#sen. Mike Crapo

[beardedmrbean]

President Biden’s labor head could be forcing US taxpayers to foot the bill for roughly $32 billion in unemployment fraud she caused when serving during the COVID-19 pandemic as California’s top labor official, Republican senators wrote in a Wednesday letter.

Sens. Bill Cassidy and Mike Crapo expressed concerns in a letter to Labor Secretary Julie Su about December Labor Department guidelines that may “allow California to shift the consequences of a still unknown amount of federal funds that was lost” by its Employment Development Department (EDD) during her tenure.

The $32.6 billion in COVID relief to fraudsters amounts to as much as one third of the total erroneous unemployment insurance payments, according to a Government Accountability Office report last September.

That’s more than double the annual budget of the US Department of Labor, the senators noted.

A California State Controller report also found that the state “had inadequate control over its financial reporting for federally funded unemployment insurance benefits,” making it difficult to determine the extent of the fraud.

The guidelines let states determine the extent to which funds lost to fraud are paid back — or waived entirely.

Cassidy (R-La.) and Crapo (R-Idaho) said in May 1 testimony before the House Education and Workforce Committee that Su claimed states could only “waive non-fraudulent overpayments.”

“While serving as Secretary for the California Labor & Workforce Development Agency (LWDA), you waived basic fact-checking and fraud prevention requirements for federal pandemic-related unemployment insurance (UI) payments,” the senators wrote.

That decision contradicted US Labor Department guidance, they said, and California’s auditor added that it had made “repeated warnings” to EDD — but the department “did not bolster its fraud detection efforts until months into the pandemic, and it suspended a critical safeguard.” 

EDD ruled that it has taken all “reasonably necessary” steps to recoup the lost funds, making them all but forgiven if the new Labor Department guidelines are approved.

Cassidy and Crapo have demanded Su answer more than a dozen questions related to California’s process for determining its liability.

The Post has reached out to the Labor Department for comment.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The vast majority of the Senate Republican caucus united last week to introduce a bill that would permanently repeal the estate tax, targeting one of the few provisions in the U.S. tax code that solely affects the richest 0.1% of Americans.

Led by Sen. John Thune (South Dakota), the top Republican on the Senate Subcommittee on Taxation and Internal Revenue Service Oversight, 40 Republicans reintroduced their bill to ensure that ultra-rich individuals seeking to hand off tens of millions of dollars — or more — to their heirs can do so completely tax-free. The extremely regressive proposal has been a longtime goal of Republicans, who have already massively watered down the estate tax in past years.

Currently, the estate tax threshold is $12.9 million, and nearly $26 million for couples. Amounts under this are exempted from taxes. This is nearly triple the threshold from 2016 and earlier, as Republicans more than doubled the estate tax cutoff in their major tax overhaul in 2017. The threshold is now so high that it is estimated that less than 0.1% of Americans are subject to the tax.

Evidently, these tax cuts are still not enough for Republicans, who had tried to repeal the tax altogether in 2017. In a press release on the bill, Thune, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) attempted to couch their support of the repeal in efforts to supposedly support farmers — claims that reveal themselves to be a farce when more closely examined.

“For years I have fought to protect farm and ranch families from the onerous and unfair death tax,” Thune said. “Family-owned farms and ranches often bear the brunt of this tax, which makes it difficult and costly to pass these businesses down to future generations.”

Thune’s statement is a misrepresentation of the truth. The vast, vast majority of “family-owned farms” are not subject to the estate tax. In 2020, a mere 0.16% of farm estates owed the tax, according to data from the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This is an exceedingly small number of farms. As the Tax Policy Center estimated, only 50 farms total paid any estate tax in 2017, and this research was done before lawmakers doubled the threshold.

The criticism of the estate tax in defense of farmers is disingenuous for another reason, as Inequality.org pointed out in a blog post this week. The tax code “already has provisions that protect the very few families with farms and businesses subject to estate tax,” wrote Institute for Policy Studies associate fellow and senior adviser for Patriotic Millionaires Bob Lord. “If the bill sponsors truly cared about family farms, ranches, and businesses, they could have proposed legislation to expand these protections but leave the estate tax intact.”

In reality, deep-pocketed lobbyists with the Farm Bureau have long been pushing a repeal of the estate tax — and the group’s deep ties to big business and Wall Street are well documented.

