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Package revives various business tax breaks related to R&D and capital expenses, and expands the child tax credit

On Wednesday, the House passed a $78 billion bipartisan tax package which revives various business tax breaks related to R&D and capital expenses, and expands the child tax credit.

While the package passed by a vote of 357-70, a major win for House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-MO), and it handed Democrats a significant win on the child tax credit, it faces serious hurdles in the Senate.

As Punchbowl News suggests: “This popular bipartisan tax bill is going to get caught up in a Senate legislative logjam over the next few weeks Just consider what’s on the agenda already for the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body”:

• The Senate is currently in the middle of trying to craft a national defense supplemental, including border security money and aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. This is the chamber’s top priority right now. 
• The federal government’s shutdown deadlines under the current continuing resolution are coming up very soon — March 1 and March 8. Each of these bills include hundreds of billions of dollars in spending, and party leaders will need plenty of time to get them across the floor.   
• The FAA’s authority expires March 8. The Senate Commerce Committee has yet to mark up the upper chamber’s version of the FAA reauthorization. But March 8 is a hard deadline for the FAA to be reauthorized.   
• Most importantly, if the House impeaches Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — which could happen as soon as next week — the Senate will need to hold an impeachment trial immediately. Impeachment has the highest privilege in the Senate.

And after next week, the Senate will leave town for two weeks during the Presidents’ Day recess. According to the report, both the House and Senate will only be in session at the same time for just three days in February. 

That said, Senate Minority Whip John Thune said that part of the recess may be scrapped if the Senate addresses the border security-Ukraine bill by the end of next week. “I don’t know that you could let this thing hang out there much longer,” he told Punchbowl.

And even if Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tries to move the tax legislation as a standalone bill, it would likely take at least two weeks to process.

GOP is in no rush…

In the lead-up to the House vote, Republican Senators weren’t getting on board Wednesday – and have instead been pushing for changes to the tax bill. What’s more, they’ve been pushing for it to be marked up by the Senate Finance Committee, which could stall the entire effort.

The top Republican on the Finance panel, Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, has been in no rush to embrace it, and he’s pointed to concerns over the child tax credit expansion as the reason why.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues to vet the legislation, address concerns, and make the necessary changes to build support,” Crapo said in a statement.

Senate Republicans have picked at the child tax credit policy in the bill, the pay-for and the broader politics.

“I think passing a tax bill that makes the president look good, may allow checks before the election — means that [Joe Biden] could be reelected and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax bill,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) told reporters. Those are the 2017 Trump tax cuts. -Punchbowl

The new tax plan would be financed by curbing the employee retention tax credit, a pandemic-era measure which was designed to keep workers on the payroll – but which as the NY Times notes, has become a magnet for fraud.

The Wednesday package that passed the house was brokered by the two top tax writers in Congress, Smith, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Chairman of the Finance Committee, and has the support of the White House.

Republican proponents have held up the business tax breaks as a win, and have even framed the child tax credit as a victory.

“The child tax credit reforms in this bill are pro-family policies that maintain the child tax credit structure of the Trump-era G.O.P. tax reform,” Smith said in a statement. “The child tax credit provisions in this bill help families crushed by inflation, remove the penalty for families with multiple children and maintains work requirements.”

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Michael Yon joins Alex Jones to issue an emergency warning to those American and Texan patriots who wish to actively help protect the southern border.

Targets will include Iranian personnel and facilities in both countries, officials say

The United States has approved plans for a series of strikes over multiple days against targets in Iraq and Syria in response to recent attacks on US forces in the Middle East, including the drone attack that killed three service members in Jordan last week, CBS reported on Thursday, citing US officials.

The targets will include Iranian personnel and facilities in Iraq and Syria, the officials said. They added that weather will be a major factor in the timing of the strikes.

On Sunday, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said three US soldiers had been killed and 25 others injured in a drone attack at a US military base in Jordan’s northeast near the border with Syria. On Monday, CENTCOM said the number of injured US soldiers had risen to 34, eight of whom had to be evacuated.

Jordanian cabinet spokesman Muhannad Mubaidin said that the strike targeted the US’s Al-Tanf base in Syria, not a base on Jordanian territory.US President Joe Biden pinned the blame on unspecified Iran-backed militant groups, while also saying the US was still gathering the facts. Iran has denied playing any role in the attack.

