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It is Tuesday September

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19th 2023 my

0:23

name is Sam Cedar. This is the five-time

0:25

award-winning majority report We

0:28

are broadcasting live Steps

0:31

from the industrially ravaged Gowanus Canal

0:34

in the heartland of America downtown

0:37

Brooklyn USA

0:41

On the program today five American

0:43

former Iranian prisoners

0:46

released after years as

0:49

a result of a Unfrozen

0:52

assets for prisoners deal

0:57

Meanwhile Canada all but accuses

1:00

Prime Minister Modi of India his

1:03

government of carrying out an assassination

1:06

of a Canadian citizen on Canadian

1:09

soil

1:12

New revelations Donald Trump

1:14

wrote to-do lists on

1:17

classified documents They

1:20

couldn't find a piece of paper Get

1:22

to this after it's legal to do so House

1:27

Republicans are at war with themselves

1:30

over a dead-on-arrival spending plan

1:33

as a government shutdown looms Meanwhile

1:37

Rudy Giuliani's lawyers sue

1:40

him for non-payment

1:43

Specs special election in Allegheny

1:46

Pennsylvania today will

1:49

determine control of the Pennsylvania

1:51

House IRS

1:54

changes their audit practices to reduce

1:56

disparate outputs outcomes

2:00

that targeted black Americans.

2:04

Sean Fain sets Friday deadline

2:08

for serious progress or

2:10

more UAW members will

2:13

go on strike. Donald

2:17

Trump will visit striking UAW

2:20

workers reportedly next

2:22

week in lieu of doing

2:24

the Republican debate as

2:27

state Democrats in Michigan call

2:29

for Joe Biden to do the same. Do

2:32

it Joe. And

2:35

the mayor of Chicago, new mayor,

2:37

well relatively new, proposes

2:40

city owned grocery

2:42

stores to combat

2:45

food deserts. I love that. All

2:48

this and more on today's

2:52

majority report. Welcome ladies and gentlemen,

2:54

it is Tuesday news day.

2:59

Or news day Tuesday

3:03

could be other. I mean, see,

3:05

we're, we're so chipper now. Like we're all

3:07

like so excited. Uh,

3:10

we're like getting out of the COVID

3:12

haze. Oh yeah. Um, it

3:14

has been suggested to me that we are not

3:17

as, uh, as immune as, you know,

3:20

one would be led to believe we have increased

3:22

immunity, but it's still possible to get, uh,

3:24

COVID. Um, so, uh, Bradley's

3:28

not exactly in the rocking chair as

3:30

it were. I still, you know,

3:32

I still wear a

3:34

mask on the subway. And if I

3:37

go into any type of like crowded

3:39

congestion area, I'll do that. Like

3:41

maybe, well, supermarkets

3:43

in New York city are pretty tight anyways,

3:45

but, um, I'm trying to think of like

3:48

an area where if

3:50

I were to go to IKEA, maybe

3:53

I would, not wear a

3:55

mask, even though those are pretty breezy.

3:57

Yeah. I'm just trying

3:59

to think of. like places like that. But

4:02

regardless, let's get right into

4:04

it. We got a lot of stuff to cover today.

4:06

And let's

4:10

start with this.

4:13

It was tweeted out by

4:15

Sean Fain last night, or I

4:21

should say the UAW's Twitter

4:23

account. And reportedly,

4:26

there has not been much progress

4:29

made with the big three.

4:31

And Sean Fain has a little

4:34

bit of a message for them.

4:36

Ever while they drag this out. I

4:39

have been clear with the big three every

4:41

step of the way. And I'm

4:43

going to be crystal clear again, right

4:46

now. If we don't make

4:48

serious progress by noon,

4:51

on Friday, September 22, more

4:54

locals will be called on to stand up

4:56

and join the strike that

4:58

will mark more than a week since our

5:00

first members walked out. And

5:03

that will mark more than a week of the

5:05

big three failing to make progress

5:07

in negotiations toward reaching a deal that

5:10

does right by our members. Auto

5:13

workers have waited long enough to

5:15

make things right at the big three. We're

5:17

not waiting around, and we're not messing

5:20

around. So noon on

5:22

Friday, September 22 is

5:24

a new deadline. Either

5:26

the big three get down to business and

5:29

work with us to make progress in negotiations,

5:32

or more locals will be called on

5:34

to stand up and go out on strike.

5:37

Between now and then, UAW members

5:41

will keep organizing actions. Those

5:44

on strike will remain on strike, and

5:47

those on the job will keep monitoring

5:49

for unilateral changes made by management,

5:52

which are not allowed under an expired

5:54

contract. Keep

5:56

organizing rallies. Keep

5:59

organizing registered. days, keep

6:01

up the energy and keep showing

6:04

the companies that you are ready to

6:06

join the strike if necessary. This

6:09

is our generation's defining moment, so

6:12

be ready to stand up.

