Mass Moral Monday March for Voting Rights in NC
Moral Mondays movement to rally in Winston-Salem at 5 PM Monday, urging federal courts to overturn North Carolina's voter suppression law.
More from OurFuture.org's Joshua Ferrer: "In addition to implementing the harshest voter ID law in the nation, the bill ends same-day registration, limits early voting, ends Sunday voting, allows any citizen to challenge voter eligibility, eliminates public financing for elections, eliminates pre-registration for 16- and 17 year-olds, and ends single-ticket voting, among other provisions."
Highway Revenue Divides GOP
Top Republicans split over how to fund highway bill. The Hill: "An extension of just a few months, [Rep. Paul Ryan and other House Republicans] contend, would allow a bipartisan group of lawmakers to pursue a deal to revamp the U.S.’s international tax system. Their proposal involves using revenue from offshore corporate profits for infrastructure funding ... But [Sen. Mitch] McConnell and his allies, facing a difficult 2016 map for the Senate, are focused on finding enough highway funding to get the trust fund past next year’s election ... [Sen. Chuck] Schumer also pointedly said that Democrats wouldn’t agree to another short-term extension of highway projects if Republicans like McConnell don’t agree to at least consider the idea of pairing tax reform and highways."
Leading mayor slams GOP rejection of gas tax hike. The Hill: "[Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph] Becker said ... his conservative home state of Utah's decision to increase its own gas tax earlier this year showed Republicans in Congress should be able to support a national hike. 'Regardless of how conservative a place we live in, we still deal with the reality that people have to get around and it takes funding to make the improvements,' said Becker, who is also president of the National League of Cities."
Even Reagan raised the gas tax, reminds Joshua Schank and Jeff Davis in W. Post oped: "...Reagan raised federal taxes on motor fuels by 125 percent ... He gave speeches to interest groups, delivered a national radio address, made dozens of telephone calls and held meetings with members of Congress to raise support for the tax increase and for the public infrastructure spending the proceeds would support."
Hillary Tacks Left On Economy
Hillary Clinton to deliver economic address Monday. Bloomberg: "[She] will set the tone for more detailed policy announcements this summer and much of her messaging through the rest of her presidential campaign."
Hillary agenda to be more liberal than Bill's. NYT: "[She] is proposing muscular federal policies that would require hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending and markedly expand Washington’s influence ... her aides say that she will seek to pay for them with higher taxes on wealthy Americans, along with cutbacks and closing loopholes elsewhere; the amounts in play are expected to be substantial ... Mrs. Clinton’s proposals reflect a decided return to vibrant liberalism."
Bernie Takes On Jeb's Cash Haul
Jeb Bush announces huge fundraising take. NYT: " Jeb Bush and his allies announced on Thursday that they had amassed more than $114 million in campaign cash over the last six months, dwarfing the combined fund-raising of his Republican rivals for the party’s presidential nomination ... The full cash position of the campaigns — and the names of who, exactly, is supplying all this money — will not be clear until the end of the month."
Bernie excoriates Jeb for chasing Big Money. W. Post quotes: "There’s no accident that Jeb Bush and other Republican candidates who take huge amounts of money from the wealthy and the powerful come up with an agenda that represents the wealthy and the powerful."
Greece Moves Towards Deal
Greece offers compromise. AP: "The package met longstanding demands by creditors to impose wide-ranging sales-tax hikes and cuts in state spending for pensions that the left-leaning Greek government had long resisted ... key creditors said they were open to discussing how to ease the country’s debt load, a long-time sticking point in their talks ... The government said the proposals would be voted on by Greece’s parliament late Friday before an emergency summit Sunday of all 28 European Union leaders."
Little different from earlier European offer. Bloomberg: "The package almost mirrored that from creditors on June 26, which was rejected by Greek voters in a July 5 referendum."
Investors optimistic, but not everyone on board yet. NYT: "Investors seemed increasingly optimistic in Friday trading ... The Greek government’s latest batch of policy overhauls received a positive welcome from President François Hollande of France, though some officials in Germany, the biggest eurozone creditor, expressed doubts ... Greek ministers struck very different tones."
