Photograph by David Maung/Bloomberg

People from Mexico cheer and wave U.S. flags during a naturalization ceremony in San Diego, California, on March 20, 2013.

That’s how much a proposed overhaul of immigration laws would reduce federal budget deficits over the next 10 years, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.

The bill, S. 744, would revamp the U.S. visa system and offer the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship after improved border security measures are enacted, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Government’s Caitlin Webber. The Senate considered some amendments to the bill yesterday.

The CBO analysis reflects “some, but not all, of the effects” that the bill would have on the economy, according to the report, which said “ascertaining the effects of immigration policies on the economy and the federal budget is complicated and highly uncertain” even over a short time period.

The report is “more proof that bipartisan commonsense immigration reform will be good for economic growth and deficit reduction,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said in a statement that “there remain some key areas that need to be tightened up” in the immigration legislation, though the report offered “encouraging evidence that the status quo is unacceptable.”

Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, told Bloomberg Television yesterday that the bill is “fatally flawed” as is.

Original post is Bloomberg by the Numbers: $175 Billion by Political Capital.

Photograph by David Turner/MCT via Getty Images

Guest workers harvest the strawberry crop at a farm in China Grove, North Carolina.

Now they can have their immigration bill and eat their deficit, too.

After warnings from some corners — such as the Heritage Foundation claiming the Senate’s immigration reform bill will cost trillions of dollars over five decades — the Congressional Budget Office has scored the measure:

A $175 billion savings over 10 years– with $197 billion in deficit reduction and some offsetting expenses.

About 8 million undocumented immigrants would gain legal status under the bipartisan Senate bill, the CBO report.

And pay taxes.

Sponsors see a springboard in that projection:

CBO report a huge momentum boost; debunks the idea that #CIR is anything other than a boon to our economy

— Chuck Schumer (@ChuckSchumer) June 18, 2013

Today’s report from #CBO is proof positive immigration reform is good for our economy and will help reduce the deficit.

— Lindsey Graham (@GrahamBlog) June 18, 2013

The Social Security Administration has said that the bill would generate more than $275 billion in revenue for Social Security and Medicare, increase the gross domestic product by 1.63 percent and add more than 3 million jobs over the next decade.

“Comprehensive Immigration Reform” is a budget builder.

It’s a jobs bill.

Somebody tell Jim DeMint.

Original post is Immigration Bill: $175 Bln Savings by Political Capital.

Photograph by Zade Rosenthal/Paramount Pictures via Bloomberg

Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine star as Spock and Kirk in Paramount Pictures’ “Star Trek Into Darkness” in this handout photo taken on Jan. 12, 2012.

The Internal Revenue Service executive who portrayed Spock in the agency’s Star Trek video parody apologized to lawmakers  today for inappropriate spending on a $4.1 million conference in 2010.

The videos “at the time they were made, were an attempt in a well-intentioned way to use humor,” Faris Fink said moments after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee showed a Star Trek clip starring Fink and a separate line-dancing video. “It’s embarrassing and I apologize.”

The IRS is under investigation by Congress on multiple fronts — today for the conference spending and more broadly for applying tougher scrutiny to small-government advocacy groups seeking tax-exempt status.

The conference spending was “at best, maliciously self-indulgent,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, committee chairman.

Fink is commissioner of the agency’s small business and self-employed division, which has 24,000 employees across the country and organized the conference. About 2,600 people attended the management conference, which included a $17,000 speaker who lectured on leadership through art.

Fink, deputy commissioner at the time, stayed in one of the  presidential suites. The video costs included a $2,400 set for the videotaping, while employees bought their own costumes.

“Mr. Fink, the money that was spent on that, that’s my money,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the committee. “That’s the lady who got the early bus this morning, that’s her money.”

Original post is ‘Mr. Spock’ (IRS) Apologizes: Conference Does Not Compute by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Randal Milch, executive vice president and general counsel with Verizon Communications Inc., testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., on March 21, 2012.

Attorney General Eric Holder may be defending more than his budget in his appearance before a Senate committee today. The revelation that the Obama administration is collecting the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers using a secret court order might come up too.

Lawmakers and college students will rally at the Capitol to urge Congress to prevent student loan rates from doubling next month.

