Latest news with #RonJohnson
The Hill
2 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill' could spell trouble for gamblers: What to know
A gambling tax provision in President Trump's megabill that passed Congress earlier this month is ruffling feathers on both sides of the aisle. Tucked into the approximately 1,000-page tax and spending cuts plan is a measure that experts say will make it more expensive for gamblers to lose, and that some Republicans say they weren't even aware of until after it passed. Here are a few things to know about the change to the gambling tax. What does the gambling tax provision do? A major component of the plan passed by Republicans earlier this month was to extend expiring tax cuts enacted by Trump's signature 2017 tax law. But among the host of added tax changes in the plan, was a provision that reduces the tax deduction for gambling losses from 100 percent to 90 percent. The plan would take effect at the start of next year, absent congressional action. Asked about the plan in recent days, some GOP senators have downplayed the impact of the bill on their constituents. But members on both sides have pointed to the swift pace at which Congress moved to get Trump's tax agenda across the finish line. 'There was a reason I wanted a conference once we actually had language, and before we had motion to proceed, I wasn't granted that conference,' Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a member of the Senate Finance Committee, said Tuesday. 'I knew we had all kinds of provisions that we had never discussed about in conference, and I wanted to discuss it,' he said. 'I wanted to wait.' Who is affected? Experts say the measure could wind up meaning big trouble for professional gamblers. 'It doesn't affect the population broadly, but this could have a very, very large impact on casino operators and the big group of people that we see this affecting are professional gamblers,' Adam Hoffer, director of excise tax policy at the Tax Foundation, said in an interview this week. Hoffer said the measure would lead to gamblers having to pay more when they break even, describing a scenario in which a professional spends a million dollars a year buying into poker tournaments. 'Over the course of that year, they also win, they cash out a total of a million dollars,' he explained. 'Now that's break even. They didn't actually make any money there. And in previous years, before this tax provision change, they wouldn't owe any net income.' 'However, with this change, instead of being able to deduct the million dollars that they spent on buying into poker tournaments, they're only allowed to deduct $900,000,' he said. He and others have also raised concerns that legislation puts at risk a growing sports betting industry and incentivizes offshore gambling. How did it get in the bill? The Senate's chief tax writing committee said the provision made it into the plan due to the strict rules governing the complex process Republicans used to pass the package. Under the wonky maneuver known as budget reconciliation, Republicans were able to greenlight the major tax bill through Congress without Democratic support in the Senate, bypassing the 60-vote threshold needed for most legislation to make it out of the upper chamber. But the process comes with limitations. A spokesperson for the committee said to comply with reconciliation rules, every provision from the president's 2017 tax law 'needed to be modified to create a budgetary effect.' 'In order to retain the gambling loss provision, it was changed to 90 percent,' the spokesperson said. What will it save? An estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation that pegs the projected revenue generated from the provision at about $1.1 billion over roughly the next decade. By contrast, experts have pointed to overall estimates of the package, which project the plan would add more than $3 trillion to the nation's deficits over the same timeframe. Much of the cost comes from the tax proposals in the plan. At the same time, the new law includes major changes that could lead to hundreds of billions dollars in reduced spending for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, new restrictions for student loan borrowers and the phaseout of multiple popular repayment plans, and changes targeting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's funding. 'The tax burden doesn't fall on the industry itself and has no tax implications for the gambling industry,' Lucy Dadayan, a principal research associate with the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, said in an email. 'Still, the gambling industry is concerned the reduced profitability for players could dampen demand and push players into the unregulated gambling markets.' Will Congress undo it? Some Democrats have already been sounding alarm over the measure, which Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) unsuccessfully sought to undo earlier this month. 'It will do irreparable harm to our nation's gaming industry if it takes effect — especially in Nevada,' the Nevada Democrat said at the time, warning it would 'disincentivize' gamblers. The Senate Finance Committee said Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) is 'open to receiving feedback from affected stakeholders and learning more about industry reporting and compliance.' 'While the committee heard from gaming associations on other provisions after the Finance Committee's text was released on June 16, there were no concerns raised with lowering the threshold,' they added. Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), top Democrat on the Finance Committee, was pressed on Tuesday whether negotiations on the matter have reached leadership level as some Republicans have expressed interest in bipartisan tax action this year. Wyden said Cortez Masto immediately talked to him about the matter and that he intends to 'help in any way that I can,' calling it a 'very important issue to her constituents.' 'The Republicans did, according to my colleague, great damage to the economy of her state simply because they didn't consult with anybody,' he argued. 'They rushed it through.'