6:16

I mean, obviously there's two audiences

6:18

for this. There

6:22

is the car manufacturers,

6:25

but also the members of the UAW, and

6:29

it really does seem that the

6:33

solidarity has been increasing through

6:35

this strike. There is

6:38

a piece in Labor Notes by

6:40

Keith Brower Brown yesterday

6:46

on what UAW

6:49

workers are doing at other plants when

6:52

they're not part of these

6:55

sort of like targeted strikes. And

6:58

again, we have about 12,700 UAWs on strike

7:01

right now. There's

7:05

about 145 or 148,000 UAW workers across the country. And

7:17

there has been advice

7:20

from the top UAW officers,

7:25

this is from that piece in Labor Notes,

7:27

that members in plants not yet striking had

7:29

a right to refuse voluntary

7:32

overtime,

7:35

which is basically the

7:37

car companies will,

7:40

on a regular basis, as a regular

7:42

practice, for voluntary

7:46

overtime. And

7:48

this is a big way, particularly for younger workers,

7:51

I would imagine also those in the tier two,

7:53

to make up

7:56

some pay. Sundays

7:59

I think are double-time. time and

8:01

it appears

8:03

that a lot of workers

8:06

are now, and it involves

8:08

a real sacrifice for them,

8:12

are turning down overtime. According

8:18

to Ricky Brand, who is a forklift

8:20

driver at the local 897 in Buffalo, Ford

8:23

had

8:25

to

8:28

cancel both Saturday and Sunday

8:30

work. This

8:33

according to Brand, he believes at some point it's inevitable

8:35

that the company will make overtime mandatory,

8:38

which could mean working up to seven

8:40

days a week. Extra

8:43

forced overtime, writes

8:47

Brown, might

8:50

result in extra injuries in six days

8:52

and members in the Buffalo local have often

8:55

shut down their line over safety issues.

8:58

They're also backing up the strike by refusing

9:00

managers who ask them to do any out of the ordinary

9:02

tasks at work. It's unclear

9:05

to me if

9:09

the car manufacturers

9:13

are allowed to make unilateral

9:15

changes in terms of overtime

9:19

when you are outside of the contract,

9:21

according to labor law. Now they

9:24

may do it and then we'll see

9:26

a spate of labor

9:28

violations filed

9:31

with the National Labor Relations Board, but we'll

9:33

see. According

9:36

to this piece workers at Stellantis's Mack assembly

9:39

in Detroit are encouraging each other to eight

9:41

and skate. That's

9:45

good. No overtime. Yeah,

9:47

to ramp up the pressure. That's right.

9:50

You've got people voluntarily doing labor actions to support the

10:00

I mean, exercising discipline, that's

10:02

a useful, I mean, part

10:04

of the just immediate tactical benefit

10:07

is just good to see these sorts of muscles

10:09

being flexed.

10:10

Also, they can offset some

10:12

of the work that is

10:14

not being done

10:15

and the pressure that's being increased onto

10:17

people at other plants who

10:20

would be doing that through overtime. That is

10:22

showing solidarity when turning down.

10:24

I'm sure they pay them extra money for some of that as

10:27

well, right? Oh, well, overtime, you get time and

10:29

a half. Of course. Yeah. And

10:31

I think Sunday, you get double time. People

10:35

are taking a real hit in their pocket, some

10:39

of these workers. Stellantis apparently

10:41

disciplined 15 drivers who transferred parts

10:43

between plants in Detroit when they turned

10:45

down overtime. The overtime had been voluntary,

10:48

but when workers refused it after hearing Fane's

10:50

remarks, managers changed

10:52

it to mandatory. They

10:55

did so after the normal notification

10:57

time, however, so the disciplined workers are

10:59

filing a grievance. In other words, I

11:01

suspect in these contracts, management

11:05

does have the ability to

11:07

switch voluntary overtime to

11:09

mandatory overtime, but they need

11:11

to do so with enough advance notice,

11:15

and in this instance, they didn't. So I

11:17

imagine what we're going to see going forward is

11:20

some of these car companies basically converting it all

11:22

to mandatory overtime with

11:25

enough lead time that it comports

11:27

with the existing contracts

11:30

that they are all now sort of like

11:33

that have expired, if you will.

11:36

So the

11:39

law in working under expired contract says

11:41

workers are no longer prevented from coordinating

11:44

to refuse voluntary overtime as

11:47

they are prevented if their contract contains

11:49

a no strike clause, and this is

11:51

a right protected by the National

11:54

Labor Relations Act Section

11:57

So, folks, if you're... If

12:00

you're a UAW worker and you're working in one

12:02

of these plants, you're allowed

12:04

right now to coordinate

12:07

no voluntary overtime. It

12:09

is conceivable. I would check

12:12

with your shop steward

12:14

if the company is allowed to

12:16

switch to mandatory overtime with enough

12:19

notification. But there's

12:21

a good sign, I think, in terms of the solidarity

12:24

that seems to

12:26

be growing amongst the

12:30

auto workers. And how coordinated

12:32

it is as well. If they do implement,

12:34

if management does implement those mandatory

12:36

overtime rules,

12:39

then Sean Fain is going to respond

12:41

in kind because they're doing these multiple

12:43

deadlines. It's very choreographed

12:46

in a way that I think is helpful

12:51

and exciting.

12:53

SacksRepair on the IM

12:55

says, happy Tuesday. Yesterday was my

12:57

son's third birthday. Wonder if I can get a show

12:59

far from him yesterday.

