House Republicans passed their $1.5 trillion tax overhaul bill 227-205 on Thursday as the GOP presses to land the legislation on President Trump's desk before the end of the year, The New York Times reports. Thirteen Republicans and 192 Democrats voted against the bill.
"I just have too many constituents who are going to see their taxes go up," explained New York Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin.
The Senate is working on its own version of the legislation, and major differences with the House bill will have to be reconciled before it goes to the president. For example, the Senate version leaves seven tax brackets, versus the House proposal's four brackets, and it lowers the top rate for wealthy individuals to 38.5 percent from 39.6 percent.
The Senate has less room for party defections, too, with a mere 52-to-48 margin, and with two Republican senators already criticizing the proposal on Wednesday, questions may arise over whether the legislation can pass in its current form. Read more about the differences between the House and Senate tax overhaul plans at The Week. Jeva Lange
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Sunday pushed back on calls for a second referendum on Brexit, the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union.
May particularly condemned remarks from former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said this week a new vote should be considered if "none of the other options work." May accused Blair of "seek[ing] to undermine our negotiations by advocating for a second referendum," arguing "Parliament has a democratic duty to deliver what the British people voted for."
May's proposed Brexit deal with the EU has stalled, lacking support to pass a House of Commons vote. Bonnie Kristian
The North Korean government on Sunday issued a typically dramatic statement condemning the United States' sanction regime and suggesting denuclearization plans are in jeopardy.
Pyongyang accused the U.S. State Department of being "bent on bringing [North Korea]-U.S. relations back to the status of last year which was marked by exchanges of fire," warning that additional U.S. sanctions would be America's "greatest miscalculation" and would "block the path to denuclearization on the Korean peninsula forever."
This comes as Pyongyang observes the seventh anniversary of the death of former leader Kim Jong Il and the rise to power of his son, current leader Kim Jong Un. Bonnie Kristian
Negotiators representing nearly 200 nations in Katowice, Poland, on Saturday agreed to universal greenhouse gas emissions limits intended to mitigate global climate change.
"It is not easy to find agreement on a deal so specific and technical," said Polish economist Michal Kurtyka, who is leading the United Nations negotiations. "Through this package you have made a thousand little steps forward together," he told the assembled delegates. "You can feel proud."
U.S. negotiators sought to label coal a possible source of clean energy but also pushed for transparency and rules which apply equally to all participant nations. "Overall, the U.S. role here has been somewhat schizophrenic — pushing coal and dissing science on the one hand, but also working hard in the room for strong transparency rules," Elliot Diringer of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions told The Associated Press. "[T]he U.S. pushed harder than nearly anyone else for transparency rules that put all countries under the same system, and it's largely succeeded." Bonnie Kristian
