 |
MORNING MESSAGE
Exposing Trump’s Trade Appeal To Working-Class Voters For What It Is
Donald Trump is selling himself as the champion of working-class voters. He says Democrats and their presumptive presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, are selling them out with trade deals. But Trump is just a fraud. Unfortunately, President Obama is pushing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and Clinton is not confronting him for doing so. That has to change – fast. Clinton must publicly, directly and loudly challenge President Obama and demand that he withdraw TPP from consideration by Congress.
TPP TOPS SANDERS' LIST...
“Sanders is itching for a convention fight” reports Politico:“…the draft document … is headed to a full vote before the 187-member platform committee on July 8 and 9 in Orlando …’I know that on TPP, I know that on the issue of healthcare for all, and fracking and the carbon tax at least those we will have minority planks,’ said James Zogby, a Sanders-aligned member of the drafting committee … When the draft is considered by the DNC platform committee next week, Sanders will look to the 72 members who support him to push amendments … ‘…there will need to be at least 40 members voting for those amendments and the same 40 members will also have to file a minority vote … to [go] the floor of the convention in Philadelphia,” [Sanders aide Warren] Gunnels said.”
Opposing TPP in platform tops Sanders’ priority list. Time:“Sanders aides said in interviews that the biggest issue at stake—and the one where they may have the most leverage—is opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the 12-nation trade deal that President Obama supports. But Sanders will fight for a battery of other policies, from a fracking ban to a $15 minimum wage.”
Mother Jones’ David Corn suggests Bernie should accept the platform:“…Sanders is still issuing something of a threat after he has succeeded in ensuring that the Democratic Party’s platform will be the most progressive it has been in decades … Sanders now faces a stark calculation: Are the policy gains that could be obtained by continuing the fight to Sandersize the platform worth the potential discord that could come from not closing ranks with Clinton to combat Trump?”
American Prospect’s Joshua Holland argues Clinton won’t tack toward center:“The reality is that dramatic shifts in the American electorate and innovations in modern campaign strategies have made courting the center both inefficient and less effective. It’s not the 1990s anymore.”
...AND TRUMP'S
Trump argues that higher prices are worth scrapping trade agreements. WSJ quotes:“We’re better off paying a little bit more and having jobs … A lot of people say, ‘Oh, well the goods will be cheaper, they’ll come in and they’ll be cheaper.’ Yeah, but we lost all our jobs. So we’re better off if they’re not quite as cheap and the goods will also be of a higher quality…”
Corporate lobbyists grumble over Trump’s trade rhetoric. W. Post:“The rift deepened on Thursday when Trump called out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce by name for the second straight day … Many business groups, which generally favor looser trade restrictions and are traditional Republican allies, have taken sharp issue with Trump’s latest comments and appear determined to rebut them … Some business leaders are privately pessimistic that publicly fighting Trump hard on trade will be a winning proposition.”
Economic Policy Institute’s Larry Mishel slams “Trump’s Trade Scam”:“Trump has heretofore ignored the many other intentional policies that businesses and the top 1 percent have pushed to suppress wages over the last four decades … Trump is absent or wrong on all these issues.”
Trump has the votes on Republican rules committee. Politico:“Any attempt to block Trump would begin in the convention’s rules committee, an 112-member panel of delegates where Trump’s enemies had hoped to make a stand … however, POLITICO has determined that at least 72 members of the panel intend to smooth Trump’s path to the nomination — not hinder it.”
OBAMA ENDS FOSSIL FUEL HANDOUT
Obama changes fossil fuel royalty rules. The Hill:“…to get more money for the taxpayer[, t]he new regulation closes what the administration calls a ‘loophole,’ in which coal and other companies can sell their products to their own affiliates for a lower price to avoid royalty payments … ‘This rule is an important step in ensuring that fossil fuel companies pay the full costs of extracting fossil fuels from public lands and waters,’ said Marissa Knodel of Friends of the Earth.”
The ozone hole is closing. NYT:“Although the improvement has been slight so far, it is an indication that the Montreal Protocol — the 1987 treaty signed by almost every nation that phased out the use of chemicals known as chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs — is having its intended effect. Full recovery of the ozone hole is not expected until the middle of the century.”
BREAKFAST SIDES
House Republicans schedule vote on their own gun bill. USA Today:“The speaker did not specify which measure he planned to proceed with, but Democrats believe it will be similar to a proposal they voted down in the Senate last week … [It] would have allowed the attorney general to stop gun sales to people on watch lists but only after proving probable cause before a judge within three days, a timeframe and standard of proof that Democrats say is unrealistic.”
Kansas conservatives retreat in school budget fight. NYT:“With a bill that takes effect Friday, they yielded to a state court mandate to either treat poor districts more equitably or see the public school system shut down on July 1 … Until this week, the governor and Legislature, sued by four poorer districts, openly defied the State Supreme Court’s mandate … most critically, the new formula also redistributed money from wealthier districts to meet the court’s mandate.”
NYT’s Paul Krugman cautions economic risk of Brexit is long-term, not short-term:“…the loss of guaranteed access to the EU market will affect firms’ decisions about investments, and inhibit trade flows. This reduction in trade relative to what would otherwise happen will, in turn, make the British economy less productive and poorer than it would otherwise have been … [But] why is the proposition that uncertainty will deter investment so readily accepted in this case?”
Justice Dept. targets offshore tax cheats. Bloomberg:“Since 2012, 30,000 Americans avoided stiff tax penalties by declaring they had innocent reasons for failing to disclose offshore holdings. But under the program they received no guarantees that they wouldn’t be prosecuted in the future. And now the Justice Department and the Internal Revenue Service are combing through thousands of secret records obtained from 80 Swiss banks to determine whether the taxpayers were truthful.”
Progressive Breakfast is a daily morning email highlighting news stories of interest to activists. Progressive Breakfast is a project of the Campaign for America's Future.more »
No comments:
Post a Comment