Learn More About the Controversial Issues in the News
Federal Minimum Wage Rates? - minimum-wage.procon.org
Proponents of a higher minimum wage state that the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is too low for anyone to live on; that a higher minimum wage will help create jobs and grow the economy; that the declining value of the minimum wage is one of the primary causes of wage inequality between low- and middle-income workers; and that a majority of Americans, including a slim majority of self-described conservatives, support increasing the minimum wage. [2] [1] [88] [22] [89] [90] [91] [92] [93]
Opponents say that many businesses cannot afford to pay their workers more, and will be forced to close, lay off workers, or reduce hiring; that increases have been shown to make it more difficult for low-skilled workers with little or no work experience to find jobs or become upwardly mobile; and that raising the minimum wage at the federal level does not take into account regional cost-of-living variations where raising the minimum wage could hurt low-income communities in particular. [62] [71] [44] [45] [94] [63]
Insider Trading? - insidertrading.procon.org
The US House of Representatives Ethics Manual states that its members should “never use any information coming to him confidentially in the performance of governmental duties as a means for making private profit,” and the Senate Ethics Manual states that its Conflict of Interest Rule 37(1) provides for “a broad prohibition against members, officers or employees deriving financial benefit, directly or indirectly, from the use of their official position[s].” No arrests or prosecutions, however, have ever been made against members of Congress for insider trading based on nonpublic congressional knowledge.
In addition, the spurt in the growth of ”political intelligence operatives,“ firms that sell market-moving legislative information gathered on Capitol Hill for stock trades on Wall Street, has increased public scrutiny of the legitimacy and fairness of trading on such information. Political intelligence operatives are estimated to have grown into a $40 million industry. In Mar. 2008, Representative Baird and Representative Slaughter presented the Political Intelligence Disclosure Act that would have required specifically the political intelligence community to disclose their clients, profits, and activities. The proposed bill did not come to a vote.
In Mar. 28, 2006, Representatives Brian Baird (D-WA) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY) proposed a bill known as the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act to prohibit the trading of securities based on material nonpublic information obtained in Congress. However, the bill did not come to a vote.
… learn more
Corporate Tax Rates? - corporatetax.procon.org
The corporate tax rate became a topic of discussion in the lead-up to the 2012 presidential election, as President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney outlined their preferred policies. According to the Feb. 2012 "President’s Framework for Business Tax Reform,” released jointly by the White House and the Department of Treasury, the United States should ”[reduce] the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 28%… and [eliminate] dozens of business tax loopholes and tax expenditures…“ [44] Romney’s budget plan called for reducing the top corporate tax rate to 25% to "jumpstart the economy.” [43]
In Apr. 2016 the Obama administration announced a move to discourage so called “corporate inversions,” where a US-based company merges with a foreign company in order to pay the lower corporate tax rates in that foreign country. [46] In an update to the “President’s Framework for Business Tax Reform,” the White House and the Department of the Treasury proposed a 19% minimum tax on foreign earnings to remove the incentive for companies to relocate abroad. They also repeated their desire to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35% to 28% and put “the United States in line with major competitor countries and encouraging greater investment in America.” [46]
In Oct. 2017, House Republicans proposed a new tax plan supported by the Trump administration, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, that would cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%, effectively an $845 billion corporate tax cut. [55] [56] Senate Republicans unveiled their own tax plan bill on Nov. 9, 2017 that would delay for one year and then phase-in a corporate tax cut to 20%, which they hoped to pass and reconcile with the House version in a joint committee session. [57] [58] Trump mentioned in Sep. 2017 that he hoped that the corporate tax rate would be 15% and indicated 20% is “very much a red line,” meaning he would not approve a higher rate. [59] [60] According to a Sep. 27, 2017 Pew Research Center poll, 52% of Americans believe that tax rates on large businesses and corporations should be raised and 24% believe the rates should be lowered. [61]
On Dec. 22, 2017, President Trump signed into law an amended version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, introducing a single corporate tax rate of 21%. [62] This law, effective Jan. 1, 2018, replaced a decades-long tax structure which staggered corporate tax rates ranging from 15% to 35% based on company income. [63]
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act intended to prohibit members of Congress from buying or selling securities based on information gained on the job, but the bill died in House committee three times (2006, 2007, 2009) with only a few sponsors. On Nov. 13, 2011, 60 Minutes reported that several members of Congress allegedly used insider information for personal gain, and the STOCK Act received 84 additional House co-sponsors within five days. On Apr. 4, 2012, the STOCK Act was signed into law by President Obama.