13:06

So at my house, we'll

13:10

get back to stuff. We've got a word from our sponsor

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now. At my house, particularly

13:15

during COVID, when

13:17

I was out for a couple of days, Myla

13:20

is at college

13:23

now, and she's coming back. So

13:25

Saul and I used to be roommates. I

13:28

don't know if people knew this, but

13:30

we have a three-quarter wall in between

13:33

us. We put up one of those temporary

13:35

walls that apparently is there for nine years, but

13:37

we don't need to tell anybody that. Anyways,

13:41

so Saul and I used to be roommates, and now we

13:44

each have our own room, at least temporarily

13:46

for me. He has moved into Myla's

13:48

room, and I've got

13:51

to figure out how to set up Myla's room so

13:53

there's a little more privacy when she

13:56

comes back from college on vacation. But

13:58

the point is, I'm

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been going through Cozy

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yeah, because it's time

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17:28

It is now September

17:31

19th. We are 11

17:33

days from the 30th. 30 days

17:38

in September, right? It's the end of the month.

17:42

We're looking at a government shutdown. A

17:46

government shutdown is a real disaster for

17:49

federal workers. It's also

17:52

a disaster for these agencies that help people.

17:57

I mean, it is, it's something

17:59

you. want to avoid at all costs.

18:04

There's not a lot that the Democrats

18:07

could do to avoid this short

18:10

of agreeing to

18:12

massive cuts to the budget. And

18:16

this is an important distinction because this

18:20

is something that the Republicans have in

18:22

their arsenal that Democrats

18:24

do not have. Because

18:27

government, I mean Republicans are hostile to government

18:29

as it begins. They are perfectly

18:32

fine. And let's be clear, to

18:35

the extent any of these Republicans want to make

18:37

major cuts to defense, it is only,

18:39

and it's not the entire

18:42

caucus by any means of

18:44

Republicans, is to

18:47

withhold Ukraine aid.

18:50

They have no desire to cut defense.

18:53

Not only

18:55

that, they have a stated

18:58

desire to increase it. Now I'm not saying that

19:00

Democrats don't also have a similar desire. We

19:02

saw Kennedy

19:05

from Rhode Island touting

19:07

the fact that that progressive and that special

19:10

election wanted to cut

19:12

the defense budget and ended

19:15

up electing the former Biden

19:18

aide up there who was vowing to increase

19:20

it. But there

19:23

are at least some Democratic

19:25

representatives who would be like, all right, fine, cut

19:28

the defense budget. Very happy to do that.

19:32

But understand what the scenario is here.

19:34

There was a deal that

19:37

was made during the

19:42

debt ceiling fight. Now the debt ceiling

19:44

is different from the budget. The debt ceiling is

19:47

paying off what the government has already

19:50

spent. It's basically

19:52

just paying the credit card. The

19:54

budget is a decision as to what

19:56

are we going to put on the credit card, which is why

19:58

the debt ceiling thing is so strong.

20:01

It's completely procedural

20:03

and you could just do away with it. You could

20:05

just do away with it. But yeah, it's

20:07

another point of leverage for pro austerity

20:10

people. Exactly.

20:12

And so we have the fiscal 2024 spending bill. If

20:19

both chambers cannot

20:21

pass funding bills, it's

20:25

done in 12 separate bills that come from 12 different

20:28

committees or there's an omnibus

20:30

bill which basically is like, we're going

20:32

to do it all in one bill. So

20:35

if you happen to not like the

20:37

funding for this thing, it's

20:39

one bill. You don't get to pick and choose. If

20:43

they don't do this, a 1%

20:46

spending cut can

20:50

take place. Now the problem with that is

20:52

it's a 1% not across

20:55

the board in each silo. It's

20:58

a 1% across the entire budget. So

21:01

it is a 99% budget. But

21:05

protected from that is defense

21:09

budget. So

21:12

it would actually be about a 5.5% cut to discretionary

21:14

spending. Which

21:21

is all the stuff that government does that

21:23

we like for the most part. EPA,

21:27

FDA, SNAP

21:30

benefits, you

21:33

know, A.A. WIC. I

21:35

mean all the programs that help people

21:39

essentially. Now there

21:41

is also a scenario, if

21:45

there's a continuing resolution, there's

21:48

a different scenario. A continuing resolution

21:50

basically says, we can't do this. But

21:54

we don't want a government shutdown or maybe

21:57

they pass a continuing resolution after

21:59

a couple days of government shutdown where

22:02

they essentially say we're going

22:05

to... They punt it. ...punt it and

22:07

keep the budget levels like they were in 2023.

22:12

And in that instance, it actually would

22:14

benefit discretionary spending

22:17

because it would... I

22:22

got to figure out where I had that idea

22:24

from. It would benefit discretionary

22:26

spending because of just sort of like

22:28

a...

22:33

Let's see. I

22:35

can't remember exactly why that I got to figure that out again.

22:38

Either way though, that

22:39

seems like the

22:41

more common sense solution, but the prospect

22:44

of that seems dimmer by the

22:46

day given the insanity of

22:48

the caucus and the Republican Party and the margins

22:51

that McCarthy's working with. Yes. What

22:53

happened was two days ago,

22:55

the Freedom Caucus, and

22:57

nobody knows exactly how big the Freedom Caucus

23:00

is, but it's somewhere between 30 and 50 members.

23:02

I know. They act like they're like the Illuminati or something.

