(HorizonPost.com) – Right now, both the Republican and Democratic parties hold 50 seats in the Senate. Technically, Senators Bernie Sanders (VT) and Angus King (ME) are “independent,” and yet they’re listed on the official webpage of The Senate Democratic Caucus. However, with a fellow Democrat in the White House, Vice President Kamala Harris casts a vote in any ties giving the Left an edge. The fly in the ointment is that a single holdout prevents the even split, and that fact has made Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) a very frequently mentioned person in America’s media as of late. Her reluctance to raise taxes has put up a roadblock to passing the Build Back Better bill.
🇺🇸 Sinema’s Opposition Stymies Democrats’ Planned Tax-Rate Increases – WSJhttps://t.co/eP7LAexOdW
— Christophe Barraud🛢 (@C_Barraud) October 21, 2021
President Joe Biden has put together a spending bill aimed at Socialist policies by redefining the term “infrastructure” with a massive ~$2-trillion — reduced from an original $3.5 trillion — price tag attached to it. The Democrats had planned to enact it with a parliamentary procedure known as reconciliation. This procedural trick means a simple majority would suffice because their Republican counterparts couldn’t mount a filibuster — which would require 60 votes to override.
The plot to fund the programs in the bill relies largely upon increasing taxes on businesses, the wealthy, and capital gains, to which Senator Sinema has voiced her opposition. This roadblock is reportedly pushing Democrats to find other methods to pay for their wish list, which of course, likely means another way to increase taxes (or reduce deductions) unless they can convince her to line up with the president’s vision.
While Senators haven’t officially proposed any alternate options, they’ve reportedly taken some under discussion, including changes in taxes to international corporations and another shot at the wealthy by taxing the assets of billionaires.
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