Sanders Resurgence?
Bernie Sanders up 10 over Hillary Clinton in CNN New Hampshire poll. USA Today: "Fifty-percent of respondents ... back Sanders, while 40% opted for the former secretary of State ... Polls show he trails badly in two other early voting states: Iowa (where Clinton is up by nearly 14 points) and South Carolina (where Clinton’s lead is a whopping 50 points)."
Clinton pledges executive action to stop corporate inversions. WSJ: "'This is not only about fairness. This is about patriotism,' she said at a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa. 'If Congress won’t act, then I will ask the Treasury Department, when I’m there, to use its regulatory authority, if that’s what it takes.'"
Congress To Push Back Shutdown Deadline
Congress moves toward 5-day extension of shutdown deadline. NYT: "[House Appropriations Chair] Harold Rogers ... introduced a measure to give lawmakers five more days — through Dec. 16 — to pass a $1.1 trillion spending package ... The timetable seems in line with what President Obama has suggested he would accept. But Congress might not be able to push the White House much beyond that, raising the possibility of real complications if the House and Senate cannot get the job done by then."
Deal may be close on spending. The Hill: "...one GOP source familiar with the talks said top Republican and Democratic negotiators had reached a tentative agreement but that portions of the legislation were still being written ... Democrats have largely demurred when asked to identify what constitutes a poison pill [and] have been even more secretive about their own counteroffer."
And on taxes. The Hill: "A source close to the talks said the package could come out Thursday and predicted it would impose a two-year moratorium on two unpopular ObamaCare taxes, the Cadillac tax on expensive plans and the medical device tax. It would make permanent the expansions of the child tax credit, the earned income tax credit and the American Opportunity Tax Credit for college tuition, core pieces of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package. But it would not index the child tax credit to inflation..."
Pushback from Cadillac tax supporters. The Hill: "Democratic leaders in both chambers of Congress favor scrapping the tax altogether ... [But] some Democratic lawmakers, health experts and — most notably — the White House [are] pushing support for the tax ... White House press secretary Josh Earnest made some of his strongest statements of support on Wednesday [but] declined to say whether President Obama would veto..."
Climate Talks Down To The Wire
Six big sticking points remain in Paris climate talks, reports The Guardian: "The draft released by the French hosts on Wednesday has three options [for a temperature rise target]: 1. below 2C, 2. well below 2C with efforts to reach 1.5C and 3. 1.5C ... Best estimates suggest the pot [for financing climate protection] is currently only 2/3 full – and rising economies such as India and Brazil say the accounting is murky."
Gulf states resisting stronger language. Reuters: "Saudi Arabia last week blocked initial attempts to include references in the Paris deal to a U.N. report that recommended 1.5C as a target, arguing that reaching it could imperil food security because it would require massive planting of trees on farmland ... India, which has led demands for richer countries to take a bigger share of the load, offered conditional support for a 1.5C target if those developed nations accepted bigger emissions cuts."
