Biden wants GOP budget cut plans / Study: Black taxpayers audited 3x as much as other groups / Klitschko: No Russians in '24 Olympics

Poll: 40% of U.S. parents are very concerned about their children's mental health.

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President Biden is expected to ask Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy about the federal budget cuts the GOP is seeking in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. The White House wants more details about the budget cut request, as well as assurances from McCarthy that the GOP-controlled House of Representatives will prevent a potential default. Biden and McCarthy are set to meet on Wednesday. More: In a letter released on Monday, 24 Republican senators said that they will not vote for any bill to increase the debt limit unless it includes spending cuts or "meaningful structural reform in spending." However, Republicans have not yet specified what programs they want to cut and by how much. GOP lawmakers are in a tight spot, as the programs that take up the largest shares of the federal budget — Social Security and Medicare — are popular among older conservative voters. In a memo, the White House said it plans to release the federal budget on March 9 and urged McCarthy to publish his budget proposal, "so that the American people can see how House Republicans plan to reduce the deficit." Zoom Out:  Progressives are increasingly advocating for the U.S. Treasury to mint a trillion-dollar coin as a way of bypassing the debt ceiling and paying the federal government's expenses without adding to the national debt. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen threw cold water on the plan last week when she said that she doesn't believe the Federal Reserve would accept a $1T coin, even if the Biden Administration tried to mint one.

A study found that Black taxpayers are three times more likely to be audited by the International Revenue Service (IRS) than other racial groups. The study's authors said that the algorithms used by the IRS to select people to be audited are responsible for the disproportionate rate of audits on Black Americans, given that individual tax enforcement agents do not know the race of the people they are auditing. More: The IRS became more reliant on algorithmic tools over the past decade due to funding cuts and high agent turnover. Algorithms disproportionately flag tax returns that have potential errors in the way that they claim tax credits like the earned-income tax credit (EITC), which is used by low-income workers to supplement their income. The study found that Black people are 3-5x more likely to be audited than other taxpayers who also claim the EITC. The IRS is less likely to audit tax returns that include business income, and Black taxpayers are less likely than other groups to report business income, the study found. The researchers concluded that the IRS, by focusing on tax audits that are easier to conduct, has created a system in which Black taxpayers are disproportionately audited.

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The Labor Department reported that the employment cost index, which the Federal Reserve uses to assess changes in the U.S. labor market, increased by 1% from Q3 to Q4 2022. Wages and salaries were up 1% during that period, down from the 1.3% growth rate seen in the previous quarter. More: The employment cost index, which measures the total costs employers spend on employees, was up 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. Consumer prices rose 6.5% in 2022, meaning that wages did not raise as much as inflation last year. Average hourly pay for private-sector workers grew by 4.6% YoY in December. Annualized wage growth rates peaked at 5.6% in March 2022. Zoom Out: Federal Reserve officials will meet on Wednesday to decide whether to raise rates for the sixth straight meeting. Analysts expect a 25-basis-point rate hike, down from the 50-basis-point hike seen in December.

GOOD NEWS: Washington, D.C., became the largest U.S. city to pass a law making public buses free to riders. The legislation, which was passed by the city council earlier this month, will eliminate the current $2 fare starting this summer. More: The bill was not approved by D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, but the City Council enacted the proposal without her support last week.  The legislation adds a dozen 24-hour bus lines starting in July and calls for a $10M investment into the city's bus line and public transit infrastructure. The city council is now debating whether to add an amendment to subsidize rail travel for D.C. residents.  Zoom Out: Kansas City passed a law making its bus system free in 2019. Cities and municipalities across Europe are increasingly offering free or heavily-subsidized public transit as a way of minimizing harmful emissions produced by cars.

A Pew Research Center poll found that 40% of U.S. parents are "extremely" or "very" worried that their children may suffer from depression or anxiety in the future. After mental health, bullying was the second greatest concern (35%) among parents. More: Bullying and mental health were seen as more worrying than the risk of kidnapping, drugs and alcohol, teen pregnancy, and trouble with the police. Roughly 40% of Latino and low-income parents, as well as ~30% of Black parents, said they are extremely or very worried about the risk of their children being shot. For comparison, only ~10% of White or high-income parents share those concerns. Nearly two-thirds of parents said that parenting has been at least somewhat harder than they expected.  Zoom Out: Dr. Katherine Williamson, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that the mental health crisis among U.S. children began "before the pandemic," but that the rates of children being diagnosed with mental health disorders have "increased exponentially" in the past three years.

Wladimir Klitschko, a former heavyweight boxing champion from Ukraine, posted a video on Monday arguing that Russian and Belarusian athletes should be barred from the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) last week laid out a plan to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes who have not openly supported Russia's invasion of Ukraine to compete as neutral athletes without a flag or anthem. More: Klitschko spoke directly to IOC president Thomas Bach in his video, telling him that "the world is watching" and "history will judge you." Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy invited Bach to visit the embattled Ukrainian city of Bakhmut last week. The IOC condemned Klitschko's statements, saying that "they cannot serve as a basis for any constructive discussion." The IOC noted that U.N. rules ban discrimination against athletes based on their country of origin. The Russian national soccer team has been barred from international competitions by FIFA, but some Russian and Belarusian tennis players and cyclists have been allowed to compete as neutrals.  Wladimir's older brother, Vitali Klitschko — who is also a former heavyweight boxer — currently serves as the mayor of Kyiv.

QUICK HITS This year, try a resolution that sticks - going to therapy with BetterHelp. Save 25% off your first month.* Abbas Gallyamov, a former speechwriter for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told CNN that the possibility of a military coup in Russia is becoming more likely as the war in Ukraine drags on. The death toll in yesterday's Taliban suicide bombing at a mosque in Peshawar, Pakistan, grew to 100 on Tuesday. All but three of the victims were police officers. Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, reported losses of $164B in 2022. Pope Francis spoke about the harmful legacy of colonialism and the ongoing economic exploitation of Africa during a visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Francis is the first pope to visit Congo since 1985. Automation is your finance team's best productivity strategy. See five finance tasks you should be automating today.* *This is a sponsored post

Accommodations of Desire by Salvador Dali. 1929 ART OF THE DAY

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Daniel Smith is an Inside Analyst who currently resides in Miami, Florida. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Daniel spent the last four years as a PhD candidate in Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He is fascinated by tech, business, politics, venture capital, and everything in between. When he’s not writing for Inside he can be found kicking a ball on the nearest rugby pitch. Follow him on Twitter @DanSmithInside. Editor Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade.

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