Biden Bits: “How Democracy Should Work”…

July 22, 2024 12:00 pm EDT Tiff Biden Tweets (Open Thread) Comments Off on Biden Bits: “How Democracy Should Work”…
Biden Tweets Logo. Image by Lenny Ghoul.

It’s Monday…

President Biden’s public schedule for 07/22/2024:

10:00 AM
Official Schedule		The President receives the President’s Daily Brief
Closed Press
12:00 PM
Pool Call Time		Out-of-Town Pool Call Time
Out-of-Town Pool

President Biden still has COVID-19…

His doctor provided an update on Sunday…


The Tweets…

From Friday…

From Saturday…

Statement by President Joe Biden on the Sentencing of Wrongfully Detained American Evan Shostakovitch

Today, Evan Gershkovich received a sentence of 16 years in a Russian prison, despite having committed no crime. Rather, he was targeted by the Russian government because he is a journalist and an American. We are pushing hard for Evan’s release and will continue to do so.

As I have long said and as the UN also concluded, there is no question that Russia is wrongfully detaining Evan. Journalism is not a crime. We will continue to stand strong for press freedom in Russia and worldwide, and stand against all those who seek to attack the press or target journalists. Additionally, since the very first day of my Administration, I have had no higher priority than seeking the release and safe return of Evan, Paul Whelan and all Americans wrongfully detained and held hostage abroad. Evan has endured his ordeal with remarkable strength. We will not cease in our efforts to bring him home. And Jill and I are holding Evan and his family in our prayers.

Statement by President Joe Biden on the Sentencing of Wrongfully Detained American Evan Shostakovitch. 07/19/2024.

IRS.gov said on 07/11/2024:

IRS tops $1 billion in past-due taxes collected from millionaires; compliance efforts continue involving high-wealth groups, corporations, partnerships

 As part of continuing compliance efforts under the Inflation Reduction Act, the Internal Revenue Service today announced the agency has surpassed the $1 billion mark in collections from high-wealth taxpayers with past-due taxes.

As part of larger efforts taking place, the IRS has stepped up activity specifically on 1,600 individuals whose incomes were more than $1 million per year and who each owed the IRS more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt. Since last fall, this IRS compliance effort has generated more than $1 billion in collections from this group, with work continuing in this area.

“With this collection activity, the IRS passed an important milestone in our effort to improve compliance and ensure fairness in the tax system,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “Our increased work in this area means these past-due tax bills from high-end taxpayers are no longer being left on the table, like they were too often in the past.”

“Years of funding declines meant the IRS couldn’t get to money that we knew was owed, but we simply didn’t have the resources or staffing to collect,” Werfel added. “Funding from the Inflation Reduction Act is reversing a decade-long decline in our compliance work, including increasing our compliance work involving the wealthiest individuals and groups with tax issues. The collection results achieved in less than a year reveal the magnitude of what can be achieved over the long run as our Inflation Reduction enforcement continues to ramp up in the months ahead.”

Werfel noted that Inflation Reduction Act resources continue to help in a variety of areas. In addition to improving taxpayer service during the successful 2024 filing season, the IRS has focused IRA resources on expanded enforcement work to pursue complex partnerships, large corporations and high-income, high-wealth individuals who do not pay overdue tax bills.

“We continue working to add staff and technology to ensure that the taxpayers with the highest income, including partnerships, large corporations and millionaires and billionaires, pay what is legally owed under federal law,” Werfel said. “At the same time, we are focused on improving our taxpayer service for hard-working taxpayers. The additional resources the IRS received under the Inflation Reduction Act are making a difference, both for taxpayers who play by the rules and those who don’t.”

Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, more than a decade of budget cuts prevented the IRS from keeping pace with the increasingly complicated maneuvers that the wealthiest taxpayers use to hide their income and evade paying their share. The IRS is continuing to take action to close this gap.

Today’s announcement involves a segment of high-income individual taxpayer cases. Last fall, the IRS ramped up efforts to pursue high-income, high-wealth individuals who failed to pay a tax bill. These high-end collection cases are concentrated among taxpayers with more than $1 million in income and more than $250,000 in recognized tax debt.

Out of a total of 1,600 of these cases, the IRS has assigned 1,500 to revenue officers, with over $1 billion collected so far. The $1 billion collected through spring represents payments from over 1,200 individuals, with the IRS anticipating the figure to grow in the months ahead.

IRS tops $1 billion in past-due taxes collected from millionaires; compliance efforts continue involving high-wealth groups, corporations, partnerships. 07/11/2024.

IRS continues work on high-wealth non-filers, complex partnerships, large corporations

The IRS has a variety of other efforts underway to improve tax compliance in overlooked areas where the agency did not have adequate resources prior to Inflation Reduction Act funding.

