MORNING MESSAGE
Sen.
Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday released a blistering 13-page letter to Securities
and Exchange Commission chair Mary Jo White, calling out her “extremely
disappointing” leadership of what should be the chief cop on the financial beat,
accusing her of “broken promises” and telling her to “step up.” The reaction to
the Massachusetts senator’s charges demonstrated their validity. Financial
lobbyists and lawyers scrambled to White’s defense, howling that Warren had
“gone too far.” ... Warren is to be applauded for doing what senators should do:
holding regulators’ feet to the fire in the public’s interest.
Warren Put Heats On White
Sen.
Warren levels explosive charge against SEC’s Mary Jo White. HuffPost:
“Nobody in the nation’s capital is flipping a wig over the SEC’s enforcement
record, whatever the eventual consequences may be. But lying to a senator is a
big no-no under Washington etiquette. And Warren’s letter came very close to
suggesting that White did exactly that.”
LAT’s
Michael Hiltzik says “it’s about time” someone called out SEC chief Mary Jo
White: “The longest-running scandal in our financial markets is the
indulgence shown banks and other wrongdoers by federal law-enforcement and
regulatory agencies … Among the chief culprits in this orgy of wrist-slapping is
the Securities and Exchange Commission under its current chair, Mary Jo
White.”
DoJ
worked with Goldman Sachs during financial crisis. NYT: “In early 2010 … a
top Justice Department official arranged a meeting with executives from Goldman
Sachs and some of his prosecutors … focused exclusively on the subject of
terrorism financing … The meeting with the Goldman representatives may revive
questions about the Justice Department’s priorities after the financial
crisis.”
Public Against Fast Track
NYT
poll shows voters “skeptical of free trade”: “Nearly two-thirds favored some
form of trade restrictions, and more than half opposed giving the president
[fast track] authority…”
Boehner-friendly
PAC spending $1M on fast track ads. Politico: “The TV advertisement blasts
Democrats and trade unions for opposing the bill, and says if Congress doesn’t
pass trade promotion authority, China will benefit and America will lose. It’s
meant to bolster House GOP leadership’s efforts by giving air cover to
Republicans vote for TPA.”
Obama
says trade deal will produce “a lot more winners than losers” in Marketplace
interview. W. Post: “…Obama did not specify which industries would be harmed
by the trade deal … ‘It may be that as a consequence of the trade deal, there
are particular markets, there are particular niche parts of the economy, where
we’ve got to provide help to transition [workers]’ …”
Obama
also says China may want to join TPP. Time: “…Obama said China had been
‘putting out feelers’ to join [TPP] … China is not one of the 11 countries
involved and Obama has often said the deal itself is necessary to keep China …
from writing the rules on trade in the Asia-Pacific region.”
“Obama’s
trust-me approach falls flat with Democrats” reports The Hill: “Democrats —
even some of Obama’s closest allies — say it’s not enough for the president to
pronounce his trade agenda the most progressive in history. The lawmakers want
assurances that the agreements under negotiation, particularly a huge deal being
finalized with Pacific Rim nations, will protect U.S. jobs — assurances many say
they simply haven’t gotten.”
One
more House Dem backs fast track. CT Mirror: “Rep. Jim Himes, targeted as a
key swing vote, has decided to back President Obama … The decision provoked a
strong reaction from the Connecticut AFL-CIO … Himes said the fact that
Connecticut is an exporting state helped him make up his mind.”
Jeb Sets A Date
Jeb
Bush to announce June 15, reports Politico: “Bush’s announcement will come
at a 3 p.m. event at Miami Dade College, one of the United States’ largest
institutions of higher education, with an enrollment of 165,000 students … Bush
has tested the legal definition of being a presidential candidate, jetting
around the country raising millions of dollars without formally declaring his
candidacy … Jeb Bush’s dominance of the 2016 money race masks some early
problems attracting the support of the Republican base …”
“Sanders
slams Jeb Bush over Social Security remarks” reports The Hill: “‘At a time
when more than half of the American people have less than $10,000 in savings, it
would be a disaster to cut Social Security benefits by raising the retirement
age,’ the Democratic presidential candidate replied in a statement.”
Rick
Perry is back for more. NYT: “[Perry] announced Thursday that he will run
for president again in 2016 … whether Mr. Perry has done enough to repair the
damage from his failed run in 2012 and to thrust himself out of the second tier
of candidates he finds himself in remains unclear.”
Highway Shutdown?
Dems
may squeeze GOP on highway trust fund bill. Politico: “House and Senate
Democrats are weighing a hard-line strategy that would force Republicans to
stumble through a series of painful short-term highway extensions if they don’t
fix the program’s long-term funding woes, with the Highway Trust Fund slated to
run out of money after July 31 … the GOP could be forced to acquiesce to
Democratic demands or risk a shutdown of infrastructure projects in the middle
of the summer construction season.”
Threat
of full-blown government shutdown looms. USA Today: “All of the spending
bills are in line with the GOP budget resolution, but out of whack with the
Obama administration’s spending priorities … The fiscal year ends Sept. 30, and
Congress is expected to work throughout the summer to advance the spending
measures. Without an agreement in place by then, or at least a stop-gap measure,
another shutdown scenario looms.”
Kansas Is Sick
The
Nation’s Kai Wright investigates how Kansas’ refusal to expand Medicaid is
harming its people: “[Charmaine’s] inflamed colon won’t heal, and the upshot
is thousands of dollars in medication and ongoing doctors’ appointments … When
we spoke in January, Charmaine had just run out of her free anti-inflammatories.
If she can’t find a new source and her colon worsens, doctors will have to
remove it … In the 29 states (plus Washington, DC) that have expanded Medicaid …
depending on how many hours she puts in each month, she could fall just over or
under the 138-percent-of-poverty cutoff to qualify. But in Kansas, she’s
completely out of luck.”
Wealth
gap worries Democratic and Republican voters. NYT: “Far from a strictly
partisan issue, inequality looms large in the minds of almost half of
Republicans and two-thirds of independents”
Progressive
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