Good evening. On this date 75 years ago, the United States and 11 other countries signed the North Atlantic Treaty, becoming the founding members of NATO.
Read on for your Thursday fiscal update.
Johnson Gets Squeezed From All Sides on Ukraine Aid
House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing pressure from all sides on the question of aid to Ukraine. He has been subject to threats from angry Republicans opposed to providing further funding but also calls from Democrats and global leaders demanding action.
“He's a bit boxed in," one House Democrat told Axios. "He goes one way, he loses votes, he goes another way, he loses votes, and he's got people who are talking about throwing him out every day.” That unnamed source called Johnson’s dilemma “a nightmare version of choose-your-own adventure,” with alligators down one path and piranhas down another.
We’re not sure whether Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the gator or the killer fish in that metaphor, but as we told you yesterday, the Georgia Republican firebrand has threatened to move ahead with a motion to oust the speaker and is warning him against bringing up an aid package.
At the same time, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron on Thursday called on Johnson to push through an aid package and urged his European peers to do the same. “Crucially, we need to get on the phone, or in my case go in person to see Speaker Johnson in the House of Representatives to get that supplemental through,” Cameron, a former U.K. prime minister and member of the British Conservative Party, told reporters after a two-day meeting of NATO foreign ministers’ meeting.
And Johnson also faces new demands from Democrats to bundle other humanitarian assistance into a foreign aid bill. Eight House Democrats led by Rep. Susan Wild of Pennsylvania wrote Johnson a letter this week asking for at least $9.16 billion to help address “the world’s greatest unmet humanitarian needs, which are leading to horrifying human costs and driving instability that threatens our national security.” Their letter, reported by Axios, calls for aid to Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Venezuela and Lebanon.
Democrats may have leverage over the details of an aid package because their support will be needed to get it through the House given the deep divisions among Republicans. Johnson will have to decide how far he might want to go toward appeasing conservatives or if he’ll work with Democrats, whose support he’ll also need to fend off a motion by Greene to boot him from the speaker’s job. Democrats have concerns about some of the ideas Johnson has raised for a House aid bill, including structuring the money for Ukraine as a loan and lifting a Biden administration pause on new natural gas permitting.
Republicans, meanwhile, are likely to oppose any additional humanitarian funds. And in a Wednesday phone interview with CNN, Greene reiterated her warning to Johnson against putting forth any Ukraine package and insisted she would oppose more aid even if the plan also included border security measures.
“I’m not saying I have a red line or a trigger, and I’m not saying I don’t have a red line or trigger. And I think that’s just where I’m at right now,” she said. “But I’m going to tell you right now: Funding Ukraine is probably one of the most egregious things that he can do.” She reiterated that she opposes the idea of providing Ukraine aid in the form of a loan, something former President Donald Trump has supported. Greene called the proposal “the biggest bunch of heaping, steaming pile of bullshit” and “insulting to the American people.”
Greene reportedly plans to speak with Johnson tomorrow, but in the meantime, she has continued to criticize the government spending deal he cut with Democrats and the process that was used to pass that legislation. She has also rejected the concern raised by some in her party that a move to oust Johnson might result in House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries becoming speaker. Greene told CNN she sees little difference between Johnson and top Democrats or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Mike Johnson, he’s literally turned into Mitch McConnell’s twin and worse. He’s a Democrat, she reportedly said, adding “There’s not even any daylight between him and Nancy Pelosi at this point.”
The bottom line: Johnson still has plenty of decisions to make and challenges to address if he wants meet the urgent calls for more aid to Ukraine. But Punchbowl News reports that a Ukraine aid bill may not come to the floor next week, when lawmakers return from their recess. The following week is reportedly more likely.
Free IRS Filing Program Draws Few Users
The IRS announced last week that upwards of 19 million people in 12 states are eligible to file their taxes for free using Direct File, a new program the tax agency is testing this year. But eligibility hasn’t translated into many actual users, and the test program is struggling to attract taxpayers less than two weeks ahead of the April 15 filing deadline.
According to The Hill’s Tobias Burns, about 50,000 people have used the Direct File system so far, far less than the hundreds of thousands the IRS projected earlier this year and the millions eligible to use it as of late March. The low number has come as something of a surprise, given the general popularity of electronic tax filing, which now accounts for more than 90% of all tax returns.
One problem is that the Direct File software is still in the testing phase and can handle only basic returns in a limited number of locations. Another is that it became available for use just a few weeks ago, well after millions of people had already filed their taxes.
