Recent bills: CHIPs and Inflation (with Manchin)

lousubcap

Related to the above, here is Jon Stewart taking on the Senate R's:
(some language NSFW)
https://www.militarytimes.com/video/2022/07/28/jon-stewart-goes-nuclear-at-capitol-after-pact-act-blocked/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dfn-ebb&SToverlay=2002c2d9-c344-4bbb-8610-e5794efcfa7d 

Gulfcoastguy

Just a thought, there’s a lot of talk about Manchin but what about Sinema?

lousubcap

Sinema has been quiet on this whole thing so far, at least in the MSM.  Given the silence I would bet she is on board but that's pure speculation on my part.  

JohnInCarolina

Gulfcoastguy said:

Just a thought, there’s a lot of talk about Manchin but what about Sinema?

Plenty of folks are bracing for the possibility she’ll play the spoiler at the last minute.  I don’t think it can be ruled out at all.

WildmanWilson

JohnInCarolina

I’m glad we have a reliable barometer of the right-wing fever swamps here, if only for entertainment purposes.

Gulfcoastguy

I found Manchin’s price in a Washington Post article by Anna Phillips. It was printed in my local paper and too large for me to take a photo. He got: the natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia, increased oil and natural gas drilling in federal lands and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, renewable energy projects on federal lands is contingent on the right to drill for fossil fuels, similar for offshore wind. 

As a side note coal is making a killing due to the Ukraine war. He just guaranteed his re-election regardless of how ticked off the GOP is with him.

Gulfcoastguy

Not the same article https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/whats-charles-schumer-joe-manchin-215829577.html

JohnInCarolina

Gulfcoastguy said:

I found Manchin’s price in a Washington Post article by Anna Phillips. It was printed in my local paper and too large for me to take a photo. He got: the natural gas pipeline from West Virginia to Virginia, increased oil and natural gas drilling in federal lands and offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, renewable energy projects on federal lands is contingent on the right to drill for fossil fuels, similar for offshore wind. 

As a side note coal is making a killing due to the Ukraine war. He just guaranteed his re-election regardless of how ticked off the GOP is with him.

In the big scheme of things, this seems like a pretty small price to pay.  I’m not happy about a lot of it, but I also don’t believe in letting the perfect be the enemy of the good.

As a side note, coal is only responsible for a few percent of West Virginia’s total work force. Manchin being influenced by coal probably has a lot more to do with his own personal ownership stakes than any concern over the actual workers or how they’ll vote, despite his public statements otherwise.

Gulfcoastguy

JohnInCarolina said:

Gulfcoastguy said:

Just a thought, there’s a lot of talk about Manchin but what about Sinema?

Plenty of folks are bracing for the possibility she’ll play the spoiler at the last minute.  I don’t think it can be ruled out at all.

They just have to find her price also. Or the right video.

JohnInCarolina

meanwhile…

http://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1553037027280551936?s=20&t=340FNgwHvhzLL_4OnT3P7Q

Botch

This morning Fareed Zakaria used most of his hour show to interview the CEO of TSMC, one of the largest chipmakers on Taiwan.  Some points that piqued my interest:
 
- Regarding China attacking Taiwan, he hoped that Xi was seeing how the Ukrainian war was a lose-lose-lose proposition for everyone: Russia losing so much of its army/materiel, world reputation, sanction punishment, and the resultant russian "brain drain"; African, European and Middle-Eastern countries losing a large portion of their food supply, at a time they were smarting even before the pandemic; and oh yeah, Ukraine herself isn't faring too well.  He sees a similar lose-lose situation, were China to invade Taiwan.
 
- I already knew Taiwan makes about 80% of the world's microchips.  The CEO mentioned that China gets almost 100% of its microchips from abroad, to install in all the electronic toys that it then, mostly, exports.  They flashed a graphic showing different parts of the world, and how much of TSMC's output goes to each region; China only accounts for 10% of their output, the US takes up about 40%.  
 
- Fareed asked him, "What's the secret, the luck, that enabled Taiwan to become such a powerhouse on the global market?"  He shook his head and said, it is not luck; it was hard work by everyone!  Then he thought about it a bit more, and did say this: one thing that is unique is that Taiwan, since their independence, had invested heavily into Education.  When he was a boy only about 10% of the population had a college degree; today, that figure is 80%!   Something to think about.  
 
- TSMC refuses to build any microchip for weapon-system-exclusive use.  For any country.
 
- TSMC is preparing to construct a $12B chip manufacturing facility in Arizona, pending final passage of the CHIPS Act (they will be getting some tax breaks, etc).  And, lookee there, guess which state Senator Sinema represents?  

Gulfcoastguy

https://www.democrats.senate.gov/inflation-reduction-act-of-2022

A pdf of the actual bill.

