SB 8610: GAIN Act

[YE]

I won’t dive into the specifics of this bill too much but I will say I encourage the senators from the South to consider their input (who are my favorite 2 Feds in office now) and especially read Yankee’s bit regarding realism because it should be in the back of the mind of every senator. I will say though that I do think we need to increase taxes on the rich to bring down the deficit, and if it wasn’t for paygo, I’d advise making the increase marginal tax rates bit a separate bill.

[YE]

I think one thing that is probably worth pointing out is that the underlying IRL legislation was written for a country with a $7.25 minimum wage and a 10% bottom tax rate, while we currently have a $10.50 minimum wage (set to further increase if the House passes the minimum wage text the Senate passed) and a reduction in the bottom tax rate is being discussed.

To be fair, Khanna also supports a $15 minimum wage (yes, you know that but I'm not sure most Southern senators do as they don't follow Democratic politics IRL as much as the the rest of the body if I had to guess) so that means in his view, this proposal would be fine with a $15 minimum wage.

[YE]

I think one thing that is probably worth pointing out is that the underlying IRL legislation was written for a country with a $7.25 minimum wage and a 10% bottom tax rate, while we currently have a $10.50 minimum wage (set to further increase if the House passes the minimum wage text the Senate passed) and a reduction in the bottom tax rate is being discussed.

To be fair, Khanna also supports a $15 minimum wage (yes, you know that but I'm not sure most Southern senators do as they don't follow Democratic politics IRL as much as the the rest of the body if I had to guess) so that means in his view, this proposal would be fine with a $15 minimum wage.

But Khanna supports both proposals against a backdrop of neither existing in a RL situation where the minimum wage is as Sestak said much lower and the other programs don't exist. It would be counterproductive for someone in that position to hold back when the whole discussion runs contrary to the objectives desired as to this point little has been accomplished in this regard here.

That is not the case here, we have a rather generous health subsidy, which is not the case in RL and we have higher a minimum wage. This backdrop allows us to be more discerning in our approach and to make choices rather than just copy/pasting the real life agenda of a RL politician, elements of which are probably dictated by throwing stuff at the board until it actually sticks or said better, the beginning of a negotiating position.

As to the minimum wage, I support it being in the neighborhood of $10-$12, indexed to inflation and also with a gradient based on living standards in a given area rather than having $15 be uniform for New York and Wayne County, NC.

Would Khanna withdraw his sponsorship of his bill if a $15 minimum wage though? That I'm not sure of but I felt the need to point it out just so everyone's on the same page.

[YE]

For those convinced that and/or campaigning on the idea that the deficit can be eliminated through only military cuts and taxes on "the rich", please take note that once again those deficit-cutting proposals are being looted to pay for something new rather than the large existing deficit. It is increasingly looking like the big tax changes in the revenue Enhancement act and this massive increase in tax rates including a 58% rate (which is evil) will result in little change to the deficit at all. I fail to see how the deficit can be reduced through rich taxes and military cuts given this strong push by 1 Senator to piss away the only deficit reductions the majority party has really advocated for. We couldn't even convince the Senate to eliminate a bunch of corporate welfare spending last fall.

AFAIK, this bill in its current form is on hold for deficit reduction reasons.

[YE]

What is the status/progress on this one, Pericles?

Like with the other one where I asked the same of Lech, I would prefer to have regular posted updates so we can see the progress and thereby judge estimated completion and assist with completion. Also could thus allow for us to determine if we need to proceed with this at a later time.

Last I heard, the plan was to replace the EITC and CTC tax credit along with a Basic Earnings Credit and a Minimum Child Credit. I was told explicitly of this on January 29, and since then, I'll just say the political landscape between those involved with this has changed so unless I can get assurances that this is somehow still in the works, I'd be in favor of scrapping everything but the higher income tax hike (if we can agree on that). That isn't stopping you all from finishing the rest of bill per se(and in fact, I'd encourage you to do so), but at the same time, we can't let bills rot.

Of course, it's worth noting there's a bill in the House floor that raises the minimum wage to $12.500 at the same time that we're debating this.

[YE]

Oh, you misunderstood my comment. I’m not against, based on what the rough outline that I’ve been told is in the works, the potential modified version of this bill but I don’t want bills to become stale on the Senate floor. It sets a bad precedent for just procrastinating on unfinished bills and discourages debate.

[YE]

Oh, you misunderstood my comment. I’m not against, based on what the rough outline that I’ve been told is in the works, the potential modified version of this bill but I don’t want bills to become stale on the Senate floor. It sets a bad precedent for just procrastinating on unfinished bills and discourages debate.

Ok, well that's more justifiable but I was concerned by your comments previously and on Discord when I do strongly feel this bill will be beneficial. I have also shown the amendment proposal to Senator DevoutCentrist and have contact with the original proposer.

I mean I did introduce a negative income tax credit in Fremont as FM so I do have some record as a pro-tax cutting FM but also feel that in the event we're destined to increase public spending, revenues to some extent need to go up.

For full disclosure, here was what I had to say re: when I first found out about the original proposal:
[11:12 AM] Yellow_Evan: it's better but I'm still not sure if it's wise to cut taxes for lower incomes with the deficit as is
[11:31 AM] Yellow_Evan: That’s fine I suppose; my earlier comment was just a general note not just specific to this bill

The bolded bit is good to hear, BTW, so at least both Fremont Senators are on the same page - something I didn't expect to be the case given the political events of the last week and a half.

[YE]

Wasn't there suppose to be an amendment for this at some point? Been over two weeks now!

Just saw this now.

Yea, there was, and I intended to try to write it, but at this point, the sponsor is no longer a senator, and I think, judging by the presidential debate answers, the new president isn’t fond of the part of the bill that causes it to pass paygo.

[YE]

I’ll look through my records but pretty sure the plan proposed was to replace the EITC and a few other tax credits with something more progressive.