MORNING MESSAGE
The Trump Infrastructure Plan Won’t Bridge the Nation’s Job Gap
President
Trump on Tuesday night is expected to make what he told a meeting of governors
on Monday would be “a big statement” on infrastructure spending ... But a report
just released by the People’s Action Institute warns that if the goals are good
jobs, boosting communities left behind by the anemic economic growth of the last
seven years and slowing climate change, Democrats need to be wary of the fine
print of any infrastructure plan coming out of the Trump administration. As in
virtually every other policy area, what Trump and the Republican party is
offering on infrastructure calls for resistance, not accommodation.
Trump Faces Rudderless Congress Tonight
Republicans
want clarity from Trump’s congressional address tonight, may not get it.
Politico: “Trump’s often ambiguous policy views may have been an effective
campaign tactic, but these days they are a major source of confusion to members
of his own party … Several aides briefed on Trump’s speech said they expect it
to be ‘high level’ — in other words, without many specific details that would
highlight the GOP’s splits. And some Republicans doubt they will get the
guidance they need from Trump on divisive issues like how to handle Obamacare’s
Medicaid expansion and a potential new tax on imports.”
“Trump
budget faces GOP resistance” reports Politico: “It’s not that Republicans
don’t want to boost the Pentagon, but if they’re going to pay for it, they’d
rather not do it all on the backs of domestic agencies that have already seen
their budgets gutted in recent years. They also are itching to do entitlement
reform…”
Retail
lobby launches “BAT Tax” campaign to kill border adjustment tax: “House
Republicans … want you to believe that it will bring manufacturing jobs back to
the United States by punishing American companies that import goods … [But
g]oods imported into the United States – gas, medicine, fruits, vegetables,
clothing – will be more expensive for everyone.The National Retail Federation
estimates price increases of at least 15 percent, costing the average family as
much as $1,700 a year.”
GOP Cracks Widen Over ACA
“Top
Conservatives Oppose GOP Health Care Plan” reports Roll Call: “The top two
House conservatives on Monday said they cannot vote for their conference’s
health care repeal and partial replacement plan in its current form … both cited
concerns over the plan’s refundable tax credits, saying it amounts to the
creation of a new entitlement program …”
House
GOP healthcare plan may hurt rural voters. The Atlantic’s Vann Newkirk:
“…pegging Medicaid spending to a base year would reduce states’ ability to ramp
up health-care spending because of disasters or emerging health problems, and
these problems already exert the most pressures on states and areas with
infrastructure that is ill-equipped to combat them. Rural residents already rely
much more heavily on public insurance than do city-dwellers, so any reductions
of funding and funding flexibility will have a larger effect on the health
issues they face.”
“The
Fight for Obamacare Has Turned” declares NYT’s David Leonhardt: “.
Privately, [Trump] and his aides have begun to realize the mess they have made
by promising the impossible. On Monday, Trump himself lamented that health care
was ‘complicated.’ The clearest sign of anxiety came in a Washington Post
report: Four top advisers — Stephen Bannon, Gary Cohn, Jared Kushner and Stephen
Miller — ‘have emphasized the potential political costs to moving
aggressively.'”
Sens.
Booker and Sanders team up on prescription drug costs. USA Today: “Pilloried
by his party’s left wing for voting in January against a nonbinding measure with
a similar goal, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., is joining Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,
on Tuesday to unveil a bill to allow the importation of pharmaceuticals from
Canada and other countries … Booker had said he would support drug importation
if it included safeguards for consumers that the Sanders-Klobuchar amendment
lacked. Details of the protections in the new bill are to be released at a news
conference Tuesday afternoon.”
Tweets Don’t Save Rexnord Jobs
Rexnord
jobs head to Mexico. USA Today: “… Rexnord Corp. [is] a ball bearings
manufacturer that’s about to move work done for generations on Indianapolis’
west side to a new plant in Monterrey, Mexico … 350-plus co-workers have been
boxing up machinery and shipping it to Mexico … When Trump stepped in to save
750 Carrier jobs that had been bound for Mexico, John Feltner allowed himself to
hope Trump might save jobs at Rexnord as well. But that hope is all but
gone…”
Mexico
draws firm line on tariffs. Bloomberg: “‘The moment that they say, “We’re
going to put a 20 percent tariff on cars,” I get up from the table,’ Mexican
Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said in an interview. ‘Bye-bye.’ … Mexican
officials have said they expect official talks to start in June. And if they
fail? ‘It wouldn’t be an absolute crisis,’ said Guajardo … Without Nafta, trade
between Mexico and the U.S. would be ruled by World Trade Organization
strictures limiting tariffs either country can impose on the other, with the
average for Mexico at around 3 percent … That ‘would take away some of our
margin of competitiveness,’ the minister said, but would be manageable.”
Breakfast Sides
Trump
moves to pollute waterways. NYT: “President Trump is expected to sign an
executive order on Tuesday aimed at rolling back one of former President Barack
Obama’s major environmental regulations, a clean water rule known as Waters of
the United States. But on its own, Mr. Trump’s order will have almost no legal
effect … The order will essentially give Mr. Trump a megaphone to direct his new
Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt, to begin the
lengthy and complicated legal process required to rewrite the rule — a process
that could take longer than Mr. Trump’s first term, legal experts said.”
Republicans
try to clamp down on protests. The Atlantic: “A Washington Post analysis
found at least 18 states where Republican legislators have either proposed
legislation that targets certain protest tactics, sought to increase penalties
for illegal protests under existing law, or publicly discussed pursuing such
measures … Some of the protest-related legislation has stalled in its early
stages after public scrutiny. But other proposals, especially those in
Republican-dominated state governments, could face an easier road to
passage.”
Education
Secretary DeVos engages in historical revisionism about black colleges. ABC:
“[Her] statement called historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs)
‘real pioneers when it comes to school choice,’ and came shortly after President
Donald Trump held a meeting with several HBCU leaders on Monday. Some social
media users said DeVos ignored the history of how black Americans were denied
access to higher education. Meanwhile, others said the statement applauded the
segregated Jim Crow education system for giving black students ‘more
options.'”
“Trump’s
Justice Department Is No Longer Opposing Texas’s Discriminatory Voter-ID Law”
reports The Nation’s Ari Berman: “Ahead of a crucial hearing in federal
district court tomorrow, the Trump administration is reversing the Obama
administration’s opposition to Texas’s strict voter-ID law … Here’s why the
hearing tomorrow matters: If Texas’s law is declared intentionally
discriminatory (again), the entire statute will be invalidated and Texas could
be forced to clear its voting changes with federal government for a period of
time … The case will still proceed with civil rights groups arguing against the
voter-ID law, but they will no longer have the federal government on their
side.”
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