WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden on Tuesday proposed new taxes on the rich to help fund Medicare, saying the plan would help to extend the insurance program’s solvency by 25 years and provide a degree of middle-class stability to millions of older adults.
In his plan, Biden is overtly declaring that the wealthy ought to shoulder a heavier tax burden. His budget would draw a direct line between those new taxes and the popular health insurance program for people older than 65, essentially asking those who’ve fared best in the economy to subsidize the rest of the population.
Biden wants to increase the Medicare tax rate from 3.8 percent to 5 percent on income exceeding $400,000 per year, including salaries and capital gains. The White House did not provide specific cost-saving estimates with the proposal, but the move would likely increase tax revenues by more than $117 billion over 10 years, according to prior estimates in February by the Tax Policy Center.
“This modest increase in Medicare contributions from those with the highest incomes will help keep the Medicare program strong for decades to come,” Biden wrote in a Tuesday essay in The New York Times. He called Medicare a “rock-solid guarantee that Americans have counted on to be there for them when they retire.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, was quick to dismiss the plan, telling reporters on Tuesday that Biden’s budget agenda “will not see the light of day.”
More than 65 million people rely on Medicare at a cost to taxpayers of roughly $900 billion every year. The number of Medicare enrollees is expected to continue growing as the US population ages. But funding for the program is a problem with federal officials warning that, without cuts or tax increases, the Medicare fund might only be able to pay for 90 percent of benefits by 2028.
Biden’s suggested Medicare changes are part of a fuller budget proposal that he plans to release on Thursday in Philadelphia. Pushing the proposal through Congress will likely be difficult, with Republicans in control of the House and Democrats holding only a slim majority in the Senate.
The proposal is a direct challenge to GOP lawmakers, who argue that economic growth comes from tax cuts like those pushed through by former President Donald Trump in 2017. Those cuts disproportionately favored wealthier households and companies. They contributed to higher budget deficits, when growth failed to boom as Trump had promised and the economy was then derailed in 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic.
The conflicting worldviews on how taxes would impact the economy is part of a broader showdown. Biden and Congress need to reach a deal to raise the government’s borrowing authority at some point this summer, or else the government could default and plunge the US into a debilitating recession.
Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform and an advocate for the kinds of tax cuts generally favored by Republicans, said that the US economy would suffer because of the president’s plan.
“The Biden tax hikes will raise the cost of goods and services for everyone, and make American workers and businesses less competitive internationally and vs. China,” Norquist said.
But Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, applauded the plan despite having some reservations about it.
“The president’s plan would generate hundreds of billions of dollars – perhaps even approaching a trillion dollars – to strengthen Medicare,” said MacGuineas, a fiscal watchdog focused on deficit reduction.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to discuss the numbers behind the budget plan. She told reporters at Tuesday’s briefing that she would not “dive into the math,” but that Biden’s proposal on Thursday “will be very detailed and transparent.”
Ahead of an expected budget feud and the 2024 campaign season, Democrats have ramped up talk around Medicare, vowing to fend off any Republican attempts to cut the program, although so far the GOP has vowed to avoid any cuts. Still, Republican lawmakers have reached little consensus on how to fulfill their promise to put the government on a path toward balancing the federal budget in the next 10 years.
Last year, members of the House Republican Study Committee proposed raising the eligibility age for Medicare to 67, which would match Social Security. But that idea hasn’t moved forward in a split Congress.
Republicans have denied that they plan to cut the program. A proposal from Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., that would require Congress to reconsider all federal laws every five years, including Medicare, has gotten little traction.
Raising taxes on Americans who make more than $250,000 to pay for Medicare has broad support among older Americans, but raising the eligibility age for Medicare, is widely unpopular, said Mary Johnson, a policy analyst for the nonpartisan Senior Citizens League who has researched the issue.
Politicians who try that route might “lose supporters and it can backfire. You can wind up losing your office, too,” she said. “A very high percentage of seniors are voting in elections.”
Biden’s plan is also intended to close what the White House describes as loopholes that allow people to avoid Medicare taxes on some income. Besides the taxes, Biden wants to expand Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug costs, which began with the Inflation Reduction Act. He signed the sweeping legislation last year.
The White House said its budget plan would expand the pharmaceutical drug provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. More drugs would be subject to price negotiations, other drugs would be brought into the negotiation process sooner and the scope of rebates would be expanded.