23:05

Yes. We can't know who's in the Freedom Caucus

23:07

and how they vote. And just to be clear, the

23:11

difference between

23:13

four or five

23:15

members of Congress, even if you have a five-member

23:17

majority, so in

23:19

this instance, Republicans have a four-member

23:22

majority, the difference between, let's

23:24

say, there was six members

23:26

of the Freedom Caucus, the difference between

23:28

that and 40 or 50

23:32

members of the Freedom Caucus is dramatic

23:35

in terms of the pressure that is brought

23:37

to bear. We now have 18 members

23:41

of the Republican Caucus who

23:43

have publicly said, we don't

23:46

subscribe to

23:48

the agreement made by the, I put

23:52

this in quotes, normal Republicans and

23:55

the Freedom Caucus Republicans, even though

23:57

they're members of the Freedom Caucus. This is like

23:59

a Freedom Caucus. caucus, within the freedom caucus.

24:01

They're just too free. They're

24:03

so free that they can't build consensus.

24:06

But the point is, is like, I'm saying 18 members.

24:10

There is nowhere where all these people are going to

24:12

be mentioned, and that is the whole point. There

24:15

is strength in numbers. And so they have more

24:18

leverage than, say, six people

24:20

would. I hope that's not,

24:23

I mean, I hope that's obvious to people. It's pretty rudimentary.

24:27

Nevertheless, what they're also

24:29

doing is they're exercising

24:31

their leverage, but they win if there's

24:34

a government shutdown, because

24:36

they don't want to help government

24:38

in any way, and they know this hurts

24:40

government. They also know that

24:44

the people who vote for them in their

24:46

district do not care

24:48

whether government is operating or

24:50

not.

24:51

And they will not make the connection if, hey,

24:53

wait a second.

24:55

What's happened to food

24:58

safety this week? They don't care. They

25:02

just don't make that connection.

25:04

These are deep red seats.

25:06

Whereas let's say you were in a blue seat,

25:09

and there was a government shutdown.

25:12

People would care more because that's a different

25:14

type of voter. I just want to make that clear. And

25:16

the Republicans, most in

25:19

jeopardy of losing their seat in a purple

25:21

or a blue area of the country, are going

25:23

to be the ones that are the most

25:25

terrified by this prospect. Because

25:28

the Republicans will get blamed. We've seen this

25:30

happen before. Well,

25:33

that's the thing, is that Republicans are going to get

25:35

blamed. And that's like we

25:37

can bemoan and say, yeah, voters in those

25:39

districts are in deep red districts.

25:42

They don't make that connection. That's true. But

25:44

then when the Republicans have shut down the government,

25:47

the American people do understand that,

25:49

and they get it. Under

25:51

Obama, they didn't really blame Obama.

25:54

They blamed the

25:54

Republicans. And they'll probably do that this time

25:57

around again. Well,

25:57

I think it's because it's clear that the Republicans can't even bring

25:59

it up.

25:59

their own majority. They can't even get their

26:02

own caucus to agree on anything.

26:05

They'd come up with this continuing

26:07

resolution that called for, again, 5

26:10

to 8 percent cuts in discretionary

26:13

spending essentially, and

26:15

no one's going to vote for that on the Democratic side,

26:18

and they can't get all the Republicans to

26:20

vote for it. It's not going to happen in the Senate,

26:23

and the White House would veto it.

26:26

So

26:30

nobody knows what's going to happen. They

26:35

have a four-seat majority. They

26:38

can't get anybody on

26:40

board with this. I mean,

26:43

it's unclear whether Kevin

26:46

McCarthy could go to the Democrats

26:48

and forge a deal between

26:51

Republicans who just want to basically maintain

26:54

the budget deal that was made when

26:56

we avoided the debt ceiling,

26:58

but

26:59

he's afraid to lose his job,

27:01

which he would do. Yeah, exactly. And that's part

27:03

of what he's ... He has that in

27:05

his back pocket, but he does not want to

27:07

use that card because he could lose his speakership

27:10

with a major Republican revolt, but

27:13

he's also trying to give the Biden impeachment

27:17

to them as a way to smooth things

27:19

over, but they're insane. I mean,

27:22

I don't know if that is

27:24

like a juicy enough get for

27:26

them. No, it's not. I mean, he already

27:28

gave it to them. Right, I know. And they're still

27:30

threatening to your

27:31

point. And they said, we're not signing

27:33

on to this continuing resolution. And

27:35

remember,

27:36

this is not the only thing that needs to be done.

27:38

This

27:42

month,

27:44

there is supplemental spending for disaster

27:47

relief that has to happen because climate

27:50

change, which a lot of these guys deny,

27:57

is changing our weather patterns. flooding,

28:01

we're seeing hurricanes,

28:03

we're seeing super storms

28:06

in places we had not seen before, places

28:08

that are more populated, maybe not necessarily

28:10

built to withstand these things. And

28:13

so FEMA funding has

28:15

dried up. There needs to be supplemental

28:17

spending for disaster relief. There

28:20

are apparently a bunch of programs that are facing a

28:22

deadline in September 30th and

28:24

then of course Ukraine

28:27

support. We just had the top

28:29

Pentagon chief say, you know, send the

28:32

best anti-aircraft stuff you got

28:34

to Ukraine. Regardless

28:37

of where you stand

28:40

on that, these are all stuff

28:42

that's on the plate of the

28:44

house and they can't get, they can't seem

28:46

to do anything. So, you

28:50

know, my heart goes out to, we have

28:52

a lot of government workers who I think listen to this

28:54

show and it's going to be a crap

28:56

show for them. They

28:59

don't get paid and it's not like their

29:03

landlords or their

29:05

mortgage companies or the

29:07

electric company or,

29:09

you know, I don't know, their daycare says, we

29:14

understand you're not getting paid so

29:17

we won't charge you. That doesn't happen. Yeah.

