Politics

On Thursday, close to 150 CEOs from various companies sent a letter to the Senate begging them to pass red flag laws and tougher background checks for all gun sales. Many of the CEOs are well known, such as Arianna Huffington from the Huffington Post and Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber.

“There are steps Congress can, and must, take to prevent and reduce gun violence. … That’s why we urge the Senate to stand with the American public and take action on gun safety by passing a bill to require background checks on all gun sales and a strong Red Flag law that would allow courts to issue life-saving extreme risk protection orders,” the letter said.

This letter comes as the Washington Post wrote a scathing attack on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, singling him out for what they consider failing to act on legislation sitting on his desk that could potentially save lives if passed. There’s no proof the laws would indeed save lives, but they feel entitled to act and pass something and McConnell is preventing that from happening.

The opinion piece, entitled: “How many more names will be added to the list before Mitch McConnell acts on guns?” takes a look at the many mass shootings that have happened since 1999, including the names and ages of all the victims. This is an attempt to push red flag laws into place, a law the Democrat-controlled House passed swiftly.

Senate Back in Session

With the Senate now back in session since Monday after the long August recess, these CEOs are demanding that Congress act. As the first matter of business, they want tougher universal background checks and red flag laws so law enforcement and judges can take away the gun rights of others they deem to be unfit for owning weapons.

Still, any type of gun control law is unlikely to pass. We have a Republican-controlled Senate and President Trump is the least likely president to sign it into law even if it does pass the Senate. He would most likely veto the attempt, making the bill dead in the water.

Today’s debate day for many Democratic candidates running for president in the 2020 election. Tonight, we were hear all sorts of different ideas and proposals. Just before the debate is scheduled to take place, Senator Elizabeth Warren decided to unveil her new plan to help Americans save money for retirement and social security.

In her own words: “it’s getting harder to save enough for a decent retirement.” She wants to do something about that by allowing a $200 per month increase for every single person either currently receiving Social Security or for future beneficiaries saving for retirement. According to the Massachusetts Democrat, this is the largest and most progressive increase in the program and almost 50 years. She says it’s about time the government gets serious about the depleting program.

She says that the average payment a person receives on Social Security, about $1,354 per month, is small and nowhere near enough. There are currently 64 million people who receive these benefits and many need these payments to survive. By giving a $200 per month bump, you allow them to live a bit more comfortably.

“And here’s the even scarier part: unless we act now, future retirees are going to be in even worse shape than the current ones,” she stressed. This is due to the fact that Social Security is running out of money. People are paying into it for their retirement, but the government uses what workers are currently paying into to subsidize current retirees.

Paying Back Social Security

Sen. Warren says that if she becomes president, shall expand the solvency of Social Security by 20 years and, of course, shall do that by increasing taxes on the wealthiest Americans. According to Mark Zandi, a chief economist with Moody’s Analytics, Warren’s plan would “immediately lift an estimated 4.9 million seniors out of poverty, cutting the senior poverty rate by 68 percent.”

What also wants employers who are already contributing towards their workers Social Security benefits to contribute even more. She wants to bust his number up by nearly 25%. She believes that the top earners can easily afford to boost contributions to workers by this much. Warns goal is to create a much stronger progressive Social Security system that works for the lower-and-middle class retirees.

Something definitely needs to be done as the average lifespan of Americans continues to expand. Nearly 80 million people are estimated to be drawing on Social Security as we continue to live longer. Social Security was implemented when the lifespan was shorter. Now that were living longer, more money is being drawn from the system and is quickly running out of money. It’s unknown of Warren’s plan will ever be voted into law, but either way, someone needs to help fix the problem before it’s too late.

Senator Cory Booker is the latest Democrat to jump onto the climate change bandwagon and offer up a plan of his own. We he called the “Environmental Justice Fund,” Booker hopes to pass a $3 trillion plan that he hopes will combat climate change and slow down the earth’s warming. 

There are already plenty of critics of this deal. Creating a $3 trillion program when the country is already trillions in debt and there are more pressing spending needs, like trillions needed to upgrade our country’s infrastructure, many opponents feel now is not the time to keep upping the spending. But Booker feels that climate change is our country’s biggest threat and it must be addressed sooner rather than later. 

“To end the real and growing threat of climate change and to create a more just country for everyone, we must heal these past mistakes and act boldly to create a green and equitable future. That’s exactly what I’ll do as president,” Booker said in a statement.

Booker also tweeted: “We’re facing a dual crisis of climate change and economic inequality—and without immediate action, the toll is unimaginable. But this is a fight I know we can win.”

The Time is Now

Many on the Democratic side feel there is no time left to combat the problem. Where the Green New Deal was too bold and mostly laughed off, even by Democrats, they still believe the threat is immediate and the cost is too high if we don’t start making changes immediately. Many are even saying we have 12 years to face the problem or we’re doomed.

