1ºA mammoth infrastructure bill is on the way from Congress, and policy-makers are touting a corporate-tax-rate hike to help pay for it. Treasury secretary Janet Yellen even proposed a global minimum corporate-tax rate this week. These are both bad ideas for three reasons.
First, corporations do not pay any corporate tax — individuals do. That is because companies pass on their costs. Some of the tax is paid by consumers, who pay higher prices. Company employees pay some of the tax through lower wages. And investors’ retirement accounts pay some of the tax through lower returns.
Ben Please take an economics class!
2ºReleased?? Or exchanged with a notorious Taliban druglord who were serving life sentence? The pattern seems the same to me,first an American citizen is set as a bait for Taliban kidnappers so as to cover up American government’s dirty deals with the Taliban. Back in 2009 they set sergeant Bowe Bergdal to be captured outside wire by Taliban to creat a pretext for American government to release 5 top Taliban commanders out of GTMO and prepare handing-over-to Taliban negotiations.I think this latest deal between American government and the terrorist Taliban is all about CIA jointly unleash Opium War against Russia and her central Asian satlitie republics.In the new Cold War of 2022,Taliban is the new allies of America. “Fool me once shame on you,fool me twice shame on me”…
3ºKey Points: Democrats’ Inflation Act
$745 billion in new spending
$248 billion for Obamacare subsidies when removing false 3-year sunset for households earning as much as $300,000
$400+ billion in Green New Deal spending
$80 billion for IRS to double in size and conduct 1 million more audits per year on taxpayers making less than $200,000
$599 billion of tax increases and offset gimmicks
$146 billion in new debt
CBO Confirms Democrats’ Plan Won’t Reduce Inflation, Showers Benefits on Wealthy, and Harms America’s Economy
Sen. Manchin’s Favorite Budget Model: “Inflation Reduction Act” Will Increase Inflation
Over 230 economists warn Manchin’s spending bill will perpetuate inflation
Democrats In Their Own Words: Don’t Raise Taxes During a Recession
Congressional Scorekeeper Confirms Democrats’ Reconciliation Bill Raises Drug Prices
As Americans are Paying Nearly $6,000 for Biden’s Inflation Tax, Democrats Plan to Raise Taxes More on Those Making Less Than $400,000
4ºor read it here: Taliban freed from Guantanamo, claims exchanged for American
RE Frerichs’ release: “This can be a new chapter between Afghanistan and the United States, this can open a new door for talks between both countries,” Muttaqi said at the Kabul presser.
By RAHIM FAIEZ - AP News
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A senior Taliban detainee held for years at Guantanamo Bay said Monday he was released and handed over earlier in the day to the Taliban in Kabul, in exchange for an American prisoner held in Afghanistan. Bashir Noorzai, a notorious drug lord and member of the Taliban, told reporters in Kabul that he spent 17 years and six months in the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, and that he was the last Taliban prisoner there. The Taliban-appointed foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, also spoke at the press conference alongside Noorzai and welcomed the exchange, saying it marked the start of a “new era” in U.S.-Taliban relations.
Muttaqi said the released American was Mark Frerichs, a Navy veteran and civilian contractor kidnapped in Afghanistan on Jan. 31, 2020. Frerichs was last seen in a video distributed earlier this year, pleading for his release so that he can be reunited with his family, according to a recording posted by The New Yorker magazine at the time. There was no independent confirmation or word from Washington on Frerichs’ release. “This can be a new chapter between Afghanistan and the United States, this can open a new door for talks between both countries,” Muttaqi said at the Kabul presser.
“This act shows us that all problems can be solved through talks and I thank both sides’ teams who worked so hard for this to happen,” Muttaqi added. Frerichs, of Lombard, Illinois, was believed to be held by the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani network, and U.S. officials across two presidential administrations had tried unsuccessfully to get him home. In the video, which marked the first time Frerichs was seen since his abduction, he says it was filmed last November. Videos of hostages are sometimes released to show proof that they are alive and to facilitate negotiations for a release, though it was not immediately clear if that was the case here. The New Yorker said it obtained the clip from an unidentified individual in Afghanistan.
At the time, the FBI declined to comment on the video’s authenticity, but a sister of Frerichs, Charlene Cakora, issued a statement thanking the Taliban for releasing the video and describing it as “public confirmation of our family’s long-held belief that he is alive after more than two years in captivity.” Since their takeover of Afghanistan in August last year, the Taliban have demanded the United States release Noorzai in exchange for Frerichs amid expectations of such exchanges for U.S. citizens held in Afghanistan. However, there has been no public sign of Washington moving forward on any sort of prisoner trade or exchange.
The Taliban also posted a brief video Monday on social media showing Noorzai’s arrival at the Kabul airport where he was welcomed by top Taliban officials, including Muttaqi. At the press conference, Noorzai expressed thankfulness at seeing his “mujahedeen brothers” — a reference to the Taliban — in Kabul. “I pray for more success of the Taliban,” he added. “I hope this exchange can lead to peace between Afghanistan and America, because an American was released and I am also free now.”
Noorzai made no mention of his treatment at Guantanamo Bay, the detention center used to house Muslim militants, including al-Qaida fighters, the Taliban and suspects captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S. The facility became the focus of worldwide controversy over alleged violations of the legal rights of detainees under the Geneva Conventions and accusations of torture or abusive treatment of detainees by U.S. authorities. After 9/11, a U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban who had harbored al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his followers. Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan in 2011.
https://apnews.com/articl...aign=position_7