This Texas-based company wants to revive the extinct woolly mammoth. Well, sorta


BEN LAMM,  GEORGE CHURCH


James Hartley
Mon, September 13, 2021

Woolly mammoths, the elephant-like prehistoric beasts that, as their name would suggest, were giant and hairy, went extinct around 10,000 years ago. A Texas-based tech entrepreneur wants to change that. Sort of.

Ben Lamm, the tech entrepreneur whose ambitions might give sci-fi dystopian authors nightmares, hopes to venture down a path “Jurassic Park” (the book, not the movie) author Michael Crichton contemplated in the best-seller 31 years ago. But Lamm’s mission isn’t to open a theme park full of dangerous, extinct predators and a couple of friendly herbivores.

Instead, he hopes to use the reintroduction of extinct species into the world as a way to combat climate change and advance “thoughtful disruptive conservation,” according to a news release.

Lamm wants to “rebuild ecosystems, heal our Earth and preserve its future through the repopulation of extinct animals,” he said in the news release in which he announced the launch of his bioscience and genetics company, Colossal. He hopes Colossal will lead to rapid advancement in the area of “species de-extinction.”

Colossal marks the sixth company Lamm created. Austin-based Hypergiant, a tech company, which is working on artificial intelligence for the likes of NASA, was his fifth.

With this latest venture, Lamm is using $15 million raised by Colossal to work with Harvard Medical School professor George Church to combine the genetics of an elephant with a mammoth “that is genetically engineered with traits to help it survive in the Arctic,” according to the release.

The animals created, if Lamm and Church are successful, won’t be true woolly mammoths. Their genetic code will be different because of the use of elephant genes. But Lamm thinks the success of this mission could open the door for his company to revive other extinct animals, as well as save the more than 1 million animals, plants and fungi the United Nations in 2019 said are at risk of extinction.

When those species go extinct, the ecosystems in which they live begin to collapse and impact the health of humans and our blue marble. Lamm believes that restoring the woolly mammoth could lead to the revitalization of the Arctic grasslands, an area in North America and North Eurasia that contributes to carbon sequestering, methane suppression and light reflection, according to the release.

He hopes that reviving this ecosystem could help combat climate change.

And Church, a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard, agrees. He said in the news release that the company has the potential to impact ecological conservation and other climate change issues.

While Colossal is fronting the money, the research into this venture would be the responsibility of Church and his lab at Harvard. The technology that exists isn’t ready to create a (sorta) woolly mammoth, but Colossal thinks his research could “create technology leaps in multiplexed genetic engineering, synthetic biology, and other emerging areas,” according to the release.

“Technologies discovered in pursuit of this grand vision – a living, walking proxy of a woolly mammoth – could create very significant opportunities in conservation and beyond, not least of which include inspiring public interest in STEM, prompting timely discussions in bioethics, and raising awareness of the vital importance of biodiversity,” Church said in the release.

GENERATION INTERNATIONALIST

Raducanu: US Open champion celebrated in China for her heritage

Sun, September 12, 2021

Social media users in China can't get enough of Emma Raducanu

Social media users in China are celebrating British tennis star Emma Raducanu - not just for her historic US Open win, but her Chinese heritage.

Raducanu was born in Canada to a Romanian father and Chinese mother, before moving to London aged two.

Many on Chinese site Weibo praised the 18-year-old, calling her a "Dongbei girl" - a reference to her mother's ancestral home.

A video of her thanking her fans in Mandarin also went viral.

"She speaks just like a 'Dong Bei (north-east Chinese) girl'. How amazing!" a Weibo comment read.

Raducanu has previously spoken openly about her mixed heritage in previous interviews, something Chinese netizens have taken pride in.

"She said she visits China regularly, and that one of her idols is Li Na. I'm so moved," a Weibo user wrote, referencing a celebrated former Chinese tennis player.

Others likened her in looks to a Taiwanese pop star. "We must support the Rainie Yang of the tennis court," another person said.

