#subsidies?

[ravnlghtft]

[gender-trash]

it was weird living outside california for the first time and learning that in most locations people DON'T have personal beef with their electrical utility??? massachusetts was like "eversource: it's fine? i don't really think about it." meanwhile i'm pretty sure everyone in california loathes pg&e passionately

[acti-veg]

People love to call veganism ‘privileged,’ while conveniently ignoring the fact that the only reason animal products are even close to being accessible for the average consumer is because they’re factory farmed, slaughtered and packed by grossly underpaid labourers working in dangerous conditions, and then massively subsidised by all of our taxes.

[nederlandsespoorwegen]

NOOOO

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Berkeley Lovelace Jr. at NBC News:

Millions of Americans risk losing subsidies next year that help them pay for health insurance following President-elect Donald Trump’s election win and Republicans’ victory in the Senate. The subsidies — which expire at the end of 2025 — came out of the 2021 American Rescue Plan, and increased the amount of assistance available to people who want to buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The American Rescue Plan also broadened the number of people eligible for subsidies, extending them to many in the middle class.  

The looming expiration date means that the incoming Congress and next president will need to decide whether to extend them — something Trump and Republicans have already signaled they don’t support, said Chris Meekins, a health policy research analyst at the investment firm Raymond James. “If Republicans end up winning the House, in addition to the Senate and White House, having a GOP sweep, I think the odds are less than 5% they get extended,” said Meekins, who was a senior HHS official in Trump’s first term. Even Democratic control of the House likely won’t save the subsidies, he added.  Several important House races have still yet to be decided. As of Thursday afternoon, House Republicans had won 209 seats, just nine short of the majority, according to an NBC News tracker.  In 2024, more than 20 million people got health insurance through the ACA, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

Since the 2021 subsidies went into effect, enrollment in ACA plans with reduced payments doubled, particularly in Southern red states, said Cynthia Cox, the director of the program on the ACA at KFF, a nonpartisan health care policy research group.  The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, extended the subsidies through 2025. In 32 states where data is available, 15.5 million people receive the subsidies, according to KFF. If the subsidies aren’t extended, the Congressional Budget Office — a nonpartisan agency that provides budget and economic information to Congress — estimates that nearly 4 million people will lose their coverage in 2026 because they won’t be able to afford it.  Enrollment will continue to fall each year, with coverage reaching as low as 15.4 million people in 2030.  

[...] Cox said she expects Republicans to keep dismantling the ACA, similar to Trump’s first term, when they eliminated the tax penalty linked to the law’s individual mandate, which required people to have health insurance or pay a tax. The mandate is technically still in place, but the penalty was reduced to zero. “If Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency, then we might see a repeat of 2017,” she said.  Gostin said eliminating the ACA entirely will be a challenge, even if Republicans control all three chambers.

Millions of Americans could face health insurance coverage loss next year, as subsidies for Obamacare are set to expire.

See Also:

The Guardian: Incoming Trump presidency threatens millions of Americans’ healthcare plans

[popsicle-stick]

YES!!!!!!!!!!! OH YEAH BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sickos) OH YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vetmordrid]

Hearing Maduro’s leaked audio saying he will deploy all armed forces against the people for protesting against him is so repulsive. He is also calling the protests a “colour revolution” imposed of course by the evil Yankees that don’t want any popular progress to come to Venezuela. Maybe three delusional leftist somewhere and his autocratic friends will still hang on his word, but Venezuelans and any democratic leader in the region know without a doubt that he just committed the worst electoral fraud in recent history and now he wants to kill people for it. We won’t stop until he is out.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Ottawa published its plan for eliminating inefficient fossil fuel subsidies today — making Canada the first country among wealthy, heavy-emitting nations to do so, according to the federal government.

In 2009, the countries that make up the G20 publicly promised to "phase out and rationalize ... inefficient fossil fuel subsidies" over the "medium term."

Such subsidies "encourage wasteful consumption, reduce our energy security, impede investment in clean energy sources and undermine efforts to deal with the threat of climate change," said the G20 communique.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault announced the plan in Montreal Monday as Canada continues to grapple with one of the worst wildfire seasons ever recorded and devastating flooding in Nova Scotia.