On Monday, US media reported that US President Joe Biden discussed a “significant military response” to the attack during a meeting with top US officials on Sunday. Later in the day, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the White House was seeking to respond to the attack “in a very consequential way,” but was not willing to escalate tensions in the Middle East.

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Michael Yon joins Alex Jones to issue an emergency warning to those American and Texan patriots who wish to actively help protect the southern border.

Washington has reportedly prevented an “imminent” strike against an American aircraft

The US military and Yemen’s Houthi rebels have made dueling claims of successful strikes in their ongoing battle over Red Sea shipping lanes.

The latest salvos included a US airstrike targeting a Houthi missile in Yemen that was reportedly prepared to launch. The Houthis later claimed an “accurate and direct” missile strike against a cargo ship in the Red Sea.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the surface-to-air missile was struck and destroyed on Wednesday afternoon in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen. American forces targeted a Houthi launch site after determining that the missile “presented an imminent threat to US aircraft,” CENTCOM said. The command did not specify the missile’s location. The Houthis reportedly confirmed the US strike and said it was in the northern Yemeni city of Saada.

Houthi spokesman Yahya Saree said “several appropriate naval missiles” were deployed in striking the KOI merchant vessel. He identified the ship as American and said it was heading to Israel. The Liberian-flagged container ship is registered to London-based Oceonix Services Ltd., which reportedly has ties to a unit of US banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Saree said the merchant ship was targeted a few hours after the Houthis launched missiles against the USS Gravely destroyer in the Red Sea. CENTCOM previously said that the USS Gravely had shot down a cruise missile over the Red Sea on Tuesday night.

The latest strikes come amid an escalating conflict between US forces in the Middle East and various militant groups in the region. The Houthis and other militias have reportedly carried out hundreds of attacks against US military assets and shipping interests since the Israel-Hamas war began in October.

The Houthis “will confront the American-British escalation with escalation and will not hesitate to carry out comprehensive and effective military operations in retaliation to any British-American foolishness against beloved Yemen,” Saree said. All US and UK ships in the Red and Arabian Seas are “legitimate targets,” he added, and the Houthis will continue to fight in solidarity with “the oppressed Palestinian people.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday that the “Iranian-backed” Islamic Resistance in Iraq was responsible for a drone strike that killed three US troops and wounded more than 40 on Sunday. He said a multi-faceted US response is being prepared, but he reiterated the claim that the administration of US President Joe Biden seeks to avoid a wider war with Iran.

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Michael Yon joins Alex Jones to issue an emergency warning to those American and Texan patriots who wish to actively help protect the southern border.

Can society flourish after breaking free of the globalists’ shackles?

The Quartering joins Infowars live to discuss politics, popular culture, and to have some fun with spicy Alex Jones memes.

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Alex Jones shares his thoughts on the latest undercover footage from OMG

Alex Jones shares his thoughts on the latest James O’Keefe undercover report, this time exposing a top White House advisor who admitted Biden’s mental state is kaput and that the administration wants to boot Kamala Harris but are afraid of firing the first black female to serve as VP.

Both Jones and tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom pointed out the video highlights a glaring security risk considering O’Keefe easily got the Biden insider to gossip while hardly wearing a disguise.

Jones said, “Can you imagine what foreign intelligence agencies are able to do? This is beyond a national security crisis because America’s been hijacked by globalists that want World War Three. This is a global crisis of incompetence now displayed at a level never before seen.”

“Imagine what professional foreign spies can achieve when James O’Keefe disguised with nothing but glasses and a homosexual demeanor can get someone from the White House executive office with top security clearance to sing like a bird,” wrote Kim Dotcom.

O’Keefe revealed the White House advisor, Charlie Kraiger, has deleted multiple social media accounts.

However, O’Keefe shared archived versions of Kraiger’s now-deleted accounts.

Facebook: pic.twitter.com/tF6owRVGiu

— James O’Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) February 1, 2024

Watch the full encounter below:

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Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin has joined a growing list of donors to Harvard and other top schools who have decided to stop financially supporting them. Griffin recently explained why he is no longer supporting […]

The post Harvard Megadonor Stops Donations, Claims Elite Schools Produce ‘Whiny Snowflakes’ appeared first on The People’s Voice.