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U.S. Sen. Rand Paul announced Thursday hes backing Republican Don Huffines in his campaign to unseat Gov. Greg Abbott in a GOP primary next spring.

The Kentucky Senator, who grew up in Lake Jackson and attended Baylor University, said hes known Huffines, a Dallas developer, for more than 20 years.

He is a loyal, steadfast fighter for limited, constitutional government, Paul said. He has been in the thick of every conservative fight since I have known him. He is unafraid to stand up to the establishment. He is someone who will defend our freedoms.

The endorsement gives Huffines, a former state senator, backing from a leader in libertarian-conservative circles, and it aligns him with one of the most vocal critics of Dr. Anthony Fauci and the nations handling of COVID-19. Huffines has built a key part of his campaign around being critical of Abbotts mask mandate last summer and other executive orders he released during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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When Abbott had the chance to protect the freedoms of all Texans, he instead sided with power-hungry, pro-lockdown politicians in Washington, Huffines said. Abbotts lockdowns killed more than 3 million Texas jobs in one week.

Huffines is one of two high profile Republicans who have announced they are challenging Abbott in a primary next year when Abbott will be seeking a third four-year term as governor. Earlier this month, former Florida Congressman Allen West announced he too is running for the Republican nomination for governor.

Abbott has never faced a major primary challenger in his previous two campaigns for governor. Campaign finance reports show Abbott has more than $55 million ready for the 2022 election cycle.

Paul is the son of former U.S. Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, who became a leader in the Tea Party movement and has run for president both with the Libertarian Party and the Republican Party.

jeremy.wallace@chron.com

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Sen. Rand Paul wades into Texas governor's race against Gov. Abbott - Houston Chronicle

Jul 24th 2021

WASHINGTON, DC

WHAT IS THE most important financial entity in the United States? The Federal Reserve sets the beat of global financial markets with its interest-rate decisions. JP Morgan, a bank, has a $3.7trn balance sheet. Some argue the United States Mint could help circumvent the ceiling Congress sets on the national debt by minting a trillion-dollar coin.

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And yet it is arguable that the crown belongs to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), whose massive $3.5trn in receipts is more than six times the revenues of the largest private company. Its ancillary assignments alone are vast, including the supervision of private pensions, determination of which institutions deserve tax-exempt status, and provision of payments for numerous government subsidies including $800bn in covid-19-related assistance paid to 160m people. All of these, despite their enormity, pale in comparison to its main assignment: collecting 95% of federal revenues.

For the 56% of American adults who pay taxes, the IRS serves as the primary face of the American government with a right to probe their most intimate financial affairs. It is a scrutiny that may become demonstrably sharper as the Biden administration, in search of revenue to fund large spending plans, wants more money to enhance the agencys enforcement, in the hope of flushing out hidden troves.

Support for the effort comes from a report published in July 2020 by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimating the tax gapthe difference between the amount owed and paidbetween 2011 and 2013 to have been 14% of revenues. By adding $20bn over the next decade to enforcement (an annual increase of 40% over current levels), the CBO estimates collections would increase by $61bn. By adding $40bn, collections would increase by $103bn. Additional collections, the CBO posits, would come as the indirect consequence of potential avoiders understanding their increased risk of being caught.

Increasing funds for the IRS would be a turnabout from a decade-long freeze (see chart). In the intervening years, the number of employees in the IRSs enforcement agency has dropped by 30%, audits of individual returns declined from 1.1% in 2010 to 0.6% in 2018, and audits of returns for incomes in excess of $1m have fallen from 12% to 3%. All this reflects a problem that extends beyond money lost. Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced, Albert Einstein is reputed to have said.

Yet if the proposal faces opposition, it is not merely because of the threat of increased harassment by tax authorities, but also suspicion that the enhanced spending on a more intrusive agency may miss the cause of shortfalls. Taxpayers, according to the American Action Forum, a think-tank, spend on average 17 hours on preparation; more than half pay for professional help. Polling reliably finds that Americans dislike the process. Confusion looms.

Only 3% of the 85m calls to the primary assistance number for individuals baffled by their returns reached a person during the most recent tax year, says Nina Olson, a former IRS employee who now runs the Centre for Taxpayer Rights. Confidence in the IRS has been damaged by asking the agency to decide which groups should be tax-exempt, which quickly becomes political. A decade ago the IRS removed the tax-exempt status of various Tea Party groups. Lois Lerner, who headed the relevant IRS department, was held in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about this. Then John Koskinen, a lawyer brought in by the Obama administration to run the agency after the scandal, was censured by Congress too.

