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Putin does your taxes
Tired of the government taking your hard-earned money? Worried about that April 15th deadline? Relax, the President of Russia's new accounting firm has you covered.
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Key Supreme Court decisions; how coronavirus impacts US election
Jon Lieber, managing director for the United States at Eurasia Group, shares his insights on US politics:
How is coronavirus jeopardizing the legitimacy of a 2020 presidential election?
Well, what coronavirus is doing is a lot of states are worrying about people who aren't going to want to come to the polling places in the fall, and they're worried about a shortage of polling workers who are going to want to come out and volunteer to get sick by interacting with a bunch people in person. So, what they're doing is they're looking at making a shift to vote-by-mail. Most states allow some form of absentee balloting today. Five states just automatically mail you a ballot and they don't do any in-person voting. But the challenge here is that a lot of states are unprepared for the sharp increase that's expected. In the last election, 25% of ballots were cast by mail. You may see 50, 60 or even more percent of ballots cast by mail this time, which could overwhelm election administration, which happens at the state level.
If this happens, the loser may have grounds to claim that there was voter fraud, vote suppression, there was something wrong with the counting of the ballots or some of the machines broke down. That could take a challenge all the way to Congress or to the Supreme Court. Making potentially a very messy cycle if a close election. If it's a blowout, less of a concern.
The Supreme Court has been busy recently. What are some of the big decisions that they made?
Well, they allowed a number of unlawful immigrants who were brought here as children to stay. They extended the 1964 Civil Rights Act to sexual orientation and gender identity. They struck down a controversial Louisiana abortion law. And they allowed prosecutors in New York to get access to the president's financial records. There are a number of conservatives who weren't happy with these decisions and are particularly unhappy with John Roberts, a Bush appointee, who is thought to be a conservative, who is the swing vote in some of these cases. Some observers are saying that Roberts is trying to prevent the institution from becoming just another partisan political institution, like Congress, by preventing 5-4 decisions that go one way. However, remember that President Trump has reshaped the lower courts, appointing over 200 judges since he first came into office, filling every circuit court available, the most since Jimmy Carter. That legacy is likely to outlast President Trump and it could outlast Chief Justice John Roberts.
Will high US unemployment lead to more financial stimulus? What would VP Kamala Harris bring?
I think it's inevitable that there will be. But Democrats and Republicans are really far apart on when and what it would include. Really needs money for States which otherwise have to balance their budgets and will have to do a lot of layoffs. Last thing you want at this point. We did it in 2009. It would be good not to do it again.
Are we almost at the end of the fight over President Trump's tax returns?
Yes, we are. It's before the Supreme Court this week. A close call, but if they do allow for the release, it could be a major moment in the 2020 campaign.
Kamala Harris for Vice President? What would she bring to Joe Biden's campaign?
Obviously, she's a tough debater. That's important in a V.P. candidate. She's a woman, critical for Democrats to increase their advantage with women voters over Trump in 2020. And she brings diversity, which would help with get out the vote efforts certainly, in the 2020 election. So, she does bring a lot and she is among the frontrunners.
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen Resigns: US Politics in 60 Seconds
What will Attorney General William Barr reveal about the Mueller Report when he testifies on the Hill?
I don't think very much he'll defend his summary and say that more will be revealed once the redaction period is over and you can put out the full report. So he'll probably evade a lot of tough questions.
Will DHS go in a tougher direction now that Secretary Nielsen is gone?
Trump certainly hope so. More zero-tolerance policy at the border, fewer asylum refugees let in, and he certainly wants to go much tougher with Secretary Neilsen gone.
Can Dems stop the logjam on emergency aid on Capitol Hill?
Well they'll try with a bill that adds money for disaster relief in the Midwest. But the issue of Puerto Rico disaster funding is still going to be a problem in the Senate. So I'm not sure the logjam is over.
Can the New York State legislature force the release of President Trump's tax returns?
Well they're certainly going to try with a new bill to do that. Democrats control the state so you'd think that they could but there's still a lot of questions about whether this would be a bad precedent to force the release of a single person's tax return. So the effort will be there. I'm not sure it'll be successful.
And go deeper on topics like cybersecurity and artificial intelligence at Microsoft on The Issues.