SHOT: Trump just pardoned another tax cheat who leveraged his mother’s political connections to secure a get-out-of-jail-free card – yet another example of him putting political favors and pay-to-play justice over the rule of law …
New York Times: Mr. Walczak, a former nursing home executive who had pleaded guilty to tax crimes days after the 2024 election, submitted a pardon application to President Trump around Inauguration Day. The application focused not solely on Mr. Walczak’s offenses but also on the political activity of his mother, Elizabeth Fago.
MSNBC: Taken together, Trump appears to have created an entirely new legal/political dynamic, without precedent in the American tradition, in which pardons are available to perceived political allies with whom the president sympathizes.
CHASER: … all while Trump and MAGA Republicans rammed through their draconian billionaire giveaway bill in a middle-of-the-night vote last week, trying to hide from voters that they’re slashing health care funding for working families to give tax breaks to the wealthy.
CNN: Higher-income taxpayers would come out ahead, with 60% of the tax cuts going to the top 20%, who have incomes of at least $217,000, next year and more than a third going to the top 5%, or those who earn $460,000 or more, according to the center. […] Those in the top 20% would see an average tax cut of $12,660 next year, increasing their after-tax income by 3.4%.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: CBO’s early estimates show that at least 13.7 million people would lose coverage and become uninsured because of the Medicaid cuts and the ACA marketplace restrictions in this committee legislation, as well as the fact that the budget legislation does not extend expiring marketplace premium tax credit improvements.