And President Barack Obama travels to North Carolina to deliver speech on economy.

Also today, the Senate convenes for a cloture vote scheduled on the farm bill, the House meets with the Homeland Security appropriations bill on the agenda. The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee holds a hearing on IRS conference spending. And House Speaker John Boehner holds his weekly news conference.

The Atlantic Council hosts Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen for a discussion on stability and reconstruction in that country. The Heritage Foundation and the U.S. Institute of Peace hold a forum on how to sustain gains for women in Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal, with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hears from Interior Secretary Sally Jewell on the agency’s activities. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., joins a Center for American Progress conference call briefing to preview the “National Clean Energy Summit 6.0: Energizing Tomorrow.”

The Senate Finance Committee votes on the re-nomination of Fred Hochberg to be president of the Ex-Im Bank and the “Natl Assn of Registered Agents and Brokers Reform Act of 2013.” Stanford University Economics Professor John Taylor delivers remarks on ‘Why Has the Recovery Been So Slow and Is Economic Policy To Blame?,” at a National Economists Club event.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee meets on labor conditions in Bangladesh. Acting Labor Secretary Seth Harris testifies at Senate Appropriations Committee Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing on FY2014 budget request for Labor Dept. 124 Dirksen, The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission holds a briefing on China and the Middle East, focusing on energy security, trade and investment flows. The Senate Finance Committee hears from USTR nominee Michael Froman at his confirmation hearing.

Consumer and telecom industry representatives testify at a hearing before House Judiciary panel on Courts, IP and the Internet on H.R. 1123, a bill which would allow cell phone unlocking. Cyber hackers for China and Russia that target U.S. agencies and companies would be denied entry into the U.S. and have their bank accounts frozen under legislation to be unveiled today by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Acting Customs and Border Protection Deputy Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson and JetBlue Airways Associate General Counsel Robert Land hold a news conference to announce “a new partnership to combat human trafficking.”

Also today, NFL Player Brendon Ayanbadejo and the Washington Blade hold a news conference on LGBT issues in pro sports. Choice Hotels CEO Steve Joyce and Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., attend grand opening of company headquarters in Rockville, Md. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., speaks at Natl Archives on commemoration of 50th Anniversary of March on Washington and the 150th anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation.

And former Sen. John Glenn speaks on space travel at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

 With assistance from Laura Curtis, Chelsea Mes and Jim O’Connell

Original post is Washington Daybook: Can You Hear Me Now? by Political Capital.

It’s easy. Just follow a simple checklist.

The latest entry is the Alliance for Competitive Taxation, a 42-company group that unveiled itself today — see how they did it here:

1) Pick a one-syllable acronym that is both a noun and a verb. ACT joins RATE (Reforming America’s Taxes Equitably), LIFT (Let’s Invest For Tomorrow) and BUILD (Businesses United for Interest and Loan Deductibility).

2) Choose a focus. ACT wants to reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent from 35 percent while ending tax breaks and simplifying the corporate tax system. RATE focuses on the corporate tax rate. LIFT emphasizes changes to the international tax system. BUILD wants to preserve the deductability of interest.

3) Sign up blue-chip companies. Among ACT’s members are Google Inc., Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

4) Go bipartisan. ACT’s economic advisers are Douglas Holtz-Eakin, who was the top policy aide to Republican Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign, and Laura Tyson, a former economist for President Bill Clinton.

These smaller groups let companies engage in the tax debate without their own names on every press release. They’re an addition to a corporate lobbying landscape that includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, larger groups whose membership can have conflicting approaches to the same issue.

“It is going to take a lot of boots on the ground to make tax reform a reality, so we’re thrilled to have more business leaders pushing hard for comprehensive tax reform.,” Matt Miller, a Business Roundtable vice president, said in a statement. “Modernizing our tax system is key to strengthening the U.S. economy and we look forward to working with ACT, as well as LIFT, RATE and other groups on tax reform.”

BRT was founded in 1972, otherwise known as the era before contrived acronyms.

Original post is ACT Now (How to Coalesce The Way Google and Wal-Mart Unite) by Political Capital.

Photograph by Lisa Krantz/San Antonio Express-News/AP Photo

A former female solder, who was sexually assaulted while serving in the U.S. Army, at her home in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Call it Accountability Day.

