BREAKING: Job Growth Slows
142K new jobs in September. Bloomberg: "Payrolls rose less than projected in September, wages stagnated and the jobless rate was unchanged as people left the workforce, signaling the global slowdown and financial-market turmoil are rippling through the world’s largest economy."
Dem Leaders Demand Gun Control
Obama rips inaction on guns after Oregon shooting: "...what's become routine, of course, is the response to those who oppose any kind of common-sense gun legislation ... This is something we should politicize. It is relevant to our common life together, to the body politic."
Clinton backs stronger gun control measures. The Hill: "Clinton said after a Dorchester, Massachusetts, campaign event that the nation needs to 'get the political will to do everything we can to keep people safe.'"
Sanders sees gun control "consensus" during MSNBC interview. The Hill quotes: “You know, you got some people who want to ban every gun in America and some people believe nothing at all. I think the vast majority of the American people, as the president indicated, including gun owners — I know that’s true here in Vermont — want sensible gun control legislation."
Clinton Goes Easy On Big Banks
"Hillary Clinton Lets Big Banks Off the Hook for Financial Crisis" says Bloomberg: " Clinton has taken a markedly less critical view of large financial institutions like Citigroup Inc. than ... Bernie Sanders. Instead, Clinton has placed the blame on 'shadow banking,' 'Her comments on their face are wrong,' said Christopher Whalen, senior managing director at Kroll Bond Rating Agency ... Barney Frank, the former Massachusetts congressman of Dodd-Frank fame, backed up Clinton’s view, saying the crisis wasn’t about how big the banks were..."
Sen. Bernie Sanders backs extending Obamacare to undocumented immigrants. W. Post: "Aides later said that Sanders believes that in certain cases, undocumented immigrants should be able to purchase health insurance through the exchanges set up under Obamacare, using their own money. The senator has not advocated allowing the undocumented immigrants to receive federal subsidies, his aides said."
Martin O'Malley backs public campaign financing. NYT: "Martin O’Malley called Thursday for public financing of congressional campaigns ... tougher disclosure rules for campaigns and, as he has said in the past, overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision."
NYT's Paul Krugman slams Jeb and Trump tax plans: "...it looks as if Trump’s plan would make an even bigger hole in the budget than Jeb’s. Jeb justifies his plan by claiming that it would double America’s rate of growth; The Donald, ahem, trumps this by claiming that he would triple the rate of growth ... It’s all voodoo."
Congressional Dems Draw Sequester Line
Dems insist on ending sequester. The Hill: "Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress, huddling Thursday to plot a budget strategy, emerged with an early warning for Republicans: There will be no deal unless sequestration's spending limits are hiked."
Debt limit deadline set at Nov. 5. W. Post: "Treasury Secretary Jack Lew wrote Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday to inform Congress that the debt limit would need to be increased earlier than under previous estimates. He said the tax payments received in September were lower than expected and that the government expects to have less than $30 billion in cash available by early November."
Pressure on Boehner to raise debt limit before leaving. Politico: "...Lew's announcement immediately presented a big challenge for [Rep. Kevin] McCarthy. Some aides wonder if Boehner will push a debt ceiling increase across the floor and then immediately resign, handing McCarthy the speakership before Nov. 1."
Some conservatives want alternative to McCarthy for Speaker. The Hill: "McCarthy is believed to have locked up the 124 GOP votes needed to be nominated ... [but] as many as 50 GOP votes shy of the 218 he needs to formally win the Speaker’s gavel ... Facing a chorus of GOP calls to address the [Benghazi] controversy, McCarthy returned to Fox News on Thursday night to walk back his Benghazi comments..."
Pelosi backs Ex-Im Bank discharge petition reports The Hill.
Breakfast Sides
US proposes anti-smoking provision in TPP talks. NYT: "The United States proposed this week to bar tobacco companies from using special trade tribunals to sue or threaten countries that passed antismoking laws, hoping to remove one roadblock ... President Obama’s chief trade negotiator, Michael B. Froman, offered the proposal as an alternative to broader ones from Australia and Malaysia ... The tobacco proposal will still meet opposition in Washington ... 'I’ll not only vote against it, I’ll work hard to have it defeated if it goes in the final agreement,' said Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from the tobacco state of North Carolina..."
EPA ozone rule criticized on left and right. The Hill: "The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday a new ozone standard of 70 parts per billion, a level tougher than the 75 parts per billion limit currently on the books ... Manufacturers and energy interests have hammered the EPA for proposing to strengthen the standard ... Environment and health groups have pushed the EPA to go even further than the 70 parts per billion standard..."
Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights opposes Postal Service Board of Governors nominees. Naked Capitalism: "The letter singles out two particularly troubling candidates. One is Mickey Bennett, who has been a lobbyist for the payday lending industry ... Another nominee, James Miller, has advocated privatizing the Postal Service since his time at the Office of Management and Budget, back in the 1980s..."