29:19

So these people are going to be on a tight squeeze

29:22

all because of the just complete failure

29:25

of Kevin

29:27

McCarthy to do his job. I mean we sort of anticipated

29:30

this type of stuff happening

29:33

and we're there now. So

29:35

I have no idea what happens next. No

29:38

idea. Let's

29:42

move on to, you know, we'll have a better

29:44

sense I guess in the coming days. I don't

29:47

know, you know, nobody knows. Nobody

29:50

knows. You

29:58

want to do this IRS? Yeah. Yeah.

30:01

Speaking of what government can do and

30:03

what government can do with funding. I'm not

30:05

sure if the IRS actually closes

30:08

during this. I think some of the stuff

30:10

stays on. And there's some government workers who

30:13

do not get furloughed during this situation.

30:17

But interesting story on the IRS. You'll

30:20

recall that with the passage of the

30:23

so-called Inflation Reduction Act, the

30:26

rate of inflation has gone down.

30:29

Yeah. I'm not sure we can draw

30:31

a causal relationship, but that's how Manchin

30:33

wanted to brand it. Sometimes when you name

30:35

something, something like you, what do you

30:38

call it? Maybe it wasn't the

30:40

Child Care Inflation Reduction Act because

30:42

Manchin removed those parts from the bill and

30:44

actually were still dealing with that.

30:47

And the Child Tax Credit as well.

30:50

But what is it a name?

30:52

Well, nevertheless,

30:54

part of that bill called for $80

30:57

billion to the IRS,

31:00

not at one lump sum over the course of 10 years.

31:03

And it would allow for them to hire 80,000 workers,

31:07

again, not at one time over

31:09

the course of 10 years to

31:11

deal with both

31:14

past cuts

31:15

to the number of employees

31:17

you had and anticipating future

31:20

retirements.

31:21

Don't you mean jackbooted IRS

31:23

agents banging down your

31:25

door to take all your money? This

31:27

is the thing that really ... When

31:32

I read this, I have to fight

31:35

the

31:36

feeling inside of me that

31:39

wants me to say, well, look,

31:42

Republicans, that's their perspective. They've always

31:44

had that perspective that taxation

31:46

is theft and that we

31:49

shouldn't have an IRS that functions and

31:51

it should be gotten rid of

31:53

and this and that. But there were so-called

31:57

folks on the nominal left

31:59

who ...

31:59

attacking the IRS.

32:03

Why? I don't

32:06

even know.

32:07

I mean, yeah,

32:09

with this sort of like, you know, any

32:13

type of government action

32:15

bad, government bad. I don't know. I

32:17

honestly don't know. That's authoritarian,

32:19

isn't it? Just so you guys know, if you're calling

32:21

yourself on the left and you're against the collection

32:23

of taxes to make people's lives

32:25

better via government, you might want

32:27

to analyze

32:28

where you actually land on the political side.

32:30

And it was dressed up in this,

32:32

we are protecting

32:34

workers and folks

32:37

living in poverty because

32:39

the IRS disproportionately

32:42

audits,

32:44

or not disproportionately,

32:46

still audits wealthy people more

32:48

than low income people. But

32:51

if you look over the past decade, they

32:54

have increased their enforcement

32:57

and their auditing of lower income

32:59

people over the course of that 10 years

33:02

to where it's almost in

33:04

parity, not quite,

33:06

to where they audit wealthy people.

33:09

But the question you must ask at

33:11

that point, if you actually give

33:13

one crap about this,

33:16

is why? And there

33:18

has been report and reporting and

33:21

studies on this time and time

33:23

again. It is because funding

33:25

for the IRS was cut.

33:28

And when you cut funding to an agency,

33:30

what

33:31

they do is

33:33

they go for the low hanging fruit.

33:36

We can no longer afford the cherry pickers.

33:38

So

33:39

we got to pick while we're walking along

33:41

the ground in the orchard, just

33:44

to belabor a metaphor.

33:46

And the low hanging fruit were

33:49

the people who did not have lawyers, did

33:51

not have accountants, and were

33:53

going to fight as hard

33:55

against these audits. The

33:59

IRS

33:59

Was aware that

34:02

they had done this.

34:04

And it was really their only option.

34:06

However,

34:08

in a letter on Monday,

34:10

Danielle Worfel, the IRS commissioner

34:13

wrote, we are making broad efforts

34:15

to overhaul compliance efforts in a

34:17

manner that robustly advances our commitment

34:19

to fair equitable and effective

34:21

tax administration.

34:24

Janet Yellen had made a vow

34:27

that there would be no

34:30

increase in enforcement under $400,000 a

34:32

year, people making that kind of money. This

34:36

letter speaks specifically to

34:38

research which had shown

34:41

that the IRS was

34:43

actually targeting black

34:46

taxpayers at a disproportionately

34:49

higher rate than white taxpayers.

