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 Koskinen … GOP 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.”
Progressive
Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to
activists. Progressive Breakfast is a project of the Campaign for America's
Future. more
»