Bits n’ pieces from east, west and beyond: Billionaires profit from Covid-19

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact.

A recent sampling:

With the end of the Covid-19 health emergency, Americans for Tax Fairness examined the wealth impact of those years: 700 billionaires saw their cumulative wealth go from $2.95 trillion to $4.65 trillion.

Jeff Bezos gained $17 billion, while union busting; Elon Musk became $153 billion richer while also union busting, and Warren Buffet gained $47 billion while denying rail workers sick leave.

The debt ceiling saga drags on. An Ezra Klein opinion piece in The New York Times made several points:

• The debt ceiling may be our “single dumbest” feature, since Congress decides how to spend money, and later votes

on whether to pay those debts. Even a short-term ceiling breach could cause a recession, with 1.5 million lost jobs, the stock market falling and much higher long-term borrowing costs.

• Potential cures include following the 14th Amendment, which says the public’s debt “shall not be questioned,” indicating the ceiling itself is unconstitutional.

The other is to mint a large-sum platinum coin. The problem with either one: likely litigation, with the Supreme Court at this time a wild card slanted to favor Republican causes. Klein concluded by saying the House Republicans are the ones creating the default scenario and “they are pulling the pin on this grenade…”

Under the Republican-dominated Donald Trump tenure, The WEEK said the nation’s debt rose by $7.8 trillion, with three different votes to raise the debt ceiling. Biden’s plans to reduce the debt by $3 trillion, such as letting Medicare negotiate drug prices and taxing the ultra-wealthy, are adamantly opposed by Congressional Republicans. Newsweek says the debt is currently over $31.5 trillion, with $3.5 trillion under the Biden Administration.

They said Biden did reduce the national deficit between 2020 and 2022 by $1.7 trillion. Treasury data shows year-on-year debt has never decreased since 1957.

BBC reported that House Republicans seek not only to sink Biden’s legislative priorities, but to increase spending on the military and border security. The stand-off has “rattled” financial markets.

To meet U.S. debts under failure to raise the debt ceiling, Social Security Works says the Biden administration has been examining selling some federal lands [we should ask to whom, and for what?], selling gold reserves, halting Social Security checks for the first time ever and delay of payments to veterans and active-duty military personnel.

Stock market responses could include wiping out an estimated $12 trillion of household wealth, including retirement accounts.

According to SSW, MAGA hostage takers aren’t concerned about the deficit; rather, they have targeted the poor and elderly for cuts, while protecting wealthy donors and defense contractors.

Biden’s debt ceiling thoughts: The U.S. has never defaulted on debt and Biden says it never will. He won’t agree to “protect” the oil industry with Republican plans for them getting $30 billion in tax cuts (it made $200 billion last year), will not protect wealthy tax cheats with IRS funding cuts and will not cut jobs for 100,000 school teachers and 30,000 law enforcement officers, which he says the Republican plan would initiate.

He does not want 21 million people losing Medicare benefits or any loss of food benefits.

One of the demands made by House Republicans for raising the debt ceiling is to increase work requirements for food benefits, Medicaid and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Experts, CBS says, find scant evidence that works: in 2018 Arkansas instituted work requirements, which resulted in 18,000 people losing health care coverage, leading them into medical debt or skipping medications.

The Congressional Budget Office said it did not increase employment. Republicans want to change food benefit rules, but the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities says their plan could result in loss of benefits for 1 million older adults.

Those not working are typically providing unpaid care for children or older family members, attending school or have health problems.

Shawn Fremstad, with The Center for Economic and Policy Research, said that dodging food benefits for poorly-paid workers could be remedied by better wages and more unions. Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says their proposed policy will help people get a job. The CBO’s research has not shown that to be the case. Data shows 97% of people receiving food benefits are already working.

Debt ceiling summary by The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne: “House Republicans have decided to hold the economy hostage to slash assistance for low-income Americans while protecting tax cuts for the wealthy. That’s a factual statement, not a partisan complaint.”

Blast from the (recent) past: Alexei Navalny, who challenged Vladimir Putin for the Russian presidency in 2018, has since had several “mysterious” poisonings.

After his latest recovery in a German hospital, he returned to Russia, knowing it did not matter where he resided: Russian agents would find him. He was immediately arrested and wrote a friend: “Everything will be alright. And even if it isn’t we’ll have the consolation of having lived honest lives.”

Recent reports indicate Navalny continues to suffer from his last poisoning, which appears to be slow-acting and “rotting his insides.”