CBC
6 days ago
- Health
- CBC
St. John's morgue octuples its storage capacity with new facility
New Ron Johnson doesn't believe unclaimed bodies will be problem again Newfoundland and Labrador has vastly increased the number of bodies it can store in a new morgue facility in St. John's, say health authority officials. Daniel Parsons, senior director of provincial capital planning and engineering with Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services, said this new facility consists of two fridge units and two freezer units, which is located off a hallway in the parking garage of the Janeway Children's Hospital. He said the original morgue facility was constructed in the 1970s and had a capacity of 12 bodies. The new facility can store 96 bodies. "What we've done here is significantly increased our capacity," he told reporters on Friday during a tour of the facility. Ron Johnson, chief operating officer of the health authority's eastern-urban zone, said having this expanded facility is a boon, including for those who work there, but it's also a matter of "perception." "We wanted to ensure that … people's bodies and families and others were dealt with in a very professional way. In a very caring way and empathetic way," said Johnson. "So I think this new facility does that." Johnson said the new facility came online in early June. Corey Murray, senior director of pathology and laboratory medicine, said the new space is ergonomically designed and is safer for staff. "The older space again was very confined. We had a very limited capacity. So it was difficult at times to be retrieving a decedent, either for the funeral home or for autopsy services," said Murray. Unclaimed bodies won't 'pile up' CBC News first reported 28 bodies were being stored in freezer units outside of the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's due to a lack of space in the morgue in March 2024. The morgue doubles as the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. The freezers were later relocated to the hospital parking garage — where the new, expanded morgue has been constructed. The provincial government amended legislation, which was filed on Dec. 24 and came into effect on Jan. 1, that empowered the health authority to bury unclaimed remains after two weeks of searching for next of kin and then five days after the identity of the person is posted online on a dedicated website. Between legislation and the expanded facility, Johnson said he doesn't anticipate they will have to tackle a growing number of unclaimed remains again. However, he said there may be other reasons they would need more storage, like a "mass event" that causes numerous deaths.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ron Johnson urges Wisconsin Republicans to settle on a candidate, avoid bitter gubernatorial primary
MADISON – Wisconsin's top Republican wants his party's hopefuls for governor to duke it out over the next five months but to coalesce around one candidate by the start of 2026. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, in an interview on WEAU, said GOP candidates for governor should, before the end of 2025, "put your egos aside, set your campaign staffs aside … sit down and realize, OK, this is about Wisconsin, this isn't about me." "In a cold, clear-eyed assessment, who has the best chance of becoming the next governor of Wisconsin — next Republican governor? And the other ones need to step aside. That's what I will encourage." Johnson said the candidates for governor — so far, Whitefish Bay manufacturing CEO Bill Berrien and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann — should have a meeting before the end of 2025 and "say, OK, which one of us is most likely to win?" More: Scott Walker teases interest in another run for Wisconsin governor Johnson spoke on July 25, a day after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced he would not run for a third term next year, setting the stage for the first wide-open race for governor with no incumbent since 2010. A spokeswoman for Berrien did not immediately react to the idea. A spokeswoman for Schoemann declined to comment. Johnson's suggestion comes after a bruising GOP primary for governor in 2022 featuring former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, businessman Tim Michels, business consultant Kevin Nicholson and state legislator Tim Ramthun. Ultimately, Michels prevailed after securing the endorsement of President Donald Trump and went on to be defeated by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. Republican politicos have since said that primary, which lasted about a year, damaged Michels because groups of voters loyal to others were unable to coalesce around Michels after a lot of negative campaigning. The 2026 GOP primary field could be as wide as the last, with Congressman Tom Tiffany likely joining in the coming weeks. Other potential candidates could enter, including former U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde and Michels. The primary election is more than a year away: Aug. 11, 2026. Molly Beck can be reached at This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Ron Johnson urges Wisconsin GOP to avoid bitter gubernatorial primary
Yahoo
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
GOP's Ron Johnson brings his conspiratorial focus to the Jeffrey Epstein files
Shortly after Donald Trump grudgingly left the White House following his 2020 defeat, he was effectively banned from most major social media platforms and made few television appearances. In his absence, The New York Times described Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson as Trump's successor as the Republican Party's 'foremost amplifier of conspiracy theories and disinformation.' The senator has seemed a little too eager to prove his critics right, peddling bizarre and easily discredited nonsense about Covid-19. And the Jan. 6 attack. And vaccines. And climate change. And the 2020 presidential election. And the 2024 presidential election. A few months ago, the Wisconsin Republican even began peddling 9/11 truther claims more commonly found on the radical fringes of the internet than on Capitol Hill. So it probably didn't surprise anyone when Johnson sat down with CNN's Jake Tapper and brought a conspiratorial focus to the Jeffrey Epstein files. 