But some users chose to keep some distance: "She's British - why are all of you now trying to claim her as your own?"

In interviews, Raducanu has paid tribute to her mum and that side of the family.

"They are so mentally resilient - it's like nothing can bring them down. I would say I take a big part of my inspiration from her. My mum has worked very hard," she said, adding that she learned about discipline and respect for other people from her.

The teenager, who visits her mother's ancestral home of Shenyang during the holidays, has also said that she loves nothing more than binge-watching Taiwanese television shows.

On Saturday, Raducanu beat Canadian teen Leylah Fernandez in straight-sets at the US Open to become the first British woman in 44 years to win a Grand Slam final.

Teen tennis sensations Leylah Fernandez and Emma Raducanu are both of mixed heritage

Given how Fernandez is also of mixed heritage - her father is Ecuadorian and mother Filipino - social media users in the Philippines were equally intrigued and expressed their pride.

One said on Facebook: "Nice to see the Philippines finally get someone in the tennis world to cheer for."

While she has confessed in an interview to not knowing much about the Filipino culture, she said she loves Filipino cuisine.

"I don't know much about the Filipino culture but I do know that my Lolo (grandfather) - he cooks amazing, so when I get back to Canada in Toronto when I visit, he's gonna make really nice food, especially Filipino dishes because I do miss it," she said in a post-game interview.

Her father and coach Jorge, a former footballer, also told reporters: "I truly appreciate the Filipino community backing up Leylah. She's got Filipino blood in her. It's so beautiful."
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Young tennis players have been inspired by Emma Raducanu's US Open win.

Stanford professors urge

 U.S. to end program looking 

for Chinese spies in academia

Jane Lanhee Lee

Mon, September 13, 2021

(Reuters) -A group of Stanford University professors has asked the Justice Department to stop looking for Chinese spies at U.S. universities, joining an effort by human rights groups to end a Trump administration program they said caused racial profiling and was terrorizing some scientists.

The "China Initiative," launched in late 2018, aimed to prevent U.S. technology theft by China but has since "deviated significantly from its claimed mission," according to a Sept. 8 letter https://sites.google.com/view/winds-of-freedom signed by 177 Stanford faculty members and made public by them on Monday.

"(I)t is harming the United States' research and technology competitiveness and it is fueling biases that, in turn, raise concerns about racial profiling," the letter said.

That letter is now being supported by about 140 University of California, Berkeley professors who have signed on since late last week, according to Randy Schekman, Berkeley professor and Nobel prize winner for physiology or medicine.

Asked about criticism of the China Initiative, Justice Department spokesperson Wyn Hornbuckle said the government was "dedicated to countering unlawful (Chinese) government efforts to undermine America's national security and harm our economy," while acknowledging the threat of hate crimes against Asia Americans. "We take seriously concerns about discrimination," he said.

The Justice Department has published details of at least 27 cases related to the initiative, with results including some guilty pleas, some cases dropped and some ongoing.

Professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University were among those charged, as were five Chinese scientists who were visiting scholars last year - although those charges were dropped in July.

On Thursday, a federal judge in Tennessee acquitted https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.tned.93460/gov.uscourts.tned.93460.141.0.pdf a professor accused of hiding Chinese ties in his NASA research grant application, saying prosecutors failed to provide evidence he intended to defraud the government.

"I think what the FBI's done in most cases is to scare people - investigating people and interrogating them. And it's harmful to the country," said Peter Michelson, Stanford's senior associate dean for the natural sciences and an organizer of the letter.

Another organizer, Stanford physicist Steven Kivelson, said he became involved because he saw his colleagues of Chinese origin suffered from the hostile environment they were subjected to due to the initiative.

Former U.S. Energy Secretary and Nobel prize winner Steven Chu, a professor at Stanford, said that rather than help protect U.S. advantages in technology and understanding, the program risked undermining America's lead in science.

"We were the brain gain for half a century," he told Reuters in an interview. "You really want to throw this away?"

