Want to receive this newsletter every weekday? Subscribe to POLITICO Pro. You'll also receive daily policy news and other intelligence you need to act on the day's biggest stories. REAPING THE WINDFALL: Let's be honest — these Republicans will almost certainly be successful in keeping a windfall tax from getting into law this year. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) rolled out that kind of proposal back in March, with the support of groups like the Center for American Progress that argued that a tax on excess profits would be both popular and a good way to offer relief to consumers facing higher prices. But Democrats have done little more with the idea, even as they have been pushing what they admitted were messaging bills focused on rising gas prices. One thing that's particularly interesting about that development — windfall taxes have actually become central topics of debate particularly in European countries, as their governments cast around for ways to help out struggling customers. For instance, the Conservative government in the U.K. has gone back and forth about such a plan, with senior party officials facing increasing pressure to enact a policy that runs counter to their normal policy preferences. The latest out of London: One top Cabinet official said there would definitely be "costs" if the government put a windfall tax into law, as about a half-dozen senior officials have publicly come out against the idea, as Bloomberg reported. Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the exchequer, is looking to structure a tax in a way that would soften the blow for energy companies that increased their investment in the U.K. THE WEEK AHEAD: EU finance ministers are scheduled to get together in the coming days — and let's just say it doesn't look good for those seeking progress on the global tax deal. Poland, alone among the 27 EU countries, has refused to allow the introduction of a 15 percent corporate minimum tax — known as Pillar Two of the global agreement negotiated through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the part that had been thought to have the more straightforward path to being enacted. France has made implementation of the OECD agreement a top priority of its EU presidency, but even those close to the French acknowledge that Poland isn't going to relent during this week's meeting, according to our colleagues in Brussels. If there's no breakthrough this week, there would still be another month left in France's six months with the rotating EU presidency, offering a bit more time to try and bring Poland aboard. But it's fair to say that advocates for the global deal are sounding a bit more nervous, as they had been hoping that bringing all of Brussels in line would spark new momentum in other parts of the globe — and worry that continued gridlock might spur some cold feet elsewhere, too. Yellen had gone to Warsaw just over a week ago to try and lobby Polish officials to allow the minimum tax to move forward, but to no avail. Shortly thereafter, Yellen would only say at a meeting of the G-7 finance ministers that the chances of Poland changing its mind were "not hopeless," as The Associated Press reports. On top of that, those seven finance ministers, who were meeting in Germany last week, gave only a passing mention of the global tax agreement in their joint statement at the close of the gathering.
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