'I don't know what's in the Epstein files,' Johnson said, before quickly adding, 'You know, I do know that the Epstein files are in the custody of the Biden administration. You know, I don't know to what extent they've added or deleted things.' The senator went on to express concern about the 'chain of custody' with the files. This didn't stand out for me because the GOP lawmaker is looking at the Epstein story through a conspiratorial lens — for all intents and purposes, Johnson looks at every story through a conspiratorial lens — but rather because his take has come up quite a bit in recent days, especially among Republicans aligned with the White House. Indeed, the morning after the senator's on-air comments, the president himself emphasized the fact that Democrats 'controlled the 'files' for four years.' As best as I can tell, the argument is that the Epstein files should be seen as inherently suspect because of possible mischief and political manipulation. It was the Trump administration that investigated, arrested and charged Epstein, who died while in custody in 2019, but the Republican president left office after his 2020 defeat, at which point rascally Democrats could have, as Johnson put it, 'added or deleted things.' For now, let's put aside the obvious fact that there's literally no evidence of the Biden administration altering or manipulating any Justice Department files for any reason. Let's instead consider the underlying logic. Why, exactly, would Democratic officials, working in secret, fabricate incriminating evidence in a sex trafficking case — and then do nothing with the fruits of their illicit labor? Or put another way, if nefarious Democrats had manipulated the Epstein files, wouldn't they have leaked them, rather than leaving them on Attorney General Pam Bondi's desk? Why would any conspirators go to the trouble of concocting bogus evidence against political rivals, only then to sit on that evidence until their rivals are in power? The problem with Johnson's theory isn't just that it's wrong, it's also bizarre. This post updates our related earlier coverage. This article was originally published on
Fox News
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Johnson demands NARA turn over records related to Biden's mental 'decline' amid Senate probe of 'cover-up'
EXCLUSIVE: Sen. Ron Johnson is demanding the National Archives turn over all records related to former President Joe Biden's "mental and physical health and cognitive decline," Fox News Digital has learned. Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a letter Johnson, R-Wis., sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is serving as the acting archivist of the United States. Johnson, who leads the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said he is now conducting an investigation into "the cover-up of former President Biden's health and cognitive decline." "My office has been reviewing the allegations that former President Biden, cabinet members, and his staff covered up his declining mental and physical health over the course of his presidency," Johnson wrote to Rubio, adding that the allegations "raise serious questions about who was making key presidential decisions if the former president was incapable of doing so. "One of these key decisions may have involved the presidential power to grant clemency or pardons — a matter that the White House Counsel's Office, among other entities, are currently investigating," Johnson wrote. Fox News Digital exclusively reported Tuesday that the White House Counsel's Office, in conjunction with the Justice Department, is investigating Biden's use of an autopen and already is reviewing more than 27,000 documents turned over by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). "The reporting further suggests that these records represent only a portion of the information in NARA's possession that may be related to the coverup of former President Biden's alleged mental and physical decline," Johnson wrote to Rubio, referring to the Fox News Digital exclusive report. Johnson is now demanding that NARA turn over all records provided to the White House Counsel's Office referring to or relating to Biden's mental or physical health or the alleged cover-up, including all communications. Johnson also is demanding communications between or among any former White House officials, members of Biden's Cabinet or their staff or other staff relating to Biden's mental or physical health. Specifically, Johnson is demanding records belonging to former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, former White House chief of staff Jeff Zients, former advisor Mike Donilon, former counselor to the president Steve Ricchetti, Biden personal attorney Bob Bauer, Biden senior advisor Anita Dunn, former White House Physician Kevin O'Connor and others. Johnson gave Rubio until July 30 to turn over the records. Trump sent a memo in June to the Department of Justice directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate the autopen use and to determine whether it was related to a decline in Biden's mental state. The White House Counsel's Office is investigating Biden's use of an autopen, a machine that physically holds a pen and features programming to imitate a person's signature. Unlike a stamp or a digitized print of a signature, the autopen has the capability to hold various types of pens, from a ballpoint to a permanent marker, according to descriptions of autopen machines available for purchase. Biden used an autopen to sign a slew of documents while in office. He also used an autopen to sign final pardons, including preemptive pardons for members of his family, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley and members and staff of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots. He only signed one pardon by hand, for his son Hunter, after vowing to the American people for months he would not pardon Hunter. In his final weeks in office, Biden granted clemency and pardoned more than 1,500 individuals in what the White House described at the time as the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president. Biden, in a recent interview with The New York Times, defended his use of an autopen, saying he "made every decision" on his own. "We're talking about (granting clemency to) a whole lot of people," Biden said. However, the Times reported that Biden "did not individually approve each name for the categorical pardons that applied to large numbers of people," according to the former president and his aides. Congressional committees, like the House Oversight Committee, are also investigating the autopen use and Biden's health while in office. A senior administration official recognized the simultaneous efforts but stressed that the White House Counsel's investigation is separate from any congressional probes. Officials told Fox News Digital the investigation is a "massive effort," and one that they hope to finish "as soon as possible." As for Trump, officials told Fox News Digital he does not use an autopen for anything that could be considered official business. The only time Trump may use the autopen is for unofficial business, including correspondence, letters for birthdays or commissioned records for widely shared documents, his office said.
