Progressive Breakfast: Will Any Republican Call Out Cruz's Failed Planned Parenthood Strategy?

MORNING MESSAGE

Bill Scher
Will Any Republican Call Out Cruz’s Failed Planned Parenthood Strategy?
Two months ago I warned conservatives that “Cruz’s Planned Parenthood Strategy Will Backfire.” The math was obvious. Convincing a minority faction to withhold support for keeping the government open “wouldn’t force resistant Republicans and Democrats to take up the banner of defunding Planned Parenthood. It would only force congressional Republicans to rely on Democratic votes to keep the government open.” ... And here we are: a two-year budget deal that in the first year adds $66 billion in spending above the sequester cap, just a hair less of what Obama initially proposed in his February budget.

Budget Deal Expected To Pass

Budget deal poised to pass Congress. The Hill: “Two House Freedom Caucus members told The Hill as many as 100 House Republicans could ultimately vote for the deal.”
How will Rep. Paul Ryan vote? The Hill: “Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a leader of the conservative Freedom Caucus who helped push Boehner out of Congress, upped the pressure on Ryan, issuing a statement Wednesday calling for all Speaker candidates to oppose the deal … while he repeatedly declined to say how he would vote on the budget pact, Ryan decried the secretive talks…”
Republican presidential candidates slam budget deal. WSJ:Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) called the deal ‘severely flawed’ … ‘it is complete and utter surrender,’ Mr. Cruz said … [Ben Carson] said he would not agree to a debt limit increase as president … ‘I will do everything in my power to stop this steaming pile of legislation,’ Mr. Paul said.”
Deal prevents added costs on retirees. NYT: “The budget agreement … will prevent a sharp increase in Medicare premiums for more than 15 million older Americans and a deep cut in Social Security benefits for nine million disabled workers …”
Mother Jones adds: “the deal actually shores up the finances of an important entitlement program without hurting people who have already earned their benefits.”
Jeb Bush proposes Social Security and Medicare cuts. The Hill: “[Bush] would shift [Medicare] into what is known as ‘premium support’ … which Democrats often denounce as ending Medicare ‘as we know it.’ … On Social Security, Bush would gradually raise the retirement age, a proposal he casts as similar to one from the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles debt commission. He also proposes to change the formula used to calculate Social Security benefits each year.”

House Gets Busy

House passes Ex-Im Bank restoration. NYT: “[The issue] underscored the split between the party’s traditional pro-business members and ascendant free-market conservatives who are suspicious of big corporations. The lopsided final vote of 313 to 118 belied that split, as a majority of Republicans allied with all but one Democrat to reauthorize the 81-year-old bank agency…”
House passes short-term highway fund extension. NYT: “[It] would fund and extend the authorization for federal highway and transit programs through Nov. 20 … [It] would give railroads an additional three years to install technology intended to prevent train crashes … Critics say railroads should not be given relief from installing lifesaving technology. But railroads say they have faced technical and bureaucratic obstacles to installing the costly system.”

Bernie Gets Tough

Sanders’ political team maps out aggressive strategy to Bloomberg: “This new phase will be more aggressive, hard-edged, and focused on driving home contrasts between Sanders and Clinton … [Says Tad Devine,] “it is going to be about a lot of issues where she’s gone from one place to another.”
Devine also talks to NYT: “If they start going further down that negative road, I think we’re going to start looking at whether or not she can really tell the big banks to reform when so much of her money comes from Wall Street.”
Clinton tells Stephen Colbert she would let big banks fail. Bloomberg: ” If Clinton were president, Colbert asked, ‘and the banks are failing, do we let the banks fail this time?’ ‘Yes,’ the former secretary of state replied. ‘Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes … under Dodd-Frank, that is what will happen because we now have stress-tests and I’m going to impose a risk fee…'”
Sen. Sherrod Brown backs Clinton. Politico: “With Brown — a prominent ally of progressive hero Elizabeth Warren — in the fold, Clinton can boast of support from Ohio’s lone Democratic senator, Virginia’s Democratic governor and its two senators, and Florida’s one Democratic senator.”
Will de Blasio be next? NYT: “…Mr. de Blasio is in discussions with Mrs. Clinton’s camp about an endorsement, according to two people briefed on his plans, who said the mayor was expected to offer a blessing soon.”
Bernie eyes youth vote. USA Today: “A central part of the Vermont independent’s strategy is to draw young people and others into the political process, as President Obama did ahead of the 2008 primaries. On Wednesday, Sanders will address an audience of thousands during a ‘student town hall’ meeting that will be live-streamed at colleges and universities across the country.”

Fed Meets Today

“Fed Seen as Unlikely to Raise Rates” today, reports NYT: “The Fed is widely expected to announce that it will continue for now to hold its benchmark rate near zero. The case for liftoff has weakened since the summer. The rest of the world is struggling and there are worrying signs of slower domestic growth. But Fed officials are unlikely to rule out an increase at their final meeting of the year, in December, in part because they are still waiting to see whether economic growth weakened in recent months…”
NYT’s Steven Rattner urges Fed to hold off: “The Fed should step back from its implicit commitment to raise rates this year and hold firm until there is clear evidence of inflationary conditions.”

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