Perhaps not coincidentally, repealing the estate tax would complete the loop of tax avoidance for the wealthiest Americans. The bill targets the “die” part of “buy borrow die,” a common tax dodging scheme used by the wealthy to avoid paying taxes; it is part of the reason that the wealthiest Americans are able to pay little to no taxes year over year.

In the practice of buying, borrowing, and dying, the rich first pour their wealth into assets like stocks, building up a large portfolio. Those assets are then used as collateral for taking out large loans with low interest rates — lower than, say, the income tax rate — that become a wealthy person’s spending money. Then, they die, and hand off their wealth to the next generation, maintaining their dynasty for decades to come.

At very few points do taxes come into the buy, borrow, die equation. Buying and keeping stocks doesn’t incur a tax bill. Taking out loans allows the wealthy to claim very low incomes to skirt income taxes. The estate tax is essentially the only guarantee, and even then, the wealthy have come up with extreme loopholes to dodge the estate tax, too. Republicans, then, are hoping to make tax avoidance even easier by legalizing it entirely; Lord has pointedly labeled the bill the “Billionaires Pay Zero Tax Act.”

The proposal stands in sharp contrast to progressives’ views on taxation. Pointing to extreme and growing wealth inequality, progressives have been calling for increasing taxes on the rich and specifically targeting their wealth and stock portfolios, rather than endlessly allowing the “buy” and “borrow” portions of the cycle.

[alyfoxxxen]

U.S. Senate fails to advance expanded child tax credit, despite broad House support • Idaho Capital Sun

[andronetalks]

Biden’s labor secretary could be forcing taxpayers to foot $32B in unemployment fraud she caused in California

New York Post By Josh ChristensonPublished May 8, 2024, 6:27 p.m. ET President Biden’s labor head could be forcing US taxpayers to foot the bill for roughly $32 billion in unemployment fraud she caused when serving during the COVID-19 pandemic as California’s top labor official, Republican senators wrote in a Wednesday letter. Sens. Bill Cassidy and Mike Crapo expressed concerns in a letter to…

[coinmystique]

Crypto fundraising platform “The Giving Block” despatched a letter to Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mike Crapo (R-ID) on Friday urging them to eradicate appraisal necessities on crypto donations.The corporate, which helps nonprofits settle for crypto donations, mentioned the present necessities make such contributions “overly burdensome to donors.” Particularly, donations exceeding $5,000 in worth require donors to rent a certified appraiser to supply written approval of the transaction for accounting functions.“Donors are often unaware of or confused about these requirements, and finding qualified appraisers familiar with digital assets can be difficult and costly,” wrote the agency. Relying on the appraiser, prices for such companies can vary from 4% to 40% of the donation itself.🧵 As we speak, we despatched a letter to Senators @RonWyden and @MikeCrapo, proposing that we eradicate the appraisal necessities on crypto donations.This challenge impacts each the crypto group and the nonprofit sector, the 2 teams most important to our firm’s mission. ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/UCiK8DP6PC— The Giving Block (@TheGivingBlock) September 8, 2023Such appraisal companies are even required for stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC)—stablecoins particularly designed to be interchangeable 1:1 for U.S. dollars. Given the self-evident values for these property, the letter argues that appraising them “provides no value to the donor, charity, or the U.S. Treasury.”“We speak with donors and charities daily and hear confusion and concern about meeting these requirements,” David Johnson, Normal Counsel for The Giving Block, informed Decrypt through DM. “We help donors obtain appraisals to meet these requirements, but as we explained in the letter, there is no public policy justification for this requirement in the first place.”The letter is available in response to a Senate Finance Committee request in July in search of enter from trade specialists on how you can finest quell uncertainties and repair the “novel regulatory issues” surrounding the taxation of crypto property.Its advice echoes these from crypto coverage suppose tank Coin Middle final month, which additionally known as for appraisal necessities on crypto donations to be scrapped. As a substitute, it claimed crypto is just like “readily valued property” like money and shares, for which alternate worth knowledge is broadly accessible.Johnson mentioned The GIving Block is “aligned with Coin Center on this issue,” and that they count on many crypto and nonprofit teams will assist the change.Crypto transactions are international, peer-to-peer, and just about unattainable to reverse— all causes proponents have mentioned they’re ultimate for supporting humanitarian and political causes when conventional monetary rails could also be closed. In 2022, the crypto group rallied to straight ship Ukraine a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of dollars price of crypto on the name of the nation’s Vice PM.“It’s fast, easy, verifiable,” mentioned Johnson. “Combine that with the great wealth transfer, where young tech-savvy potential donors hold increasingly more wealth, much of that in crypto, and it’s clear that this community is the future of philanthropy.”Keep on prime of crypto information, get day by day updates in your inbox.Supply: https://decrypt.co/155601/bitcoin-donation-company-says-gifted-crypto-should-require-less-paperwork

