Page 7 - Florida Sentinel 12-22-17

White House And Political News
Republican Tax Reform Bill Passes; What It Means
They looked like excited frat boys. Happy that they had fi- nally won their first intramural sports game. That was the scene in the halls of the U. S. Congress this week.
The U. S. Senate voted late Tuesday night to advance Re- publicans' ambitious $1.5 tril- lion rewrite of the tax code, moving one step closer to achieving their first major leg- islative victory under Presi- dent Donald Trump.
House Republicans voted earlier Tuesday to also approve the measure — a compromise bill between the two chambers —but a late technical objection by the Senate parliamentarian to three small parts of the leg- islation, so the House had to vote again on a revised version on Wednesday.
The Republican controlled House (227-203) and Senate (51-48) vote on the bill, the largest overhaul of the tax code in 30 years, was along party lines.
In dramatic form, House Speaker, Paul Ryan, who had long sought the overhaul, after announcing the vote, brought the gavel down emphatically and then let it drop off the podium.
What will the bill do?
Corporate taxes will be set at 21%, instead of the current rate of 35%.
The bill will also lower indi- vidual tax rates, temporarily. Other key elements include:
Less inheritance tax
An expanded child tax credit
Lower taxes on overseas
House Speaker dropped the gavel after the vote on Tuesday that revealed that Republicans finally had passed a bill under President Trump.
profits
The bill will hollow out mid-
dle- and lower-income Floridi- ans, as it would in every state and student loan deductions will also end.
People with children would benefit under the proposed bill, but single earners would not. Higher earners would ben- efit more. And when the tax rate reductions expire in 2025, they would return to their cur- rent, much higher, levels, ac- cording to the New York Times.
Jacksonville Democratic Congressman, Al Lawson says it’s disappointing his party wasn’t brought in to the fold more. He believes pressure from the President to get this done before the end of the year didn’t leave enough time to re- ally hammer out the differ- ences.
“It was a glorious day for the Republicans, but it’s a sad day for Americans.” Lawson says.
“It ought to be enough that
$1.5 trillion are borrowed in order to finance a huge tax cut for multinational corporations with incentives to send Ameri- can jobs overseas. That ought to be enough. And it ought to be enough that compared to that, they’re just crumbs for the hardworking muddle-class, hardworking families. But there’s more. In this tax bill, in- deed CBO has said 13 million people will lose health insur- ance as a result of something that was done to the Affordable Care Act,” Florida Democratic Senator Bill Nelson said on the Senate floor.
Trump tweeted:
The United States Senate just passed the biggest in history Tax Cut and Reform Bill. Ter- rible Individual Mandate (ObamaCare)Repealed. Goes to the House tomorrow morn- ing for final vote. If approved, there will be a News Confer- ence at The White House at approximately 1:00 P.M. 10:09 PM - 19 Dec 201
New Jersey’s U. S. Senator Cory Booker and his family have been receiving death threats.
FBI Investigating Blackout At Atlanta’s Airport
The FBI is part of the probe into what caused a fire that knocked out power to the world's busiest airport in At- lanta, but an agency spokesman said Tuesday there was no sign of anything con- nected to terrorism.
"There's no indication at this point of anything nefarious," FBI spokesman Kevin Row- son said.
The federal Bureau of Alco- hol, Tobacco, Firearms and Ex- plosives has also been involved in the investigation, Georgia Power spokesman Craig Bell said.
"We're bringing everything we have to bear to the situation to make sure this doesn't hap- pen again," Bell said Tuesday.
No conclusions have been
Atlanta Airport Trying To Get Back To Normal After 11-Hour Blackout.
drawn as to the cause of the fire, which took out the air- port's power supply and also its backup electricity for about 11 hours Sunday. The blackout stranded thousands of passen-
gers on grounded jets and in darkened concourses and led to the cancellation of more than 1,500 flights just ahead of the frenzied holiday travel pe- riod.
Donald Trump, Jr. posed with Ted Cruz of Texas at an event in Dallas, and mocked former president Obama.
Security Stepped Up After Sen. Cory Booker And Family Receive Death Threats
Senator Cory Booker and his family have received a re- cent death threat, ABC News reported. Police officers have been added to Booker’s secu- rity detail at his Newark, New Jersey residence as a result of the threat, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said in a state- ment Saturday.
“The Newark Police Division has been notified by the United States Capitol Police (USCP) regarding a threat on the life of
New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and his family mem- bers,” Baraka said.
News of the threat came after Booker called for Presi- dent Trump to resign and leave The White House on De- cember 9, North Jersey re- ported. The Democratic lawmaker, who is being eyed as a presidential candidate hope- ful in 2020 and campaigned for Doug Jones, is far from alone in wanting Trump out.
Donald Trump, Jr. Does Racist Mocking Of Former President Obama While In Texas
Dallas restaurant owner and his customers have accused Donald Trump, Jr. of racism after he mock- ingly posed with a picture of a cookie with former president Barack Obama‘s face on it.
Stephan Courseau, who owns the French eatery Le Bil- boquet, is livid after discover- ing that Trump, Jr. and Sen. Ted Cruz made fun of and taunted the former president with the cookie.
He says had he known what Trump and Cruz intended to do, he would’ve seen to it that the cookie, which recreates
Obama’s iconic “Hope” cam- paign posters, never saw the light of day.
Trump’s photo has been de- scribed as a “racist minstrel show.”
Courseau says that when the photo made its rounds on the internet, he received many calls from angry customers. Pa- trons demanded to know how he could allow such a thing to happen in his establishment.
Trump, Jr. and company, he says, were at a private event at the restaurant at the time. Courseau, however, was not present.
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