NY Mayoral Chaos, Robo-Taxis & Paramount Deal Drama
Lydia Moynihan and Charles Gasparino break down the political shockwaves after Zohran Mamdani clinched the Democratic nomination for NYC mayor. They examine Andrew Cuomo's next move and whether the DNC is ready for what comes next. Turning to tech headlines, Tesla's rollout of a small fleet of robo-taxis raises big questions about the future of driverless vehicles. Plus, the pair weigh in on Skydance's promise to seal the Paramount deal by summer's end—and the obstacles that could still derail it. To close, they name this week's winners and losers across business and politics.
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Chicago Tribune
29 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Senators launch a weekend of work to meet Trump's deadline for passing his tax and spending cuts
WASHINGTON — The Senate launched a rare weekend session Saturday as Republicans race to pass President Donald Trump's package of tax breaks, spending cuts and bolstered deportation funds by his July Fourth deadline. Republicans are using their majorities in Congress to push aside Democratic opposition, but they have run into a series of political and policy setbacks. Not all GOP lawmakers are on board with proposals to reduce spending on Medicaid, food stamps and other programs as a way to help cover the cost of extending some $3.8 trillion in Trump tax breaks. The 940-page bill was released shortly before midnight Friday. Senators are expected to grind through the days ahead with procedural vote Saturday to begin considering the legislation, but the timing was uncertain. There would still be a long path ahead, with hours of potentially all-night debate and eventually voting on countless amendments. Senate passage could be days away, and the bill would need to return to the House for a final round of votes before it could reach the White House. Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, opened the day's session with an impassioned defense of the package that he said has been misrepresented by its critics. 'Here's what American workers get out of 'One Big Beautiful Bill,' Moreno said as he began outlining the provisions. 'Read it for yourself.' The weekend session could be a make-or-break moment for Trump's party, which has invested much of its political capital on his signature domestic policy plan. Trump is pushing Congress to wrap it up, even as he sometimes gives mixed signals, allowing for more time. At recent events at the White House, including Friday, Trump has admonished the 'grandstanders' among GOP holdouts to fall in line. 'We can get it done,' Trump said in a social media post. 'It will be a wonderful Celebration for our Country.' The legislation is an ambitious but complicated series of GOP priorities. At its core, it would make permanent many of the tax breaks from Trump's first term that would otherwise expire by year's end if Congress fails to act, resulting in a potential tax increase on Americans. The bill would add new breaks, including no taxes on tips, and commit $350 billion to national security, including for Trump's mass deportation agenda. But the spending cuts that Republicans are relying on to offset the lost tax revenues are causing dissent within the GOP ranks. Some lawmakers say the cuts go too far, particularly for people receiving health care through Medicaid. Meanwhile, conservatives, worried about the nation's debt, are pushing for steeper cuts. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said he remains concerned about the fundamentals of the package and will not support the procedural motion to begin debate. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., pushing for deeper cuts, said he needed to see the final legislative text. With the narrow Republicans majorities in the House and Senate, leaders need almost every lawmaker on board to ensure passage. The release of that draft had been delayed as the Senate parliamentarian reviewed the bill to ensure it complied with the chamber's strict 'Byrd Rule,' named for the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, It largely bars policy matters from inclusion in budget bills unless a provision can get 60 votes to overcome objections. That would be a tall order in a Senate with a 53-47 GOP edge and Democrats unified against Trump's bill. Republicans suffered a series of setbacks after several proposals were determined to be out of compliance by the chief arbiter of the Senate's rules. One plan would have shifted some food stamp costs from the federal government to the states; a second would have gutted the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But over the past days, Republicans have quickly revised those proposals and reinstated them. The final text includes a proposal for cuts to a Medicaid provider tax that had run into parliamentary objections and opposition from several senators worried about the fate of rural hospitals. The new version extends the start date for those cuts and establishes a $25 billion fund to aid rural hospitals and providers. Most states impose the provider tax as a way to boost federal Medicaid reimbursements. Some Republicans argue that is a scam and should be abolished. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said that under the House-passed version of the bill, some 10.9 million more people would go without health care and at least 3 million fewer would qualify for food aid. The CBO has not yet publicly assessed the Senate draft, which proposes steeper reductions. Top income-earners would see about a $12,000 tax cut under the House bill, while the package would cost the poorest Americans $1,600, the CBO said. The Senate included a compromise over the so-called SALT provision, a deduction for state and local taxes that has been a top priority of lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states, but the issue remains unsettled. The current SALT cap is $10,000 a year, and a handful of Republicans wanted to boost it to $40,000 a year. The final draft includes a $40,000 cap, but for five years instead of 10. Many Republican senators say that is still too generous. At least one House GOP holdout, Rep. Nick LaLota of New York, had said that would be insufficient. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Republicans dropped the bill 'in the dead of night' and are rushing to finish the bill before the public fully knows what's in it. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who sent his colleagues home for the weekend with plans to be on call to return to Washington, had said they are 'very close' to finishing up. 'We would still like to meet that July Fourth, self-imposed deadline,' said Johnson, R-La. Johnson and Thune have stayed close to the White House, relying on Trump to pressure holdout lawmakers.