Republicans seethed and many concluded that expanding enforcement activity was suicidal. In June IRS tax returns from some of Americas richest citizens were leaked to ProPublica, a group of investigative journalists, with the intention of influencing the debate over tax policy. The result was scintillating reading and a further blow to the agencys neutrality.

Expectations are that the enforcement money will come from a spending bill passed by the Democrats along party lines. Better, perhaps, might be a broad reorganisation to peel off ancillary activitiesand a simpler tax code. Neither of these things, however, is being discussed.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "Seeking revenue"

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Should the IRS be given more money to find money? - The Economist

Anyone watching the news the last few days has to marvel about the wonders of highly achieving people hitting that once shocking age of 80.

Theres the new heroine astronaut Wally Funk, who at 82 years old on Tuesday morning, July 20, became the oldest person ever to fly in space the fulfillment of a lifelong dream in her long career as a pilot and four times NASA astronaut nominee.

And then there is Georgetowner Nancy Pelosi, who at 81 is the only woman to be the Speaker of the House of Representatives and a feisty one at that, who continually challenges long traditions of Congress.

But Pelosi is not the oldest member of Congress. In fact, there are five senators and 11 Congressional representatives over the age of 80 in the 117th Congress; three are 87: Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Rep. Dan Young (R-Alaska), Dean of the House.

Another longtime Georgetown resident Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is 82.

Reaching 80 years old is both a humbling and awesome as the kids say life event. I know. I dont usually write about myself, but please allow an exception this time to share my experience in early July celebrating this milestone 80th birthday with my identical twin in our hometown of Santa Barbara California, whereI lived for 55 years and she still lives. It was a day filled with unexpected joy, wonder and utter gratitude.

My twin and I had been planning our pending birthday for almost a year via email with some trepidation and disbelief! HOW could we be 80 years old? Should we host a garden tea party with 20 or so of our oldest gal friends, many of whom were just beginning to emerge from isolated homes, masks and fears of COVID? Would they come with canes and wheelchairs, gray and aged and sad from all the struggles and losses of the past year? Would they even eat the luscious cakes (chocolate for me, vanilla for my twin; that was our tradition) and sandwiches that we were preparing for the tea? My sister, a graphic artist, designed beautiful invitations on paper! These we sent by mail for the few friends who didnt do email well.

Now, I am still glowing from the party.The ladies came in hats and dresses, looking good with some fancy walking sticks. All arrived with big smiles, hugs, kisses and utter joy to be there.

Isnt it incredible! they all said. Here we are!We made it! To 80! Still recognizable, full of lessons learned, blocks gone round many times, interested in life and love and eager to see what is next.Arent we lucky! Isnt it amazing to be together again.To remember our long lives still going on.Looking ahead to what life brings next whatever it may be. To be joyful in our friendships and long connections.

And they happily gobbled up all the cakes and sandwiches.

The overall attitude was gratitude!Our mantra for troubled times:This too shall pass.Everything changes. Be flexible in mind and as much as possible in body.

Its no wonder that we 80-somethings fully understand the exuberance and also criticism of Wally Funk after she landed from her 11-minute flight into space this week.

I loved every minute of it, Funk said.I just wish it could have been longer in zero gravity to do a lot more rolls and twists and so forth.I want to go again.Fast!

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The Wonder of an 80th Birthday - Georgetowner

The next high-profile elections arent until next year. And when the first few fellows from a brand-new voting group called the New Pennsylvania Project started knocking on doors in places like Norristown or lower Bucks County this summer, they werent pushing a candidate merely asking unregistered or infrequent voters whats on their mind. No wonder executive director Kadida Kenner says the main reaction so far has been surprise.

We can talk about [federal COVID-19] funding not being used [by Pennsylvania], or economic justice and raising the minimum wage, or education justice and the large spending gaps between schools, Kenner said of the groups early door-knocking efforts. These are the ideas and issues that engage low-participation voters, or those who have not registered to engage in the political process. We have to overcome all these barriers to entice certain folks to go out and register.

Only in existence since early May, the for-now Harrisburg-based New Pennsylvania Project if the name sounds familiar, its a riff on the wildly successful New Georgia Project launched by Stacey Abrams in the 2010s is on the cutting edge of whats emerging as the Democrats main strategy for 2022 and beyond to fight GOP intransigence on voting rights and outright suppression laws enacted in some Republican-controlled states.

