Joe Biden plans new taxes on the rich to help save Medicare

By Chris Megerian and Josh Boak Associated Press

President Joe Biden on Tuesday proposed new taxes on the rich to help fund Medicare, saying the plan would help to extend the insurance program’s solvency by 25 years and provide a degree of middle-class stability to millions of older adults.

In his plan, Biden is overtly declaring that the wealthy ought to shoulder a heavier tax burden. His budget would draw a direct line between those new taxes and the popular health insurance program for people older than 65, essentially asking those who’ve fared best in the economy to subsidize the rest of the population.

Biden wants to increase the Medicare tax rate from 3.8% to 5% on income exceeding $400,000 per year, including salaries and capital gains. The White House did not provide specific cost-saving estimates with the proposal, but the move would likely increase tax revenues by more than $117 billion over 10 years, according to prior estimates in February by the Tax Policy Center.

“This modest increase in Medicare contributions from those with the highest incomes will help keep the Medicare program strong for decades to come,” Biden wrote in a Tuesday essay in The New York Times. He called Medicare a “rocksolid guarantee that Americans have counted on to be there for them when they retire.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was quick to dismiss the plan, telling reporters on Tuesday that Biden’s budget agenda “will not see the light of day.”

More than 65 million people rely on Medicare at a cost to taxpayers of roughly $900 billion every year. The number of Medicare enrollees is expected to continue growing as the U.S. population ages.

Biden

But funding for the program is a problem with federal officials warning that, without cuts or tax increases, the Medicare fund might only be able to pay for 90% of benefits by 2028.

Biden’s suggested Medicare changes are part of a fuller budget proposal that he plans to release on Thursday in Philadelphia. Pushing the proposal through Congress will likely be difficult, with Republicans in control of the House and Democrats holding only a slim majority in the Senate. The proposal is a direct challenge to GOP

By Chuck Hobbs

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed a Bill last week that criminalizes anyone who dresses or performs in drag on public property, in general, and specifically proscribes: “topless dancers, go-go dancers, exotic dancers, strippers, male or female impersonators who provide entertainment that appeals to a prurient interest, or similar entertainers.”

Geez, had the hetero parts of this bill been the law across the South during my student days at Morehouse, FAMU Grad, and UF Law, I and my whole crew of friends might have been felony offenders based upon the time that we spent at Club Nikki’s and the Blue Flame in Atlanta, and the Rolexxx down in Miami .

Clearly, that’s a long list of prurient interests, not all of which specifically target the LGBTQ community despite despite the fact that his work influenced a number of other great African American literary giants, including Langston Hughes, Nikki Giovanni, James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston and Margaret Walker.

In a very real sense, Dunbar is your favorite poet’s favorite poet.

A blooming life of writing

Born on June 27, 1872, to two formerly enslaved people from Kentucky, Dunbar was raised by his mother, and they eventually settled in Dayton, Ohio. While there, Dunbar attended the integrated Dayton the aim being to antagonize a demographic that far too many so-called “Values Voters” believe runs contrary to their so-called “Christian values.” I use “so-called” in the prior paragraph because as a Baptized Christian since November of 1982, I have lived long enough to know that some of the most racist, sexist, homophobic, and religiously bigoted people in America claim to be followers of Christ and believe that they are “doing their Master’s will” by codifying their bigotry into law. But as I often remind, America was NOT founded as a theocracy and contrary to popular (and quite wrong) sentiment, the U.S. Constitution does not hold dear to “Judeo-Christian values” in any way, shape, or form. Lest we forget that the Pilgrims and assorted colonizers from Europe sailed West for the purpose of practicing Catholicism, Methodism, Anglicism, Episcopalianism, and Lutheranism as they saw fit. Lest we also forget that the descendants of those Pilgrims and assorted colonizers, men

Minneapolis parks offer affordable summer day camps for youth ages 8-13 in 2023

Neighborhood Day Camps, which are economical summer day camps, will return to the Minneapolis Parks system during the summer break. The camps are hosted in the local parks of Minneapolis. The camps are themed, all-day camps that operate from Tuesday through Friday throughout the summer for 0 to 10 dollars per child, depending on the park’s location. Nonetheless, seats quickly fill up, so families are advised to register as soon as possible.

Over the summer, Minneapolis Parks offers free and low-cost day camps for children ages 8 to 13. The camps have a theme, and sessions are held every week from June 27 to August 18 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Friday.