Forbes
32 minutes ago
- Forbes
Ford CEO Jim Farley Favors Waymo Over Tesla On Self-Driving: Report
Ford Motor Company's chief executive officer Jim Farley poses next to the newly unveiled electric ... More F-150 Lightning outside of their headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan on May 19, 2021. - One day after winning an enthusiastic endorsement from President Joe Biden, Ford will officially preview the all-electric version of its best-selling F-150 truck on May 19, 2021. The battery-powered Ford F-150 "Lightning" is part of the US auto giant's $22 billion campaign to ramp up its electric vehicle offerings by 2025. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images) Ford CEO Jim Farley doesn't agree with CEO Elon Musk on what technologies work best for self-driving. TL;DR: Farley said Waymo's approach, which uses LiDAR in addition to cameras and radar, is the best approach for Ford. Tesla's Robotaxi service and Full-Self Driving (FSD) vehicles use a cameras-only approach. 'When you have a brand like Ford, when there's a new technology, you have to be really careful. We really believe that LiDAR is mission critical," Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Friday, according to a report from Fortune. Waymo vs Tesla: Farley vs Musk 'To us, Waymo,' Farley said, according to the report, adding that Ford considered LiDAR to be important because 'where the camera will be completely blinded, the LiDAR system will see exactly what's in front of you.' One way of thinking about LiDAR is that it's a safety net for what cameras may miss. In contrast, Tesla and CEO Musk have been adamant about a cameras-only approach. Tesla, which launched its Robotaxi service in Austin earlier this month, is going with cameras-only for its Robotaxi service and FSD, the latter on option on Tesla vehicles and being promoted for the newest 2026 Model Y. 'The way that the road system is designed is for AI. I should say it's for intelligence, biological neural net and eyes. That's how the whole road system is designed,' Musk said in a CNBC interview in May. And Musk has also argued that Waymo's system is too expensive. 'The issue with Waymo's cars is that they cost 'way mo' money,' Musk said during the first quarter earnings conference call. 'The car is very expensive. Made in low volume. Teslas probably cost a quarter or 20% of what a Waymo costs,' he said. Ford, for its part, currently offers BlueCruise, an Advanced Driver Assist System, that is analogous to Tesla's Autopilot and General Motors Super Cruise. Like GM's Super Cruise, Ford's system is designed primarily for hands-free highway driving. Neither is as ambitious as Tesla FSD which is designed to handle both local and highway driving.