Taken together, Biden’s new proposals would help shore up a key trust fund that pays for Medicare, which provides health care for older adults. According to the White House, the changes would keep the fund solvent until the 2050s, about 25 years longer than currently expected.
Changes would also be made to Medicare benefits. Biden wants to limit cost sharing for some generic drugs to only $2. The idea would lower out-of-pocket costs for treating hypertension, high cholesterol and other ailments.
Joe Biden plans new taxes on the rich to help save Medicare
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Joe Biden plans new taxes on the rich to help save Medicare
- More than 65 million people rely on Medicare at a cost to taxpayers of roughly $900 billion every year
New hope for flight MH370 families as Malaysia agrees to resume search
- Plane carrying 239 people went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014
- Families say they hope new search operation will offer ‘long-awaited answers and closure’
KUALA LUMPUR: The families of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 passengers have welcomed with renewed hope the announcement of a new search for the aircraft, which disappeared more than 10 years ago in one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in 2014.
The search became the most expensive operation in aviation history but ended inconclusively in 2018, leaving the families of those on board still haunted by the tragedy.
On Friday, Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced that he hoped to “give closure to the families” as the government agreed to allow private contractor Ocean Infinity, which was the last to try to locate the plane, to resume search efforts.
He told reporters that the operation would focus on a new area spanning 15,000 sq. km in the southern Indian Ocean — a development raising hope among relatives of passengers and crew aboard flight MH370.
“The significance of this renewed search cannot be overstated. For the families of passengers, the scientific community and global civil aviation safety, it offers renewed hope for long-awaited answers and closure,” Voice 370, the association representing them, said in a statement.
“We, the next of kin, have endured over a decade of uncertainty, and we hope that the terms of the renewed search are finalized at the earliest and the decks are cleared for the search to begin.
“We continue to hope that our wait for answers is met.”
Ocean Infinity, the private underwater exploration firm that will undertake the $70 million search, was briefly involved in the 2018 efforts after a three-year operation covering 120,000 sq. km of the Indian Ocean failed to locate the aircraft and was suspended in 2017.
The new agreement was met on a no-find, no-fee basis, meaning that Ocean Infinity will be paid only when the wreckage is found.
“We are encouraged by Ocean Infinity’s readiness to deploy their advanced fleet, including sophisticated vessels, AUVs and cutting-edge imaging technologies,” Voice 370 said.
“We gather that the company has followed this up with thorough due diligence, analyzing all available data, and alternative scenarios proposed by independent researchers and recommendations on potential search areas.”
Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of March 8, 2014 and lost communication with air traffic control less than an hour later. Military radar showed the aircraft had deviated from its planned path. It remains unclear why that happened.
Many conspiracy theories have emerged to explain the aircraft’s disappearance, ranging from suspicions of the captain’s suicide to concerns over the 221 kg of lithium-ion batteries in the plane’s cargo, as well as the involvement of passengers, two of whom were found traveling on stolen passports.
When the probe was suspended, Kok Soo Chon, head of the MH370 safety investigation team, told reporters in July 2018 that his team was “unable to determine the real cause for disappearance of MH370” and “the answer can only be conclusive if the wreckage is found.”
Minorities fear targeted attacks in post-revolution Bangladesh
- String of attacks targeting religious minorities since a student-led uprising toppled long-time autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina
- Hindus make up about eight percent of the mainly Muslim nation of 170 million people in Bangladesh
DHAKA: For generations, the small Hindu temple outside the capital in Muslim-majority Bangladesh was a quiet place to pray – before arsonists ripped open its roof this month in the latest post-revolution unrest.
It is only one of a string of attacks targeting religious minorities since a student-led uprising toppled long-time autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina in August.
“We don’t feel safe,” said Hindu devotee Swapna Ghosh in the village of Dhour, where attackers broke into the 50-year-old family temple to the goddess Lakshmi and set fire to its treasured idols on December 7.
“My son saw the flames and doused them quickly,” said temple custodian Ratan Kumar Ghosh, 55, describing how assailants knew to avoid security cameras, so they tore its tin roof open to enter.
“Otherwise, the temple – and us – would have been reduced to ashes.”
Hindus make up about eight percent of the mainly Muslim nation of 170 million people.
In the chaotic days following Hasina’s August 5 ouster there was a string of attacks on Hindus – seen by some as having backed her rule – as well as attacks on Muslim Sufi shrines by Islamist hard-liners.
