MORNING MESSAGE
Donald
Trump is selling himself as the champion of working-class voters. He says
Democrats and their presumptive presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, are
selling them out with trade deals. But Trump is just a fraud. Unfortunately,
President Obama is pushing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and
Clinton is not confronting him for doing so. That has to change – fast. Clinton
must publicly, directly and loudly challenge President Obama and demand that he
withdraw TPP from consideration by Congress.
TPP TOPS Sanders' List...
“Sanders
is itching for a convention fight” reports Politico: “…the draft document …
is headed to a full vote before the 187-member platform committee on July 8 and
9 in Orlando …’I know that on TPP, I know that on the issue of healthcare for
all, and fracking and the carbon tax at least those we will have minority
planks,’ said James Zogby, a Sanders-aligned member of the drafting committee …
When the draft is considered by the DNC platform committee next week, Sanders
will look to the 72 members who support him to push amendments … ‘…there will
need to be at least 40 members voting for those amendments and the same 40
members will also have to file a minority vote … to [go] the floor of the
convention in Philadelphia,” [Sanders aide Warren] Gunnels said.”
Opposing
TPP in platform tops Sanders’ priority list. Time: “Sanders aides said in
interviews that the biggest issue at stake—and the one where they may have the
most leverage—is opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade
deal that President Obama supports. But Sanders will fight for a battery of
other policies, from a fracking ban to a $15 minimum wage.”
Mother
Jones’ David Corn suggests Bernie should accept the platform: “…Sanders is
still issuing something of a threat after he has succeeded in ensuring that the
Democratic Party’s platform will be the most progressive it has been in decades
… Sanders now faces a stark calculation: Are the policy gains that could be
obtained by continuing the fight to Sandersize the platform worth the potential
discord that could come from not closing ranks with Clinton to combat
Trump?”
American
Prospect’s Joshua Holland argues Clinton won’t tack toward center: “The
reality is that dramatic shifts in the American electorate and innovations in
modern campaign strategies have made courting the center both inefficient and
less effective. It’s not the 1990s anymore.”
...AND TRUMP's
Trump
argues that higher prices are worth scrapping trade agreements. WSJ quotes:
“We’re better off paying a little bit more and having jobs … A lot of people
say, ‘Oh, well the goods will be cheaper, they’ll come in and they’ll be
cheaper.’ Yeah, but we lost all our jobs. So we’re better off if they’re not
quite as cheap and the goods will also be of a higher quality…”
Corporate
lobbyists grumble over Trump’s trade rhetoric. W. Post: “The rift deepened
on Thursday when Trump called out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by name for the
second straight day … Many business groups, which generally favor looser trade
restrictions and are traditional Republican allies, have taken sharp issue with
Trump’s latest comments and appear determined to rebut them … Some business
leaders are privately pessimistic that publicly fighting Trump hard on trade
will be a winning proposition.”
Economic
Policy Institute’s Larry Mishel slams “Trump’s Trade Scam”: “Trump has
heretofore ignored the many other intentional policies that businesses and the
top 1 percent have pushed to suppress wages over the last four decades … Trump
is absent or wrong on all these issues.”
Trump
has the votes on Republican rules committee. Politico: “Any attempt to block
Trump would begin in the convention’s rules committee, an 112-member panel of
delegates where Trump’s enemies had hoped to make a stand … however, POLITICO
has determined that at least 72 members of the panel intend to smooth Trump’s
path to the nomination — not hinder it.”
OBAMA ENDS FOSSIL FUEL HANDOUT
Obama
changes fossil fuel royalty rules. The Hill: “…to get more money for the
taxpayer[, t]he new regulation closes what the administration calls a
‘loophole,’ in which coal and other companies can sell their products to their
own affiliates for a lower price to avoid royalty payments … ‘This rule is an
important step in ensuring that fossil fuel companies pay the full costs of
extracting fossil fuels from public lands and waters,’ said Marissa Knodel of
Friends of the Earth.”
The
ozone hole is closing. NYT: “Although the improvement has been slight so
far, it is an indication that the Montreal Protocol — the 1987 treaty signed by
almost every nation that phased out the use of chemicals known as
chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs — is having its intended effect. Full recovery of
the ozone hole is not expected until the middle of the century.”
BREAKFAST SIDES
House
Republicans schedule vote on their own gun bill. USA Today: “The speaker did
not specify which measure he planned to proceed with, but Democrats believe it
will be similar to a proposal they voted down in the Senate last week … [It]
would have allowed the attorney general to stop gun sales to people on watch
lists but only after proving probable cause before a judge within three days, a
timeframe and standard of proof that Democrats say is unrealistic.”
Kansas
conservatives retreat in school budget fight. NYT: “With a bill that takes
effect Friday, they yielded to a state court mandate to either treat poor
districts more equitably or see the public school system shut down on July 1 …
Until this week, the governor and Legislature, sued by four poorer districts,
openly defied the State Supreme Court’s mandate … most critically, the new
formula also redistributed money from wealthier districts to meet the court’s
mandate.”
NYT’s
Paul Krugman cautions economic risk of Brexit is long-term, not short-term:
“…the loss of guaranteed access to the EU market will affect firms’ decisions
about investments, and inhibit trade flows. This reduction in trade relative to
what would otherwise happen will, in turn, make the British economy less
productive and poorer than it would otherwise have been … [But] why is the
proposition that uncertainty will deter investment so readily accepted in this
case?”
Justice
Dept. targets offshore tax cheats. Bloomberg: “Since 2012, 30,000 Americans
avoided stiff tax penalties by declaring they had innocent reasons for failing
to disclose offshore holdings. But under the program they received no guarantees
that they wouldn’t be prosecuted in the future. And now the Justice Department
and the Internal Revenue Service are combing through thousands of secret records
obtained from 80 Swiss banks to determine whether the taxpayers were
truthful.”
Progressive
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