The Gallup polling organization held a press conference to explain why its 2012 presidential polling was off.

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will be asked to explain to a Senate Committee what he’s doing to halt what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel calls the “huge problem” of sexual assaults in the military;

A House panel will continue beating up the IRS over targeted reviews and overspending, and the EPA may begin to explain why it paid $750,000 a year for a warehouse that an IG report found stored a lot of “unusable, inoperable and obsolete furniture and other items.”

And speaking of being held accountable, Former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham will be released from prison today in Arizona after serving more than seven years for accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors, AP reports.

Also today, the Brookings Institution holds a webcast with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on the global economic outlook. It’s the second day of the OECD’s international tax conference with speakers including Treasury’s Mike McDonald. The Roosevelt Institute holds a conference on its political agenda and approaches to jobs with Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin.

The National Council of La Raza holds a discussion on immigration overhaul and the financial benefits of citizenship for U.S. Latinos at the National Press Club.

President Barack  Obama nominates three candidates for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, then holds meetings with Chilean President Pinera, who will later give an address at the NPC.

The Senate resumes consideration of the farm policy bill. The House takes up H.R. 2216, a $73.3 billion spending measure to finance military construction projects and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions and the Uniersity of Texas hold discussion on leveraging natural gas to reduce emissions. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute holds a briefing on clean energy innovations and federal-state partnerships, with Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn. The House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus holds a briefing on the Energy Department’s clean-up program at Idaho Natl Laboratory.

The FDIC meets to consider a rule on which non-banks would be subject to agency’s Orderly Resolution Authority in event of collapse. A House Energy & Commerce panel holdsa hearing on home builders, with Louisiana-Pacific CEO Curt Stevens. Insight American Financial Services holds a Policy Forum on Capitol Hill, with speakers including Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., and JPMorgan Vice Chairman Alphonso Jackson.

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers testifies before Senate Budget Committee on the fiscal and economic effects of austerity.

And the National Capital Planning Commission holds a public meeting on potential changes to height building limits in D.C.

 With assistance from Laura Curtis, Steve Geimann and Cary O’Reilly.

Original post is Washington Daybook: Accountability by Political Capital.

Photograph by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Not since “Janet Reno’s dance party” has stepping out made Washington seem so, oh, funny.

Yet this is not “Saturday Night Live.”

This is an actual IRS video of one of the training exercises the Internal Revenue Service organized for its employees — one of the most innocuous, it may turn out.

The IRS inspector general for tax administration is expected to report Tuesday on the scope of spending abuses at more than 200 agency conferences over a three-year period.

Some were conducted at great expense — the tab running into the millions.

But none probably will be remembered so much as the video produced for an IRS conference in Anaheim featuring employees learning the “Cupid Shuffle,” a line dance.

With thanks to the House Ways and Means Committee.

Original post is IRS Dance Party: Cupid Shuffle by Political Capital.

Photograph by Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo

Republican strategist Karl Rove at the California Republican Party convention, in Sacramento, Calif., on March 2, 2013.

Of all the so-called scandals that have beset the Obama administration in recent months, the one that can truly be dubbed with the S-word is rolling on:

Karl Rove, architect of George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns and fall-guy for the American Crossroads failures in the 2012 congressional elections, will be on @America’s Newsroom this morning — that’s FOX News, for the uninitated — talking about the big one: #irs scandal

Starting the day on @americanewsroom talking about the latest in #IRS scandal.

— Karl Rove (@KarlRove) May 28, 2013

@KarlRove — who bills himself first and foremost as former deputy chief of staff for Bush, and not as the guy behind one of the biggest of the super-PACs that failed to turn the Senate Republican — has been having great fun with #irs.

Lois Lerner Directly Involved in IRS Targeting, Letters Show ow.ly/1WHqQ3 @nro

— Karl Rove (@KarlRove) May 25, 2013

A Battering Ram Becomes a Stonewall. IRS’s leaders refuse to account for the agency’s corruption and abuse. ow.ly/lnp4o

— Karl Rove (@KarlRove) May 24, 2013

Of course, there is that other “scandal” — the Department of Justice’s investigation of news reporters, which involved not only the Associated Press but also FOX’s James Rosen. We in the press are ready to call it one, though it probably has less resonance for the general public than #irs does.