Cycling Explorers, Great Outdoors, Farm-to-Table, Arts Dabbler, and Wet & Wild are the 2023 camp themes. The Park Board says not every camp is provided at every location; interested parents can consult registration for details. Farview and Creekview will house campgrounds in the North Mnneapolis. Logan and Van Cleve will serve the Northeast/Southeast Minneapolis . MLK Park and Bryant Square will serve the Southwest neighborhood.

Longfellow and Brackett will serve the lower South. Corcoran and Powderhorn will be in the upper South Minneapolis.

The camps run for four days, from June 27 to August 18. The first camp is held

MN House

From 3 would require only simple majorities to pass — and leave less money available for tax cuts.

Republican leaders from both chambers proposed

Dunbar

From 3

Central High School. An exceptional writer, Dunbar was the only Black student in his class and became editorin-chief of the high school newspaper as well as a member of the literary and drama clubs and debating society. He also became friends with a white classmate who, with his brother, would later invent between June 27 and 30, while the last session is held between August 15 and 18. The cost per camp, per child, for Minneapolis residents, is $0 to $10. a $13 billion tax cut wish list last week. It includes rebate checks, tax credits for families with children, eliminating the state’s partial taxation of Social Security income and lower income and property taxes.

Note to parents: campers must bring their own lunch, wear comfortable outdoor attire, and be prepared to get wet. The parks provide numerous outdoor activities, so it is prudent to dress for the weather and bring a swimsuit. The parks also take youngsters off-site, so parents should prepare their children for outside activities.

Senate GOP leaders wouldn’t specify Monday which, or how much, of those tax cuts they’ll need to get to put up votes for a bonding bill but said the airplane – Orville Wright.

The two knew each other well.

Their friendship led to business as the Wright brothers, who owned a printing press, were the first to print Dunbar’s writings, including the newspaper Dunbar started and edited, the Dayton Tattler, the first Black newspaper in that city.

After high school, the lives of Dunbar and Wright took different turns.

Unable to find consistent pay for his writing, Dunbar worked a variety of

Insight News

www.insightnews.com

Insight News is published weekly, every Monday by McFarlane Media Interests.

Editor-In-Chief Al McFarlane

Publisher Batala-Ra McFarlane

Associate Editor & Associate Publisher

B.P. Ford

Culture and Education Editor

Dr. Irma McClaurin, PhD.

Associate Editors Afrodescendientes

Jesús Chucho Garcia

Mestre Yoji Senna DaBahia

Columnist Brenda Lyle-Gray

Book Review Editor

W.D. Foster-Graham

Sports Editor Leahjean M. Denley

Content & Production Manager Sunny Thongthi Yang

Distribution/Facilities

Manager Charles Royston

Receptionist

Lue B. Lampley

Intern Naomi Thomson

Photography

Uchechukwu Iroegbu Lou Michaels Roy Lewis - Washington D.C.

Artist Donald Walker

Contact Us: Insight News, Inc.

Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Ave. N. Minneapolis. 55411 Ph.: (612) 588-1313

Fax: (612) 588-2031

Member: Minnesota

Multicultural Media Consortium (MMMC) Minnesota Newspaper Association (MNA)

National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA)

Postmaster: Send address changes to McFarlane Media Interests, Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Avenue

North, Minneapolis,

Themes: be able to bicycle at least four miles. Bicycles are available for rental.

Arts Dabbler

Camp is developed for artloving children. Campers will experiment with visual and performing arts in enjoyable outdoor settings. This session will allow children to experiment with various forms of art. The Cycling Explorers Camp is for adventure-seeking children. This camp will bicycle around Minneapolis. This is not a learn-to-bike program, therefore, participants must they’re open to negotiations.

“How can we in good conscience go back to the taxpayers of Minnesota and say, oh yeah, we have this historic surplus, almost $18 billion, but we’re going to to put almost $2 billion on a credit card and not give you a penny of your hardearned dollars back?” said Sen. Karin Housley, of Stillwater, the lead Republican on the Senate jobs, including as a janitor in one downtown Dayton office building and as an elevator operator in another. Not one to miss a business opportunity, the 20-year-old Dunbar sold his first book of poetry, “Oak and Ivy,” to passengers he met on the elevator. He found another such job after he moved to Washington, D.C., and worked stacking shelves at the Library of Congress. According to his wife, Alice Dunbar, an accomplished writer in her own right, it was there that her husband began to think about a caged bird.