The Republican plan for the next batch of elections hinges heavily on a blueprint of making it more difficult for people, but especially young voters and Black and brown folks, to cast ballots rolling back mail-in voting that flourished in the 2020 pandemic or making it harder, eliminating drop boxes, or curtailing early voting hours. The Democratic response inspired by the Georgia success of Abrams and other voting advocates behind shock victories there for President Biden and two Democratic Senate candidates is to get more Black and brown and young voters jacked up about elections, then get them to the polls despite these obstacles.

Youre not asking them for a vote thats really important, Kenner said of the method. What she means is that the New Pennsylvania Project aims to have door-knockers working in underserved communities year round, with a more issues-oriented approach, as opposed to traditional method of a politician showing up a few weeks before Election Day.

Kenner, whod been director of campaigns for the left-leaning Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, said the new effort came together amid the frustration of among top Democrats about the 2020 election results, when statewide success for Biden didnt translate into gains in legislative races, and the party endured surprising defeats for state treasurer and auditor general. Not surprisingly, Kenner and the ideas chief backers including the former auditor general, Eugene DePasquale, as well as Bucks County donor and defeated 2018 congressional candidate Scott Wallace and Karl Hausker, husband of failed 2016 Senate hopeful Katie McGinty looked south to the Peach State for inspiration.

After Republicans gained total power over Georgia politics in the Tea Party era and enacted some of the nations most regressive voting restrictions, amid large-scale purges of voter rolls, Abrams then a Democratic legislative leader hatched a plan for fighting back. Founded in 2013, her New Georgia Project went door-to-door talking about that states failure to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The idea was that many people dont need to be sold on the Democratic Party or a specific candidate, but the more fundamental case that voting even makes a difference.

Progress from the New Georgia Project, a second group later founded by Abrams, called Fair Fight Georgia, and a wave of related efforts mostly led by Black women was slow at first, but the drives signed up 200,000 new voters in 2018 (when Abrams ran for governor and fell just short) and a whopping 800,000 in 2020-21, when Biden became the first Democrat to win the states electoral votes since 1992 and January run-off wins by Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock gave the party control of the U.S. Senate. One of Kenners first acts in leading the New Pennsylvania Project was to travel to Atlanta and meet with Abrams lieutenants, to learn what she called the secret sauce.

In Pennsylvania, Democrats have held a registration edge, but in 2020 Republicans closed their deficit from 800,000 to just 600,000 voters partly because of Donald Trumps ability to woo working-class former Democrats, and partly because the GOP didnt suspend its door-to-door efforts as Democrats did in the worst of the pandemic. Kenner believes the key to reversing the statewide trends can be found in some key urban and suburb areas greater Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, northeastern Pennsylvania, parts of Bucks County and urbanized Philadelphia suburbs like Norristown or Chester and among under-40 voters, especially non-whites.

Kenner said one of her first challenges is selling some big-ticket donors on the New Pennsylvania Projects unconventional mission. Were asking that you give it to a group thats not going to knock on your door with a D or an R on its chest, she said. Theyre going to knock on the door and talk about issues there people care about, and organically these folks will understand and vote their values, and realize they need to come out in every election, twice a year here in the commonwealth, and become super voters.

READ MORE: How Georgias women of color beat voter suppression and saved democracy | Will Bunch

Earlier this month, Vice President Kamala Harris announced from the White House a similar, $25 million voter registration effort backed by the Democratic National Committee.. Veteran Democratic strategist Ed Kilgore described in a New York magazine piece as part of a fallback strategy for voting rights because two major pieces of federal legislation to thwart Republican voter-suppression efforts are blocked by a GOP Senate filibuster.

The situation is paralleled in Harrisburg, where hopes of building on 2020s pandemic changes that led to a modern record for Pennsylvania turnout have been thwarted by gridlock between Republican lawmakers who want new restrictions and the veto power of Democratic Gov. Wolf. Without new voting rights laws, turnout-boosting schemes like the New Pennsylvania Project might not only be the Democrats best shot, but its only path.

In the Keystone State, this effort is led by an activist, in Kenner, with the zeal of a late-life convert. A Pittsburgh native who was raised in suburban West Chester and after a successful career as a retail manager went back to Temple for a mid-life degree in journalism and a new life in Charlotte producing sports telecasts, Kenner was thrown a curveball in 2016. Struggling to find work as college sports boycotted North Carolina over its anti-transgender bathroom bill, she took a job with Hillary Clintons presidential campaign. But Clintons defeat and the arrival of Trump convinced her that political change was now her calling.

