13
FREE AGAIN Four days after they were abducted by unidentified gunmen from a boarding school
in Nigeria’s Zamfara state, 279 schoolgirls, some pictured above at a government building, were
released on March 2. School kidnappings are often undertaken by jihadist and criminal groups in
the region as a way to extort ransoms. The state government has, however, denied paying a ransom
for the girls -—a controversial practice in Nigeria, as many say it fuels further criminality.
NEWS
TICKER
U.S. airstrike
targets militia
groups in SyriaOn Feb. 25 President
Joe Biden authorized
an airstrike in eastern
Syria—the first such
military action of his
Administration. The
strike was aimed at
“infrastructure” used
by Iran-backed militia
groups involved in a
February attack against
U.S. coalition forces
in Iraq, according to a
letter Biden sent
to Congress two
days later.Power co-op
bankrupt after
Texas stormBrazos Electric
Power Cooperative,
Texas’ largest and
oldest electric power
company, filed for
bankruptcy protection
on March 1, citing
a $2.1 billion bill it
received from the
state’s grid operator
after a historic winter
storm in mid-February.Polish court
acquits LGBTQ
activistsIn the culmination of
a case widely seen as
a test of freedoms of
speech, a Polish court
acquitted three LGBTQ
activists on March
after they produced
and distributed images
of a religious icon with
a rainbow flag. They
had been accused
of desecration and
offending religious
feelings. LGBTQ-rights
groups called the ruling
a “breakthrough.”The DemocraTs’ unifieD conTrol of
Washington puts them within striking dis-
tance of passing President Biden’s corona-
virus relief package, sending $1,400 checks
to lower- and middle-income Americans,
extending federal unemployment insurance
until Aug. 29 and allotting nearly $130 bil-
lion to reopen K-12 schools. But it’s also no-
table what almost certainly won’t end up in
the final bill: a $15 minimum-wage increase
and a repeal of two tax breaks implemented
under last year’s CARES Act that primarily
benefited billionaires and millionaires.
CHECKS AND BALANCES On the 2020 cam-
paign trail, Democrats vowed to enact these
policies, but that rhetoric is now meeting
the reality of governing. The omissions are
primarily being chalked up to procedural
difficulties. Democrats voted overwhelm-
ingly for the CARES Act last March, but
aides later acknowledged that in the rush to
pass the bill, they had not realized the tax
breaks’ full implications. Millions of dollars
in refunds have already been issued, and
experts on both sides of the aisle agree it’s
virtually impossible for the government to
claw back that money.
PROCEDURAL SNAFUS The Senate par-
liamentarian recently ruled that the
minimum-wage hike fell outside the relief
package’s budgetary confines, and while Sen-
ate Democrats briefly floated tax penalties
for corporations that don’t pay employees a
living wage, they nixed the proposal to en-
sure that the bill reaches Biden’s desk before
unemployment benefits lapse on March 14.
Such hurdles to their proposals will continue
to thwart Democrats absent the 60-vote su-
permajority required to pass measures in the
upper house. The chamber is split 50-50, with
Vice President Kamala Harris the tiebreaker.MIND THE GAP Tax increases are still on the
table for a subsequent recovery package later
this year, and on March 1, Senator Elizabeth
Warren introduced a proposal for a wealth
tax. But even with the party’s newfound
power to address the ever widening wealth
gap, it still seems to be much easier for cor-
porations and high-net-worth individuals to
score seven- or even eight-figure tax breaks
than for workers to get a minimum-wage in-
crease. That’s a problem the party will have
to grapple with long after Biden signs his
American rescue plan. —alana aBramsonPOLITICS
Democrats can’t keep all their
promises in the COVID-19 relief bill