[blogynewz]

"Unveiling New Diplomatic Horizons: Schumer Embarks on Historic Journey to China, Japan, and South Korea - What Secrets Lie Ahead?"

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has confirmed that he will lead a bipartisan delegation of senators on a visit to China, Japan, and South Korea this month. The purpose of the visit is to advance U.S. interests in the region amid tensions between Washington and Beijing. The delegation will consist of three Democrats and three Republicans, with Schumer and Sen. Mike Crapo…

[blogynewsz]

"Unveiling New Diplomatic Horizons: Schumer Embarks on Historic Journey to China, Japan, and South Korea - What Secrets Lie Ahead?"

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has confirmed that he will lead a bipartisan delegation of senators on a visit to China, Japan, and South Korea this month. The purpose of the visit is to advance U.S. interests in the region amid tensions between Washington and Beijing. The delegation will consist of three Democrats and three Republicans, with Schumer and Sen. Mike Crapo…

[ailtrahq]

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the agency responsible for tax collection, released proposed regulations on the sale and exchange of digital assets by brokers. Under the rules, brokers would be required to use a new form to report to simplify tax filing and cut down on tax cheating.The proposed Form 1099-DA would “help taxpayers determine if they owe taxes, and […] avoid having to make complicated calculations or pay digital asset tax preparation services in order to file their tax returns,” according to a Treasury Department statement. It added:“Under current law, taxpayers owe tax on gains and may be entitled to deduct losses on digital assets when sold, but for many taxpayers it is difficult and costly to calculate their gains.”The regulations bring digital asset reporting into line with reporting on other types of assets, the Treasury said. The draft proposal, set to run in the Federal Register on Aug. 29, is 282 pages long. It is part of the Biden administration’s implementation of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Treasury said. IIJA provisions are expected to raise $28 billion in new tax revenue over ten years.The proposed rules would go into effect in 2026 to reflect sales and exchanges carried out in 2025. Written comments on the proposal are being accepted through Oct. 30. At least one public hearing will be held after that date.Judging from the initial reaction to the proposal, the IRS may have a lot of comments to field. Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association, an industry advocacy group, released a statement that said: “It’s important to remember that the crypto ecosystem is very different from that of traditional assets, so the rules must be tailored accordingly and not capture ecosystem participants that don’t have a pathway to compliance.”Smith added that the group and its members were looking forward to providing comment.Reuters quoted DeFi Education Fund CEO Miller Whitehouse-Levine as saying, “Today's proposal from the IRS is confusing, self-refuting, and misguided. It attempts to apply regulatory frameworks predicated on the existence of intermediaries where they don't exist.”Treasury & IRS released proposed regulations on the sale and exchange of digital assets by brokers:https://t.co/u6TewiS7tV— DeFi Education Fund (@fund_defi) August 25, 2023 Patrick McHenry, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, called the proposal “another front in the Biden Administration’s ongoing attack on the digital asset ecosystem.” McHenry also called the proposed rules “misguided,” and said, “Following the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, numerous lawmakers of both parties made clear that any proposed rule must be narrow, tailored, and clear.” Draft of IRS proposed digital asset broker reporting rules. Source: The Federal RegisterMcHenry added that he was glad that exemptions in the proposal reflected those in the Keep Innovation in America bill, which he co-wrote with Rep. Ritchie Torres. McHenry said the bill is intended to “fix the poorly constructed digital asset reporting provisions” in the IIJA.Advocacy group Coin Center weighed in on digital asset taxation a few days earlier in a letter to Sens. Ron Wyden and Mike Crapo. The letter contained suggestions very specifically tailored to digital assets and raised privacy concerns. Source

[mariacallous]

Sen. Tim Scott, one of the many underdogs in the Republican presidential slugfest, is now taking advice from the Pentagon’s former top Asia hand, three people familiar with the move told Foreign Policy, a decision that could help the South Carolina senator kill the perception that he’s a dove on China. 

