MORNING MESSAGE
Deplaning of United Passenger Shows Why We Need Corporate Regulation
A
guy gets beaten and dragged from his paid seat on a United Airlines flight
because, in essence, he was interfering with corporate profits just by being in
the seat. The airplane was full, the corporation decided it could make more
money by moving some employees to another town, and a passenger was in the
way.
Kansas Spooks GOP
Progressive
Democrat nearly pulls off upset in Kansas’ fourth congressional district.
HuffPost: “…State Treasurer Ron Estes (R) beat Bernie Sanders-backed
Democrat James Thompson … the race in Kansas shouldn’t have been close … in a
reliably conservative district that is home to Koch Industries … On Sunday,
Thompson said that regardless of the outcome of the race, he felt he had already
won because he had shown that Democrats could make a Republican district
competitive by running on an unapologetically progressive platform.”
Sanders
influencing congressional Democratic campaign agenda. Politico: “Schumer and
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have met twice, according to aides, in
addition to multiple staff-level meetings, to flesh out a broader economic
agenda that’s expected to emerge as soon as early summer. The package will be
‘populist’ and designed to ‘unite both wings of both caucuses,’ one senior
Democratic aide said. Infrastructure and trade are expected to be key
components, another aide confirmed.”
OMB Eyes Social Security and Medicare
OMB
Director Mick Mulvaney maps out plans to cut retirement security in CNBC
interivew: “I continue to look forward to talking to the president about
ways to fix [Social Security Disability Insurance] because that is one of the
fastest growing programs that we have … I think the message to the House and
Senate is, ‘Look, you go do what you think is best [on Medicare and Social
Security.]’ … Let them pass that and let’s talk about it … The discussion we’re
going to try and drive is, yeah, we’re going to raise the debt ceiling. But
we’re going to have to do it as part and parcel of a larger thing to try and
solve and resolve some of our debt problems … There’s a lot of entitlement
reform other than just how old do you have to be to get your Social Security
benefits.”
NY
Mag’s Jonathan Chait dissects Mulvaney interview: “[Mulvaney] basically
admits that what he cares about is reducing transfers from the rich to the poor
… ‘Bad spending, to me, in terms of its economic benefit, would be
wealth-transfer payments … I’m really not interested in how tax reform handles
the deficit.’ … The premise of this statement is that the market distribution of
income is sacrosanct, and progressive taxation is thus both morally wrong…”
Mulvaney
squeezes agencies. NYT: “The Trump administration on Wednesday will lift the
hiring freeze that it had imposed on the federal work force, even as it directs
agencies to submit plans for personnel cuts and other restructuring moves …
“’his is a big part of draining the swamp,’ [said] Mulvaney … The administration
is now making clear that it is not giving a green light for agencies to start
hiring; instead, the White House is seeking long-term plans from each agency to,
in most cases, prepare for cuts.”
Tax Reform Bumped For Health Care
Trump
re-prioritizes again, puts health care in front of tax reform. WSJ: “…Trump
said that his overriding legislative priority is passing the health-care law,
though he said he won’t wait indefinitely to turn his attention to the tax
overhaul … ‘Health care is going to happen at some point. Now, if it doesn’t
happen fast enough, I’ll start the taxes.’ The White House had hoped to pass a
tax bill before the congressional recess in August, though officials have
conceded the deadline is slipping …”
Has
Speaker Ryan been taken out of the health care process? Bloomberg: “The
White House began demanding votes, driving a frenzied debate on amendments and
negotiating late into the night with conservative holdouts — all with Ryan
mostly on the sidelines … Unrealistic White House demands risk derailing the
year’s legislative agenda and undermining Ryan’s leadership in the House.”
Some
conservatives press Trump to keep infrastructure out of tax reform. The
Hill: “‘A strong, pro-growth tax reform is unlikely to attract [Democrats],”
[Grover] Norquist said. ‘You don’t need to do this with 60 votes — you can do it
inside reconciliation…’ … Adam Brandon, the president of FreedomWorks, said …
‘We’re very nervous about bridges to nowhere,’ … said Marc Scribner, a senior
fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute[,] ‘You’re going to end up with
something that nobody’s going to be really happy with: mediocre tax reform and a
mediocre infrastructure bill.'”
Breakfast Sides
Anti-immigrant
push threatens government shutdown. Politico: “…Mulvaney … is pressing
lawmakers to include language to restrict federal funding grants for cities that
do not enforce federal immigration policies. The goal is to bring the House
Freedom Caucus on board with a government funding bill … [But it] threatens to
disrupt bipartisan negotiations on funding the government. Democrats are already
calling a request for border wall money a ‘poison pill’ that would shut down the
government.”
Politico
fingers unregulated farms for workplace safety violations: “Farmers are
nearly twice as likely to die on the job as police officers are, five times as
likely as firefighters … the injury rates are even higher … Many of those
injuries last a lifetime, driving up disability rates among rural Americans, who
are 50 percent more likely to have some form of disability than their urban
counterparts … Small farms have been exempted from federal oversight for so long
that it’s virtually impossible for anyone … to understand fully the epidemic of
workplace injuries and deaths that has plagued rural America for at least a
century.”
Voting
rights win in Texas. The Nation: “[A] federal court in Texas ruled that the
state’s strict voter-ID law ‘was passed with a discriminatory purpose in
violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.’ … [The] ruling by District
Court Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos was a big victory for voting rights and a big
loss for Jeff Sessions and the Trump Justice Department … However, these
voting-rights victories could be short-lived if new Supreme Court Justice Neil
Gorsuch provides the deciding vote reinstating such restrictions should they
reach the highest court.”
NY
Gov. Andrew Cuomo expected to sign free college bill today. NYT: “The
Excelsior Scholarship, as the program is called, is expected to cut the cost of
a degree from a four-year State University of New York college — now almost
$83,000 for tuition, fees and room and board — by about $26,000 for an eligible
family making $100,000 a year. That is a substantial reduction, but still means
paying about $57,000 over four years … [It] will primarily benefit traditional
students, those who go to college straight from high school and earn their
degrees on time … After graduation, scholarship recipients must live and work in
New York for as many years as they received a tuition award.”
Progressive
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