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Patriotic Millionaires Slam Biden, GOP on Rollback of IRS Funding in Pending Debt Limit Deal
"This deal proves that the one thing the modern GOP cares about more than anything else is making sure rich people don’t have to pay taxes."
Yesterday, reports emerged that President Biden may agree to roll back $10 billion in IRS funding as part of a deal with Republicans to raise the debt limit.
In response, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:
"A debt ceiling agreement that cuts IRS funding would be an embarrassing disgrace for both the GOP and President Biden.
House Republicans have been holding the global economy hostage because they claim that the federal debt is too big. But at the first opportunity, they are happy to scrap most of their cuts to limit the ability of the IRS to go after wealthy tax cheats, a move that would actually increase the debt by $120 billion.
The mask is off. This deal proves that the one thing the modern GOP cares about more than anything else is making sure rich people don’t have to pay taxes.
But we can’t blame the GOP for the fact that President Biden put this on the table in the first place. As Biden himself said many times, the agency desperately needs these funds to crack down on wealthy tax cheats and ensure that rich people start paying what we rightfully owe the country in taxes.
Biden shouldn’t be negotiating with McCarthy and his cronies in the first place over paying for things that we’ve already bought in the budget that was approved last year – you cannot negotiate with economic terrorists. To give into their demands over IRS funding at the eleventh hour is simply beyond the pale.
There is still time, albeit not much, for Biden to come to his senses and back out of this disgraceful IRS rollback. Agreeing to IRS funding cuts as a bargaining chip in debt ceiling negotiations would be an enormous stain on Biden’s legacy. If he wants to protect his reputation and our country, he should refuse to budge an inch on the debt ceiling and use his constitutional authority under the 14th Amendment to bypass this entire manufactured crisis."
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.
(202) 446-0489LATEST NEWS
'Ticking Time Bomb': Study Says Ocean Acidification Crossed Planetary Boundary
"We're gambling with both biodiversity and billions in economic value every day that action is delayed," said one expert.
Jun 09, 2025
As this year's United Nations Ocean Conference began in France on Monday, scientists published a study showing that another "planetary boundary," or barriers that ensure the Earth is a "safe operating space for humanity," has been crossed.
Researchers said in 2023 that 6 of the 9 boundaries—biogeochemical flows, biosphere integrity, the climate, freshwater, land use, and novel entities—had been crossed. Last year, they issued a "red alert" about ocean acidification, the topic of the new study, Ocean Acidification: Another Planetary Boundary Crossed.
As the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explains, humanity's burning of fossil fuels and land use changes have caused the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to soar, and the ocean absorbs some of it. The resulting chemical interactions make seawater more acidic.
In the new study, scientists from NOAA, Oregon State University, and the United Kingdom's Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) wrote that "we improve upon the ocean acidification planetary boundary assessment and demonstrate that by 2020, the average global ocean conditions had already crossed into the uncertainty range of the ocean acidification boundary."
"This analysis was further extended to the subsurface ocean, revealing that up to 60% of the global subsurface ocean (down to 200 m) had crossed that boundary, compared to over 40% of the global surface ocean," they continued. "These changes result in significant declines in suitable habitats for important calcifying species, including 43% reduction in habitat for tropical and subtropical coral reefs, up to 61% for polar pteropods, and 13% for coastal bivalves."
"As our seas increase in acidity, we're witnessing the loss of critical habitats that countless marine species depend on, and this, in turn, has major societal and economic implications."
The study's lead author, North-East Atlantic Ocean Acidification Hub chair and PML professor Helen Findlay, said in a Monday statement that "looking across different areas of the world, the polar regions show the biggest changes in ocean acidification at the surface. Meanwhile, in deeper waters, the largest changes are happening in areas just outside the poles and in the upwelling regions along the west coast of North America and near the equator."
