US Senate Democrats plan to back version of billionaire tax scheme

US Senate Democrats have announced their intention to back a version of a billionaire tax scheme proposed by the White House.

The Washington Post reported on Friday that Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) had told the White House last week that he would support some version of a tax scheme targeting billionaire wealth as part of US President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better economic agenda.

Citing three people familiar with Manchin’s private offer, the Post said the senior senator said he was open to further negotiations as a potential way to save the party’s investments in Biden's social spending and climate mega bill.

For months, Manchin has been opposed to measures in the Biden bill that he says are poorly designed and that would trigger more inflation and explode the national debt.

However, US media remain pessimistic about the future of the bill, saying no matter what Manchin agrees to, he alone does not have enough political clout to save Biden’s $1.7 trillion bill from being rejected.

Republicans, for their part, also voiced their opposition to the Biden bill, pushing for the removal of major pieces of the legislation, citing incompatibility with the strict rules of the budget maneuver Democrats are using to steer the bill passed a GOP filibuster. Senator Lindsey Graham, a senior Republican from South Carolina, said last week that in his mind Biden’s social spending and climate bill was “dead forever”.

Graham says Biden's Build Back Better bill is 'dead forever'

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has said he thinks Biden’s social spending and climate bill is “dead forever.”

The injection of more federal money into the economy, as proposed by the rejected Biden’s bill, will only add fuel to the fire, according to the Republicans.

In early December, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted that inflation in the United States increased higher and lingered much longer than they had expected. “Inflation has been more persistent and higher than we’ve expected,” Powell said at a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee.

Powell, Yellen say they underestimated inflation and supply snarls in US

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admit that high inflation has increased higher and lingered much longer than they expected.

Meanwhile, inflation in the United States has reached its highest level in decades. Official data shows inflation, as measured by the annual increase in the US Consumer Price Index (CPI), was 6.8 percent in November 2021. The CPI measures all prices of consumer items in cities across the United States.

Experts warn that the high rate of inflation is devastating the livelihoods of Americans.

High inflation ‘devastating’ to everyday Americans, expert says

The high rate of inflation in the United States is devastating to everyday Americans, an expert has warned, calling for the rising prices to be curbed.

Increasing prices are most hurting those who can least afford it, Gilbert Garcia, a managing partner at Garcia Hamilton & Associates in Houston, said.

"Americans are having a very difficult time with food inflation, which is running very close to 30 percent and 40 percent,” according to him.

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