Sen. Tim Scott, one of the many underdogs in the Republican presidential slugfest, is now taking advice from the Pentagon’s former top Asia hand, three people familiar with the move told Foreign Policy, a decision that could help the South Carolina senator kill the perception that he’s a dove on China. 

People close to Scott have been briefed by Randall Schriver, an assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs during the Trump administration and former George W. Bush-era State Department official who now runs the Project 2049 Institute, an Arlington-based think tank that advocates for the U.S. defense of Taiwan. 

Schriver has traveled to Taiwan twice since leaving government in 2019, including for a meeting with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. Schriver’s institution has pushed for the United States to expand military cooperation with Taiwan, including through military exercises and by speeding up U.S. weapons that are stuck in a $19 billion multiyear backlog of Taiwanese purchases, such as air defenses. 

“They are really trying to beef up Tim’s foreign-policy chops. He’s got a long way to go to make Republicans happy,” said one person familiar with the advisory effort. 

Schriver told Foreign Policy in an email that though he is an “enthusiastic” Scott supporter, he has not yet been asked to formally join the campaign. “On a volunteer basis I have offered my thoughts to folks at Great Opportunity Policy, a C4 that aligns closely to the senator’s views, and to others who I understand to be in his policy orbit,” Schriver wrote. 

With Taiwan experiencing regular Chinese incursions into its air defense identification zone in the past several years, Schriver has called for the United States to drop the use of the term “One China” to describe relations with Taiwan, since the policy, first outlined by then-President Richard Nixon after his 1972 visit to China, was predicated on Beijing’s peaceful relations with Taiwan. Under the policy, the United States recognizes the People’s Republic of China as the only official government of the country. 

While Schriver has been notching resume bullets to prove he’s a rock-ribbed Washington China hawk, conservatives in Washington don’t think Scott, the Senate’s only Black Republican, is tough enough on China. First appointed to the U.S. Senate a decade ago from a Charleston-based House district by then-South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley—a current rival for the GOP presidential nomination—Scott has twice won reelection and become the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee. 

“It doesn’t matter who your advisors are, what I’m looking for from Scott … is when you say, ‘Oh, China is really important, China is really important,’ what are you willing to do that matters?” said Derek Scissors, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “Because if China is big and important, and a threat in some ways, then it’s going to cost us something to deal with that.”

Scissors listed House Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry and the Senate Finance Committee’s ranking member, Mike Crapo, as two other Republicans who are close to the U.S. financial community and have taken softer stances on China.

From that perch that oversees both the short-form video service TikTok and outbound U.S. investment to China, Scott has faced criticism. Politico reported earlier this month that Scott watered down a bipartisan bill spearheaded by Sens. John Cornyn and Bob Casey that would have given the U.S. government far-reaching powers to block deals with Chinese tech companies. 

“He seems to deserve the criticism he’s gotten so far,” said one Republican source, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk candidly about the presidential contender. “He has a completely undistinguished China record in the Senate, and it’s partly a blank, but there are those areas where he’s been engaged where he seems to be weak.” Scott had previously backed proposed rules to give the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States broader powers to crack down on China’s ability to purchase American firms critical to national security and has accused Beijing of accelerating the flow of the deadly opioid fentanyl across U.S. borders. 

Though former President Donald Trump has continued to dominate national polls, Scott has risen to third place in the Republican field behind a campaign centered on his Christian faith, kitchen table issues, targeting the “radical left,” and raising his national profile by spending heavily on TV ads. A free-trade advocate who backed the North American Free Trade Agreement, Scott has also called U.S. support for Ukraine a “vital national interest,” a sharp contrast with both Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Trump, who the South Carolina senator backed nearly 97 percent of the time in congressional votes. 

The China question remains in the air. Trump levied tariffs. Current U.S President Joe Biden left them, and levied some bans on critical exports. But 50 years after Nixon opened China, it’s the closing that is crucial.

