MORNING MESSAGE
The McConnell/Trump GOP Guts Ethics Rules For Its Billionaire Cabinet
“Ironic”
is an overused word. And yet, how else can you describe what’s going on this
week in Washington? The Republican president-elect says he wants “extreme
vetting” for Syrian refugee families who already face years of scrutiny.
Meanwhile, the Senate’s Republican leader is ramming Trump's well-heeled
nominees through the Senate review process in just a few chaotic days.
Senate:
Do not let Trump’s picks go unvetted
Today, the Senate will begin confirmation
hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet nominees. But many of his picks
haven’t yet completed the ethics vetting process. According to the Office of
Government Ethics, some of Trump’s nominees already slated for hearings haven’t
even submitted initial financial disclosure reports. Trump has nominated a
record number of millionaires and billionaires. Without full financial
disclosures and a complete ethics review, it is impossible to know what
conflicts of interests their appointments may present.BOOKER TARGETS SESSIONS
Sen.
Cory Booker will oppose Session at confirmation hearing. NBC News: “Booker’s
office said Monday that the Senate historian had been unable to find any
previous instance of a sitting senator testifying against a fellow sitting
senator nominated for a Cabinet position. Noting that ‘I’m breaking a pretty
long Senate tradition,’ the New Jersey Democrat said … ‘We’ve seen Jeff Sessions
— that’s Senator Jeff Sessions — consistently voting against or speaking out
against key ideals of the Voting Rights Act, taking measures to try to block
criminal justice reform.'”
Sen.
Sessions expressed support for racist 1924 immigration law. The Atlantic:
“During an October 2015 radio interview with Stephen Bannon of Breitbart …
Sessions praised the 1924 law saying that, ‘When the numbers reached about this
high in 1924, the president and congress changed the policy, and it slowed down
immigration significantly … and created really the solid middle class of
America, with assimilated immigrants, and it was good for America.’ … [The law]
drastically limited immigration and made permanent restrictions designed to keep
out Southern and Eastern Europeans, particularly Italians and Jews, Africans,
and Middle Easterners, barring Asian immigration entirely.”
Justice
Dept. aims to push reform of Chicago and Baltimore police departments before
inauguration. NYT: “…the Justice Department is rushing to wrap up a sweeping
investigation into police patterns and practices [in Chicago.] Such an
investigation is typically the first step toward a consent decree in which a
police department is required to make significant changes under court
supervision. But in Chicago, President Obama’s Justice Department is running out
of time to pursue such an order … in Baltimore, where Justice Department
officials have already released a blistering report accusing the police of
systematic racial bias, negotiators for the city and the Obama administration
are ‘getting very close’ to agreement on a consent decree, Mayor Catherine E.
Pugh said.”
Strategy
Call With Sen. Warren Tonight
Republicans
have been working since 2010 to overturn the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, formed by Elizabeth Warren in response to the financial crisis and great
recession. With Donald Trump on the verge of assuming the presidency, his
cabinet of Wall Street Bankers are looking forward to again running the country
and reaping the profits.
Protecting
the CFPB and Wall Street reforms is paramount. People’s Action, along with a
coalition of advocacy groups, is sponsoring a nationwide phone call tonight at
8:30 p.m. Eastern / 5:30 p.m. Pacific time with Sen. Warren (D-MA) to launch an
action plan to stop the special interests.
DEVOS HEARING DELAYED
Hearing
for Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos pushed back to next Tuesday.
Politico: “The confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald
Trump’s Education secretary pick, has been pushed back by almost a week [to]
Jan. 17 at 5 p.m … The move comes after Democrats, including Murray, had called
for DeVos’ confirmation hearing to be delayed because the Office of Government
Ethics has not finished its ethics review of the billionaire education
activist’s finances.”
DeVos
family played “political hardball” in Michigan. NYT: “…the DeVoses are
generous supporters of think tanks that evangelize for unrestrained capitalism,
like Michigan’s Acton Institute, and that rail against unions and back
privatizing public services, like the Mackinac Center … the DeVoses’ education
activism, which favors alternatives to traditional public schools, appears to
derive from the same free-market views that inform their suspicion of
government. And perhaps more than other right-wing billionaires, the DeVoses
couple their seeding of ideological causes with an aggressive brand of political
spending.”