(Reporting By Jane Lanhee Lee; Editing by Peter Henderson, Daniel Wallis and Steve Orlofsky)

In Racist Attack, Virginia County GOP Suggests Reps. Ocasio-Cortez, Omar Go Work For Taliban

Ryan Grenoble
Tue, September 14, 2021

In a racist tweet Monday that was promptly ratioed into the shame museum, the Arlington County Republican Committee in Virginia suggested that two Democratic congresswomen of color should retire and go work as lobbyists for the Taliban.

The remark, directed at Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), came in response to a BBC report on the Taliban’s dire financial situation ― resulting in an apparent desire to hire a lobbyist in Washington, D.C.

The Arlington GOP responded by tweeting: “Well, if @AOC or @Ilhan retire from Congress, there’s a revolving door opportunity for them.”

The tweet drew immediate criticism, prompting the Arlington GOP to defend itself by pointing to an opinion piece in The Washington Post about Omar not being sufficiently supportive of Israel. That article was written by Marc Thiessen, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.

“This tweet isn’t about race ― it’s about the Squad’s constant support for anti-American sentiment abroad,” the Arlington GOP tweeted, using the nickname for the group of House Democrats that also includes Rep. Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) and Cori Bush (Mo.).

Tempting as it may be to pass the tweet off as a terrible joke ― a line Republicans employed unconvincingly and often during Donald Trump’s term in the White House ― stoking this kind of hate has very real consequences.

Ocasio-Cortez told Vanity Fair last summer she receives all manner of threats, often seeing a swell after far-right lies and attacks are amplified by conservative media.

“I used to wake up in the morning and literally get a stack of pictures that were forwarded by Capitol police or FBI,” she told the magazine. “Like, ‘These are the people who want to kill you today.’ ”

This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.




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Men Need Not Apply to World’s Largest E-Scooter Factory



Saritha Rai
Mon, September 13, 2021,

(Bloomberg) -- Ola Electric Mobility Pvt’s new electric-scooter factory aims to build 10 million two-wheelers annually, or 15% of the world’s e-scooters by 2022, in an operation run and managed entirely by women.

Led by Bhavish Aggarwal, the e-mobility business is a follow-up to ride-hailing startup Ola, which is expected to make its debut on public markets next year. The vision for his newest venture is to provide the world “clean mobility, a carbon-negative footprint, and an inclusive workforce,” the founder said. The first group of workers started this week at the factory in Krishnagiri, about 2.5 hours southeast of Bangalore, which will cost $330 million to complete. “At full capacity, Futurefactory will employ over 10,000 women, making it the world’s largest women-only factory and the only all-women automotive manufacturing facility globally,” he wrote in a blog on Monday.

Backed by SoftBank Group Corp. and Tiger Global Management, Ola Electric looks to roll out a scooter every two seconds after completing a planned expansion next year. The factory will be substantially automated and include 3,000 robots working alongside the all-female workforce.

Aggarwal’s goal is to eventually assemble a full lineup of electric vehicles including three-wheelers and cars. Ola’s inaugural S1 e-scooter will be priced at 99,999 rupees ($1,360) to compete with traditional two-wheelers in India. Exports are to begin later this year.

“Enabling women with economic opportunities improves not just their lives but that of their families and indeed the whole community,” Aggarwal said. Women’s participation in the local manufacturing industry stands at just 12% and “for India to be the world’s manufacturing hub, we must prioritize upskilling and generating employment for our women workforce,” the founder said in the blog.

 WAY BEFORE DAN BROWN OR HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL

1972

Ex-U.S. intel operatives admit hacking American networks for UAE

By Joel Schectman and Christopher Bing

2021/9/15 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Three former U.S. intelligence operatives who worked as cyber spies for the United Arab Emirates admitted to violating U.S. hacking laws and prohibitions on selling sensitive military technology, under a deal to avoid prosecution announced on Tuesday.

The operatives - Marc Baier, Ryan Adams and Daniel Gericke - were part of a clandestine unit named Project Raven, first reported https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spying-raven

 by Reuters, that helped the UAE spy on its enemies.

