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-- 2015 -- October 26:
Donald Trump says it ‘hasn’t been easy’ for him. But he omits a
few things.
"I started off in Brooklyn," he explained. "My father gave me a small loan. … I
came into Manhattan and I had to pay him back, and I had to pay him back with
interest."
May 1: On
Monday newly minted Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced a rollback of
school lunch standards championed by the former first lady, declaring at a
Virginia school that the administration would "Make
School Meals Great Again."
The California senator is the latest Democrat to propose giving billions of
dollars in cash to lower-income families.
Harris is offering a kind of fun-house-mirror inversion of the sweeping
Republican tax initiative, one that would, instead of slashing rates on
high-income households and corporations, push huge credits out to middle-income
and poor families. The LIFT the Middle Class Act
would provide monthly cash payments of up to $500 to lower-income families, on
top of the tax credits and public benefits they already receive. “Last year,
Congress gave a trillion dollars in tax breaks to corporations,” Harris told me.
“That money should have gone to American taxpayers who need it instead of
handing it over to corporations and the top 1 percent.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/lefts-trump-sized-tax-plans/573328/
December 3: Assemblymember Rob Bonta (D-Oakland) is introducing an
Assembly Concurrent Resolution to formally condemn the regulatory changes and
urge the federal government to reconsider this ill-conceived proposal.
“The proposed change to public charge by this President is another blatant
attack on immigrant communities," said Assemblymember Bonta. "It’s fueled by
racism, classism, and xenophobia. That's why I'm introducing a resolution
calling on the federal government to stop this dangerous proposal that would
cause significant harm to an untold number of immigrants trying to realize their
own American dream."
https://a18.asmdc.org/press-releases/20181203-bonta-introduces-resolution-opposing-trump-plan-harm-low-income-immigrant
December 12:White
House advisers Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner will not profit
from a new opportunity zone program, which encourages private sector investment
in low-income communities, according to Department of Housing and Urban
Development Secretary Ben Carson.
“The opportunity zones were chosen by the governors of the 50 states, the
District of Columbia and our five territories. They have nothing to do with
Ivanka Trump or Jared, or anybody else,” said Carson to FOX Business’
Stuart Varney
Opens a New Window. on Wednesday. “But there are going to be people
all over the country who do have properties located within the opportunity
zones.”
President Donald Trump has launched a new interagency council to help funnel
federal spending into the designated low-income zones created in last year’s tax
bill.
Trump issued an executive order Wednesday creating the interagency White House
Opportunity and Revitalization Council, to be spearheaded by Housing and Urban
Development secretary Ben Carson. The council will span some dozen federal
agencies, with the goal of putting Opportunity Zones at the forefront of funding
in areas like small-business finance, water and broadband infrastructure, rural
development, or crime enforcement.
“The resources of the whole federal government will be leveraged to rebuild
low-income and impoverished neighborhoods that have been ignored by Washington
in years past,”
Trump said as he signed the order. “With Opportunity Zones, we are drawing
investment into neglected and underserved communities of America so that all
Americans, regardless of zip code, have access to the American Dream.”
Under a provision in the December 2017 tax bill, investing in these zones can
confer hefty tax benefits. If investors pour capital gains into real estate or
business equity in such an area, they reduce the tax basis on that original
capital. Any gains generated by the Opportunity Zone investment can be tax-free
if held long enough.
December 13: How a Tax Break Meant for
Low-Income Communities Became a Mini Tax Haven for the Rich
The Trump tax bill, signed into law last year, established the Opportunity
Zone incentive program. It’s meant to spur growth in low-income neighborhoods by
giving investors tax benefits for putting money into distressed areas and
leaving it there for a few years.
The goal of boosting development in low-income areas is certainly laudable, but
one major concern is that funds are going to be directed to places that are not
really distressed: Take, for instance, the area
where Amazon’s HQ2 will land in Long Island City, the area
around a Trump golf course, or the future home of
the Las Vegas Raiders NFL franchise, all of which qualify for benefits.
Ahead of a White House event on Wednesday about Opportunity Zones, reports
emerged regarding how
the Kushner
family business stands to take advantage of the program, after Jared Kushner
and Ivanka Trump pushed for its creation.
December
13:On Tuesday, Sesame Workshop, the
show’s nonprofit educational arm, announced
that one of the show’s characters, Lily (who was first introduced in 2011), will
experience homelessness. The 7-year-old Muppet’s family will be staying with
friends after having lost their home. In the past, her story had included her
family’s struggle with food insecurity.
