October 16, 2019

No Image

Business October 16, 2019

Democratic Candidates Tackle Issue Of Income Inequality In 4th Debate

Presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders would both like to impose higher taxes on the wealthy. That idea came under attack during Tuesday’s debate.



ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Well, one of the many issues the Democrats tangled over last night is what’s known as a wealth tax. That is the idea of taxing accumulated wealth to help pay for a variety of government programs. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have both advocated for it. Critics say their proposals are unwieldy and warn that rich people will find a way to get around the tax. NPR’s Scott Horsley is here for a fact-check.

Hey, Scott.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.

SHAPIRO: First, explain what Warren and Sanders are actually talking about when they call for a wealth tax.

HORSLEY: Their plans differ in the particulars, but they’re both calling for an annual tax on big fortunes. In Warren’s case, she wants to tax fortunes worth $50 million or more. So there are about 75,000 families in the U.S. that would fall under that tax. They would be taxed 2% on everything they own above $50 million and 3% on any wealth over a billion dollars. Now, during the CNN debate, Warren said chipping away at those enormous fortunes would help address inequality and also raise a boatload of money, which she and Sanders are counting on, to fund their ambitious government programs.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ELIZABETH WARREN: Taxing income is not going to get you where you need to be the way taxing wealth does. The rich are not like you and me. The really, really billionaires are making their money off their accumulated wealth. And it just keeps growing.

SHAPIRO: OK. Well, one of the candidates who pushed back against Warren on this was Andrew Yang. Let’s listen to that.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ANDREW YANG: The wealth tax makes a lot of sense in principle. The problem is that it’s been tried in Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, and all those countries ended up repealing it because it had massive implementation problems and did not generate the revenue that they projected.

SHAPIRO: Scott, did all those countries repeal it?

HORSLEY: They did. He is right that a lot of countries have tried a wealth tax. A lot of them gave up on it. In fact, 11 of the 15 developed countries that had a wealth tax back in the mid-’90s have gotten rid of the levy. Only a handful are still collecting it. Part of the problem is it really is hard to administer a wealth tax. You know, assets like stocks and bonds are easy enough to account for, but if rich people put their money into, say, jewelry or art, it can be hard to know what it’s worth. And that can make a lot of extra work for the IRS. What’s more, the wealthy can hire very good lawyers and accountants to avoid or minimize their taxes. That’s one reason a lot of countries did find that a wealth tax didn’t generate quite as much money as they’d been hoping for.

SHAPIRO: So what’s the alternative? Like, what’s Yang proposing, for example?

HORSLEY: Yang is actually calling for a kind of federal sales tax, what’s known as a value added or VAT tax. That’s something a lot of countries do have, and it is very simple to administer and can raise a whole lot of money. Critics, though, say a VAT tax falls most heavily on the poor and middle class because they tend to spend more of their income while, as Warren said, the really wealthy let their money just pile up.

SHAPIRO: That’s NPR’s Scott Horsley.

Thanks a lot.

HORSLEY: You’re welcome.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Health October 16, 2019

Hospital Giant Sutter Health Agrees To Settlement In Big Antitrust Fight

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with 1,500 self-funded health plans, sued Sutter Health for antitrust violations. The closely watched case, which many expected to set precedents nationwide, ended in a settlement Wednesday. Above, Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento, Calif.

Rich Pedroncelli/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Rich Pedroncelli/AP

Sutter Health, a large nonprofit health care system with 24 hospitals, 34 surgery centers and 5,500 physicians across Northern California, has reached a preliminary settlement agreement in a closely watched antitrust case brought by self-funded employers and later joined by California’s Office of the Attorney General.

The agreement was announced in San Francisco Superior Court on Wednesday, just before opening arguments were expected to begin.

Details have not been made public, and the parties declined to talk to reporters. Superior Court Judge Anne-Christine Massullo told the jury that details likely will be made public during approval hearings in February or March.

There were audible cheers from the jury following the announcement that the trial, which was expected to last for three months, would not continue.

Sutter, which is based in Sacramento, Calif., stood accused of violating California’s antitrust laws by using its market power to illegally drive up prices.

Health care costs in Northern California, where Sutter is dominant, are 20% to 30% higher than in Southern California, even after adjusting for cost of living, according to a 2018 study from the Nicholas C. Petris Center at the University of California, Berkeley, that was cited in the complaint.

The case was a massive undertaking, representing years of work and millions of pages of documents, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said before the trial. Sutter was expected to face damages of up to $2.7 billion.

Sutter Health consistently denied the allegations and argued that it used its market power to improve care for patients and expand access to people in rural areas. The chain of health care facilities had $13 billion in operating revenue in 2018.

The case was expected to have nationwide implications on how hospital systems negotiate prices with insurers. It is not yet clear what effect, if any, a settlement agreement would have on Sutter’s tactics or those of other large systems.

Kaiser Health News is a nonprofit, editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation. KHN is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

No Image

Sports October 16, 2019

Washington Nationals Head To The World Series For The 1st Time

There’s not a lot that folks in Washington, D.C., seem to be able to agree on except one thing: there’s plenty of excitement about the Nationals making it to the World Series for the first time.



AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

It’s been more than 80 years since the World Series was played in Washington, D.C., but that’s about to change. Last night, the Washington Nationals completed their sweep against the St. Louis Cardinals and will take on either the Yankees or Astros next week. Hannah Schuster of member station WAMU tells us what this moment means for the nation’s capital.

HANNAH SCHUSTER, BYLINE: Yesterday was a beautiful night for baseball, but today, it poured. Andrew Martin (ph) says that’s how you know anyone who braved this weather to visit the Nationals team store today is a true diehard fan.

ANDREW MARTIN: We’re so incredibly psyched by this. We actually had tickets to the game tonight and are delighted not to be able to use them and not just because it’s pouring rain right now.

SCHUSTER: The 45-year-old has been a fan since the team arrived in 2005 and even attended their first game. He got used to the mediocre years and when the Nats got bounced out of the playoffs. Martin’s kids, 6 and 8, are huge fans, too. But Martin is also excited about what this win means for the entire Washington region.

MARTIN: Especially in a city as transitory as D.C. where everyone comes from someplace else, you bring your own fandoms when you move here. But, yeah, this is something that the whole city can get behind and get together. And it gives us a sense of shared identity that is often lacking in a city like this.

SCHUSTER: D.C. has been championship starved for quite some time, but that’s changing. Last year, the Washington Capitals won hockey’s Stanley Cup. And just last week, the Washington Mystics claimed their first ever WNBA championship.

DEBBIE TAYLOR: I think for younger people, particularly, who’ve never seen any kind of championship until the Capitals it’s just something that they can, you know, hang on to. And their kids will be Nats fans forever now because they’ve experienced this.

SCHUSTER: That’s former Arlington Virginia resident Debbie Taylor (ph). She and her husband, Brian (ph) retired to North Carolina a few years ago but came back to watch yesterday’s game in person.

BRIAN TAYLOR: You stood all night long because everybody wanted to see every single pitch.

SCHUSTER: Washington, D.C., is a place where people talk a lot about politics and government, but for a change, that’s pushed aside. The enthusiasm and excitement here are all about the World Series. Resident Rich Dooley (ph) puts it this way.

RICH DOOLEY: I think if we come out winning the World Series, it can only bring the city together more. There’s no divisiveness in a winner.

SCHUSTER: Only six days until Game 1 when the Nationals take on either the Houston Astros or the New York Yankees.

For NPR News, I’m Hannah Schuster in Washington.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)