a statement on Monday in response to the ex-president, O’Dea said that he is “a construction guy, not a politician.”

“President Trump is entitled to his opinion but I’m my own man and I’ll call it like I see it. Another Biden, Trump election will tear this country apart,” O’Dea said, adding that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley “would be better choices.”

“These elections should be focused on Joe Biden’s failures – supercharged inflation, a broken border, rampant crime, a war on American energy – not a rehash of 2020,” O’Dea added. “America needs to move forward.”

According to a Marist University survey taken earlier this month, Bennet led O’Dea by 6 percentage points.

The Senate Leadership Fund, a group run by top allies of McConnell, donated $1.2m to an O’Dea super PAC on Oct. 7, which went toward a two-week ad buy in Denver. The group has not ruled out making further investment in the race and is continuing to monitor it, according to an SLF spokesperson.

Given the margin to overcome, some Republicans are skeptical that Trump’s comments will make much of a dent when all is said and done. They note that O’Dea has been vocal about his opposition to the former president for months and believe the state’s antipathy for Trump will render his comments relatively null and void.

“O’Dea has been very clear that he is a Republican. He is a businessperson. He has been very clear about what he thinks about Trump,” said one GOP operative with Trump ties. “I don’t think it’s going to change things for O’Dea either. It’s a wash. It gets Trump some clicks and some headlines. It gets O’Dea the same. … It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. O’Dea says he doesn’t like Trump. Trump bashes O’Dea. O’Dea can say ‘see?’”  

The operative also pointed to Trump’s continued push to install loyalists throughout the GOP ranks, including at the state party and county level, as a likely reason for the Monday statement. 

“Trump wants the party to reflect him,” the strategist added.

Source: TEST FEED1