The Indian Panorama

Tag: Kevin McCarthy

  • China deploys warships near Taiwan after Tsai-McCarthy meeting

    China deploys warships near Taiwan after Tsai-McCarthy meeting

    TAIPEI (TIP): China sent warships through waters around Taiwan on April 6 as it vowed a “resolute response” to the island’s president meeting US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

    Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen held talks with McCarthy in Los Angeles on Wednesday, expressing gratitude afterwards for the meeting that she said showed her island was not isolated on the international stage.

    China had repeatedly warned both sides the meeting should not take place, and deployed an aircraft carrier through waters near Taiwan hours before the talks went ahead. Three additional warships were detected in waters separating the island from mainland China, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence said on Thursday morning. An anti-submarine helicopter had also crossed the island air defense identification zone, according to the ministry.

    Despite Taiwan having been ruled separately for more than 70 years, China views it as part of its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if necessary.

    China carried out its largest-ever air and sea exercises around Taiwan following a visit in August last year by McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, to the island. China deployed warships, missiles and fighter jets into the waters and skies around Taiwan in August.

    Its response to the McCarthy meeting has so far been on a much lower level. Tsai said in the United States she had received a warm welcome from politicians on both sides of the aisle.

    “Their presence and unwavering support reassure the people of Taiwan that we are not isolated and we are not alone,” she told reporters at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. Tsai’s visit to California was technically a stop-over after a trip to Latin America to see two of Taiwan’s dwindling band of official diplomatic allies. Hours after the Tsai-McCarthy meeting, China issued a strong rebuke. “In response to the seriously erroneous acts of collusion between the United States and Taiwan, China will take resolute and effective measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” China’s foreign ministry said.

    However there were no initial signs of extra military activity on Thursday morning on Pingtan island in southeastern China — home to a People’s Liberation Army base and known as the closest point on the mainland to Taiwan. AFP journalists on Pingtan last year had witnessed missile launches and army helicopters flying over the island following Pelosi’s visit.

    McCarthy, who is second in line to the US presidency, said a shared belief in freedom and democracy underpinned a relationship that was “a matter of profound importance to the free world”. He had originally planned to go himself but opted instead to meet Tsai in California.

    The decision was viewed as a compromise that would underscore support for Taiwan but avoid inflaming tensions with China. McCarthy vowed US arms sales to Taiwan — which infuriate Chinese leadership — would continue, in what he said was a proven strategy to dissuade aggression. (AFP)

  • Biden unveils USD 6.9 trillion budget, raises taxes on rich, boosts spending on social programs, infrastructure

    Biden unveils USD 6.9 trillion budget, raises taxes on rich, boosts spending on social programs, infrastructure

    WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): President Joe Biden on Thursday, March 10 unveiled a USD 6.9 trillion annual budget for the year 2024, which proposes a hefty tax on the rich, massive spending on social measures and investment on building key infrastructure.
    The budget was termed a “non-starter” by the Republicans who have a majority in the House of Representatives.
    Biden at a rally in Philadelphia asserted that his budget reflects what “we can do to” lift the burden on hard working Americans and it would reduce the deficit this year by USD 160 billion.”To support working parents, my budget expands access to affordable childcare for millions of families. And it’s going to invest in paid family medical leave,” Biden said, adding that his budget also invests in elder care and home care and restores the child tax credit.
    Biden said the budget will deliver funding to help the US lead the world again. “My budget also invests in critical issues that matter to families, increasing the supply of affordable housing, lower rental costs, and make it easier to buy a home, all of which will generate economic growth and prosperity,” he said. Asserting that he brought down the deficit of USD 1.7 trillion more than any president in American history, Biden said his latest budget is going to reduce the deficit by nearly USD 3 trillion over 10 years.
    The budgetary proposals call for imposing a 25 per cent minimum tax on the wealthiest 0.01 per cent of households, quadrupling a one per cent surcharge on corporate stock buybacks, restoring the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6 per cent. It proposes to raise the corporate income tax rate from 21 per cent to 28 per cent. “No billionaire should be paying a lower tax than somebody working as a schoolteacher or a firefighter or any of you in this room. So, my plan is to make sure the corporations begin to pay their fair share. It used to be 35 per cent. We cut it down to 21 per cent. I think we should be paying 28 per cent,” he said.
    “There’s going to be a real fight in that but we should be paying more than 21 per cent. And I made clear under my plan, and I made this commitment when I ran and I haven’t broken it yet and I never will,” he said.
    Acknowledging that there are sharp differences with the Republicans, Biden said he is willing to sit down with them to talk and negotiate.
    “My budget is about investing in America and all of America, including places and people and folks who have been forgotten. Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades, too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible. Not anymore,” he said.
    The opposition Republican party was very critical of the budget. “President Joe Biden’s budget is a reckless proposal doubling down on the same Far Left spending policies that have led to record inflation and our current debt crisis, said Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Majority Whip Tom Emmer, and Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik in a joint statement.
    “After passing trillions of dollars in new deficit spending that we cannot afford, over the next 30 years, the national debt will be nearly twice the size of the entire economy. In the next ten years, the federal government will spend over USD 10 trillion on interest alone,” they said. Vice President Kamala Harris said the administration is investing in the full potential of the American people. “Our budget will lower costs, invest in workers, and strengthen Medicare and Social Security. It does all of this while cutting the deficit and making sure billionaires pay their fair share,” she said.
    (Source: PTI)

  • US President Biden seeks comprehensive immigration reform in State of the Union address

    US President Biden seeks comprehensive immigration reform in State of the Union address

    WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): President Joe Biden has urged the US Congress to pass a comprehensive immigration reform, a move which would provide a path to citizenship to not only illegal immigrants but also those who entered the country legally, like those on H-1B visas. In the 118th Congress, where the Opposition Republicans enjoy a majority in the House of Representatives, such an ask might not be an easy one.

