Biden boosted by Senate rules
Fresh new path around GOP blockade
‘Secret restaurants’ probed: Champagne, lobster and no masks: That’s what a French TV documentary says is on the menu at one of multiple high-end “clandestine restaurants” catering to the Paris elite, in violation of nationwide pandemic restrictions.
What’s even more shocking to the newly confined French public — and exhausted medical staff — is that one organizer claimed government ministers are among those who attend.
French authorities are investigating the accusations, and government members scrambled to insist they’re behaving properly.
Anti-capitalist activists and critics of President Emmanuel Macron aren’t convinced, and plan a protest Tuesday — advertised on social networks under the banner “Let’s Eat the Rich” — at one of the alleged secret venues,
The Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday that an investigation was opened Sunday into possible charges of endangerment and undeclared labor, and to identify the organizers and participants of the alleged gatherings.
A documentary that aired on French network M6 over the weekend included a man saying that he had eaten in two or three clandestine restaurants “with a certain number of ministers.”
The prosecutor’s office said Monday that the investigation is continuing despite reports that the man featured in the documentary had retracted his claim.
Government members denied knowledge of any wrongdoing by their colleagues. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin asked police to look into the claims.
M6 aired hidden camera footage that it said came from two different private venues in recent weeks, as a new virus surge swept over France and restrictions tightened.
At one venue, white-gloved waiters presented fixed-price menus running from 160 to 490 euros (around $190 to $575) per person whose offerings included Champagne, truffles with foie gras, and lobster in ginger sauce. One host said guests don’t wear masks, despite France’s indoor mask requirements, because “it’s a private club. We want people to feel at home.”
At another venue, reportedly offering a
WASHINGTON, April 6, (AP): With an appeal to think big, President Joe Biden is promoting his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan directly to Americans, summoning public support to push past the Republicans lining up against the massive effort they sum up as big taxes, big spending and big government.
Republicans in Congress are making the politically brazen bet that it’s more advantageous to oppose the costly American Jobs Plan, saddling the Democrats with ownership of the sweeping proposal and the corporate tax hike Biden says is needed to pay for it. He wants the investments in roads, schools, broadband and clean energy approved by summer.
On Monday, Biden received a boost from an unexpected source. The Senate parliamentarian greenlighted a strategy that would allow Democrats in the evenly split 50-50 chamber to rely on a 51-vote threshold to advance some bills, rather than the typical 60 votes typically needed. The so-called budget reconciliation rules can now be used more often than expected — giving Democrats a fresh new path around the GOP blockade.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s spokesman welcomed the parliamentarian’s opinion as “an important step forward.” Spokesman Justin Goodman said no decisions have been made on the process ahead, but “this key pathway is available to Democrats if needed.”
The prospects for a massive infrastructure investment, once a bipartisan source of unity on Capitol Hill, have cracked and groaned under the weight of political polarization. Where Biden sees an urgency in going big, Republicans want a narrow plan that focuses on roads and bridges, and warn that 220-euro ($260) meal, visitors in elegant attire shared cheek kisses and strolled a red carpet. (AP)
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any corporate tax increase would crush economic growth.
“They know we need it,” Biden said of the Republicans as he returned to Washington on Monday. “Everybody around the world is investing billions and billions of dollars in infrastructure, and we’re going to do it here.”
The standoff almost ensures a months-long slog as Congress hunkers down to begin drafting legislation and the White House keeps the door open to working across the aisle with Republicans, hoping that continued public attention will drum up support.
Modest
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell declared plainly on Monday that Biden’s plan is “something we’re not going to do.”
Speaking to reporters in Kentucky, McConnell said Republicans could support a “much more modest” approach, and one that doesn’t rely on corporate tax hikes to pay for it.
A core dividing line is Biden’s effort to pay for infrastructure by undoing Donald Trump’s tax break for corporations, a signature achievement of the Trump White House and its partners in Congress.
The 2017 GOP tax bill, which all the Republicans voted for, slashed the corporate rate from 35% to 21%. It was supposed to usher in a new era of American investment and job creation, yet growth never came close to the promised levels and the economy fell into a recession because of the pandemic.
Biden proposes raising the rate to 28% and instituting a global minimum rate to dissuade companies from relocating in lower-tax havens. Democratic senators led by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the chairman of the Senate Finance
Greenland election shows split: Greenland is holding an early parliamentary election Tuesday focused in part on whether the semi-autonomous Danish territory
Kosovo’s newly-elected President Vjosa Osmani Sadriu, with her husband Prindon Sadriu and their twin daughters Dua and Anda (left-right, unknown), attend the presidential hand over ceremony in Pristina, Kosovo, on April 6. Osmani took over the presidency after being elected to the post during a two-day extraordinary session of parliament. (AP)
Committee, unveiled their own framework for an international taxation overhaul Monday that could provide an opening to Biden’s approach.
“We desperately need reform,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., one of those involved in the effort.
Shepherding Biden’s proposal through Congress remains a work in progress, particularly in the evenly-divided 50-50 Senate, where Democrats have the majority because the vice president from their party, Kamala Harris, can cast a tie-breaking vote.
But a single senator can break ranks to influence the size and shape of the package. On Monday, Sen Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., indicated he would prefer a corporate tax rate at 25%, lower than what Biden is proposing.
Seizing on Democratic divisions, Republicans have signaled zero interest in undoing the tax cuts they approved with Trump, and instead prefer a smaller infrastructure package paid for by user fees on drivers or other public-private partnerships that share the costs.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., a member of Senate GOP leadership, said Sunday a smaller infrastructure package of about $615 billion, or 30% of what Biden is proposing, could draw bipartisan support.
Administration officials have encouraged Republicans to talk more fully about what they dislike and would do instead, under the opinion that a battle of ideas will only help Biden gain support with voters.
The president has already met twice with bipartisan groups of lawmakers in the Oval Office, and members of Biden’s Cabinet leading the charge on infrastructure have also have placed dozens of calls to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. should allow international companies to mine the sparsely populated Arctic island’s substantial deposits of rare-earth metals.
Lawmakers agreed on a snap election after the center-right Democrats pulled out of Greenland’s three-party governing coalition in February, leaving the government led by the center-left Forward party with a minority in the national assembly, the 31-seat Inatsisartut.
One of the main reasons the Democrats withdrew was a deep political divide over a proposed mining project involving uranium and rare-earth metals in southern Greenland. Supporters see the in the Kvanefjeld mine project as a potential source of jobs and economic prosperity.
Former prime minister Kim Kielsen pushed to give the green light to mine owner Greenland Minerals, an Australia-based company with Chinese ownership, to start operation. Erik Jensen — Kielsen’s recent successor as Forward party leader — is opposed to granting the company a mining license.
Recent election polls showed the leftleaning Community of the People party (Inuit Ataqatigiit), a staunch opponent of the mine project, in position to become the largest party in the Greenlandic Parliament.
The opposition party has stated that a majority of Greenland’s 56,000 inhabitants, most of them indigenous Inuit people, are against the project, largely for environmental reasons.
The mining proposal is relevant beyond Greenland. The largely ice-covered island has the world’s largest undeveloped deposits of rare-earth metals, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. (AP)