At the behest of the UAE’s monarchy, the Project Raven team hacked into the accounts of human rights activists, journalists and rival governments, Reuters reported.

The three men admitted to hacking into computer networks in the United States and exporting sophisticated cyber intrusions tools without gaining required permission from the U.S. government, according to court papers released in U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

The operatives and their attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.

The UAE embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

As part of the deal with federal authorities to avoid prosecution, the three former intelligence officials agreed to pay a combined $1.69 million and never again seek a U.S. security clearance, a requirement for jobs that entail access to national security secrets.

“Hackers-for-hire and those who otherwise support such activities in violation of U.S. law should fully expect to be prosecuted for their criminal conduct,” Acting Assistant Attorney General Mark J. Lesko for the Justice Department’s National Security Division said in a statement.

Revelations of Project Raven in 2019 by Reuters highlighted the growing practice of former intelligence operatives selling their spycraft overseas with little oversight or accountability.

“This is a clear message to anybody, including former U.S. government employees, who had considered using cyberspace to leverage export-controlled information for the benefit of a foreign government or a foreign commercial company,” Assistant Director Bryan Vorndran of the FBI’s Cyber Division said in a statement. “There is risk, and there will be consequences.”

Lori Stroud, a former U.S. National Security Agency analyst who worked on Project Raven and then acted as a whistleblower 

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spying-raven

said she was pleased to see the charges.

“The most significant catalyst to bringing this issue to light was investigative journalism - the timely, technical information reported created the awareness and momentum to ensure justice," she said.

The Reuters investigation found that Project Raven spied on numerous human rights activists

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spying-karma

 some of whom were later tortured by UAE security forces.

Former program operatives said they believed they were following the law because superiors promised them the U.S. government had approved the work.

Baier, Adams and Gericke admitted to deploying a sophisticated cyberweapon called “Karma” that allowed the UAE to hack into Apple iPhones without requiring a target to click on malicious links, according to court papers.

Karma allowed users to access tens of millions of devices and qualified as an intelligence gathering system under federal export control rules. But the operatives did not obtain the required U.S. government permission to sell the tool to the UAE, authorities said.

Project Raven used Karma 

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-spying-karma

 to hack into thousands of targets including a Nobel Prize-winning Yemeni human rights activist and a BBC television show host, Reuters reported.

(Reporting by Christopher Bing and Joel Schectman; Editing by Kieran Murray and Stephen Coates)

Why should we trust GOP leaders and voters who reliably demonstrate their lawlessness?

John Stoehr
September 14, 2021

Florida governor Ron DeSantis. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)

They say they'll quit en masse. They won't. They say they won't do what they're told. They will. They will do what they're told, then lie about it.

The day after the president issued a vaccine mandate last week that affects about 100 million workers, CNBC released a poll showing that of a minority of Americans still holding us back from reaching herd immunity, 83 percent said nothing would change their minds. A few days prior to that, the Post released a poll showing 72 percent would quit their jobs if mandates did not provide a "religious" exemption. This morning, a local TV station reported that Republican Governor Ron DeSantis would lead an anti-vaccine rally in rural Florida. All of this has the press corps wondering what Joe Biden is going to do.

Before they ask that question, however, they should be asking themselves another: Why believe anything these people say? They have decided what they will do and what they won't do, and they have rationalized their way toward that already determined conclusion using a grotesque process of intellectual dishonesty that's aided and abetted by grifters and corrupt political leaders. And then there's the anti-vaxxers who have decided against taking a free, safe and effective vaccine in favor of spending their hard-earned money on ivermectin, which might be safe and might be effective, but almost certainly is not, as Lindsay Beyerstein has said. Why are we trusting people who lie to themselves? Why are we trusting people who inject sheep drench?

Convictions are built on rock. Beliefs are built on sand. By ordering a federal vaccine mandate, the president is calling their bluff.