Boston Globe
41 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
What's in latest version of Trump's tax bill now before Senate
Here's the latest on what's in the bill. There could be changes as lawmakers negotiate. Tax cuts are the priority Republicans say the bill is crucial because without it, there would be a massive tax increase, totaling some $3.8 trillion, after December when tax breaks from Trump's first term expire. Advertisement Those existing tax rates and brackets would become permanent under the bill. It temporarily would add new ones that Trump campaigned on: no taxes on tips, overtime pay or some automotive loans, along with a bigger $6,000 deduction in the Senate draft for older adults who earn no more than $75,000 a year. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up It would boost the $2,000 child tax credit to $2,200 under the Senate proposal, or $2,500 in the House's version. Families at lower income levels would not see the full amount, if any. A cap on state and local deductions, called SALT, would quadruple to $40,000 for five years. It's a provision important to New York and other high tax states, though the House wanted it to last for 10 years. Advertisement There are scores of business-related tax cuts. The wealthiest households would see a $12,000 increase from the legislation, which would cost the poorest people $1,600 a year, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis of the House's version. Middle-income taxpayers would see a tax break of $500 to $1,500, the CBO said. Money for deportations, a border wall and the Golden Dome The bill would provide some $350 billion for Trump's border and national security agenda, including $46 billion for the U.S.-Mexico border wall and $45 billion for 100,000 migrant detention facility beds, as he aims to full his promise of the largest mass deportation operation in U.S. history. Money would go for hiring 10,000 new Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, with $10,000 signing bonuses and a surge of Border Patrol officers, as well. The goal is to deport some 1 million people per year. The homeland security secretary would have a new $10 billion fund for grants for states that help with federal immigration enforcement and deportation actions. The attorney general would have $3.5 billion for a similar fund, known as Bridging Immigration-related Deficits Experienced Nationwide, or BIDEN, referring to former Democratic President Joe Biden. To help pay for it all, immigrants would face various new fees, including when seeking asylum protections. For the Pentagon, the bill would provide billions for ship building, munitions systems, and quality of life measures for servicemen and women, as well as $25 billion for the development of the Golden Dome missile defense system. The Defense Department would have $1 billion for border security. How to pay for it? Cuts to Medicaid and other programs To help partly offset the lost tax revenue and new spending, Republicans are seeking to cut back some long-running government programs: Medicaid, food stamps, green energy incentives and others. It's essentially unraveling the accomplishments of the past two Democratic presidents, Biden and Barack Obama. Advertisement Republicans argue they are trying to rightsize the safety net programs for the population they were initially designed to serve, mainly pregnant women and children, and root out what they describe as waste, fraud and abuse. The package includes new 80-hour-a-month work requirements for many adults receiving Medicaid and food stamps, including older people up to age 65. Parents of children 14 and older would have to meet the program's work requirements. There's also a proposed new $35 co-payment that can be charged to patients using Medicaid services. Some 80 million people rely on Medicaid, which expanded under Obama's Affordable Care Act, and 40 million use the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. Most already work, according to analysts. All told, the CBO estimates that under the House-passed bill, at least 10.9 million more people would go without health coverage and 3 million more would not qualify for food stamps. The Senate proposes a $25 billion Rural Hospital Transformation Fund to help offset those reductions. It's a new addition, intended to win over holdout GOP senators and a coalition of House Republicans warning that the proposed Medicaid provider tax cuts would hurt rural hospitals. Both the House and Senate bills propose a dramatic rollback of the Biden-era green energy tax breaks for electric vehicles. They also would phase out or terminate various the production and investment tax credits companies use to stand up wind, solar and other renewable energy projects. In total, cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programs would be expected to produce at least $1.5 trillion in savings. Advertisement Trump savings accounts and so, so much more A number of extra provisions reflect other GOP priorities. The House and Senate both have a new children's savings program, called Trump Accounts, with a potential $1,000 deposit from the Treasury. The Senate provided $40 million to establish Trump's long-sought 'National Garden of American Heroes.' There's a new excise tax on university endowments, restrictions on the development of artificial intelligence and blocks on transgender surgeries. A $200 tax on gun silencers and short-barreled rifles and shotguns was eliminated. One provision bars money to family planning providers, namely Planned Parenthood, while $88 million is earmarked for a pandemic response accountability committee. Billions go for the Artemis moon mission and for exploration to Mars. What's the final cost? Altogether, keeping the existing tax breaks and adding the new ones is expected to cost $3.8 trillion over the decade, the CBO says in its analysis of the House bill. An analysis of the Senate draft is pending. The CBO estimates the House-passed package would add $2.4 trillion to the nation's deficits over the decade. Or not, depending on how one does the math. Senate Republicans are proposing a unique strategy of not counting the existing tax breaks as a new cost because those breaks are already 'current policy.' Senators say the Senate Budget Committee chairman has the authority to set the baseline for the preferred approach. Under the Senate GOP view, the cost of tax provisions would be $441 billion, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. Democrats and others say this is 'magic math' that obscures the costs of the GOP tax breaks. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget puts the Senate tally at $4.2 trillion over the decade.