34:53

Despite the fact that

34:55

there's no way for the IRS to know the race

34:58

of people. So for those of you, and

35:00

this is like a twofer, because

35:02

for those of you who believe that critical race

35:04

theory is a problem or doesn't

35:07

exist or somehow, this is

35:09

what critical race theory is. It

35:12

is examining the existence

35:16

of

35:17

racist racism within

35:19

institutions,

35:21

racism in terms of like the impact

35:24

of disparate impact.

35:26

That is a function of race, even

35:29

if

35:30

there is no racist intent

35:34

by the institution. And

35:36

how does that come about? It comes about because

35:39

in this country,

35:41

black people have historically

35:44

had much less political power and

35:47

much less political power

35:49

means you don't have the ability to shape

35:52

the tax code in a way

35:54

that would benefit you as opposed to

35:56

where white people have had more

35:58

political power.

36:00

Now, of course, within that spectrum, wealthy

36:03

people have

36:06

the most political power. But

36:11

because wealthy white people

36:13

live

36:15

and work and are in the similar system

36:17

as not

36:18

necessarily

36:20

very low income white

36:22

people,

36:24

but

36:25

middle income white people, they're

36:29

sort of like

36:31

they get some of that benefit as well. Yeah.

36:34

By the way, median black household in the US, $24,000 in savings, investment

36:36

home equity, median

36:40

white household, $189,000. And

36:43

so like, that's what critical race

36:45

theory or whatever is. Just taking that context

36:49

into account. So the

36:51

letter acknowledged that its internal

36:53

research had validated academic studies

36:56

that have shown that the scrutiny of earned income

36:58

tax credit claims, and

37:00

that's what it was. These are low income

37:02

people up to, I think it's $69,000 per family

37:05

of four, where you

37:11

would get tax benefits,

37:14

which are really actually direct payments

37:16

in some instances, based upon how

37:18

many children you have and other

37:21

factors.

37:25

The scrutiny of earned

37:28

income tax credit claims have propelled

37:30

the disparity in how the tax code is enforced

37:32

and made it far more likely for blacks taxpayers

37:35

to be audited. As

37:39

part of its revamped focus on scrutinizing wealthy

37:41

taxpayers, the IRS is deploying more revenue

37:43

agents and artificial intelligence

37:46

technology to target hedge funds,

37:49

law firms, private equity

37:51

groups,

37:52

and other types of complex partnerships.

37:56

They now have the resources to go after

37:58

complex partnerships. process. The

38:04

changes to oversight of earned income tax

38:06

credit filings will include adjusting how the IRS

38:08

considers information about where children

38:10

live in its automated

38:13

risk scoring process. So

38:15

a lot of this was just algorithmic.

38:19

The agency is also testing additional changes

38:22

to its case selection process and dedicating

38:24

more resources to helping taxpayers

38:26

fix mistakes.

38:29

It is difficult to reduce racial

38:32

disparities, again, because the IRS

38:34

does not have any mechanism in which they can tell

38:37

whether a tax filing is from

38:40

a black person or white person, a brown

38:42

person, they don't know.

38:45

So they are hitting what they

38:47

perceive to be both, again,

38:51

it's a twofer,

38:52

proxies to eliminate

38:54

racial disparities, but also

38:59

they know that their enforcement has

39:01

been too centered

39:03

on

39:05

lower income people because,

39:08

again, less complex, easier

39:10

to go through these. You can do volume in

39:14

terms of cases as opposed to going

39:16

after bigger cases that are more complex

39:20

but will deliver much bigger payouts. Every

39:23

dollar you spend with the IRS gets

39:25

you anywhere from $5 to $7 back.

39:28

This is an

39:31

amazing return.

39:33

Now

39:36

to be clear, we don't have any

39:38

data on this yet. And they obviously

39:41

have to implement this and we will be able to judge

39:43

how successful they are. Obviously

39:45

sometime I would say this time next

39:47

year when we

39:50

see these audits or

39:52

non-audits get implemented,

39:55

see tax returns and numbers next

39:58

April, and then

40:01

them will have a sense of how successful

40:04

they were. The

40:07

other thing they're also doing apparently is

40:11

they are going after, I guess,

40:16

crooked tax

40:19

filers who will

40:21

file on behalf of people

40:24

in low-income neighborhoods and

40:27

cheat on the taxes so

40:30

that the park's

40:32

filers get a bigger payoff

40:36

based upon the return. That's

40:38

basically it. I think they

40:42

inflate the size of the refund and

40:45

then their fee

40:47

goes up because it's all based upon a percentage. I

40:49

don't know if they get 10%, 15% of the refund.

40:55

They file

40:56

for a refund that's bigger. They

40:59

get the fee

41:00

essentially. Then if

41:02

this client gets audited, they

41:04

end up getting the fee again. The

41:08

IRS has said we're going to send more of those people to jail. That's

41:12

good. Yeah. Yeah. Not

41:15

authoritarian. Ripping

41:16

off clients just because they

41:18

can and then taking the fee. Yeah.

