Anisha Steephen

The Fight For Control Of Your Money What’s at stake in the showdown between President Trump and Jerome Powell of the Federal Reserve?

🎧LEVER TIME: Inside the Trump-Powell fight over Federal Reserve “independence.”

Matt Stoller & Nathan Tankus on how the era of insulating the Fed from democracy has coincided with financial crises, bailouts & a huge upward transfer of wealth.

www.levernews.com/the-fight-fo...

IRS: Churches should be allowed to make political endorsements Since 1954, the IRS has banned nonprofits — including congregations — from participating in political campaigns. The agency now says political endorsements by churches should be allowed.

The IRS said clergy and houses of worship should be allowed to make political endorsements, a potential move away from a 71-year-old policy that banned the mixing of religion and politics.

The Fiscal State Under Siege: Why People Hate the IRS, and Why You Should Care How Trump, DOGE, and Project 2025 Are Turning the IRS Into a Tool of Authoritarian Rule Editor’s Introduction: Hello readers, it's Nathan Tankus and I am very happy to bring to you the first in a l...

Astoundingly good article from @asteephen.bsky.social on the role of taxation in a democratic society, and what the current US Government is doing to turn the IRS into their own instrument of political control.

www.crisesnotes.com/the-fiscal-s...

I have no words

Natural disasters are anything but. Nature may bring the storm, but policy choices decide who survives. Too many rural communities are left without the infrastructure, warning systems, or resources to keep people safe. Until that changes, lives will continue to be lost. My heart goes out to Texas.

Inside DOGE's Dangerously Hasty IRS Modernization Plan This is the second installment in the Notes on the Crises series on the IRS. While the first essay traced how the agency has become a political target and potential tool of authoritarianism, this piec...

NEW @crisesnotes.bsky.social PIECE: Today @asteephen.bsky.social & @iraregmi.bsky.social provide a 2nd installment in their series on DOGE at the IRS. Today's piece is on the so-called "modernization" of the IRS's legacy IT systems & the manifold dangers posed

www.crisesnotes.com/inside-doges...

Inside DOGE's Dangerously Hasty IRS Modernization Plan This is the second installment in the Notes on the Crises series on the IRS. While the first essay traced how the agency has become a political target and potential tool of authoritarianism, this piec...

As Republicans push a reconciliation bill that includes significant cuts to IRS funding don’t miss what’s already underway: DOGE has laid off staff, rushed tech upgrades, and is pursuing access to + control of sensitive taxpayer data. More from me + @iraregmi.bsky.social in @crisesnotes.bsky.social

Senate leadership ponders rural hospital fund to sway megabill holdouts The fund would help rural hospitals that could be hurt by the Senate's cut to provider taxes.

I know my colleagues already dropped this line (h/t: @brendanvduke.bsky.social ), but it bears repeating - there already exists a rural hospital fund and it is called:

🚨🚨MEDICAID🚨🚨
www.politico.com/live-updates...

Wild how the Fed chair saying that *entire regions of the United States* won’t be able to get a mortgage in the next decade barely registered as a news event

Now that we’ve seen the full Senate text, we can say for certain: either the House or the Senate version would be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in history.

Each have the largest Medicaid and largest SNAP cuts ever. And each give huge tax cuts to the rich.

"This is not about eliminating bureaucracy, fraud, waste, or abuse. It’s about repurposing it to serve a new model of power and breaking the chain of democratic accountability between Congress, the law, and the public."

Important, scary stuff.

Delighted to read @asteephen.bsky.social in @crisesnotes.bsky.social and unsurprisingly, completely in agreement. Read the whole thing!

Also read my @crisesnotes.bsky.social piece for context. www.crisesnotes.com/the-fiscal-s...

LIVE Press Conference: DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles amidst major ICE protests. YouTube video by FOX 5 Washington DC

🚨 Kristi Noem confirms IRS agents are in LA “to help us track how these violent protestors are funded." She names “NGOs out there, unions, other individuals” as possible targets. This is fiscal surveillance weaponized to silence dissent.📍29:15 in the video stream.

The Fiscal State Under Siege: Why People Hate the IRS, and Why You Should Care How Trump, DOGE, and Project 2025 Are Turning the IRS Into a Tool of Authoritarian Rule Editor’s Introduction: Hello readers, it's Nathan Tankus and I am very happy to bring to you the first in a l...

If you're following the GOP tax bill disaster, my latest in @crisesnotes.bsky.social traces how this effort builds on a longstanding campaign to weaken the IRS and consolidate fiscal power in the hands of the wealthy. This is the first in a series on DOGE, taxes, and the future of public governance.

The Fiscal State Under Siege: Why People Hate the IRS, and Why You Should Care How Trump, DOGE, and Project 2025 Are Turning the IRS Into a Tool of Authoritarian Rule Editor’s Introduction: Hello readers, it's Nathan Tankus and I am very happy to bring to you the first in a l...

Follow @asteephen.bsky.social who just wrote this fantastic article:

"We don’t need to defend what the IRS has been. We need to fight for what it could be: a mechanism of equity, not control by the elite. And accountability, not surveillance"

www.crisesnotes.com/the-fiscal-s...