SANDERS TO LEAD HEALTH CARE RALLIES
Sen.
Sanders announces “Our First Stand: Save Health Care” rallies for Jan. 15, in
Alternet: “… on January 15, I and Democratic members of Congress, trade
unions, senior citizen groups, health-care activists and all those who believe
in economic and social justice are organizing a day of action called Our First
Stand: Save Health Care. Rallies will be held around the country, including one
in Michigan that Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and I will be
attending along with Michigan’s U.S. senators.”
Sen.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says Dems are “on offense” to save Obamacare. The
Hill quotes: “Who would have thought in the first week of Congress the
Democrats would have been on offense and the Republicans are on defense? …
They’re in real trouble and now they’re squirming and squirming … So far not a
single Republican has presented a replacement that has gotten even a small
consensus among Republicans.”
Nervous
Republicans beg for time. The Hill: “GOP Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.), Rob
Portman (Ohio), Susan Collins (Maine), Bill Cassidy (La.) and Lisa Murkowski
(Alaska) filed an amendment on Monday that would give congressional committees
until March 3 to come up with a repeal plan. The lawmakers pushing the amendment
argue that moving the deadline will help pave the way for a smoother and shorter
transition from ObamaCare … [Republicans] can only afford to lose two GOP
senators without having to try to flip Democrats or ask the vice president to
potentially break a tie … Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky)—who is expected to unveil his
own ObamaCare replacement bill this week—said on Friday that Trump agrees with
his push to replace the Affordable Care Act as they vote to repeal it.”
Politico
adds: “The House Freedom Caucus wants to delay a vote on a budget that
includes Obamacare repeal instructions, a potential setback for the GOP’s — and
Donald Trump’s — top priority … It is unclear if Freedom Caucus members would
vote against the budget if they do not get the information they seek or the
delay. They want to know more about whether the repeal effort will include some
replacement provisions or, if not, the timetable for putting forth a Republican
alternative.”
“Muted
Response From Health Lobby” reports NYT: “The speed of Republican efforts to
repeal the Affordable Care Act has stunned health industry lobbyists, leaving
representatives of insurance companies, hospitals, doctors and pharmaceutical
makers in disarray and struggling for a response … industries that were integral
to the creation of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 are keeping their voices down
as Republicans rush to dismantle it … They fear that if they come out strongly
in opposition to repealing the law, they will lose their seats at the table as
congressional Republicans and the Trump administration negotiate a
replacement.”
BREAKFAST SIDES
Sanders
lays out strategy to challenge Trump in CNN town hall: “…he drew [a] clear
line with Trump, saying: ‘I will tell you this: He ran a campaign whose
cornerstone was bigotry. It was based on sexism, on racism, on xenophobia, and
on that issue, I will not compromise.’ Still, Sanders said he hopes Democrats
don’t use the “obstruct, obstruct, obstruct” tactics against Trump that
congressional Republicans deployed against Obama. ‘I don’t think that’s what we
do,’ Sanders said. ‘I think where Trump has ideas that make sense that we can
work with him on, I think we should.'”
Obama
to give farewell address tonight. The Hill: “One of President Obama’s top
advisers early Tuesday touted the president’s record and said he will talk
during his farewell address about his optimism for the future of the
country.”
USTR
Michael Froman warns Trump against protectionism in final speech. W. Post:
“…he cautioned that the type of protectionist policies the president-elect has
pledged could endanger the ongoing U.S. recovery and embolden Chinese ambitions
… [He said] China is striking regional trade agreements of its own in hopes of
establishing itself as the economic power center of Asia — and eventually, the
world. ‘How can you be tough on China and withdraw from TPP at the same time?’
Froman said…”
GOP
looks to gouge blue staters in tax reform. The Hill: “…two key preferences
important to state and local governments, the deduction for state and local
taxes and the tax exemption for municipal bonds, may be on the chopping block.
The two preferences are among the most expensive provisions in the tax code.
They are also viewed as disproportionately benefiting upper-income people. Of
the two, the state and local tax deduction, which tends to benefit areas that
lean Democratic, looks to be more endangered.”
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