"Most ocean life doesn't just live at the surface—the waters below are home to many more different types of plants and animals. Since these deeper waters are changing so much, the impacts of ocean acidification could be far worse than we thought," Findlay noted. "This has huge implications for important underwater ecosystems like tropical and even deep-sea coral reefs that provide essential habitats and nursing refuge for many species, in addition to the impacts being felt on bottom-dwelling creatures like crabs, sea stars, and other shellfish such as mussels and oysters."
Fellow PML professor and Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network co-chair Steve Widdicombe, who provided the study authors with comments on a draft, said Monday that "ocean acidification isn't just an environmental crisis—it's a ticking time bomb for marine ecosystems and coastal economies."
"As our seas increase in acidity, we're witnessing the loss of critical habitats that countless marine species depend on, and this, in turn, has major societal and economic implications," he warned. "From the coral reefs that support tourism to the shellfish industries that sustain coastal communities, we're gambling with both biodiversity and billions in economic value every day that action is delayed."
The 2024 Planetary Boundaries report showed 6/9 boundaries breached with the 7th, Ocean Acidification, in danger. A new study shows that this too has now been crossed. The implications are huge!onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...#climatechange #oceanacidification #planetaryboundaries #oceans
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— Dr Tom Harris (@drtomharris.bsky.social) June 9, 2025 at 9:22 AM
Costa Rica and France are co-hosting the U.N. summit in the French coastal city of Nice this week. The theme is "accelerating action and mobilizing all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean."
Greenpeace USA oceans campaign director John Hocevar, who will be attending the meeting, said Monday that "this conference couldn't come at a more critical time. The ocean is reeling from the combined impacts of industrial fishing, plastic pollution, and climate change. And just when bold leadership is most needed, the U.S. has walked away from the global stage, opening the floodgates to destruction through a barrage of Trump administration executive orders that threaten both domestic and international waters."
"We can't afford any more delay," he stressed. "The decisions made in Nice will set the tone for key global efforts to stem the ocean crisis in the coming months, including the plastics treaty, the global ocean treaty, and deep-sea mining talks at the International Seabed Authority. Whether this conference marks a turning point or takes our oceans further down the road to ruin will depend on the strength and ambition of the commitments made by the international community to stand up for science, uphold international law, and advance environmental justice."
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California City Cancels 'Divisive' ICE Contract Amid Los Angeles Protests
"With a population that is more than 50% immigrant, the city of Glendale should be a beacon for immigrants' rights," said one rights defender.
Jun 09, 2025
Citing a need to protect "community trust," the city of Glendale, California announced Sunday it was terminating its contract with immigration officials and would no longer detain immigrants in a local jail.
The decision was announced as Los Angeles, which borders Glendale, erupted in protests over raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which said Saturday that it had arrested 118 immigrants.
The weekend protests captured the nation's attention as the Trump administration deployed the National Guard and the Los Angeles Police Department authorized the use of "less lethal munitions," including tear gas and rubber bullets.
Protesters have carried signs reading, "ICE: Out of Our Communities," "ICE = Terrorism," and "History Will Remember."
Glendale officials insisted in their statement released on Sunday that "the decision to terminate [the ICE] contract is not politically driven," but several observers noted that the announcement was made as the unrest escalated and solidarity pro-immigration protests across the country were organized.
"The city recognizes that public perception of the ICE contract—no matter how limited or carefully managed, no matter the good—has become divisive," said Glendale officials, adding that the decision to end the contract "is rooted in what this city stands for—public safety, local accountability, and trust."
Authorities added that Glendale police do not enforce immigration law and are "fully compliant" with Senate Bill 54, also known as the California Values Act, the 2017 law that made California the nation's first sanctuary state.
The law prohibits local and state law enforcement from allowing federal immigration authorities to utilize space in their facilities, but 82 immigrants have been housed in the Glendale City Jail since January after being detained by ICE.
A city spokesperson told local news station NBC4 that the immigrants have spent between six and 12 hours in the jail, and city officials said Sunday that the police have ensured "access to clean accommodations, on-call medical care, family visitation, and legal counsel."