The biggest issue, though, may be that there is so little public awareness of the free filing effort, which is funded through the $80 billion Congress provided to the IRS in the Inflation Reduction Act for modernization and enforcement — a 10-year total that has already been reduced to $60 billion as part of a debt-limit deal between White House and Republicans, who oppose additional funding for the tax agency. While the IRS is pressing ahead on the development of the Direct File program despite the funding cuts — and despite strong opposition from for-profit filing services and some Republican lawmakers — it has spent very little to promote it.
The Coalition for Fair and Free Filing, a consumer advocacy group that supports the Direct File effort, has reportedly spent several hundred thousand dollars promoting the program in the 12 states where it is available. But that number is dwarfed by the advertising dollars flowing from the $14 billion for-profit tax filing industry. According to data from MediaRadar cited by The Hill, TurboTax alone spent $100 million on advertising its services in the last year.
Still, the IRS is trying to get the word out. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo was in Texas recently promoting the program and defending what he said is its long-overdue development. “The American people should have a free option for filing their taxes like people all over the world do in countries that are similar to the United States,” he told The Dallas Morning News. “The last time the IRS dramatically improved its technology was in the 1960s … before we sent a man to the moon, before we had an ATM, before we had the personal computer.”
Number of the Day: $20 Billion
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday awarded $20 billion in grants to eight nonprofit organizations focused on combating climate change. Those organizations will use the funds to offer thousands of loans to businesses and homeowners to invest in projects such as clean power generation, energy-reducing building retrofits and construction, and zero-emission transportation technologies.
“This investment is part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a first-of-its-kind and national-scale $27 billion program funded through President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to combat the climate crisis by catalyzing public and private capital for projects that slash harmful climate pollution, improve air quality, lower energy costs, and create good-paying jobs,” the White House said. “This program will ensure communities across the country have access to the capital they need to participate in and benefit from a cleaner, more sustainable economy.”
While the Biden administration is celebrating the grant program, Republicans have bashed it, calling it a “greendoggle” and a “Green New Deal slush fund” that lacks proper oversight. House Republicans passed a bill in March that would eliminate the $27 billion greenhouse gas reduction program, but the legislation would almost certainly be vetoed by Biden in the unlikely event that it gets through the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Fiscal News Roundup
- Emergency Summit on Baltimore Bridge Collapse Set as Tensions Rise Over Federal Funding – CBS News
- Scoop: Johnson Faces New Pressure From Democrats on Foreign Aid – Axios
- UK’s Cameron Tells Europe: Pressure House Speaker Johnson on Ukraine – Politico
- Greene Slams Johnson’s Ukraine Position: ‘Is He Being Blackmailed?’ – The Hill
- The Only U.S. Lawmaker Born in Ukraine Is Now Skeptical of More Aid – Wall Street Journal
- A New 'Litmus Test' Rises in GOP Primaries: Ukraine Aid – NBC News
- Schumer Expected to Move Quickly to Dismiss Mayorkas Impeachment – The Hill
- Environmental Protection Agency Gives $20 Billion in ‘Green Bank’ Grants – New York Times
- White House Warns House Conservatives’ Budget Could Hurt Opioid Epidemic Fight – The Hill
- Immigration Helps US Jobs Grow Faster Than Powell’s Speed Limit – Bloomberg
- No Labels Abandons 2024 Presidential Campaign Effort – Wall Street Journal
Views and Analysis
- What’s Wrong With the Economy? It’s You, Not the Data – Greg Ip, Wall Street Journal
- Biden Says U.S. Economy Is World’s Best. Trump Calls It a ‘Cesspool.’ Data Is Clear – Rebecca Picciotto, CNBC
- We Will Have a Huge Tax Debate in 2025. We Might Want to Start It Now – Ramesh Ponnuru, Washington Post
- No, Big Pharma’s High Prices Don’t Drive Innovation – Avik Roy and Gregg Girvan, Washington Post
- Biden’s ‘Tax Cut’ Rhetoric Is Really Just Code for Benefit Increases – Matt Weidinger, The Hill
- Biden’s Allies Are Forcing His Hand on Conditioning Aid to Israel – Nia Prater, New York
- Liberals Need to Be Radicals – Robert Kuttner, American Prospect
- Unauthorized Sign-Ups Cast Shadow on Obamacare’s Record Enrollment – Julie Appleby, Washington Post
- Terrified Parents, New Age Health Nuts, MAGA Exiles. Meet the R.F.K. Jr. Faithful – Michelle Goldberg, New York Times
- New Book Details Steve Bannon’s ‘Maga Movement’ Plan to Rule for 100 Years – Martin Pengelly, Guardian