“The reality is that we can’t afford not to act. We spend more than $100 billion each year solely on the health impacts of burning fossil fuels, and have spent $450 billion on climate-related disasters in the last three years alone. A recent paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the U.S. economy could shrink by more than 10 percent by 2100 if we don’t act decisively on climate change,” writes Booker.

“As we set out to tackle the existential challenge of climate change, we must ensure that all people and all communities, especially the ones that have been traditionally left behind — urban and rural, communities of color, low-income, and indigenous — share in our progress. Acting together, we can and must find our common purpose, and build a sustainable and equitable future for all,” adds the statement.

More details about the plan are set to be released in the coming days, but we should expect more plans like this from the Democrats as they continue to ramp up their 2020 campaigns. Senator Booker is one top Democrats running for president. 

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the outspoken congresswoman from New York, says she made a student loan debt payment while sitting in her chair preparing to make a statement on the subject of student loan forgiveness. She claims she now owes $19,000, using the moment to attack Republicans, as if they are responsible for her owing the debt.

Despite a major jump in her pay from a bartender to making $174,000 per year as a member of Congress, AOC lamented her $19,000 and says she feels accomplished bringing down her balance, but the country needs to reset and offer full student loan forgiveness. Even the fairly wealthy apparently want the government to pay their debt for them.

“I literally made a student loan payment while I was sitting here at this chair, and I looked at my balance, and it was $20,237.16,” she said. “I just made a payment that took me down to $19,000 so I feel really accomplished right now.”

Will Student Loan Debt Forgiveness Ever Happen?

It’s understandable that many people want student loan forgiveness. Even AOC is calling for it despite her high salary. Nearly every single Democratic candidate on the 2020 campaign trail has a plan to offer both student loan forgiveness and to make college free moving forward. Whether it will actually happen is another story.

President Trump hasn’t offered too many solutions to the problem. He feels if a person takes out a debt, they should be responsible for paying it back. He doesn’t think it’s fair to put that $1.53 trillion burden on the backs of taxpayers. Yet, the president did step in to help those who truly need it the most: disabled veterans.

It wasn’t too long ago when Trump signed into law a new executive order completely wiping the slate clean for veterans who were classified as 100% disabled. It also means they were free and clear of the tax burden that comes with student loan forgiveness.

“The debt of these disabled veterans will be completely erased,” Trump said. “That’s hundreds of millions of dollars of student loans debt for our disabled veterans that will be completely erased,” he said. “It was my honor to sign a Presidential Memorandum facilitating the cancellation of student loan debt for 25K of our most severely disabled Veterans. With today’s order, we express the everlasting love & loyalty of a truly grateful Nation. God bless our Vets, & God Bless America!” Trump tweeted.

In the category of “where have we seen this before,” President Trump promised via the White House press corps that he was going to release a detailed financial report before the 20/20 presidential election. It’s unknown exactly what he’s going to release, if anything, but he says it’s a detailed report of all of his personal holdings. There have been many questions about how Trump is profiting as president.

This might not be much of a promise even if he goes through with. He has to file financial disclosures anyway with the government ethics office. At least Trump seems to understand that there are many ethics questions that have been popping up over the past few months and even years about how much money the president is making while in office.

These types of questions were specifically asked in the past week after VP Mike Pence stayed in Doonbeg, Ireland, choosing to stay in one of Trump’s resorts. Another question is popped up in the past few days about whether a crew of Air Force personnel stayed at Trump’s properties in Scotland.

“At some point prior to the election, I’m going to be giving out a financial report of me, and it’ll be extremely complete,” he told reporters at the White House before leaving for a campaign rally in North Carolina.

Ethics Questions Being Raised

The big question being raised here is whether Trump is forcing the government to stay at his properties when they’re traveling abroad. He has many resorts, hotels, golf courses all over the world. He himself has stayed at these places when traveling up and down the East Coast, from Florida all the way up to New York.

Yet, these government entities and trump himself do not stay at his resorts for free. The taxpayers are paying for these stays, so that’s taxpayer money going directly into Trump’s pocket. But Trump says he doesn’t need the government staying at his hotels and he doesn’t need to make a profit from taxpayers. Hence, releasing his financial status in an attempt to quell any speculation.

“I’m going to give out my financial condition and you’ll be extremely shocked that the numbers are many, many times what you think,” Trump said. “I don’t need to have somebody take a room overnight at a hotel.”

President Trump decided not to release his tax returns in a rare move by an American president over the past few decades. He made promises during the 2016 campaign after questions were raised by Democrats about his ties to Russia. Many feel that Trump has way overestimated his worth and isn’t upfront about many questions that continue to swirl around his financial dealings.