Remember the difference between belief and conviction. Beliefs are cheap and easy. Convictions are hard and expensive. If people who eat horse paste genuinely believed eating horse paste would save them from "tyranny," then the president might really have a problem on his hands, one of his own making. But then again, these people are willingly and freely eating horse paste! It's not out of some sense of conviction, but because someone lied to them, and it felt super-duper good to believe that lie. And since "everyone" is doing it, why not do it, too? Convictions are built on rock. Beliefs are built on sand. By ordering a vaccine mandate, the president is calling their bluff.

It is a bluff, make no mistake. Here's how you'll know for sure. We are going to see two things that should not co-exist, but totally co-exist, because honesty plays a minimal role in these people's lives. Those two things are 1) polls showing resistance to vaccine mandates and 2) corporate reports showing compliance with vaccine mandates -- at the same time. The polls will be of workers. The reports will come from their employers. One of these should cancel the other, but won't.

Remember some of these people are injecting sheep drench. It should not be difficult to imagine an anti-vaccine employee of Disney, say, getting the shot in the morning, because his boss said so, then attend an anti-vaccine rally led by the Republican governor that evening. You might be thinking: You can't do both! You would be absolutely correct -- if we were talking about honest people. But we are already seeing this pattern play out. They say they'll quit en masse. They won't. They say they won't do what they're told. They will. They will do what they're told, then lie about having done what they're told.

 Cheap and easy!

It should be clear to the respectable white people who will determine the results of the coming midterms that they can't trust people who will do what they're told and then lie about it. What they can trust is a president laying down the law. (More on that in a minute.) Grifters, strategists and the most corrupt Republicans are making resistance to vaccine mandates seem noble. They are trying to cast themselves as freedom fighters! They are trying, in other words, to revive the old tea party. While the methods are the same -- billionaires funneling cash to astro-turf operatives -- the spirit is different. The tea party had credibility among respectable white people. Anti-vaxxers do not.

What isn't clear to respectable white people is that there is an honest minority inside the dishonest minority. Both are holding us back from reaching herd immunity, but only one threatens violence. This minority of the minority? True Believers who will quit their jobs in the belief that comrades will be by their sides. These are the people who will feel betrayed on discovering their comrades not only didn't quit but act like they didn't do what they're told. While their comrades are fine with getting the vaccine in the morning before attending an anti-vaccine rally in the evening, this honest minority can't tolerate so much bullshit. They will come to see the bullshit as something that prevents "a hero" from doing what "no one has the guts to do."

If and when the violence comes, it will be tempting to blame Joe Biden. But mandates are no more of a source of violence than regular law and order is. The president is laying down the law for a sizable minority that is fundamentally lawless. (For instance, DeSantis warned Florida businesses this morning that his administration will fine them $5,000 per instance if they comply with federal law.) More importantly, the president is laying down the law to instill public trust. It's for the benefit of law-abiding Americans who have honored their obligations. I hope respectable white people remember two Novembers from now.

John Stoehr is a fellow at the Yale Journalism Initiative; a contributing writer for the Washington Monthly; a contributing editor for Religion Dispatches; and senior editor at Alternet. Follow him @johnastoehr.

The Supreme Court's right-wing Catholics are destroying true religious freedom

Phil Zuckerman And Andrew L. Seidel, Salon
September 14, 2021

Judge Amy Coney Barrett (Screen Grab)

"The government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion."

What forthright American declared such words? Bill Maher? Christopher Hitchens? Emma Goldman? No. They come from the Treaty of Tripoli, negotiated under George Washington, approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams in 1797.

This early declaration — along with the First Amendment, which Thomas Jefferson solemnly revered "as building a wall of separation between church and state" — illustrates the unprecedented experiment our founders sought to test: a secular republic ruled by democratic laws, not sectarian faith; a nation whose government based its authority upon "we, the people" and not commandments handed down by distant gods. It is a brilliant endowment, given that in a pluralistic democracy such as ours, with people of many faiths and no faiths at all, we purposefully govern ourselves via secular legislation, not religious decrees.