New @fxnopinion: Did Holder mislead Congress about targeting reporters like James Rosen? fxn.ws/10RuuRN

— Karl Rove (@KarlRove) May 24, 2013

In Rove’s mind, there is a “troika” of scandals that reaches back to the administration’s handling of the fatal attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. The White House’s release of emails in the aftermath of that attack, however, undermine the idea that the administration was running the message machinery about terrorism or protests as the cause.

Lots to discuss regarding the troika of scandals affecting the Obama WH on @happeningnow at 11:10 AM ET.

— Karl Rove (@KarlRove) May 24, 2013

Rove has tipped his own hand on this one, focusing his discussion of Obamagate on #irs and #doj in a weekend talk with Greta Van Susteren.

Talking with @gretawire tonight on the latest developments in IRS & DOJ targeting scandals. Tune in 10 PM ET. ow.ly/llsnA

— Karl Rove (@KarlRove) May 24, 2013

Original post is Karl Rove’s Scandal-Making Machinery by Political Capital.

Photograph by Charles Krupa/AP Photo

Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., at a campaign event in Boston, on May 8, 2013.

Democrat Ed Markey, seeking to quell attacks from his Republican foe in the Massachusetts U.S. Senate race, released some tax-return details this afternoon that showed he has paid an effective income tax rate of 24 percent going back to 2005.

Markey, first elected to the U.S. House in 1976, didn’t release his actual returns, making it impossible to see what deductions he took, how much he gave to charity or what income he had above the $174,000 annual salary that comes with his day job.

The records he did release show he made $1.2 million over 2005 through 2012 and paid roughly $288,000 in state and federal income taxes. His highest adjusted income over the period was $161,448 last year. The lowest was $140,777 in 2007.

Markey’s annual disclosure form, filed with the House clerk, show he had between $3,914 and $11,5000 in additional income last year.

Markey, competing in a June 25 special election to fill the seat Democrat John Kerry gave up to become secretary of state, has been under pressure for weeks from Republican candidate Gabriel Gomez to release tax information.

Gomez, a private equity investor and former Navy SEAL, released some income tax details during his successful primary campaign and this week offered additional information showing he made roughly $10.1 million since 2006 and paid $2.1 million in taxes, an effective rate of about 21 percent, according to the Boston Globe.

Original post is Markey Tax Details Show He Paid 24% Rate by Political Capital.

Photograph by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Christina King, left, and Lynne Sherrer, center, hold signs during a Tea Party Internal Revenue Service (IRS) demonstration on May 21, 2013 in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is adding his voice to those trying to tie the ongoing Internal Revenue Service scandal to the new health-care law, which will expand coverage to more than 25 million uninsured Americans.

McConnell, of Kentucky, called for delaying the law’s implementation until an investigation of the IRS’s targeting of Tea Party groups for extra scrutiny was completed. The IRS will help enforce the new health-care legislation.

“We’re going to have Americans worrying that they might be discriminated against too, just for having an opinion,” McConnell said today on the Senate floor. “And you know what? We’re not going to be able to tell them not to worry. Because we don’t yet know the truth ourselves.”

The IRS is tasked with making sure Americans carry insurance or pay a penalty, a key part of the health-care law. The law makes insurance more affordable and spreads out the risk to companies by creating a larger pool of customers, including younger, healthier Americans who won’t need medical services as much as older, sicker residents. The law is modeled after the measure successfully championed by then-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee.

“The Supreme Court declared the individual mandate – the core of Obamacare – to be a tax, so IRS involvement is going to be an unavoidable part of any rollout,” McConnell said. “It needs to be halted.”

McConnell called for the law to be repealed, joining House Republicans who have tried 37 times to repeal all or part of the statute. Republicans have yet to offer an alternative that would extend health insurance to millions of Americans now without it.

The head of the IRS office handling the health care law, Sarah Hall Ingram, was in charge of the office supervising nonprofits until December 2010 — before the IRS began taking a closer look at groups applying for 501(c)(4) status with “tea party” in their name. The 501(c)(4) tax-exempt status would enable them to hide their donors even if they engage in political activity.

Original post is McConnell Joins Effort to Tie Health-Care Law to IRS Scandal by Political Capital.