Progressive Breakfast: Republicans 'Working The Ref' With War On IRS

MORNING MESSAGE

Republicans in Congress want to send the IRS and other government agencies a clear message: If government employees try to make corporate/conservative movement organizations follow the laws and rules, Republicans will make their lives miserable, bankrupt them and ruin their careers. And thanks to the huge sums of “dark” money flowing to Republican candidates from billionaires and corporations, they have the power to do it.

TRUMP EMBRACES STOP-AND-FRISK

Trump pursues odd strategy to win African-American votes. Politico: “…sold himself as the candidate who could fix the problems of urban America. Within hours, Trump was proposing a vast expansion of ‘stop-and-frisk’ policing policies … [He] criticized the police officer who shot an unarmed black man in Oklahoma last week … Trump has mostly defended the police in such incidents.”
Trump turns Republicans away from trade deals. Politico: “…last year [Sen. Pat Toomey] praised President Barack Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership as an economic boon that would help Pennsylvania’s economy. Now Toomey … is urging Obama to dump the TPP … everyone from a former U.S. trade representative, Rob Portman of Ohio, to free-market devotee Marco Rubio of Florida [is] striking a much different tone.”
“Immigrants Aren’t Taking Americans’ Jobs, New Study Finds” reports NYT: “‘We found little to no negative effects on overall wages and employment of native-born workers in the longer term,’ said Francine D. Blau, an economics professor at Cornell University … by the second generation … immigrants, with improved education and taxpaying ability, become a benefit to government coffers, adding about $30 billion a year …”

WaRREN WARNS CLINTON

Sen. Elizabeth Warren sends message to Clinton in economic speech. The Nation: “Warren noted that ‘personnel is policy,’ and continued: ‘When we talk about personnel, we don’t mean advisors who just pay lip service to Hillary’s bold agenda, coupled with a sigh, a knowing glance … We don’t mean Citigroup or Morgan Stanley or BlackRock getting to choose who runs the economy in this country…’ … BlackRock’s chief executive, Lawrence Fink, has been repeatedly mentioned as a possible Treasury secretary under Clinton.”
Dem divisions re-emerge over public option. Politico: “Thirty-three mostly liberal Democrats, including all the Senate leadership, have signed onto a nonbinding Senate resolution introduced last Friday to add the public option to Obamacare … missing from the list are vice-presidential nominee Tim Kaine and a half-dozen other moderates who face reelection in 2018…”

IRS IMPEACHMENT LOOMS

House hearing on IRS may not derail impeachment vote. The Hill: “Conservatives on the House Judiciary Committee clamored Wednesday for the impeachment of IRS Commissioner John KoskinenGOP leaders and Koskinen would both like to avoid his impeachment; the hearing was intended to put a lid on pressure from conservative lawmakers who had been calling for a floor vote this month. Yet it is not clear that vote will be avoided.”
Mylan CEO grilled in House committee. The Hill: “…Mylan CEO Heather Bresch was repeatedly interrupted by visibly angry lawmakers. Most accused her of exploiting people with life-threatening allergies in the pursuit of profit, while many pointed out her $18 million salary. Bresch, whose father is Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), found no friends on either side of the aisle…”

FED STANDS PAT

Fed does not raise interest rates. The Atlantic: “The Fed has yet to raise interest rates in 2016, and there are only two FOMC meetings left before the end of the year. The FOMCraised interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade last December … The Fed’s updated projections can be read as a signal that there’s still going to be a rate hike in 2016 … in either November or December…”
Fed chair Yellen rebuts Trump. Time: “‘I can say emphatically that partisan politics plays no role in our decisions about the appropriate stance of monetary policy,’ Yellen said. Trump on Monday said Yellen should be ‘ashamed’ of keeping interests rates low.”

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