MORNING MESSAGE
Will the Senate’s “Good Republicans” Reject a Dishonest Nominee?
Mnuchin
received a written question from Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) about the practice of
‘robo-signing’ at OneWest, the mortgage firm he ran as CEO ... Mnuchin replied,
“OneWest Bank did not ‘robo-sign’ documents …” ... But an investigation by the
Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch found that OneWest “frequently used robo-signers.”
David Dayen noted that a 2011 consent order from the Office of Thrift
Supervision included extensive evidence of OneWest’s robo-signing activity, and
that an employee of OneWest admitted to robo-signing documents in a 2009
deposition ... Mnuchin’s nomination comes up for a vote by the Senate Finance
Committee on Monday...
RESISTANCE RISES
Protests
against Trump refugee order sweep country. NYT: “Protesters amassed in
public spaces and at airports to oppose the order, which they assailed as
un-American … protesters gathered by the thousands outside the front lawn of the
White House …
Congressional
Dems to rally at Supreme Court today. Roll Call: “House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer will be joined by
their colleagues and immigrants and refugees to reverse what they called a
‘hateful, anti-refugee and anti-immigrant’ order … Democrats on both sides of
the Capitol are also introducing legislation to rescind the ban.”
Some
Republicans distance from Trump order. Time: “By Sunday evening, more than a
dozen GOP members of Congress had spoken out against Trump’s executive order on
immigration. Among them were an array of the party’s most influential figures.
The top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, said the United States should
not implement a religious test … ‘We cannot be partisan. We can’t say, “OK, this
is our party, right or wrong,”‘ Charles Koch said Sunday … conservatives are
[also] building blockades on Trump-style fiscal policy. ‘I really don’t like
it,’ Sen. Mike Lee of Utah said of Trump’s border tax plan…”
W.
Post debunks Trump claim that order resembles Obama’s 2011 policy on Iraq
visas: “…Obama responded to an actual threat — the discovery that two Iraqi
refugees had been implicated in bomb-making in Iraq that had targeted U.S.
troops … the Obama administration never said it was their policy to halt all
applications … Obama’s policy did not prevent all citizens of that country,
including green-card holders, from traveling to the United States.”
Uphill
legal fight against executive order. Politico: “…lawyers pressing the cases
acknowledged that their courtroom wins so far may directly benefit no more than
a couple of hundred people essentially caught in limbo … [They] do not appear to
have disturbed the central thrust of Trump’s order … One Muslim-rights group,
the Council on American Islamic Relations, said it planned a new federal lawsuit
Monday charging that Trump’s order is unconstitutional because it amounts to
thinly veiled discrimination against Muslims. That suit could face an uphill
battle because courts have rarely accorded constitutional rights to foreigners
outside the U.S….”
Trump
tries to shift blame. Bloomberg: “President Donald Trump defended the
immigration clampdown that sparked a global backlash over the weekend by blaming
the confusion at airports on protesters and on a computer outage at Delta Air
Lines Inc. that caused flight cancellations … The computer interruption at Delta
didn’t begin until about 6:30 p.m. New York time on Sunday, more than 48 hours
after Trump signed the executive order…”
Trump
to target work visas next. Bloomberg: “His administration has drafted an
executive order aimed at overhauling the work-visa programs technology companies
depend on to hire tens of thousands of employees each year. If implemented, the
reforms could force wholesale changes … Companies would have to try to hire
American first and if they recruit foreign workers, priority would be given to
the most highly paid.”
HERE COMES THE DISTRACTION
Trump
to name SCOTUS pick Tuesday night reports AP.
Republicans
ready battle plan for SCOTUS fight. Politico: “…Senate GOP leadership and
the outside groups that have spent months researching the records of Trump’s
potential picks and are now prepared to unload at least $10 million in ads
backing the nominee—much of it directed at Senate Democrats up for election in
2018 in states Trump carried …”
WHAT NEXT FOR THE LEFT?
Energy
on the left goes in multiple directions. AP: “[Volunteers] debuted
swingleft.org, which lets people find their nearest House swing district … there
are already plans in the works for scientists to march in protest of Trump [and]
for nationwide protests on April 15 demanding the president release his tax
returns … ‘There’s a battle raging on multiple fronts and you have the feeling
of being surrounded,” said Chris Newman, legal director of the National Day
Laborers Organizing Network. “The most important thing is to focus on whatever
hill you have and hold your hill.'”
Elected
Democrats try to catch up. NYT: “The swelling anger over Mr. Trump’s
week-old administration is fueling a surge of spontaneous activism that some
Democrats say they have not seen since the Vietnam War. The growing and
seemingly organic energy offers Democrats a prime opportunity to ride a backlash
to electoral success this year and next … But the fury is also spurring liberal
voters to demand uncompromising confrontation … They are already expressing rage
at some senators for confirming the president’s cabinet appointees, and for
their willingness to allow a vote on his pick for a vacant Supreme Court
seat.”
The
American Prospect’s Justin Miller asks “Can Labor Fight Back?”: “Unions are
already considering the likelihood that Congress will pass national
right-to-work legislation … Unions are also on the lookout for attempts to
repeal or weaken such venerable labor laws as the Davis-Bacon Act … if the
Supreme Court, augmented by a Trump appointee, goes after public-sector
unions—and if national right-to-work passes—SEIU’s membership numbers are likely
to decline along with its budget. Its ability to fund a massive operation like
the Fight for 15 without a clear path for new members could become a luxury SEIU
could not afford.”
BREAKFAST SIDES
House
to begin regulatory rollback. The Hill: “…the House would move two
Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions … to block two late rules issued by
Obama … First on the GOP’s list is the Stream Protection Rule, a regulation
designed to protect small waterways from pollution associated with coal mining …
Lawmakers are also taking aim at an Interior rule to limit methane emissions
from oil and natural gas wells on federal land.”
Trump,
Dems far apart on infrastructure. Politico: “Senate Democrats want to build
on existing government programs and consider adding to the deficit, while Trump
has emphasized tax credits that his advisers argue would pay for themselves …
Trump’s advisers have backed the idea of paying for an infrastructure plan with
a one-time tax break for corporations bringing overseas profits into the U.S.,
an idea Democrats also support despite some wariness among Republicans. But
Schumer told reporters this week that a repatriation holiday, as it’s known, is
‘not going to be close to enough to funding what we need, even if it were
included.'”
Tax
plan faces resistance. NYT: “Any rewrite of the tax code — especially if it
seeks to raise roughly the same amount of revenue that the current code brings
in — will leave winners and losers. And the losers tend to make far more noise
than the winners. If the president is spooked by those howls, a major tax
measure that both the president and Congress have promised may never
happen.”
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