    Biden acknowledged it indirectly though. “If you won’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border,” Biden said in his second State of the Union Address before a Joint Session of the US Congress.

    “And a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers. Here in the people’s House, it’s our duty to protect all the people’s rights and freedoms,” said the president amidst applause from the Democratic lawmakers of the Congress.

    Dreamers are undocumented immigrants who enter the US as children with parents.

    Millions of illegal immigrants are looking for a pathway to citizenship, and so do a large number of those who entered the country legally with visas like H-1B and are having years waiting for a Green Card.

    The H1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

    A Green Card, known officially as a Permanent Resident Card, is a document issued to immigrants to the US as evidence that the bearer has been granted the privilege of residing permanently.

    In his address that lasted for more than 75 minutes, Biden urged Congress to come together on immigration and make immigration a bipartisan issue like it was before.

    “We now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human smugglers and seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in just the last several months,” he said. “Since we launched our new border plan last month, unlawful migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela has come down 97 per cent. But America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts,” Biden said.

    (Source: PTI)

  • George Santos Faces Calls to Resign

    George Santos Faces Calls to Resign

    WESTBURY, N.Y. (TIP): Dozens of Republican officials in New York State, including four recently elected congressmen, urged Representative George Santos, on Wednesday, January 11, to resign in a fracturing of local party support for Mr. Santos. Their call represented a sharp break from congressional Republican leaders, who insisted they would not push the embattled congressman to resign. Even as Mr. Santos’s former allies in New York insisted that his fabrications on the campaign trail had significantly violated the public trust, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that he not only would resist calls to push Mr. Santos out, but that he planned to seat him on a congressional committee.

    “The voters elected him to serve,” Mr. McCarthy told reporters in Washington, adding that Mr. Santos “has to answer to the voters and the voters can make another decision in two years.”

    Mr. Santos, who was elected to represent New York’s Third Congressional District, a consequential swing district in Queens and Long Island, emphatically resisted calls to leave office, saying on Twitter that he remained committed to serving the people of his district.

    The Nassau County party chairman, Joseph G. Cairo Jr., said that Mr. Santos, a first-term Republican, had lost the support of Republicans in his district, saying that Mr. Santos’s campaign was one of “deceit, lies, fabrication.”

    “He’s disgraced the House of Representatives, and we do not consider him one of our congresspeople,” Mr. Cairo said at the news conference. “Today, on behalf of the Nassau County Republican Committee, I am calling for his immediate resignation.”

    (Source: agencies)

  • Republican Kevin McCarthy elected as House Speaker in 15th round of votes

    Republican Kevin McCarthy elected as House Speaker in 15th round of votes

    WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): Republican Kevin McCarthy was elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives on Saturday, January 7, which is hopefully expected to bring an end to political paralysis that the country has seen for days now.

    McCarthy, 57, replaces Nancy Pelosi, 82 of the Democratic Party, which lost the majority in the House after the November 8 midterm elections wherein the Republicans won 222 seats in the 435-member House against 212 of the Democrats.

    McCarthy defeated 52-year-old Hakeem Sekou Jeffries by 216 to 212 votes, in the 15th round of votes that went past midnight.

    The Republican was able to muster a majority from the lawmakers present on the floor only after six of his party rebels voted present, which brought down the magic number from 218 to 215 votes. McCarthy will be the 55th speaker.

    Congressman Matt Gaetz, one of his fiercest critics and opponents, refused to vote in favor of McCarthy in the 14th round and also in the 15th round. But moved his vote from against McCarthy to present, and so did five other GOP lawmakers.

    In the 14th round, there were some last-minute floor negotiations in front of the cameras, wherein McCarthy walked up to Gaetz pleading for his vote. This was followed by some angry exchange of words between supporters of McCarthy and Gaetz.

    Congressman Richard Hudson was seen pulling his party colleague Mike Rogers, as he confronted Gaetz, during the 14th round of voting. In the previous 13 rounds – two of which were held earlier in the day–, McCarthy had some frustrating and embarrassing moments as he was opposed by a group of 20 lawmakers from his own party, mostly from the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus. It was only in the 12th and 13th rounds that more than a dozen of those GOP naysayers switched their votes.

    “Of the more than 50 speakers of the House, 15 have been in McCarthy’s situation: needing multiple elections to win the gavel,” NBC News said, reflecting the historic and unprecedented nature of the election of a House Speaker this year. There have been only four House speaker races that have gone so far in the past. As a powerful Speaker of the House, McCarthy would be in a key position to play a key role in deciding the national policies, including those related to the budget. In this position, McCarthy is also third in the line of succession after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The 118th Congress has five Indian Americans as members of the House of Representatives. They are all from the Democratic Party — Dr Ami Bera, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ro Khanna, Pramila Jayapal and Shri Thanedar. All of them voted for Jeffries in the 14th round of votes.

    (Source: PTI)