Cantor Fallout May Hit Economy
Cantor's loss may give Tea Party more influence over economic policy, suggests WSJ: "...Cantor was one of fewer than 30 House Republicans who voted in February to suspend the debt ceiling until 2015 ... Cantor’s likely successor, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.), also voted earlier this year to suspend the debt ceiling. But Mr. Cantor’s expulsion will probably make other Republicans think twice the next time ... When House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich.) proposed a new way of taxing financial companies a few months ago, the banking industry went bananas, enlisting many friendly Republicans to ensure the proposal never saw the light of day ... The professor who defeated Mr. Cantor in Tuesday’s primary, David Brat, seems to hold Wall Street banks in the same regard as Sen. Elizabeth Warren ... Will Mr. Brat’s disdain for Wall Street become contagious?"
But House leadership will look less conservative. NYT: "Representative Kevin McCarthy of California appeared all but certain on Thursday night to rise from majority whip ... Unless a new contender emerges before the leadership vote next Thursday, the new majority leader will have a less conservative voting record than the man he is replacing. The fight for Mr. McCarthy’s old job would then pit Representative Peter Roskam of Illinois, whose voting record is similar to Mr. McCarthy’s, against Representatives Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Marlin Stutzman of Indiana, who have more conservative records. A Roskam victory would mean that [the] aggregate rating of the House majority leader and majority whip by the American Conservative Union would have slipped from 84.25 over the past two years to 78.5."
Expectations bottom out for any additional legislation this summer, particularly. NYT: "For the White House, Mr. Cantor’s defeat has only reinforced the conclusion that few if any priorities will get through Congress and therefore Mr. Obama will have to continue relying on executive power. If immigration legislation is now beyond reach, he may choose to go further in easing deportations on his own authority."
Fossil Fuel Dems Strike Back
Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp tries to turn natural gas industry against climate rules. The Hill: "Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) on Thursday slammed President Obama's climate change policies, arguing they would "drive a stake through the heart of coal." Heitkamp warned representatives from the natural gas industry that they will be the next regulatory target once the administration enacts new limits on carbon pollution from power plants. 'When that is done, and the stake is through the heart of coal, they will come for you next,' Heitkamp told executives at a Capitol Hill luncheon."
Senate committee expected to vote for Keystone pipeline next week. The Hill: "The [energy] committee is expected to easily approve the bill, which is co-sponsored by Chairwoman Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) ... All Republicans on the committee, Landrieu, and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) are expected to vote for the bill. Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.), who also sits on the committee, has received pressure from industry to pick a side on Keystone, especially with his reelection around the corner. Udall, however, plans to vote against the bill Wednesday."
House Puts Business Owners Before Unemployed
House votes again for business tax breaks without offsets. The Hill: "The more expensive of the two tax measures the House passed, 272-144, extends a provision known as Section 179 that allows small businesses to write off up to $500,000 worth of investments a year. Section 179 would cost roughly $73 billion over a decade. The House also passed, 263-155, a pair of incentives, packaged together in one bill, to help a type of small business known as S corporations ... The White House, which issued veto threats against both tax credit bills, and congressional Democrats say the GOP’s push to restore the tax breaks for the long term without offsets is fiscally reckless and hypocritical. Democrats argued that Republicans have demanded offsets for unemployment insurance but not tax breaks."
$15 minimum will be on ballot in San Francisco. SF Chronicle: "The mayor, city supervisors and business and labor leaders came together on the compromise - even the Chamber of Commerce was on hand - but service industry representatives warned the plan would be hard on restaurants and other hospitality-related businesses ... The deal means that labor activists, who had filed a separate ballot measure to raise the wage to $15 by 2017, will drop their effort ... If voters approve the measure in November, San Francisco would have the highest minimum wage in the country. Seattle's City Council voted last week to raise that city's base pay to $15 over the next seven years, then tie it to inflation."