41:21

Why don't we let those guys do that

41:23

thing? Well, here's the thing. They're

41:26

going to send more of them to the criminal division and put

41:28

them in jail. The bottom line is we

41:31

should have, and the IRS

41:33

has been pushing for, but it needs to be

41:35

statutory and of course there's a huge lobby,

41:39

we should have a simple online

41:42

one-page file-your-taxes

41:46

thing. It should be super easy for

41:49

most taxpayers. I

41:52

don't know when we'll get to there. The

41:55

agency again is going to reduce audit

41:58

to taxpayers who claim. tax

42:01

credits including the earned income tax credit.

42:04

Those are for people who work and earn

42:07

under $59,000. There's more

42:10

for people with children. The American

42:12

Opportunity Tax Credit for higher education.

42:15

The

42:15

Health Insurance Premium Tax Credit

42:18

for low-income health insurance customers

42:20

and the additional child's tax credit for parents.

42:23

There's just going to be less auditing of those because

42:26

they're going to dedicate the resources and they have

42:28

more resources now to successfully

42:30

go after super wealthy people

42:34

and because that's

42:36

where the money is.

42:38

Exactly.

42:39

So for those people who were

42:42

skeptical, look

42:44

I think it's perfectly rational

42:47

to be skeptical of anything until

42:49

we start to see the numbers come in as to how well they

42:51

execute it. But

42:53

the idea when

42:55

they pass the IRA, everybody was saying,

42:57

or not everybody, a bunch of idiots

42:59

were saying

43:00

this yelling commitment

43:03

is BS. They're just saying that for the 2022 elections.

43:07

Here they are a year and a half out, probably

43:09

the worst timing for

43:11

a campaign pledge because it can be seen and

43:14

judged by April, at least

43:16

in terms of progress. They've

43:18

hired another 3700, I think it's the second

43:20

wave of hiring audit agents.

43:26

Just be skeptical of people

43:29

who are skeptical of some of the basic functions

43:31

of government as to

43:34

their

43:37

ideology. I don't know what else to tell you. Being

43:40

against the establishment is

43:43

not an ideology. Exactly.

43:45

It's

43:46

childish.

43:49

It is, I don't

43:52

like, you know, daddy's

43:54

mean, but like what

43:57

is that what do you believe in? Do you believe in

43:59

government?

43:59

working for people or do you believe in government

44:02

now working

44:02

for people it is very healthy

44:04

to have a uh... uh... a

44:08

a jaundice die towards

44:11

authority towards establish

44:13

but it is not an ideology basically

44:16

you know uh... go watch the uh...

44:19

rock uh... the rock opera

44:21

by the who tommy meet

44:23

the new boss same as the old boss that's

44:26

what happens when your uh...

44:29

revolutionary action is taken over by

44:31

people who only care their

44:34

only measure of whether something is good or bad

44:37

is based upon whether it's establishment or anti-establishment

44:41

that is a recipe

44:42

honestly for

44:44

just uh... author terrorism

44:47

but from a different person you

44:49

need an ideology uh...

44:54

guides what you will do

44:58

once you tear down that

45:03

the uh... that that the point

45:05

otherwise you write it's just like i'm

45:08

mad well if you can't hold on man

45:10

yeah yeah once i tear it down i'm going

45:12

to like move money to different

45:14

cell corporations in different islands and i

45:17

think it works for me it's libertarianism

45:19

and it's it's not a coincidence that all the

45:21

sort of like people that we saw

45:23

with the with that are also kind of crypto

45:26

people yeah because if you believe that the

45:28

government has no right to control like money

45:30

crossing borders from that that sounds

45:33

like revolutionary that is that's

45:35

libertarianism and it's also

45:37

it's doubly bad when those people aren't consistent

45:39

about like well i think people should

45:42

be able to move crypto and money around not and the

45:44

government should be able to censor it but we need to be

45:46

common-sensical about stopping people at the border

45:48

because that will lead to some bad consequences

45:50

if the government doesn't step in there yeah

45:53

uh... but

45:55

again

45:57

the proof will be in the pudding will have a better

45:59

sense a year from now but it is a good

46:01

sign that the agency

46:04

is at least conceding these things and

46:07

is hiring these

46:09

agents with the intent of auditing.

46:13

People have been hiding money from the government.

46:16

That's basically it. And

46:19

also, if you think taxation is theft,

46:21

please, 6462573920 on the

46:24

call, we'll give you a fun half. I

46:28

want to mention this special election that's

46:30

happening today in Allegheny, Pennsylvania.

46:33

Really important. It's sort

46:35

of been under the radar. I was unaware

46:40

of it.

46:42

Essentially, the state house is

46:45

deadlocked right now in Pennsylvania, 101-101. I did

46:50

not realize this. It's one of only two

46:53

because the representative who left

46:55

to run for something, she

46:58

was a Democrat. It

47:01

was one of only two states

47:03

in the country where the legislative

47:05

bodies are

47:06

split

47:09

because the Republicans hold the state

47:11

senate in Pennsylvania.

47:15

The other one is in Virginia. But immensely

47:18

important given what we saw

47:21

in 2020 and the role that the Pennsylvania

47:24

state government played in

47:28

determining the outcome of that election

47:31

given the amount of pressure that Donald Trump and Republicans

47:33

put on that state and how

47:36

many Republicans in the state were willing to go along

47:38

with it. But yeah, that's today.

47:40

Pretty big. 21st House

47:42

District. It is Republican

47:45

Erin Connolly-Anton Reif

47:49

and Democratic candidate

47:52

Lindsay Powell.