“The no. 1 problem actor on China in the Republican Party by far is Trump,” said Scissors. “[Scott] has plenty of company.”

[ffmgicom]

New Housing Finance Bill Could Affect Taxpayers

New Housing Finance Bill Could Affect Taxpayers Congress may soon revisit the housing finance system. A new bill could be released this week by Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs chairman Sen. Mike Crapo. Which path policymakers take will affect who can afford to buy a home, how much affordable rental housing is available, and the security of our housing system. The path they choose will…

[faulentzer]

I wonder how much this guy’s net worth has increased since he was first elected. Way to go Crapo!

[wmproprt]

"The issue is liquidity, not capital." @MikeCrapo

Biden is blame shifting: Sen. Mike Crapo

Shredding the Biden administration’s economic policies on Kudlow

@larry_kudlow

[dravingmama]

President's News | Press room | United States Senate Finance Committee

President’s News | Press room | United States Senate Finance Committee

September 22, 2022 Third Draft Finance Committee Bipartisan Discussion on Mental Health Funding Medical Training for More Providers Washington D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont. ) today released discussion draft legislation aimed at expanding the mental health workforce to…

[coinmystique]

The Blockchain Affiliation, a United States-based cryptocurrency advocacy group, has submitted ideas for lawmakers to think about in potential laws on the tax remedy of digital property.In a Sept. 8 letter to U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Mike Crapo, the Blockchain Affiliation stated lawmakers ought to assist the Preserve Innovation in America Act, a invoice aimed toward altering the reporting necessities for sure taxpayers concerned in crypto transactions. In line with the advocacy group, any laws launched in Congress ought to “create symmetry” between the taxation of crypto and non-crypto property, in addition to make clear necessities for data on earnings earned from staking and mining crypto.A few of the suggestions had been much like these proposed by crypto advocacy group Coin Middle in August, together with establishing a de minimis threshold aimed toward excluding positive factors or losses of sure crypto transactions from tax reporting necessities. The Blockchain Affiliation submitted the letter on the final attainable day the U.S. Senate Monetary Providers Committee stated it will be accepting responses following a July request.“[T]he Committee should focus on developing intentional, measured legislation concerning specific issues of taxation as they relate to digital assets,” stated the Sept. 8 letter. “[T]he Association urges the Committee to take care not to enact legislation that provides less-favorable tax treatment for digital assets as compared to other assets and rather, focus on developing legislation that would level the playing field for digital assets compared to other assets.”1/ In the present day, we submitted a letter in response to the Senate Committee on Finance’s Request For Info (RFI) searching for coverage enter on the taxation of digital property.https://t.co/4aF8XGfjpY pic.twitter.com/pEm3BfwuuH— Blockchain Affiliation (@BlockchainAssn) September 8, 2023Associated: Blockchain Affiliation requires investigation into Prometheum over alleged ‘sweetheart’ SEC dealDifferent ideas for the 2 senators to think about included opposing a digital asset mining excise tax proposed by the Biden administration, claiming the measure may “inhibit the growth and development” of the crypto trade. The proposal, first introduced in March as a part of U.S. President Joe Biden’s fiscal yr 2024 price range, would come with a 30% excise tax on electrical energy utilized by crypto miners.The decision for crypto tax steerage by U.S. lawmakers adopted a July 31 announcement from the Inside Income Service (IRS) stating that filers should report staking rewards as gross earnings within the yr they had been acquired, setting new requirements for U.S. taxpayers in 2024. The IRS largely taxes the shopping for, promoting and change of crypto property as capital positive factors and losses, with mining rewards topic to the identical necessities.Journal: Finest and worst international locations for crypto taxes — plus crypto tax ideasSupply: https://cointelegraph.com/information/blockchain-association-responds-lawmakers-request-crypto-tax-guidance

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

[scottbcrowley2]

Sen. Mike Crapo lays out ‘significant concerns’ with federal marijuana banking bill - Fri, 20 Dec 2019 PST

The chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Committee said this week he’d like to see several changes to a bill allowing banks and cannabis companies to work together without fear of federal reprisals. Industry groups say previous legislation that passed the U.S. House of Representatives is needed and the senator’s concerns could make passage difficult. Sen. Mike Crapo lays out ‘significant concerns’ with federal marijuana banking bill - Fri, 20 Dec 2019 PST