"We're eliminating subsidies to produce fossil fuels in Canada, unless those subsidies are aimed at de-carbonizing the emissions of the sector," Guilbeault said.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[nando161mando]

Why should taxpayers subsidize Walmart’s record breaking profits?

[eaglesnick]

“Taxation is the price which civilized communities pay for the opportunity of remaining civilized.” - Albert Bushnell Hart: 

The rightwing media would have us all bewailing the fate of the poor British farmer.

“New Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has vowed to reverse the Chancellor's hated inheritance tax raid on farmers."  (Dailey Express: 15/11/24)

and

“Nigel Farage admits he is 'really worried' about family farmers facing inheritance tax raid."  (GB News: 14/11/24)

Yet according to FarmingUK (21/11/23)

“Average business income by type of farm in England rose to £96,100 in 2022-2023 despite higher costs, according to the latest Defra figures.”

To be fair £96,100 is not a lot of money, with some farms doing better than others. Pig farmers for example had an average income of £135,000 for 2023/24 (Pigworld: 15/11/24) while some upland farmers only made £23,500 for the same time period. (GOV.UK: ‘Farm Business Income by type of farm in England 2023/24)

One thing the right wing media and commentators don’t tell you about are the deliberate reductions in farmers incomes introduced by the Tories, who began progressively cutting the amount of taxpayer subsidies they received through the Basic Payment Scheme. For the year 2022/23 farmers suffered a 19% cut in payments.

Neither do the right wing media ever admit the devastating cost of Brexit to British farmers.

“UK farmers face bankruptcies and closures as £1.8bn in EU cash stops with MPs warning ‘blind Brexit optimism’ may lead to higher food prices."  (cityam.com:16/01/22)

I would of thought “bankruptcy and closure” are far worse than the yearly handful of farms having to pay inheritance tax.

This is not to deny that some farmers are really struggling financially to make a living. But in a free market neo-liberal economy the sad fact is the weak are MEANT to go to the wall. This, it is argued, increases efficiency and productivity with only the most productive businesses surviving in a competitive market.  Given the majority of farmers have always supported  the Tories, perhaps they should of paid more attention to what  happens to turkeys when they  vote for Christmas!

The Tories signed a trade deal with Australia that undercuts the price of British farm produce because under the deal Australian imported food stuffs do not have to be produced to the same safeguarding standards as is legally required of British farmers. In addition, Kemi Badenoch is calling for a similar deal with the USA which will  not only see cheaper imports of food but food produced to lower standards, such as hormone-treated beef and chlorinated chicken.

Maybe protesting farmers should look to who the real enemy is? If cheaper, poorer quality foreign food is allowed to flood our markets then they wont have a farm to pass on to relatives because they will have gone bust.

It is not as though the inheritance tax rules will affect that many farmers. Treasury figures reveal that for 2021/22, 1730 farms were passed on to relatives of which 1264 were worth less than £1 million. This equates to around 500 farms a year being subject to the new 20% inheritance tax, hardly the great “tax raid” on farmers that the right-wing media would have us believe.

Farmers Weekly (17/01/23) informs us that according to research land ownership is dominated by the aristocracy, who hold almost one-third of land.  Next come large corporations, which may have invested in land for its tax-saving opportunities, followed by tycoons.

Is this what all the protests are really about? The landed gentry, rich corporations, tycoons and oligarchs, trying to avoid paying tax on their assets?

Let me leave the last word to the Tory supporting Telegraph:

“Wealthy investors are hovering up agricultural land in order to avoid inheritance tax, pushing prices to record highs, and forcing out farmers." (18/06/23)

Maybe the new farmland inheritance tax will actually SAVE some farms. Now there's a thought!

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Nation of Change:

As the climate crisis accelerates, U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) has reintroduced legislation targeting one of the most egregious aspects of fossil fuel policy: billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies funneled to fossil fuel companies. These subsidies, Khanna argues, are being used to extract even more climate-damaging oil from the earth, fueling environmental destruction and contributing to a worsening global crisis.

Khanna’s bill, the End Polluter Welfare for Enhanced Oil Recovery Act, is aimed squarely at halting these subsidies, specifically targeting the billions in public funds given to companies that use captured carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery (EOR)—a process in which CO2 is injected into oil wells to extract more fossil fuels.

