MORNING MESSAGE
If
there was ever an Elizabeth Warren speech to see, it is this one. Warren began
by describing how lobbyists and corporate CEOs are swarming Congress and
saturating the media with a pitch that says corporations are paying too much in
taxes, that this is forcing corporations to flee abroad and the solution is to
slash corporate tax rates. This story of overtaxation is told and retold. Warren
says there is just one problem with this: “It’s not true.”...
Dueling Democratic Speeches
Sanders
delivers speech on democratic socialism today at 2 PM ET. NYT: “…Mr. Sanders
plans to position himself as the political heir to one of the Democratic Party’s
great heroes, F.D.R … building on his descriptions of the Roosevelt-backed
Social Security program as a ‘socialist’ endeavor, [he] will call for the United
States to adopt the so-calledsecond Bill of Rights that Roosevelt proposed in
his 1944 State of the Union address to Congress…”
Clinton
delivers speech on terrorism at 10:30 AM ET. NYT: “…Hillary Rodham Clinton
will deliver an in-depth speech at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York
about her national security proposals and how she would combat the Islamic State
… Mrs. Clinton will probably use the speech on Thursday to differentiate herself
from Mr. Obama in subtle ways …”
W.
Post investigation four decades of Clinton fundraising: “The grand total
raised for all of their political campaigns and their family’s charitable
foundation reaches at least $3 billion … The Post identified donations from
roughly 336,000 individuals, corporations, unions and foreign governments in
support of their political or philanthropic endeavors …”
Safety Issues Complicate Transportation Bill
Transportation
bill negotiations intensify. The Hill: “Supporters of increased
transportation funding and the Ex-Im Bank pressed lawmakers to find ways to
boost federal spending … Safety groups, meanwhile, sought to convince Congress
to take trucking provisions they argued would make U.S. roads less safe out of
the highway bill…”
Trucking
lobby besting safety advocates. Politico: “Among the most eye-catching is
the provision in both the House and Senate bills to start pilot programs to
allow teenagers, possibly as young as 18, to drive big trucks and buses across
state lines … The House bill would also cut funding for the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, the automobile safety watchdog … Another
provision tacked onto the House bill shortly before passage would allow car
dealers to loan out vehicles with potentially deadly defects …”
Breakfast Sides
House
votes to weaken mortgage protections. The Hill: “The Portfolio Lending and
Mortgage Access Act, which was introduced by Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), passed by a
255-174 vote. The bill extends a federal exemption meant for small and rural
banks to all banking institutions.”
Treasury
to issue new rules on corporate inversions. WSJ: “Treasury Secretary Jack
Lew informed lawmakers of the coming announcement in a letter on Wednesday,
which provided no details on its intentions. The administration previously has
said it was examining ‘earnings stripping,’ a practice by which companies load
up their U.S. operations with deductions and effectively push profits to low-tax
countries.”
Bipartisan
Senate bill aims to support carbon capture from coal plants. NYT: “Under a
bill set to be introduced on Thursday, carbon capture projects … would qualify
for tax-exempt private activity bonds, which helped clean up air pollution in
the 1970s and 1980s … Some experts question the use of tax-exempt bonds for
private development in general. Others caution that state limits on bond issues
each year could keep some projects from going forward.”
Progressive
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