White House Is Hesitant on Proposed Tax Penalty: Stimulus Update

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Source: Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The White House has declined to take a position on new proposals to impose a penalty on big U.S. companies as a way to push through a minimum-wage increase. The initiative put forward by two Senate committee chairs threatens to complicate passage of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic-relief bill.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is weighing adding a provision to the relief bill that would put a penalty tax on big companies that don’t pay workers at least $15 an hour, a Democratic aide said on condition of anonymity.

Proposals emerged after a ruling by the Senate parliamentarian that Democrats’ minimum-wage proposal, as previously drafted, fell afoul of rules for the legislative process congressional leaders are using for the bill. Requirements dictate measures be primarily fiscal in nature.

The House is scheduled to take up the stimulus bill on the floor of the chamber Friday -- including a phased-in minimum wage increase to $15 an hour -- with passage expected late in the evening or potentially Saturday.



Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/white-house-is-hesitant-on-proposed-tax-penalty-stimulus-update/ar-BB1e36VK?li=BBnbcA1&ocid=DELLDHP

[rickyhall]

1. Why?

[GregariousGroundhog]

3. Jen Psaki's response was that the White House was still reviewing and didn't yet have a position

Wanting to review the proposal before issuing an opinion is not being the same as hesitant, Bloomberg did a dirty with the headline here.

Personally, my biggest worry is around the franchises. You have corporations like McDonalds who offer payroll payroll services, procurement services, advertising services, and the right to use their name in exchange for a percentage of restaurant sales. The actual restaurants are usually owned by sole proprietors or limited partnerships and their revenues are usually only a couple million dollars a year.

[cstanleytech]

13. I actually have addressed the franchise issue in the past and imo if they use the tax method they

need to count temp, contract and franchise workers as being part of the corporation itself.

[msongs]

2. the proposals only concern large coporations. one suspects many min wage jobs are NOT at

large corporations

[jorgevlorgan]

6. That's fine.

It will still impact every other sector, and wages will gradually increase as a result as it is mostly large corporations and not small businesses that are keeping wages low anyways, forcing small businesses to pay lower to stay competitive.

[jorgevlorgan]

4. Oh good grief, if it is in the bill, he will sign it.

I doubt Biden is going to come out in full opposition of a way to increase wages -which he campaigned on. He will probably support it. Nonetheless, that won't make much of a difference on whether it is passed. This is congress's job to figure out, not his.

[FBaggins]

11. That isn't the point

There isn't a reason to think that this can get through at this point - and thus there's no point in the WH wasting political capital on it. Particularly when they want to get the core stimulus provisions in place as soon as possible.

If there's some hint from Manchin/Sinema that they might back something like this... the WH will probably get behind it pretty quickly.

[jorgevlorgan]

14. Potayto potahto

If they are behind it, and it is in the bill, the bill passed and he supports it. If they aren't behind it and the bill doesn't pass, he cannot support it because there would be nothing to sign. Either way it doesn't matter what he says. Obviously he supports a higher wage, but whether he can do anything about that is up to congress entirely

[paleotn]

5. Don't F this up by overplaying their hand.

We've got to have the stimulus package. Got to.

[Bayard]

7. They may have to compromise

Settle for $11-$12 hour, which will still give the working poor a pretty big raise. I think Manchin would go for that. It does no good to lose the battle, AND the war.

Aim for increasing it over the next 4 years.

[Evolve Dammit]

8. They have majorities. Go for it. Working class gets a raise and companies will deal with it.

[Dopers_Greed]

9. Why does this have to be in the stimulus package?

Get the stimulus through, and make this a separate deal.

Also, why does it have to be $15? Wouldn't a simple % increase blow-up all the arguments against it?

For example, $15 is low for San Francisco, but high for rural Louisiana.

[FBaggins]

12. There can only be one reconciliation bill per year

Well... it's a little more than that... but that's effectively the rule.

And without attaching it to the reconciliation process, it would have to get past a filibuster - and we go from trying to convince all 50 Democrats... to also needing ten Republicans.

[bucolic_frolic]

10. It's a novel idea

Full implications need to be gamed out. Don't want to sign on to something uncertain.

[TexasBushwhacker]

15. Walmart will just cut their hours

That's what they do now. They raised hourly wages, but their AVERAGE full time hourly worker only gets in 34 hours a week.

[Sapient Donkey]

16. Even if that does happen in some cases, assuming the overall wages don't go down

The employee is still better off with that than no increase. They'll take home the same pay while getting more free time to do whatever would be the best use of their time. Not ideal, but I'd take over no working the same hours and getting the same pay. I also don't really understand how cutting the hours benefits the company. I'm assuming they have the same amount of work that needs to get done. What do they do, just pile more on in a shorter period of time?

[marie999]

17. If they keep changing the stimulus it will take much longer to get the stimulus out to people.

Right now, that is what is important. Not a big bill, just the $1,400, the money for children, and $400 for the unemployed.