Budget reconciliation ("big beautiful bill") timeline:
-SNAP cuts text today, Medicaid & tax text Friday/weekend
-Byrd bath next week/two
-Senate voting in two/three weeks
-House passage shortly after

Next week is crucial week for opposition. Tell friends. Make calls. Very little time to stop this.

Opinion | Forget ‘Trump accounts.’ Here’s how to secure our children’s future. Baby bonds are a wealth-building tool that’s inclusive, equitable and grounded in solid economics.

Nice piece by @darrickhamilton.bsky.social and @pressley.house.gov I guess we are all thinking the same thing. Trump accounts are not baby bonds as I lay out in my own piece. Any similarity is superficial at best.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

1/ We’re thrilled to announce a new cohort of fellows whose expertise in tech innovation, government, and economic policy will help us expand the ideas in our toolbox to build an economy that works for all of us.
Please welcome:

(1) There’s a lot in W+Ms draft bill. We knew it'd be losing trillions of $$$ and in regressive fashion. But provisions also pick winners+losers often in unjustified ways and give us an (even more) swiss cheese tax system that’d generally be harder to administer and unfair in new ways.

the republican reconciliation bill would fundamentally rework both snap and medicaid for the worse, instituting the largest cuts to each of those programs in us history.

all while giving enormous tax cuts to the richest americans.

truly reprehensible.

1 SEC. 112209. TERMINATION OF TAX-EXEMPT STATUS OF 2 TERRORIST SUPPORTING ORGANIZATIONS. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 501(p) is amended by 4 adding at the end the following new paragraph: 5 ‘‘(8) APPLICATION TO TERRORIST SUPPORTING 6 ORGANIZATIONS.— 7 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—For purposes of this 8 subsection, in the case of any terrorist sup9 porting organization— 10 ‘‘(i) such organization (and the des11 ignation of such organization under sub12 paragraph (B)) shall be treated as de13 scribed in paragraph (2), and 14 ‘‘(ii) the period of suspension de15 scribed in paragraph (3) with respect to 16 such organization shall be treated as begin17 ning on the date that the Secretary des18 ignates such organization under subpara19 graph (B) and ending on the date that the 20 Secretary rescinds such designation under 21 subparagraph (D). 22 ‘‘(B) TERRORIST SUPPORTING ORGANIZA23 TION.—For purposes of this paragraph— 24 ‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—the term ‘terrorist 25 supporting organization’ means any orga26 nization which is designated by the Sec-

1 retary as having provided, during the 3- 2 year period ending on the date of such des3 ignation, material support or resources to 4 an organization described in paragraph (2) 5 (determined after the application of this 6 paragraph to such organization) in excess 7 of a de minimis amount. 8 ‘‘(ii) MATERIAL SUPPORT OR RE9 SOURCES.—The term ‘material support or 10 resources’ has the meaning given such 11 term in subsection (g)(4) of section 2339B 12 of title 18, United States Code, except that 13 such term shall not include— 14 ‘‘(I) support or resources that 15 were approved by the Secretary of 16 State with the concurrence of the At17 torney General for purposes of sub18 section (j) of such section, or 19 ‘‘(II) humanitarian aid provided 20 with the approval of the Office of For21 eign Assets Control. 22 ‘‘(C) DESIGNATION PROCEDURE.— 23 ‘‘(i) NOTICE REQUIREMENT.—Prior to 24 designating any organization as a terrorist 25 supporting organization under subpara-

There are many horrible things in the Ways & Means draft, but let me alert you to this underappreciated horror: They want to expand the Treasury Secretary's power to unilaterally designate nonprofits as "terrorist supporting organizations."

An initial overview of the costly, uneven Ways and Means tax proposal In response to the release of the Ways and Means tax bill, the Tax Law Center released an initial overview of the bill from Executive Director Chye-Ching Huang.

My colleagues @taxlawcenter.org will have analysis on the details of the W&M bill (AINS 05/12) to come.

But its broad strokes are clear. taxlawcenter.org/blog/an-init...

It doesn't consistently follow any sound tax principle I can think of. Seems more driven by picking winners and losers.

The House GOP Tax Proposal Would Effectively Kill The IRA The Ways and Means Committee released its proposed budget language, and it’s not pretty for clean energy.

NEW from @emilypont.bsky.social: : How the House GOP tax proposal could amount to "a back-door full repeal" of the Inflation Reduction Act ⬇️

this is amazing!! if you're a young journalist, please apply!

This convo was about how equity is treated as a tertiary outcome when building housing, climate infra, & growing the economy. The primary goals are to build more, faster. The equity v efficiency tradeoff is a false dichotomy used to keep wealth and power concentrated. Growth should benefit everyone

Tax Day is a good time to remember Thomas Paine's observation about taxes. Paine argues that, to build a society without kings, we need to tax wealth. Still rings true to me!

For more details, see my piece with @vanessawilliamson.bsky.social here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

It was a white lady…🙃

This convo was about how equity is treated as a tertiary outcome when building housing, climate infra, & growing the economy. The primary goals are to build more, faster. The equity v efficiency tradeoff is a false dichotomy used to keep wealth and power concentrated. Growth should benefit everyone

If President Trump can wrongly deport a Maryland father to a prison in El Salvador and then defy a 9-0 Supreme Court order to facilitate bringing him home, who’s next?

This threatens the rights and freedoms of everyone in the United States.