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New Hampshire
Biden to push for return of expanded child tax credit in State of the Union speech • New Hampshire Bulletin
WASHINGTON – Top White House economic officials said Tuesday that President Joe Biden will announce how his administration is tackling economic issues – from the housing crisis to restoring the expansion of the child tax credit – during this week’s State of the Union address to Congress and the nation.
“Providing more breathing room to American families is really something that remains a top priority for the president,” said Jon Donenberg, a deputy director of the National Economic Council, in a briefing at the White House with reporters from regional publications.
The speech is expected to be of great significance for Biden as he seeks reelection in November against the likely Republican nominee, former President Donald Trump.
Some policies Biden will address in his remarks Thursday night include his administration’s efforts to crack down on “junk fees,” help first-time homebuyers and protect renters from rent hikes, as well as pushing for several changes to the U.S. tax code.
Daniel Hornung, a deputy director of the National Economic Council, said Biden will make the case to Republicans to bring back the expanded child tax credit.
“The president will push to restore that tax break to make sure that families across the country, families with children, have the breathing room they need,” Hornung said.
Biden will use the State of the Union to push tax policies that promote “interests of working people and not billionaires or megacorporations,” Hornung said.
The president will propose a multi-pronged plan that would include raising the corporate tax rate to 28 percent, a priority Biden discussed in last year’s budget proposal.
Hornung said the president wants to reverse the “tax windfall” that corporations enjoyed following the Trump administration’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that set the corporate rate at 21 percent.
Biden will again pitch a minimum tax on the richest 0.01 percent of Americans and call on Congress to ensure tax cuts for lower- and middle-income Americans by restoring all or part of the pandemic-era expansion of the child tax credit and premium tax credits for Affordable Care Act plans.
Push in Congress on taxes
Biden’s renewed urgency over the tax code comes as Trump’s 2017 tax policies are winding down and must either be renewed or changed by the end of 2025. Biden is expected, in his speech, to criticize Republican proposals to extend some Trump-era tax breaks.
Congress has taken rare bipartisan, bicameral action this year to head off the looming tax code tempest.
A proposal to temporarily expand the child tax credit and restore a handful of expired or expiring corporate tax incentives received sweeping support in the U.S. House in late January. The bill, which the White House has endorsed, is stalled in the U.S. Senate.
The 2021 expansion of the child tax credit lifted nearly 3 million children out of poverty, according to the U.S. Census.
That temporary pandemic-era expansion under the American Rescue Plan, now expired, increased benefits from up to $2,000 to $3,600 for qualifying children under age 6, and $3,000 for other qualifying children under age 18.
Housing crunch
Several economic advisers noted that rental rates have continued to rise and that there is a “housing gap in this country,” Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said.
“He has specific proposals that he’ll speak to in terms of housing affordability and ensuring that we are addressing rent,” Tanden said of the president’s speech Thursday.
Rohit Chopra, the director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said that the administration is also looking at ways to lower closing costs on buying a home because the White House’s analysis has found that expense “drains people’s down payment and pushes up their monthly mortgage payment.”
He added that the White House is also looking for ways to make it easier for homeowners to refinance “now that (interest) rates have started to come down.”
Hornung said that the White House is also exploring ways to “boost the supply of housing throughout the country,” and find steps that the federal government can take to “help state (and) local governments reduce barriers” when it comes to expanding housing.
He said that in addition to getting more housing supply online, Biden will lay out how the administration is looking “to invest in the supply of affordable housing,” and to block “practices that are driving up rents that are not just about supply and demand.”
Biden to point to actions on junk fees
Chopra said that Biden will stress how his administration has gone after “junk fees,” and will continue to do so, pointing to a finalized rule Tuesday that will cap most credit card fees to $8.
“I think the impact is gonna be most felt by those who really are living paycheck to paycheck, those who are trying to pay off their debt,” he said.
Chopra said that the administration launched an industry-wide study and found junk fees in hotels, ticket sales, airlines and the banking industry. He said it’s a tactic that companies use to push up purchase prices to “charge for fake or worthless services.”
“I think we’ve all been seeing these creep across the economy in our lives almost everywhere we go,” he said.
Chopra said the White House found that one bank was charging customers a fake junk fee for a printed bank statement “that was neither printed nor mailed.”
“We have already ordered them and others to refund the money,” he said. “I think what we’re seeing is people, perhaps those who have the least amount of time to bicker with customer service agents. They’re no longer spending that time. They’re actually seeing that money being kept for themselves.”
New Hampshire
Possible 2028 Democratic White House contenders weigh in on Iran with New Hampshire voters
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.
“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.
“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”
Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.
“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.
He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”
Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.
For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.
“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”
Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.
CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”
Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.
29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.
“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.
While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.
“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,
“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.
“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.
Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.
“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.
Local News
Police say the Attleboro man was driving 104 mph in a 55 mph zone on Route 202 near in Rindge, New Hampshire.
A Massachusetts man was arrested late Wednesday night after police say he was driving more than 100 mph on a New Hampshire roadway.
Officers with the Rindge Police Department stopped a vehicle shortly after 11 p.m. on Route 202 near Sears Drive in Rindge following a report of a car traveling at excessive speed, according to a statement from Chief Rachel Malynowski.
The vehicle, a 2020 Kia Stinger, was spotted traveling at 104 mph in a posted 55 mph zone, Malynowski said.
The driver, a 21-year-old man from Attleboro, was arrested and charged with reckless operation of a motor vehicle, according to police.
He is scheduled to be arraigned April 5. If convicted, the man faces a fine of at least $750, in addition to the court’s penalty assessment, and a 90-day license suspension, Malynowski said.
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