Obama Pushes GOP To Help Solve Child Immigrant Influx
Obama calls on TX Gov. Perry to get House Republicans behind border bill. AP: "Following a meeting with Perry in Dallas Wednesday, the president suggested there was little daylight between Perry's calls for additional assistance at the border and the nearly $4 billion request Obama sent to Congress this week. He also made a public appeal for Perry, a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2016, to wield his influence with Texas' Republican-heavy congressional delegation and press them to back the emergency spending package ... Back in Washington, Republican opposition to the request hardened. Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, have criticized the plan as a 'blank check' and Arizona Sen. John McCain voiced his opposition to the measure Wednesday. Perry, in his own statement following the meeting, made no promises to help Obama shore up GOP support..."
"GOP divided" reports The Hill: "Conservatives on Wednesday balked at the administration’s price tag for providing relief to authorities overwhelmed by the tens of thousands of children illegally crossing the border ... Yet with the crisis escalating and Obama passing the ball into Congress’s court by asking for legislation, there’s an emerging concern that Republicans could suffer a political backlash if they fail to act ... 'If we do that, then we’re going to get blamed for perpetuating the problem,' [Sen. Lindsey] Graham told reporters Wednesday."
Obama willing to send National Guard to the border. Roll Call: "...Perry repeatedly urged the president to deploy the National Guard to the border on his own, Obama said. Obama said he would be 'happy to consider' doing so if that’s the price of getting the Texas delegation’s support for the emergency spending bill. Perry suggested Obama should just go ahead and act on his own, the president said. 'I had to remind him I’m getting sued,' Obama said..."
Sen. Jack Reed tries to attach jobless aid to border bill. Roll Call: "But attaching an unemployment [insurance] extension to the package will be an uphill battle given Republican opposition in the House. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has also said that he doesn’t believe the package should be expanded ... The [UI] measure costs a little less than $10 billion and would be fully offset — a key to Republican support — using a combination of revenue raisers that includes extending 'pension smoothing' provisions and extending customs user fees through 2024. But House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., has identified pension smoothing as an offset for his proposal to bolster the Highway Trust Fund, which is expected to run dry this summer."
Dems Warn Of Highway "Shutdown"
"Dems bring shutdown talk to Senate highway bill fight" reports The Hill: "Democrats are warning of a looming 'highway shutdown,' implicitly comparing it to the government shutdown of 2013 that damaged the Republican brand ... Democrats say a so-called highway shutdown would resemble the 2013 government shutdown because it would cause thousands of people to lose their paychecks. 'It could have the same effect of putting hundreds of thousands out of work and putting another self-inflicted wound on the road to economic recovery,' said a senior Democratic aide."
Highway Trust Fund debate may come down to how long to extend solvency. Roll Call: "The [House Ways & Means Committee] will get behind a plan for patching the gaping chasm in the Highway Trust Fund for the next 10 months ... House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp of Michigan has decided his only viable choice is to bequeath the problem to his almost certain GOP successor, Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, betting Ryan can strike a deal next spring, when a whiff of cross-party collaboration is the new-car smell infusing the start of a new Congress. Senior Senate Democrats invested in transportation policy all have reached the opposite conclusion. For them, the best hope for replenishing the trust fund for the indefinite future will come during the other period that’s ripe for deal-making — the lame duck in the five possible weeks for legislating between Election Day and Christmas..."
Hillary Grapples With Inequality
W. Post Harold Meyerson sees Hillary Clinton in an "identity crisis": "Friend or foe of Wall Street? On the one hand, it was Clinton’s husband who entrusted the nation’s economic policymaking to former Goldman Sachs executive Robert Rubin ... On the other [she] said that 'Wall Street has played a significant role' in the subprime mortgage disaster — and she did so in 2007, one year before the great collapse ... Wall Street veterans aren’t likely to see Wall Street’s ascendancy over the rest of the economy as a problem. The cure for Clinton’s, and the Democrats’, identity crisis begins with a clear declaration that the nation’s economy will no longer be entrusted to the leaders of the very institutions that have brought it low."
TNR's Noam Scheiber slams Clinton's "inequality rhetoric" as "insulting": "...a source ... summarized Clinton’s message in her paid speeches as, 'We’re all in this mess together,' ... The only other time I’ve heard people use words like 'consensus' and 'in this together' during conversations about financial regulation was while talking to Wall Street executives ... let’s set aside the question of where she got it and sort out the fallacies that underlie it, the biggest being that it’s almost literally untrue."
China Resists Pressure To Reform Currency
"China to Keep Intervening on Yuan" reports Bloomberg: "'The U.S. side has repeatedly asked, in terms of exchange-rate policy, whether China needs to intervene any more,' Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said at a press briefing yesterday in Beijing during economic talks between the countries. 'But for us, under the current situation, when the economy hasn’t recovered fully and when cross-border capital flows are not completely normal, we’ll continue' existing practices, he said ... The U.S. Federal Reserve’s tapering of bond purchases has sparked capital-flow volatility for countries including China, making exchange-rate control more difficult, Lou said."
Fed monetary stimulus ends in October. The Hill: "Minutes released Wednesday from the bank’s June meeting showed officials plan to cease their massive bond purchases after a policy meeting in October. The final nail in the coffin of the policy known as “quantitative easing” will be a $15 billion purchase of government bonds. After that, the Fed’s policy of 'pumping' money into the economy will be over."
Breakfast Sides
Obama to defend executive orders today. The Hill: "President Obama will tout his increasingly controversial use of executive authority during a speech in Austin on Thursday, as the White House tries to emphasize the ways the president has around an ineffective Congress. The White House also plans to release a report detailing more than 40 actions the administration has taken since January, according to an aide."
Senate bipartisan Ex-Im Bank bill expected before week is out. The Hill: "Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) will unveil later this week a five-year reauthorization bill ... It's a bare-bones piece of legislation, with one exception: it would reverse restrictions that Ex-Im officials passed in December preventing the bank from financing overseas power plants that won't adopt greener technology. The coal industry vehemently opposes the restrictions ... House Republicans haven't introduced a bill yet. It's unknown whether House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), a staunch Ex-Im opponent, will allow the Committee to approve the legislation."
"Landmark tax evasion law quietly kicks in" reports Politico: "The little-known Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, tucked into a 2010 jobs bill, requires every foreign bank and insurance company and other financial institutions with U.S. ties to help sniff out American tax dodgers. It’s inspired other countries to follow, triggering the biggest worldwide effort to chase down international tax cheaters. The Treasury has been laying the groundwork for years — issuing regulations and striking deals with other countries and banks — and most of its most stringent provisions started July 1."
