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Aug. 05, 2020 02:51PM EST
Why the employee retention credit is an overlooked stimulus issue
D.C. remains deadlocked on the next stimulus package, days after extended unemployment benefits ended and days before PPP is set to expire.
Where it stands: One unresolved issue that hasn't gotten enough attention is a proposed expansion of the employee retention credit, which could have a significant impact for companies that have experienced severe revenue declines.
The backdrop: The CARES Act established the initial version, a refundable payroll tax credit that could cover up to $5,000 per employee, for businesses that had suffered at least 50% revenue loss.
- Caveat #1: If a company received a PPP loan, it wasn't eligible.
- Caveat #2: If a company had more than 100 employees who remained working full time, including remotely, it wasn't eligible.
- Caveat conclusion: For most companies, this credit wasn't too valuable.
What's new: Both new stimulus plans — HEROES Act (D), HEALS Act (R) — are much more generous.
- HEROES increases the credit to up to $36k per employee (or up to 80% of wages paid per retained employee), with sliding-scale revenue eligibility for companies with revenue drop of between 10% and 50%. It increases the limit on working employees to 1,500.
- HEALS increases the credit to up to $30k per employee (or up to 65% of wages paid per retained employee), with the revenue decline threshold cut to 25%. It increases the limit on working employees to 500.
- Neither proposal restricts companies that received PPP loans, although they're silent on companies that participate in a possible PPP extension.
The bottom line: There are still partisan differences, but both sides are moving in the same direction on this, which suggests more flexibility than on thornier issues like school funding and liability protections.
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Aug. 18, 2020 03:25AM EST
Top Homeland Security official: “Absolutely” no systemic racism in policing
Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf told "Axios on HBO" that there’s “absolutely not” any systemic racism in American policing, the latest white, male Trump administration official to dismiss persistent racism in the United States.
Why it matters: Recent polling shows a narrow plurality of Americans believe systemic racism is real and requires action, while data consistently shows how Black and Hispanic people suffer from built-in biases and systemic obstacles. This is becoming one of the major fault lines in American politics.
- 46% of Americans believe racism is built in to U.S. policies and institutions, compared to 44% who believe racism is perpetrated by racist individuals, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll from July.
- 70% of Democrats call it systemic versus 66% of Republicans who attribute racism to individuals.
- 65% of Black voters call it systemic; 48% of white voters say it's the result of individuals.
President Trump is on record acknowledging systemic racism: “I’d like to think there is not” systemic racism, he told the Wall Street Journal in June, “but unfortunately, there probably is some. I would also say it’s very substantially less than it used to be.”
Many in his orbit have dismissed its existence in today's America:
- White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow: "I don't accept the view of systemic racism. I think there is racism in pockets of this country, but I do not believe it is systemic," Kudlow told Jonathan Swan in an interview for "Axios on HBO" that aired in June.
- National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien: "No, I don't think there's systemic racism," he told CNN in May.
- Attorney General Bill Barr: “I don’t agree there’s systemic racism in the police department, generally, in this country,” he told Congress in July.
Wolf told Mike Allen in the "Axios on HBO" interview that "this idea that we have systemic racism is not accurate, in my view."
- "That means that we have designed a system that every law enforcement officer that goes through a law enforcement academy, a training facility, is somehow installed with racist views."
- "Again, I'm not saying that there's not racist tendencies in some law enforcement officers. I think I wanna be clear about that. But again, what people mean by systemic racism is that we have designed an institution, a law enforcement institution, to be racist from the get-go. And I just — I don't subscribe to that. I don't believe in that."
- Wolf said he is "all for calling out inappropriate behavior, inappropriate procedures. But the way to get at that is not to call for defunding the police. The way to do that is not to cut their budget by half."
The other side: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden told CBS News in June that there is "absolutely" systemic racism in policing.
- "But it's not just in law enforcement. It's across the board. ... It's in housing, it's in education, and it's in everything we do. It's real. It's genuine. It's serious."
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Aug. 27, 2020 12:03AM EST
Wisconsin Justice Department releases initial account of Jacob Blake shooting
The Wisconsin Department of Justice released its initial account describing the events before and after officers shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, last Sunday evening.
The state of play: The release says officers were sent to a residence after a woman claimed her boyfriend was on the property and was not supposed to be. Officers tried to arrest Blake, initially using a taser they say did not work.
- Blake walked to his car and Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey fired his weapon seven times into Blake's back.
- No other officer was reported to fire a weapon.
- The Kenosha Police Department does not have body cameras available for its officers.
- Blake told officers he had a knife in his possession during the investigation after the incident, and officials did not find any other weapons in his car.
The impact: Kenosha has been in a state of disarray since the shooting — which left Blake paralyzed. The incident has set off protests throughout Kenosha over police brutality.
- Authorities added that two people died after gunfire erupted during demonstrations in the area o Tuesday night.
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Aug. 28, 2020 12:38PM EST
The NBA wades into politics
Amid a national reckoning on race that has consumed the sports world, NBA players are poised to shape the conversation — and perhaps even influence the upcoming election.
The state of play: The NBA bubble has been politicized from the start, with social justice messages everywhere. But the Milwaukee Bucks' strike on Wednesday set a new bar and made the NBA a leader in a movement it had previously only participated in.
- President Trump responded on Thursday, saying the NBA has "become more like a political organization."
- "They've put a lot of slogans out, but I think what we need to do is turn that [into] actual action," added Jared Kushner.
Driving the news: LeBron James has already taken action by heading up More Than A Vote, an athlete-led group devoted to fighting voter suppression in Black electoral districts and turning stadiums into polling sites for Election Day.
- The non-profit organization, which is made up of Black athletes from the NBA and other leagues, just launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to address poll worker shortages.
- Since voting site volunteers are typically older, there's concern about them staying home this year due to COVID-19 risks, so election officials are grateful for the spotlight athletes are bringing to the issue.
- "This is the ballgame," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson told NYT. "This is not just an important partnership. This is critical."
The big picture: While their Black activist predecessors acted alone or in small groups, today's NBA players have strength in numbers.
- When Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier, he couldn't stay in the same hotels or eat at the same restaurants as his teammates.
- When the Bucks went on strike, they were inside a different kind of bubble — one that has brought players closer together and unified the league.
"In a college campus-like environment they've studied history, discussed politics and watched the news — doing all this as a group, undistracted by travel and personal lives to an extent that would not have been possible outside the bubble as illness, violence and chaos have swirled outside."
Jonathan Eig, WashPost
The bottom line: As a new generation of athletes gets more involved politically, the role of sports changes. This comes at a cost, and NBA writers have already suggested that it's hurting viewership.
- But it also leads to new possibilities — like voting at Dodger Stadium.
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