“The fossil fuel industry receives over $20.5 billion in taxpayer dollars every year while fleecing American consumers and driving a global climate crisis,” Khanna told Common Dreams in an exclusive interview. “The End Polluter Welfare for Enhanced Oil Recovery Act will eliminate the subsidy for captured carbon used for enhanced oil recovery, which only leads to more fossil fuel extraction and does nothing to mitigate climate change.”

This push comes during an intensifying climate emergency, marked by record heat waves, wildfires, and other catastrophic climate events. For Khanna and many environmental advocates, continuing to subsidize the extraction of fossil fuels through captured carbon only prolongs dependency on oil and gas, exacerbating the climate crisis rather than mitigating it.

Carbon capture technology has long been touted as a necessary tool in the fight against climate change. But critics of the technology argue that its current application in the U.S. is deeply flawed. Instead of being used to meaningfully reduce emissions, most of the CO2 captured is reinjected into oil wells, enhancing fossil fuel extraction and profits.

[ardri-na-bpiteog]

It's wild how Kamala Harris's "crazy left-wing" down-payment support for first time buyers policy is literally existing government policy here in Ireland, brought in by our centre-right neoliberal political party. I've said it many times, but a lot of mainstream Democrats would be well at home in Fine Gael and that's not a compliment.

[acti-veg]

As much as I support making polluters pay for the harm they cause, nothing even resembling a ‘carbon tax’ will make sense while animal agriculture corporations are still subsidised through our taxes despite being one of the most destructive industries on the planet.

[nederlandsespoorwegen]

wat is er gaande in de politiek? (oprechte vraag ik vermijd het nieuws lol)

Het geluid is niet nieuw maar de tweede kamer heeft vandaag een motie aangenomen waar in staat dat de NS zich moet "beperken tot haar kerntaken"

Specifiek is genoemd dat het het "onacceptabel" is dat NS zich bezighoud met bijvoorbeeld de biodiversiteit rondom stations.

[tomorrowusa]

While Utah and Iowa are busy banning books, Ukraine passed a law to support bookstores. 🇺🇦 📚 👍🏼

In Russia, authors get sent to the Gulag or flee the country. Ukraine has a thriving book scene.

Ukraine has passed a new law that directly supports bookstores.

So what a wonderful thing to see news out of Ukraine today that President Zelenskyy has signed a bill that provides subsidies for renting space to open bookstores and the introduction of book certificates (worth 908 hryvnia, or about $22) for 18-year-olds starting this year. The bill also allows for, after the end of martial law due to the ongoing war with Russia, one parent to receive a similar voucher after the birth of a child. Other countries around the world do support various book-voucher schemes (see: National Book Tokens in the UK) but most are private organizations as opposed to direct subsidies from the government. Ukrainian MP Yevhenia Kravchuk, one of the sponsors of the bill, noted that “the share of people who read every day increased from 8% to 17% between 2020 and 2023.” Considering that that period includes the Russian invasion, I’m hard-pressed not to see this as a small light of hope in the face of dark times. Reading matters, bookstores matter, and it’s marvelous to see a government—any government, really—wholeheartedly embrace those opinions.

Meanwhile just across the border...

Ukraine controls around 1,000 square km in Russia's Kursk Oblast, Syrskyi says

Ukraine should establish a bookstore on the Russian territory it has liberated and sell books outlawed or censored by Putin. 😝

Anne Applebaum at Mastodon pointed out that...

The first invasion of Russia since WW2 enters its second week. So far, the Ukrainians have taken more territory than the Russians have taken in all of 2024.

This may be the first time Russia has been invaded since WWII, but Russia and the USSR themselves have invaded various neighbors since then.

Ukraine 2022 - full scale

Ukraine 2014 - partial

Georgia 2008

Afghanistan 1979

Czechoslovakia 1968

Hungary 1956

Ukraine now has control of over 1,000 square km inside Russia. To Russians, it makes Putin look like a LOSER. Putin's 3-day "special operation" in Ukraine is already into day 901.

[parttimepunner]

Today I learned that Project 2025 includes a plan to cut farm subsidies.

“The project proposes ending “safety nets” such as the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs, which pay farmers of selected commodities when the prices of those commodities fall below a predetermined level.

It also pushes to cut government subsidies for crop insurance — for which taxpayers currently pick up about two-thirds of the cost — and to end the sugar program, which manages U.S. sugar production to keep prices high.”

Source:

https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4791069-project-2025-farming-food-aid/