Biden to give Covid update as pressure builds on US to help India and others – live

• CDC set to issue new guidance on masks for vaccinated people
• US urged to assist others with vaccine production and distribution

3.17pm BST

Joe Biden is expected to propose beefing up the Internal Revenue Service to crack down on wealthy individuals and corporations that evade paying federal taxes.

Reuters reports:

Joe Biden will seek an extra $80 billion to fund U.S. tax collections that would help pay for his plan to bolster childcare, universal prekindergarten education and paid leave for workers, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The Democratic president’s proposal to boost the Internal Revenue Service’s budget over 10 years would help the agency curb tax evasion through audits of high earners and large corporations and include new disclosure requirements, the Times said, citing two people familiar with the plan.
Representatives for the White House and the U.S. Treasury Department, which oversees the IRS, had no immediate comment.
IRS chief Charles Rettig told lawmakers earlier this month tax evasion costs the United States $1 trillion or more each year.
Biden’s American Families Plan, expected to be released before his address to Congress on Wednesday, is part of the Democratic president’s sweeping economic agenda, but details are still emerging.
It would have to pass a closely divided Congress where Democrats hold a thin majority.
House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal on Tuesday set the stage for legislative action, introducing a bill expanding workers’ paid leave, boosting state childcare efforts and expanding tax credits.
Biden’s potentially $1.5 trillion effort could reshape life for many people in the United States trying to balance work and family life, and the White House has said the wealthy and corporations can afford to pay for new programs.
It also increases taxes on the wealthiest Americans, sources said last week.
Republicans generally rejected higher taxes, and passed a sweeping tax cut in 2017 under Republican President Donald Trump.
But Biden, who is also pushing for companies to help fund his separate $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, has been adamant about targeting non-payers to re-invest in the nation.

2.41pm BST

Joe Biden marks 100 days in office later this week. The coronavirus and the health and economic fallout from the pandemic was priority one upon the Democrat being inaugurated at the US Capitol on January 21.

Biden spent his first 100 days in office encouraging Americans to mask up and stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus. His task for the next 100 days will be to lay out the path back to normal.

When he entered office, Biden moved swiftly to overcome vaccine supply issues and more than tripled the country’s ability to administer them. But ending the coronavirus pandemic, the central challenge of his presidency, will require more than putting shots into arms — a task now growing more difficult as demand sags — but also a robust plan to help the nation emerge from a year of isolation, disruption and confusion.

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