“Neither I, my forefathers or the villagers, regardless of their faith, have ever witnessed such communal attacks,” temple guardian Ghosh said.
“These incidents break harmony and trust.”
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to India, where she is hosted by old allies in New Delhi’s Hindu-nationalist government, infuriating Bangladeshis determined that she face trial for alleged “mass murder.”
Attacks against Hindu temples are not new in Bangladesh, and rights activist Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir said the violence cannot be regarded out of context.
Under Hasina, Hindus had sought protection from the authorities. That meant her opponents viewed them as partisan loyalists.
“If you analyze the past decade, there has not been a single year without attacks on minorities,” Kabir said, from the Dhaka-based rights group Ain o Salish Kendra.
This year, from January to November, the organization recorded 118 incidents of communal violence targeting Hindus.
August saw a peak of 63 incidents, including two deaths. In November, there were seven incidents.
While that is significantly more than last year – when the group recorded 22 attacks on minorities and 43 incidents of vandalism – previous years were more violent.
In 2014, one person was killed, two women were raped, 255 injured, and 247 temples attacked. In 2016, seven people were killed.
“The situation has not worsened, but there’s been no progress either,” said businessman and Hindu devotee Chandan Saha, 59.
Political rulers had repeatedly “used minorities as pawns,” Saha added.
The caretaker government has urged calm and promised increased security, and accused Indian media of spreading disinformation about the status of Hindus in Bangladesh.
Dhaka’s interim government this month expressed shock at a call by a leading Indian politician – chief minister of India’s West Bengal state Mamata Banerjee – to deploy UN peacekeepers.
Hefazat-e-Islam, an association of Islamic seminaries, has led public protests against India, accusing New Delhi of a campaign aimed at “propagating hate” against Bangladesh. India rejects the charges.
Religious relations have been turbulent, including widespread unrest in November in clashes between Hindu protesters and security forces.
That was triggered by the killing of a lawyer during protests because bail was denied for an outspoken Hindu monk accused of allegedly disrespecting the Bangladeshi flag during a rally.
Bangladeshi Islamist groups have been emboldened to take to the streets after years of suppression.
Muslim Sufi worshippers as well as members of the Baul mystic sect – branded heretics by some Islamists – have also been threatened.
“There’s been a wave of vandalism,” said Syed Tarik, a devotee documenting such incidents.
Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner appointed the country’s “chief adviser,” has called for dialogue between groups.
Critics say it is not enough.
“To establish a peaceful country where all faiths coexist in harmony, the head of state must engage regularly with faith leaders to foster understanding,” said Sukomal Barua, professor of religion at Dhaka University.
Sumon Roy, founder of Bangladesh’s association of Hindu lawyers, said members of the minority were treated as a bloc by political parties.
“They have all used us as tools,” Roy said, explaining that Hindus had been previously threatened both by Hasina’s Awami League and its rival Bangladesh National Party.
“If we didn’t support AL we faced threats, and the BNP blamed us for siding with the AL,” he said. “This cycle needs to end.”
New hope for flight MH370 families as Malaysia agrees to resume search
- Plane carrying 239 people went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in March 2014
- Families say they hope new search operation will offer ‘long-awaited answers and closure’
KUALA LUMPUR: The families of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 passengers have welcomed with renewed hope the announcement of a new search for the aircraft, which disappeared more than 10 years ago in one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 with 239 people on board, went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing in 2014.
The search became the most expensive operation in aviation history but ended inconclusively in 2018, leaving the families of those on board still haunted by the tragedy.
On Friday, Malaysia’s Transport Minister Anthony Loke announced that he hoped to “give closure to the families” as the government agreed to allow private contractor Ocean Infinity, which was the last to try to locate the plane, to resume search efforts.
He told reporters that the operation would focus on a new area spanning 15,000 sq. km in the southern Indian Ocean — a development raising hope among relatives of passengers and crew aboard flight MH370.
“The significance of this renewed search cannot be overstated. For the families of passengers, the scientific community and global civil aviation safety, it offers renewed hope for long-awaited answers and closure,” Voice 370, the association representing them, said in a statement.
“We, the next of kin, have endured over a decade of uncertainty, and we hope that the terms of the renewed search are finalized at the earliest and the decks are cleared for the search to begin.
“We continue to hope that our wait for answers is met.”
Ocean Infinity, the private underwater exploration firm that will undertake the $70 million search, was briefly involved in the 2018 efforts after a three-year operation covering 120,000 sq. km of the Indian Ocean failed to locate the aircraft and was suspended in 2017.
