From the President – 7-28 – Weekly Update

The US Supreme Court issued a decision on a major trust case on June 21. Here are the facts of North Carolina Department of Revenue v. The Kimberley Rice Kaestner 1992 Family Trust, via Kelly Phillips Erb of Forbes: Joseph Rice, a New York resident, set up a trust about a quarter-century ago, to also be run by a New York resident. His daughter, Kaestner, moved to North Carolina five years later, and one of three sub trusts was then formed in her name.

The trust then paid North Carolina some $1.3 million over several years, under a state law that allowed for the taxing of any trust income benefiting a resident. 

But a unanimous court ruled that residence alone was too flimsy of a reason to allow for trust income to be taxed, as Pro Tax’s Aaron Lorenzo reported. Some members of the legal community said the decision could pave the way for simpler estate planning, as Aaron also noted. But critics said the Court’s ruling might have just given wealthy people the road map to yet another tax dodge.

“If you’re a rich person in a high-tax state, the path forward is quite clear,” wrote Daniel Hemel, a law professor at the University of Chicago. “Transfer income-generating assets to an irrevocable trust in a state that does not tax trust income on the basis of trustee residence or place of administration.”

Democrats lead with their left, most liberal stance since ’70s. This is a party eager to go on the ideological offensive not just against Donald Trump (whose name did not dominate the evening even as he was invoked plenty) but against an economic and political power structure that candidates argued is deeply corrupt. Liberals must be empowered to bring bad actors to heel through robust intervention of government.

Over the course of two hours, people who are inarguably some of the party’s most consequential and ascendant figures endorsed the mandatory abolition of private health insurance, sharply higher taxes on the wealthy, the decriminalization of illegal border crossings.

They spoke with contempt about the alleged profiteering, manipulation, and cruelty of corporations. They argued that ordinary Americans are right to feel screwed, and multiple candidates boasted that they are tough enough to turn the screws on the victimizers, for a change.

“DEMOCRATS SPLIT ON HOW FAR LEFT TO NUDGE NATION … THEME OF FIRST DEBATE … Progressive Solutions vs. Caution on Economy and Immigration” 

Pollster Frank Luntz summed it up this way on “The Ingraham Angle” on Thursday: “This is not your parents’ Democratic Party.”

Bernie Sanders:  “Trump is the worst kind of socialist,” Bernie Sanders writes in an op-ed for today’s Wall Street Journal: “The time is long overdue for the U.S. to end corporate socialism for Mr. Trump and the rest of the billionaire class.

Instead, those resources should be put to work to ensure shared prosperity by enhancing Social Security and Medicare and investing in roads and bridges, public schools, clean water and clean air. Mr. Trump believes in corporate socialism to protect the wealth and power of the rich. I believe the U.S. must end corporate socialism and instead fulfill President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vision of enshrining basic economic rights for all Americans.

These include the rights to health care, a living wage, a decent job, a quality education, a secure retirement, affordable housing and a clean environment. We can make this 21st Century Economic Bill of Rights a reality with initiatives like Medicare for All, a $15 minimum wage, a Green New Deal, student-debt cancellation and legislation to expand Social Security.”

Sanders to propose eliminating all $1.6T student debt in US.

Bernie Sanders, the 2020 hopeful, announced a policy proposal that would eliminate all $1.6 trillion of American student debt. 

The Democratic presidential candidate’s new proposal calls for the federal government to wipe clean the student debt held by 45 million Americans, including all private and graduate school debt. The proposal package also includes making public universities, community colleges and trade schools tuition-free. Sanders reportedly plans to pay for the lofty proposal with a tax on Wall Street, which his campaign says will generate more than $2 trillion over 10 years.

Beto O’Rourke: Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas endorsed a 28 percent corporate rate and taxing capital gains and income at the same levels, while ducking a question about a potential 70 percent top income tax rate. 

Elizabeth Warren: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has proposed $640 billion in student debt forgiveness, and former housing secretary Julián Castro introducing a more modest debt forgiveness plan. All these proposals have raised strong objections, including from moderate Democrats, for giving taxpayer subsidies to educated Americans who, on average, have higher earnings than those with only a high school degree.

Associated Press: Experts question whether the math adds up on Sen. Elizabeth Warren‘s wealth tax.

“‘We need to make structural change in our government, in our economy and in our country,’ Ms. Warren said, setting the tone for the handful of populists in the debate.”

POLITICO’s 2020: The Issues is the most comprehensive guide anywhere to the issues shaping the Democratic presidential primary, driven by dozens of expert journalists in the nation’s most robust newsroom covering policy and politics.