So we have a ton of good news about the Ford stimulus payments that I want you to know. So continue reading this topic so you never miss out on it. But first of all, everybody, let me know in the comments down below if you think President Biden is doing all that it takes to send out stimulus checks, or do you think that he’s holding it back? Your thoughts in the comments. Nancy Pelosi has actually announced that there will be no gas tax holidays, but rebate cards or direct payments for drivers will begin to be offered to millions of people. And with soaring prices as the cost of gas increases, some States like Georgia and Maryland have already implemented a gas tax holiday. Now the halt temporarily suspends tax on gas tell people that are facing the storing gas prices. And despite the participation of some States, Pelosi rejected the gas tax holiday. Pelosi told reporters that there was no method to make sure gas and oil companies will press the savings along. Pelosi continues to suggest a rebate card or a direct payment instead as those things are being considered. The crisis definitely contributed to this gas hike and they want to introduce the cost of the pump.
Now. The fund administration proposed to provide 1 million barrel oils oil barrels every day for the next six months under the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Other countries are defaulted proposals soon. In Connecticut was the third US state to join to gas tax holiday. This state is to halt gas tax starting in April until June. Nancy Pelosi has also expressed her thoughts on the Ford stimulus package. She said that she wants a slimmer stimulus package, stating that it’s shameful. Republicans are insisting upon scaling down the size of relief bill in the Hill report this week that bipartisan negotiators are scaling down the size of the stimulus bill to $10 billion, down from $15.6 billion originally. Republicans are insisting that the cost of any new crisis released measured prepare for another potential surge in cases must be offset. Pelosi rebukes Republicans for resisting efforts to authorize new funding to manage the crisis after they previously joined in bipartisan measures which the former President while the former President was still in office. Folks tell me the comments down below will present by and send the force in Must check. What are your thoughts on this? Some of you may receive your next single check a little later than others.
If you are on Social Security, SSI, SSDI, or RRB, then you want to continue watching this fourth single check update because we have a ton of news to go over. So there are a lot of things currently going on in Congress, but the IRS also seemed very overwhelmed. Right now, as this year’s tax season begins, about three-quarters of Americans will get an annual tax refund from the IRS. According to data, the annual tax refund is often a family’s biggest check of the year. Now it’s really great that many people will be receiving an extra payment to help during this crisis. Now, taxpayers can see a repeat of last year in processing. That was when about 30 million taxpayers had the tax returns and refunds held up by the IRS. Now, I know many of you are worried about when you can expect to receive your refund check. So let’s go over what officials are saying about this. Just this week, Treasury Department officials warned that this year’s tax season will be a challenge with the IRS starting to process returns. That is largely due to the IRS large backlog of returns from 2021. As of December 31, the agency had 6 million unprocessed individual return, which is really ridiculous.
However, it is a significant reduction from a backlog of 30 million in May, but still far higher than the 1 million unprocessed returns that is more typical around the start of tax season. Now, I know that this new information may make taxpayers nervous about delays in 2022, but don’t worry. According to the IRS, most people should get their refunds within 21 days of filing. But some important news to remember everybody is that claiming tax credits may delay the delivery of your tax refund check. So the Irish announced that claiming the Earned Income Tax credit of the Child tax credit will slow down your tax return due to regulations designed to deter fraud. But it all means that people claim those credits and file the returns on January 24 or close to that date may not receive a refund until early March. There are also a few other issues that could show that could slow down your refund, like errors like math problems or incorrectly stating how much you received from the advanced CTC payments. In those cases, your tax returns could get reviewed, leading to delays of weeks or even months. So if you plan on filing tax this year, make sure that you input the correct information everybody ensuring your smooth following tax season Ensuring smooth tax filing comes with a lot on the line.
So one of the biggest threats to a functioning market is insider training. When some market participants get special access to information, they can use it to take advantage of everyone else. It is cheating, plain and simple, and it is illegal. Even so, it happens. We’ve talked a lot today about one kind of market participant, and that is company executives who trade stock based on secret information they have about their businesses. But it can happen in other ways, too. Sometimes a high ranking government official might know about a change in government policy that can powerfully affect a Corporation. Professor Jackson, you are one of the nation’s top experts on insider trading. So let me run through some examples with you. If an official, let’s say a member of Congress learned that the federal government was about to award a company a huge new contract, and then that Senator bought stock in that company before news of that contract was made public? Could that be considered insider trading?
Yes, under, Okay, let’s try another one. What about if that member of Congress Attended a top secret briefing and learned that a company was facing big legal trouble? Could selling their stock before that company made that information public be considered insider trading? Yes, that is very good Okay. And what if that member learned in a closed committee meeting of plans to boost the Pentagon’s budget by tens of billions of dollars? If that member bought defense stock generally ahead of the markup, could that be considered insider trading? Yes.
Let’s do one more. What if that member held drug company stocks and learned from their committee chair that legislation to cut drug prices Would be moving in the committee? And if they sold those stocks, could that be considered insider trading? Yes, Could So members of Congress are in a unique position to obtain information that they can use to gain the stock market. In fact, the risks with government officials Are even higher than they are with most CEOs Because government officials can sometimes use their positions to influence private outcomes and the values of the stocks that they hold or trade. For example, voting on laws that would protect or break up a giant tech company could have a direct impact on the wealth of a member of Congress Who holds stock in giant tech companies. This isn’t a hypothetical problem. Last year alone, members of Congress and their spouses Traded more than half a billion dollars of stocks and other investments. And here’s the most alarming part. On average, members of Congress Came out ahead of the s. Amp P 500, and yet not one single member was criminally charged with insider trading. Now, there’s no doubt in my mind that members of Congress Who break federal laws by engaging in insider trading should be criminally prosecuted. But there’s also no doubt that’s not enough to fix the problem that’s already the law. So let me ask you, Professor Jackson, do we need stronger rules to prevent insider trading in the halls of Congress?
Yes. This is critical, Senator, when members are in the business of making decisions that can affect companies at the same time that they have portfolios that could include those very companies, There is a risk of a conflict and we absolutely need rules to address the Senate.