The new agreement was met on a no-find, no-fee basis, meaning that Ocean Infinity will be paid only when the wreckage is found.
“We are encouraged by Ocean Infinity’s readiness to deploy their advanced fleet, including sophisticated vessels, AUVs and cutting-edge imaging technologies,” Voice 370 said.
“We gather that the company has followed this up with thorough due diligence, analyzing all available data, and alternative scenarios proposed by independent researchers and recommendations on potential search areas.”
Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of March 8, 2014 and lost communication with air traffic control less than an hour later. Military radar showed the aircraft had deviated from its planned path. It remains unclear why that happened.
Many conspiracy theories have emerged to explain the aircraft’s disappearance, ranging from suspicions of the captain’s suicide to concerns over the 221 kg of lithium-ion batteries in the plane’s cargo, as well as the involvement of passengers, two of whom were found traveling on stolen passports.
When the probe was suspended, Kok Soo Chon, head of the MH370 safety investigation team, told reporters in July 2018 that his team was “unable to determine the real cause for disappearance of MH370” and “the answer can only be conclusive if the wreckage is found.”
At least 38 die in bus accident in southeastern Brazil
SAO PAULO: At least 38 people were killed in a bus crash in southeastern Brazil on Saturday, officials said, in what President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called a “terrible tragedy.”
The accident in Minas Gerais state, involving a bus that caught fire in the collision, is the worst seen on Brazil’s federal highways since 2007, according to police data cited by local media.
In their latest report, civil police confirmed 38 fatalities with eight people hospitalized.
Conflicting accounts of the accident have emerged: firefighters initially said the bus at around 3:30 am had blown a tire near the town of Lajinha, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle and hit a truck. Another vehicle also hit the bus from behind, officials said, but its occupants survived.
However, firefighters later cited witnesses as saying that a granite block being transported by the truck fell onto the bus, causing the accident.
After the crash, the bus, which had been making its way from Sao Paulo to Vitoria da Conquista, in the northeastern Bahia state, caught fire.
The death toll has crept upward throughout the day, with a spokeswoman for the local fire department earlier telling AFP that “it was not yet possible to specify the exact number due to the state of the bodies.”
The fire department, upon removing charred remains, said earlier that some of the victims had been trapped inside.
In a video released Saturday morning, Lt. Alonso Vieira Junior, with the Minas Gerais fire department, said a crane would be needed to clear the wreckage, and that “there are still more victims to be removed.”
Among the dead are the bus driver and at least one child.
Lula took to social media to offer his prayers for “the recovery of the survivors of this terrible tragedy.”
“I am deeply sorry,” he said, offering condolences to the families of the victims.
The governor of Minas Gerais said he was working “so that the families of the victims are cared for, to deal with this tragedy in the most humane way possible.”
At the end of November, a bus accident in the state of Alagoas, in the northeast, left 17 dead when it plunged into a ravine while traveling on a remote mountain road.
More than 30 dead in Brazil bus and truck collision
- The exact death toll remains uncertain due to the condition of the bodies, which were burned beyond recognition
- Initially, firefighters reported the bus, carrying 45 passengers, had a tire blowout, causing driver to lose control
A packed bus collided with a truck and burst into flames early on Saturday in Brazil, killing more than 30 people, the fire department said.
After completing the removal of victims from a major highway near the town of Teofilo Otoni in Minas Gerais, the state’s fire department estimated the number of fatalities between 32 and 35, including at least one child.
The exact death toll remains uncertain due to the condition of the bodies, which were burned beyond recognition.
Confirmation will likely depend on forensic work by the Civil Police, the department said in a statement.
A forensic investigation will also be required to determine the accident’s cause, as differing accounts were gathered from witness testimonies, it added.
Initially, firefighters reported the bus, carrying 45 passengers, had a tire blowout, causing the driver to lose control before colliding with an oncoming truck on the BR-116 federal highway, a major route connecting Brazil’s densely populated southeast to the poorer northeast.
However, witnesses also reported that a granite block the truck was transporting came loose, fell on the road and caused the collision with the bus, said the fire department.
“Only the forensic investigation will confirm the true version,” it added.
The bus departed from Sao Paulo and was headed to the state of Bahia.
Firefighters said they rescued 13 passengers from the wrecked bus. Three occupants of a car that also collided and was trapped under the truck survived the accident.