Earlier this year, the IRS announced a new effort focused on high-income taxpayers who have failed to file federal income tax returns in more than 125,000 instances since 2017. Non-filers receive IRS compliance letters alerting them that the IRS is aware of their missing return and encouraging them to file or contact the IRS. The new initiative involves more than 25,000 people with more than $1 million in income, and over 100,000 people with incomes between $400,000 and $1 million between tax years 2017 and 2021.

These are all cases where the IRS has received third party information—such as through Forms W-2 and 1099s—indicating these people received income in these ranges but failed to file a tax return. Without adequate resources, the IRS non-filer program has only run sporadically since 2016 due to severe budget and staff limitations that didn’t allow these cases to be worked. With new Inflation Reduction Act funding available, the IRS now has the capacity to do this core tax administration work.

The IRS anticipates having more details related to this non-filer initiative later this year.

Other elements of the agency’s renewed compliance focus include:

IRS tops $1 billion in past-due taxes collected from millionaires; compliance efforts continue involving high-wealth groups, corporations, partnerships. 07/11/2024.
  • Abusive use of partnerships. Last month, the IRS announced a new series of steps to combat abusive partnership transactions that allow wealthy taxpayers to avoid paying what they owe.
  • Activities involving large corporations and partnerships. These efforts include opening examinations of 76 of the largest partnerships in the U.S., representing a cross section of industries including hedge funds, real estate investment partnerships, publicly traded partnerships, large law firms and other industries. Other activities include expanding the large corporate compliance (LCC) program.
  • Aircraft use. In February, the IRS announced plans to begin dozens of audits involving personal use of business aircraft. The audits will focus on aircraft usage by large corporations, large partnerships and high-income taxpayers. The IRS will examine whether the use of jets is being properly allocated between business and personal use.

The video clip is 40 seconds long.

Remarks by President Biden at the 115th NAACP National Convention | Las Vegas, NV; the YouTube is 43 minutes and 41 seconds long. President Biden’s remarks begin at the 12 minute mark.

Let me close with this.  *(Inaudible) [Psalms] tells us, “I’ve been young, and now I’m old; yet, I have not seen the righteous forsaken.”  (Applause.)  I have not seen righteous forsaken, and I will not see the righteous forsaken. 

Hopefully, with age, I’ve demonstrated a little bit of wisdom. 

Here’s what I do know: I know how to tell the truth.  (Applause.)

I know right from wrong.  (Applause.)

I know how to do this job.  (Applause.)

And I know the good Lord hasn’t brought us this far to leave us now.  (Applause.)

We have more work to do.  This is a moment to be engaged.  The work wer- — you’re doing to recruit hundreds of thousands of volunteers, move millions of people to the make their voices heard may well determine America’s future for decades to come.  And, folks, that’s important. 

Remarks by President Biden at the 115th NAACP National Convention | Las Vegas, NV; the YouTube is 43 minutes and 41 seconds long. President Biden’s remarks begin at the 12 minute mark. 07/16/2024.

Statement from President Joe Biden on Agreement Between the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and American Airlines

Collective bargaining works. I congratulate the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, their 25,000 members, and American Airlines for reaching a tentative agreement. And I thank Acting Secretary Su, Secretary Buttigieg, and other members of my Administration for their efforts to help both sides secure this agreement, which averts a strike that would have been devastating for the industry and consumers. This is the culmination of over 5 years of negotiations and proves once again that collective bargaining benefits workers, companies, and our economy. As the most pro-union and pro-worker president in American history, I’m proud of the record wages and record contracts secured by workers during my Administration. When unions are strong, our nation is strong.

Statement from President Joe Biden on Agreement Between the Association of Professional Flight Attendants and American Airlines. 07/19/2024.

From Saturday…

Show more =’s Jill and I send our love and condolences to her family, her constituents, and beloved colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus. May God bless our friend, Sheila Jackson Lee.

Statement from President Joe Biden on the Passing of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee

Sheila Jackson Lee was a great American.

I had the honor of working with her during her nearly 30 years in Congress. No matter the issue – from delivering racial justice to building an economy for working people – she was unrelenting in her leadership.

Always fearless, she spoke truth to power and represented the power of the people of her district in Houston with dignity and grace.

Those character traits established her as a towering figure in our politics. We saw it through her efforts to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, make Juneteenth a federal holiday, reintroduce the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, and so much more.

Her character revealed itself time and again, including in her battle against cancer. Her brilliant spirit was unbreakable.

Sheila Jackson Lee is part of a long line of patriots who delivered the promise of America to all Americans.

Jill and I send our love and condolences to her family, her constituents, and beloved colleagues of the Congressional Black Caucus.

May God bless our friend, Sheila Jackson Lee.

Statement from President Joe Biden on the Passing of Representative Sheila Jackson Lee. 07/20/2024.

From Sunday…

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About Tiff 3049 Articles
Member of the Free Press who is politically homeless and a political junkie.