Kenner, 46, also feels the quest for equity is in her blood. Her great-grandfather, M.L. Clay, was freed from slavery to become one of most prominent African-American businessmen in Memphis at the turn of the 20th century a bank vice president and industrialist who associated with the likes of Ida B. Wells and Booker T. Washington only to be gunned down on Beale Street over his wealth. Her modern hero is Bayard Rustin, who was also raised in West Chester and went on to organize the massive 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Kenner has a large poster with Rustins image and his words, The proof that one truly believes is in action that she carries around Pennsylvania. He literally travels with me, she said. Hes currently in the back seat of my car so wherever I go he can go with me.

She marvels that Rustin organized the 1963 march where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech without email, without Facebook, without social media, and he got 500,000 people to the Mall, and to know he had to do that behind the scenes because they kept him literally in the closet as a gay man. Fifty-eight years later, Kenner will have to combine those modern tools with old-school organizing to put up similar numbers in the voting booth, in an era when increasingly its the fate of democracy itself thats on the ballot.

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Is the Stacey Abrams method the only hope for saving democracy in Pa.? | Will Bunch - The Philadelphia Inquirer

The star-studded cast of Imitation has shared their closing comments on the drama!

Based on a hit webtoon, Imitation was about the livesof idols in the cutthroat entertainment industry.

Jung Ji So, who played the girl group member Ma Ha, said, Filming for six months under the name Ma Ha, Im very proud and happy to have experienced the life of an idol character for the first time. I think that it will definitely be a project Ill never forget. It was a tough preparation process, but thanks to my co-stars, Ma Ha was able to be born, so Im very grateful to them. Thank you to all the viewers who watched Imitation.'

U-KISSs Lee Jun Young, who played the top idol Kwon Ryoc, said, From our first preparation stage to these final comments, I was happy thanks to Imitation. Thanks to such amazing co-stars, staff, and directors, I was able to have fun while filming. I want to thank once again those who loved our drama. I hope that it made them feel various things, as well as a sense of warmth and humanity. Please be careful of COVID-19 and be happy!

T-aras Jiyeon, who played the successful solo artist LA LIMA, said, We started filming at the end of last year, and I feela bit regretfulnow that its the end. I was playing a top solo artist, so there were a lot of scenes where I stood on stage, and it made me think of past memories a lot. Thank you for loving Imitation so much.

ATEEZs Yunho, who took on his first acting role in the character of boy group member Yoo Jin, said, First, I want to thank the viewers who loved Imitation. It was my first time, so I was lacking in a lot of things, but the writer and all those on set helped me a lot and I was able to finish well. I learned a lot and gained many new experiences as well as precious memories,so it was an unforgettable time for me. Thank you to the TokToks who cheered on Sparklings Yoo Jin. I will return as ATEEZs Yunho and work as hard as Yoo Jin toward my dreams.

SF9s Hwiyoung, who played SHAX member Lee Hyun, said, Its a regretful ending full of thoughts that I should have done better. Im grateful to all the actors I worked with, along with the directors and production staff. I think that I was lucky just to be able to domy first public broadcast drama with such great people. Thank you to the viewers who had fun watching the drama.I would like it if youlooked forward to my future activities. Please be careful of your health.

Lim Nayoung, who played Tea Party member Hyun Ji, said, The entire time we spent filming was such a happy and healing time for me. Thank you to all the actors, staff, and Imitation viewers who gave me the chance to make unforgettable memories as Hyun Ji.

g.o.ds Danny Ahn, who played Tea Partys CEO Ji Hak, said, Its the same for the kids in the drama, but Ji Hak was a turning point for me. I had a lot of doubts about myself while preparing for the role, but those doubts turned into certainties while I was playing him. I want to keep trying diverse characters in future. I want to thank the directors, writer, and the production staff for giving me a chance like Ji Hak, who helped me grow. I think that the advice and comfort Ji Hak gave the kids in the drama werent just for them, but for all the young people of this generation who are going through growing pains as they fight for their dreams. I hope that Ji Hak was able to give all of those dream-seekers a bit of comfort.

Minseo, who played Tea Partys leader Ri Ah, said, I gained a lot of affection for the friends I worked with, and I worked really hard on the performances and my acting, so I feel only regret that its coming to an end. I remember the times that we filmed on stage the most. I practiced with the Tea Party members everyday, which makes the memories even more special. Tea Party, I love you. Thank you to the viewers who cheered us on. I also want to thank my co-stars, director, writer, and the production staff. Ill miss you all so much.

The last episode of Imitation aired on July 23. Check out the drama below!

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Imitation Cast Bids Farewell And Shares Final Thoughts On Their Drama - soompi