47:55

This was a Democratic seat. Sarah

47:59

and Amora, Terry. goes

48:01

step down to run for Allegheny County Executive,

48:05

the state house again 101 to 101. So

48:08

a big seat. This is

48:10

a Biden

48:12

district. It is the

48:15

third special election in about

48:18

a year to determine control

48:21

over that house.

48:22

With one major

48:24

election coming up in less than

48:27

two months as well in Pennsylvania for

48:29

the state Supreme Court.

48:31

Oh yeah, it's September. Holy cow. Yeah,

48:33

early November. So if you're

48:35

in Allegheny County, you're in the 21st district,

48:37

go out and vote.

48:39

Really important.

48:40

Republicans control

48:42

the Senate there by I think it's

48:45

maybe half a dozen votes.

48:48

So this would be one house that

48:52

Shapiro would

48:54

have in Pennsylvania. We'll

49:00

get into that. The

49:05

Supreme Court election, which is also super

49:07

important in terms of ballots when we get closer

49:10

to the race.

49:11

All right.

49:14

We should head

49:16

into the fun house. Wow. Yep.

49:20

Look at that. It's a new day dawning folks coming

49:22

out of COVID. Not afraid to do a 52 minute 50

49:25

minute free

49:28

half. Really crazy. Free half.

49:31

Within this show launched, it was 45 minutes. In

49:35

total? 45 minutes for the free half, 45

49:37

minutes for the fun half. And it's just been growing. It's been

49:39

metastasizing. At least we have the

49:41

new Saul intro where he says

49:44

it's an hour. Yeah, he doesn't make that claim.

49:47

Oh really? I haven't heard it yet. I should.

49:50

Shocking

49:51

for you to hear, but I don't listen to the show back

49:54

after I do the show. Yeah,

49:56

I don't listen to the show.

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50:59

than one cup of coffee. But now what I do

51:01

is I have

51:04

like a filter and

51:05

I pour it over a cup and I put ice in the

51:07

cup.

51:09

I don't pour as much hot

51:11

water in there and I brew it right over the ice. That's

51:14

the way the Japanese style. That's very nice. Just

51:18

Coffee coffee is amazing. So check that

51:20

out. It reminds me I've got

51:22

to get a coffee. Use the coupon code majority to get 10%

51:24

off.

51:25

Emma. Yes. We

51:27

did a big show yesterday recapping a

51:30

wild week two in the NFL. Bradley's

51:33

responded about the Jets. What's

51:35

going on with the Bengals, the Chargers

51:38

and then the Cowboys look legit unfortunately.

51:41

We also dove into the Mike Babcock

51:43

player abuse scandal, which

51:45

is just seemingly coming out

51:48

in the NHL, hockey, all of

51:50

these

51:51

abuse and horrible coaching

51:54

exploitation scandals coming out. YouTube.com

51:56

slash ESPN show.

51:59

What?

52:00

Left Reckoning. Tonight on Left Reckoning,

52:02

talking to Matt McManus about his book on

52:05

the history of conservative ideas. And

52:07

we're going to talk about Paxton Gettin'

52:09

Off and the UAW. Tonight, Patreon.com

52:12

says Left Reckoning. Michael

52:14

did some Jimmy Dore gossip

52:16

in the post here, so Patreon.com

52:19

says Left Reckoning. So many videos

52:21

of him that I was unaware of with,

52:24

what's his name, David Allen?

52:26

Allard. Whatever the, I don't know

52:28

what his first name is. But if any billionaires out

52:30

there want to become friends with me and pay

52:32

me $5,000 to do, like,

52:34

UAW propaganda, Patreon.com

52:37

says Left Reckoning. I'm

52:39

probably not going to get in touch with you. I'm probably not going

52:41

to. All those anti, all

52:43

those billionaire anti-car.

52:46

Or the billionaire, the pro-union billionaires.

52:49

Anyone out there. All those guys out there. You're

52:51

right. Yeah, exactly.

52:53

You know why, one

52:56

would think that, like, you know, we would be getting money from

52:58

Pfizer by this point.

53:00

Yeah. Pfizer, yeah. If you were saying

53:03

COVID is something to be taken seriously. Yeah.

53:06

Yeah.

53:06

Come on, guys. Let's pick it up. 646-257-3920

53:09

is the number. We'll see you in the fun half. You

53:14

are in for it. All

53:17

right, folks. 646-257-3920. See you in the fun half.

53:25

Are you ready?

53:31

Who sent it? That's

53:34

anarchy. Alpha males

53:36

are bad. If

53:40

any males are bad. And

53:43

the alpha males are bad.

53:53

And the alpha

53:55

males are bad.

54:00

thing

54:59

all lives matter have you tried doing an impression

55:02

on a college campus

55:11

I

55:18

think that there's no reason why reasonable

55:21

people cross the divide can't all agree

55:23

with that on

55:55

yeah

56:01

I have

56:03

a topic for that in the toilet. And the album

56:06

mails are...

56:07

Um, um, um, um, um, um,

56:10

um, um, um, um, um,

56:12

um. Um, um,

56:16

um, um, um, um,

56:19

um, um, um,

56:21

um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um,

56:23

um... Um, um, um, um um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um,

56:25

um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um,

56:27

um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um. Thank you.