But today, this bold pillar of American democracy is rotting fast. It is under attack by theocrats, especially those who sit on our Supreme Court. Their recent ruling making it nearly illegal for a woman to get an abortion in Texas is the latest terrifying case in point.

The problem is not religion, or even Catholicism. After all, many of our leaders, such as President Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, are themselves Roman Catholics, and they all affirm reproductive choice as a constitutional right. In fact, 56% of Catholics in the United States support this right. Heck, Mexico — a nation of more than 130 million people, over 80% of them Catholic — just legalized abortion last week. And Mexico is only the latest in a long line of heavily Catholic countries to do so, including Argentina in 2020, Ireland in 2018 and Uruguay in 2012, along with Italy, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Rwanda and others before them.

So again, the problem isn't religion, per se. Rather, it is the kind of religion at play. The kind that a majority of our Supreme Court embraces: a crusading, activist, theocratic religious fundamentalism that prioritizes fealty to a particular conservative interpretation of God's supposed will over the democratically-sustained rights of American citizens. It's the lethal mix of religion and politics that our founders sought to restrain. It's Christian nationalism.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a staunch Catholic and a regular lector at his church, opposed the Affordable Care Act because it included a mandate on the provision of birth control. Justice Samuel Alito is a man of strong faith and darling of the Federalist Society, who has consistently ruled in favor of the religious — even supporting their desire to defy data-driven, medically-endorsed, life-saving mandates to thwart COVID-19. Justice Clarence Thomas always goes to Mass before doing his work at the Supreme Court and declared in a 2018 commencement speech at Christendom College, "I am decidedly and unapologetically Catholic."

Thomas might have been the most devout Catholic to ever sit on the bench — at least until Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump foisted Amy Coney Barrett on the country. Barrett has written that Catholic judges must not take any action that conflicts with the dogma of the church. Instead of upholding her secular oath, when such a conflict arises, Barrett has recommended that judges should "conform their own behavior to the [Catholic] Church's standard." When invited to repudiate this statement at her confirmation hearing in 2017, Barrett declined to do so.

Barrett also is (or at least was) also a member of People of Praise, a charismatic Catholic group which teaches that "a married woman is … under her husband's authority … the husband is 'head of the home' or head of the family; he is, in fact, her personal pastoral head. Whatever she does requires at least his tacit approval." Furthermore, People of Praise members take a loyalty oath, which says "We agree to obey the direction of the Holy Spirit manifested in and through these ministries in full harmony with the church." Barrett's opposition to abortion has been public for many years, and she has declared that her "legal career is but a means to an end … and that end is building the Kingdom of God." This wasn't an off-the-cuff remark; it was said at the Notre Dame Law School commencement in 2006. If there is any singular motto of an activist theocrat, surely that is it.

The separation between state and church our founders established guarantees true religious liberty because there is no freedom of religion without a government that is free from religion. And while many religious people — Catholics and others — find deep meaning, solace and inspiration in their faith by exercising that religious freedom in personal ways, they admirably do so without imposing the dictates of that faith onto others. Unfortunately, that is not the kind of faith driving those who now rule on the constitutionality of our laws — even laws that turn citizens into vigilantes, instituting mob rule over the womb.

Our judges certainly have a right to their personal religious faith. But when they impose that faith on all of us, the wall of separation between church and state is truly undermined. Texans' rights to bodily autonomy is but the most recent casualty. With this court, it won't be the last.

Democrats' tax plan would cut bills for most Americans -congressional panel
Reuters
September 15, 2021



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. tax code changes sought by Democrats in the House of Representatives to help finance $3.5 trillion in domestic investments would cut annual tax bills for Americans earning less than $200,000 a year through 2025, a congressional estimate showed on Tuesday.

The bipartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that those in lower-income brackets would pay far less in taxes in 2023 under the Democratic plan, which is being debated this week in the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.

At the other end of the income scale, tax collections from those earning over $200,000 would rise slightly in 2023, escalating to a 10.6% increase for people earning $1 million and more, the committee said.