“… The torrid sun poured its rays down into the courtyard of the library and heated the iron grilling of the book stacks until they were like prison bars in more senses than one,” Dunbar wrote.

“The dry dust of the dry books … rasped sharply in his hot throat, and he understood how the bird felt when it beats its wings against its cage.”

Dunbar’s first break came when he was invited to recite his poems at the 1893 Worlds Fair, where he met Frederick Douglass,

Farm-to-Table Camp is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for children interested in discovering local food plants. This camp will allow campers to catch fish, learn gardening techniques from a Master Gardener, and then prepare delectable meals in the rec center kitchen.

Great Outdoors Camp is created for outdoor-loving children. This camp will take

Capital Investment Committee. Lawmakers haven’t managed to pass a statewide projects bill since 2020, but control of the Legislature is no longer divided. Some highlights of the new House package include:

—Over $245 million for transportation projects, including $85 million for local road improvements the famous abolitionist. Impressed, Douglass gave Dunbar a job and called him the “the most promising young colored man in America.”

Dunbar’s second break came three years later. On his 24th birthday, he received a glowing Harper’s Weekly review of his second book of poetry, “Majors and Minors,” from the prominent Ohio-raised literary critic William Dean Howells. That review cam with a mixed blessing. Howells’ praise of Dunbar’s use of dialect limited Dunbar’s ability to sell his other styles of writing. But that same review helped catapult Dunbar to international acclaim. His stardom didn’t last long, though. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in 1900, Dunbar died from complications of the disease on Feb. 9, 1906. But his work survives.

Dunbar’s musical legacy In all, Dunbar wrote 600 poems, 12 books of poetry, five novels, four volumes of short stories, campers on a journey into the stunning urban wilderness of Minneapolis. The campers will learn the fundamentals of archery and canoe on one of the city’s stunning lakes. Wet & Wild Camp is a camp for youngsters that enjoy water sports. All day long, students will participate in swimming, water slides, and other water-related activities at this camp.

The Minneapolis Neighborhood Day Camps Registration link on the website and $67 million for local bridge replacements;

—Nearly $175 million for the Department of Natural Resources for state parks and trails, plus flood mitigation and wildfire suppression projects;

—Over $87 million for water infrastructure projects;

—Around $72 million for rehabbing public housing;

—Nearly $93 essays, hundreds of newspaper articles and lyrics for musicals. His poetry has been continuously set by composers, from his contemporaries to living composers still living today, including Carrie Jacobs Bond, John Carpenter, Harry Thacker Burleigh, William Bolcom and Zenobia Powell Perry.

Florence Price’s numerous settings of his texts include popular and advertisement music, while William Grant Still’s “AfroAmerican” symphony features spoken epigraphs of Dunbar poems before each movement.

Dunbar’s legacy in apparent not only in the concert hall, but on the theatrical stage as well.

Dunbar was librettist for an operetta by Samuel Coleridge Taylor, “Dream Lovers,” written specifically for Black singers.

Dunbar’s own extraordinary life became the subject for operas as composers Adolphus Hailstork, Richard Thompson, Steven Allen and Jeff Arwady composed works depicting Dunbar’s legacy.

The collaborations of Dunbar and Will Marion Cook produced the first examples of contemporary musical theater.

Without Paul’s contributions with “In minneapolisparks for Minneapolis Parks allows parents to register their children for the camps. In addition, parents can print or distribute the 2023 Neighborhood Day Camps leaflet by using the website’s link. Parents who have questions about the camps should email DayCamps@ minneapolisparks.org or call 612-723-8846. million for a long-sought new undergraduate chemistry lab for the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis;

—Over $31 million for upgrades at National Guard armories; —Over $18 million for improvements at the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley.

Dahomey” and “Jes Lak White Fo’ks,” in my view there would be no “Hamilton,” the modern Broadway musical written by Lin-Manuel Miranda in 2015.

‘We wear the mask’ Dunbar’s works celebrated all of humanity. He turned the plantation tradition on its head by using dialect to not only offer critical social commentary, as in his poem “When Malindy Sings,” but also to portray oftignored humanity, as in “When Dey ‘Listed Colored Soldiers.” Dunbar’s works provide historical snapshots into the everyday lives of working-class Black Americans. None were as poignant as his poem “We Wear the Mask.” “We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties.”

Minnita DanielCox has received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation. This article originally appeared on The Conversation and has been republished under a Creative Commons license.