But Sarah Houston, an immigration lawyer with Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told city councilors at the meeting last week that her client had been held without food for nine hours.
"After the horrific raids and violations this weekend, it is all the more important that our local communities stand together to protect our immigrant brothers and sisters as intended in the California Values Act," said Houston.
Other California cities ended their contracts with immigration authorities after the law was passed, but Glendale's police chief at the time, Robert Castro, opposed the measure and maintained the ICE agreement, which had been in place since 2007.
The Los Angeles Timesreported that "the city manager warned against nixing the contract in a bid to maintain a good relationship with federal authorities."
Andrés Kwon, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, told the Times that it was "shocking" that Glendale has had the contract.
"Ultimately and effectively, this Glendale contract with ICE is helping the Trump administration carry out its mass deportation agenda that is racist and has abused countless peoples, constitutional, civil, and human rights," said Kwon.
"With a population that is more than 50% immigrant, the city of Glendale should be a beacon for immigrants' rights," Kwon added. "As we've witnessed masked ICE and federal agents abducting Angelenos, locking up entire families in basements, and separating families—how could the city of Glendale ensure that the Angelenos it held for ICE weren't unconstitutionally detained?"
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With Tanks Heading to DC, Call by 'Dictator' Trump to 'Bring in the Troops' Spurs Fear of Wider Repression
"This is not about protecting communities," said one human rights campaigner, "this is about crushing dissent and instilling fear."
Jun 09, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump's call late Sunday to "bring in the troops" to crush protests in Los Angeles—along with the release of video footage showing the arrival of tanks in the nation's capital ahead of a dictatorial military parade—intensified fears that the White House's actions in southern California are merely the opening salvo in a broader crackdown on opposition to the administration's far-right agenda.
Human rights organizations and civil liberties groups voiced alarm in response to Trump's decision over the weekend to deploy thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles in a bid to quell protests against the president's lawless mass deportation campaign.
"This shows the Trump administration is ready to do whatever it takes—including deploying military forces—to target and punish those who speak out in defense of human rights," said Paul O'Brien, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "This is not about protecting communities, this is about crushing dissent and instilling fear."
The move sparked a confrontation with California's government, which did not request support from the state-based military force and spoke out against the deployment. Gavin Newsom, California's Democratic governor, said he intends to sue Trump, whom Newsom called a "dictator" bent on "fanning the flames" of tensions and possible violence in Los Angeles.
Newsom also warned of the far-reaching implications of the memorandum Trump signed over the weekend, noting that its scope isn't limited to California.
"It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing," the governor wrote.
The June 7 memorandum, titled Department of Defense Security for the Protection of Department of Homeland Security Functions, empowers Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth to "employ any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary to augment and support the protection of Federal functions and property in any number determined appropriate in his discretion"—an explicit confirmation of Trump's willingness to wield military force across the country.
Asked Sunday about his "bar" for deploying active-duty Marines to U.S. cities, Trump replied, "The bar is what I think it is."
"We're gonna have troops everywhere," the president said.
Trump: Well, we're going to have troops everywhere.
Reporter: What’s the bar for sending in the Marines
Trump: The bar is what I think it is. pic.twitter.com/XUBX9hEZJU
— Acyn (@Acyn) June 8, 2025
Recognizing the potentially sweeping consequences of Trump's actions in Los Angeles, demonstrators took to the streets across the U.S.—from Portland, Maine to Houston, Texas to Salt Lake City, Utah—to show solidarity with protesters facing military repression in California.
The protests came ahead of Trump's June 14 military parade that's set to feature thousands of U.S. soldiers, rocket launchers, and dozens of tanks. The latter were seen arriving in Washington, D.C. via train on Saturday, a week ahead of the event—which coincides with Trump's 79th birthday.
"The military parade will be a parade of force and intimidation by wanna-be authoritarians," said Joanne Freeman, a professor of history at Yale University. "It fits right alongside the outsized military display in CA right now—making the same point."
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