By 2027, however, those earning between $30,000 and $200,000 would start to see slightly higher tax bills, according to the estimate.

Democrats in coming weeks are trying to push the $3.5 trillion bill through Congress to carry out President Joe Biden's agenda of expanding social services for the elderly, children and others and to address climate change.

They have pledged to offset the costs mainly through tax increases on the wealthy and corporations.

But Republicans have argued that the Democratic plan will result in higher taxes for middle-class people, as well as the rich.

Amid a wall of Republican opposition, Democrats are maneuvering to win passage on their own through a budget "reconciliation" process that would allow their measure to advance in the 100-member Senate by a simple majority, instead of the 60 normally required.

The Senate is split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans.

Republicans argue that the tax proposals and huge new spending over the next decade would fuel rampant inflation, the loss of jobs and an economic contraction.

But the committee's figures do not indicate that middle- and low-income Americans would be hit by the changes, at least in its early years.

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Dan Grebler)

The $3.5 trillion bill corporate America is terrified of

Robert Reich
September 14, 2021

Photo by Ahmer Kalam on Unsplash

Right now, Democrats are working to pass a $3.5 trillion package that will provide long overdue help for working Americans

The final bill hasn't yet been determined, so we don't know the exact dollar amounts for all its policies. We'll probably find that out in late September or early October. For now, the Democrats' budget resolution frames what's in the bill.

First, on families:

The bill would make permanent key benefits for working families, including the expanded child tax credit in the pandemic relief plan that sends families up to $300 per child each month but is now set to expire in December, and is estimated to cut child poverty by half.



It would also establish universal child care, for which low- and middle-income households would pay no more than 7 percent of their incomes.

And provide a national program of paid leave — worth up to $4,000 a month — for workers who take time off because they are ill or caring for a relative.

The $3.5T Bill Corporate America Is Terrified Of | Robert Reich www.youtube.com


Next, on education:

The bill would reduce educational inequality by establishing universal pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-olds, benefiting an estimated 5 million children, and providing tuition-free community college – essentially expanding free public education from 12 years to 16 years.

It will also invest in historically Black colleges and universities and increase the maximum amount of Pell grants for students from lower-income families.
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On health care:

The bill expands Medicare to include dental, vision, and hearing benefits and lowers the eligibility age. It also expands Medicaid to cover people living in the 12 states that have not yet expanded Medicaid, and makes critical investments to improve healthcare for people of color.

The big question is how far it will go to reduce prescription drug prices by, for example, allowing Medicare to negotiate prices with pharmaceutical companies. That could reduce Medicare and Medicaid spending, and free up more money for other parts of the bill. But Big Pharma is dead-set against this.
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Big corporations and the rich picking up the tab:

In another step toward fairness, all of these are to be financed by higher taxes on the rich and big corporations.

The bill would also increase the Internal Revenue Service's funding so the agency can properly audit wealthy tax cheats, who fail to report about a fifth of their income every year, thereby costing the government $105 billion annually.

In addition, the bill tackles the climate crisis, which also especially burdens lower-income Americans:

There are a range of solutions – subsidizing the use of solar, wind, nuclear and other forms of clean energy while financially penalizing the use of dirty energy like coal; helping families pay for electric cars and energy-efficient homes.

The bill might include something known as a carbon border adjustment tax — a tax on imports whose production was carbon-intensive, like many from China.

The bill would also establish a Civilian Climate Corps, and invest in communities that bear the brunt of the climate crisis.

And the bill helps American workers:

It will hopefully contain much of the PRO Act, the toughest labor law reform in a generation.

Finally, the bill includes a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
This is all about making America fairer.

Remember: we won't know the exact details of the bill for at least a month, but these are the main areas that it will focus on. The big challenge will be ensuring Senate Democrats remain united to get it passed. All of us will need to fight like hell.

Don't listen to spending hawks who claim it's too expensive or too radical. For far too long, our government has ignored the needs of everyday Americans, catering instead to the demands of corporations and the super-rich. No more.

It's time to get this landmark bill passed and build a fairer America.