Gulfcoastguy

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2022/08/02/joe-manchin-mountain-valley-pipeline.html?utm_source=sy&utm_medium=nsyp&utm_campaign=yh

Manchin bringing home the bacon

JohnInCarolina

Gulfcoastguy said:

https://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2022/08/02/joe-manchin-mountain-valley-pipeline.html?utm_source=sy&utm_medium=nsyp&utm_campaign=yh

Manchin bringing home the bacon

We’ll see how the vote goes.  This week I think?

JohnInCarolina

http://twitter.com/RyanLizza/status/1554829942537342980?s=20&t=dE4lQGCE3ce6KNkl-tYJqg

JohnInCarolina

http://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1554940385188892673?s=20&t=dE4lQGCE3ce6KNkl-tYJqg

Seriously: who cares about maintaining the carried interest loophole besides the obvious?   

JohnInCarolina

sounds like this will start moving to a vote on Saturday 

lousubcap

Here's the latest I found re the bill and Sen Sinema:

"SINEMA ON BOARD — Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA (D-Ariz.) and Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER reached a deal last night to secure her vote for the reconciliation bill. In the end, she wasn’t hard to get. Democrats wanted to raise $14 billion by narrowing the carried interest loophole . Sinema wanted the provision removed. Instead, Burgess Everett and Marianne Levine report , Democrats added “a new 1 percent excise tax on stock buybacks that will bring in $73 billion, far more than the $14 billion raised by the carried interest provision, according to a Democrat familiar with the deal.”

What else she got: “The deal with Sinema also adds roughly $5 billion in drought resiliency to the bill, according to another person familiar, and changes portions of the corporate minimum tax structure to remove accelerated depreciation of investments from the agreement. That depreciation-related change will cost about $40 billion. All told, the agreement with Sinema is expected to increase the bill’s original $300 billion deficit reduction figure.”

WSJ’s Andrew Duehren adds : “Under the changes negotiated with Ms. Sinema, Democrats will pare back elements of a 15% minimum tax on large, profitable corporations. … Manufacturers had raised concerns that the original corporate minimum tax proposal would negatively affect their businesses by deferring or denying the benefit of accelerated depreciation. The changed deal would preserve the benefit of accelerated depreciation for at least some manufacturers, according to people familiar with the deal.”"

JohnInCarolina

http://twitter.com/MollyJongFast/status/1556286761646571520?s=20&t=oONX5aW4UdjYkXrt5ntgbQ

Gulfcoastguy

The senate bill just passed. No details on the sausage making yet.

dmchicago

Gulfcoastguy said:

The senate bill just passed. No details on the sausage making yet.

You mean you don’t doom scroll Twitter looking for every single update from Manu Raju?

JohnInCarolina

Good for them.  Lots of good stuff in there. I’m mildly surprised they got it over the finish line.

dmchicago

JohnInCarolina said:

Good for them.  Lots of good stuff in there. I’m mildly surprised they got it over the finish line.

Thank god  the republicans got the $35 insulin cap removed. 

Gulfcoastguy

dmchicago said:

Gulfcoastguy said:

The senate bill just passed. No details on the sausage making yet.

You mean you don’t doom scroll Twitter looking for every single update from Manu Raju?

Apple News sent a notification to my iPhone.

StillH2OEgger

dmchicago said:

Thank god  the republicans got the $35 insulin cap removed. 

It's remarkable and completely predictable.

JohnInCarolina

dmchicago said:

JohnInCarolina said:

Good for them.  Lots of good stuff in there. I’m mildly surprised they got it over the finish line.

Thank god  the republicans got the $35 insulin cap removed. 

There is of course video of half of them complaining about the cost of insulin from over the past two years or so.  Aholes.

Botch

dmchicago said:

JohnInCarolina said:

Good for them.  Lots of good stuff in there. I’m mildly surprised they got it over the finish line.

Thank god  the republicans got the $35 insulin cap removed. 

This is the one that particularly frosts my pumpkin.  I have three friends, personally, who are diabetic and two of them are struggling to pay for their meds, one is taking half-doses; I'm worried about him.
I don't remember names/dates but insulin was invented a long, long time ago.  And the inventor allowed for anyone in the US to use the formula.  Somehow, one company usurped those rights, and is now the only authorized source of insulin in the US, and they've jacked the price up astronomically compared to the civilized world.  And the campaign donations bribes that every repulsican gets from this single company keeps this **** in place.  Dammit.  

dbCooper

@Botch

I have a relative in a situation similar to the two of your friends.  This article from Mayo Clinic gives insight on the current insulin situation in the USA...

https://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/article/S0025-6196(19)31008-0/fulltext

AnothaStolenGenrator

http://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/1559502408006471680?s=20&t=RZwu_EafQHxMoNjQEKWoJA