Federal income-tax returns are due to the Internal Revenue Service, making this week a politically opportune time for Congress to debate tax issues.
The House today debated a “taxpayer assistance” bill that would end the private collection of federal taxes, strengthen taxpayer protections from identity theft and tax fraud, stop federal contractors from using foreign subsidiaries to evade Social Security and other employment taxes, simplify the reporting of cellular telephone taxes, and expand tax help for low-income taxpayers.
Democrats who spoke in favor of the bill included Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Brad Ellsworth of Indiana and Rahm Emanuel of Illinois.
Rep. Barbara Lee doesn’t think elderly and disabled people in public housing should face the threat of eviction because of the crimes of others in their homes.
To that end, the California Democrat proposed an amendment to a housing reauthorization bill. The language is designed to prevent such evictions if the elderly or disabled tenants did not know of the criminal behavior or were themselves victims of crime.
Here are more Democratic video excerpts from the debate over the housing bill (the speakers are Maxine Waters of California and Keith Ellison of Minnesota):
As Mike Huckabee soared to the top of some Republican primary polls in Iowa late last year, controversies surrounding his tenure as a former Arkansas governor began to surface. One of the most explosive involved Huckabee’s role in the parole of convicted rapist Wayne Dumond, who later raped and killed Carol Sue Shields.
Lois Davidson, the mother of Shields, was featured in an online video that blamed Huckabee for her daughter’s murder. As reported by Wired, that video (watch it below) made its debut on television last night in a Fox News-sponsored debate among the GOP candidates.
TechCrunch today added John McCain to its list of blogger “gets” in the Republican presidential field, interviewing the Arizona senator about the activities of technology firms in China and visas for high-skilled foreigners, among other topics.
The interview with McCain followed one several days ago with Mitt Romney, one of McCain’s rivals for the GOP nomination.
Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine sees TechCrunch’s series of interviews with presidential candidates as a noteworthy milestone for new media.
“It’s just a blog. It’s just a tech blog,” Jarvis said. “But it’s powerful and has an important audience in a critical industry. So candidates are paying attention. That and 10Questions and the YouTube debates are evidence of a political process that’s just beginning to open up.
Next on TechCrunch’s list is Democrat John Edwards, but he apparently agreed to only a written question-and-answer session with the tech Web site. How very 20th century of him.
Friday’s acquittal of seven guards and a nurse on charges related to the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson has thrust boot camps into the news again. The acquittal came two days after the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on the topic.
Below are video excerpts. The speakers, clockwise from the top left, are:
Committee Chairman George Miller, D-Calif.;
Robert Bacon, whose 16-year-old died while attending a wilderness program;
Cynthia Clark-Harvey, whose 15-year-old daughter died in a wilderness program;
Greg Kutz, an investigator at the Government Accountability Office;
Paul Lewis, whose 14-year-old son died at a residential treatment facility;
And Allison Pinto, a research psychologist and professor in medical health.
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