Progressive Breakfast: As Republicans Defect, Will Clinton Be Tempted To Tack Right?

MORNING MESSAGE

Richard Eskow

As Republicans Defect, Will Clinton Be Tempted To Tack Right?

From a tactical point of view, it makes sense for Clinton to welcome their support. But it poses a dangerous temptation for her – especially when, as is the case with Bloomberg, Whitman, and Klarman, it presumably comes with buckets full of campaign cash. She may see this support as a mandate to form something like a unity government with Republicans, a call to tack right toward the failed “centrism” and “bipartisanship” of the past several decades. That would be a tragic error, but it would it follow a well-worn groove in recent American politics.

TRUMP COZIES UP TO WALL STREET

Trump’s economic team full of “real-estate investors, hedge-fund managers and bankers.” Politico:“Names on the list, which the Trump campaign boasted as having “unparalleled experience and success in business” include Steve Roth, the founder and chairman of Vornado Realty Trust; oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm; Vector Group President and CEO Howard Lorber; Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s national finance director and chairman/CEO of Dune Capital; top fundraiser Tom Barrack, the founder and chief executive at Colony Capital; Stephen M. Calk, chairman and CEO of The Federal Savings Bank; John Paulson, president and CEO of investment firm Paulson & Co.; Andy Beal, a banker, businessman and poker player; and Steve Feinberg, co-founder and CEO of Cerberus Capital Management.”

Maine activists protest Trump with pocket Constitutions. Maine Beacon:“…a dozen protesters … stood silently and held up pocket-size copies of the U.S. Constitution … Some had the booklets ripped from their hands and all were escorted out of Merrill Auditorium by Trump’s security … the event quickly became national and international news … ‘[We] aren’t just standing up for the family of Captain Humayun Khan. We’re standing up for the principles for which Captain Khan gave his life,’ explained Maria Testa, a Portland resident and activist with the Maine People’s Alliance.”

CALIFORNIA CLIMATE PROGRAM THREATENED

Gov. Jerry Brown suggests ballot initiative if legislature won’t protect climate program. LAT:“Environmental advocates and some lawmakers have wanted new laws this month to extend the state’s targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to safeguard the cap-and-trade program … Brown has his sights set on crafting a measure that would receive support from two-thirds of lawmakers in each house of the Legislature, a higher threshold that would safeguard the cap-and-trade program from legal challenges … If legislation isn’t successful in the Capitol, Brown could decide to move forward with a ballot measure in 2018.”

British Columbia carbon tax working. Washington Monthly:“The tax has had undeniably significant effects on the province’s consumption of fossil fuels and, as a consequence, its carbon emissions … BC’s tax is required to be revenue-neutral, which means that carbon tax revenues must be used to offset other taxes. Consequently, BC’s corporate tax rate is currently the lowest of any Canadian province. The revenue also finances BC’s Low Income Climate Action Tax Credit … to help offset the tax’s regressivity … For the last eight years, unemployment in BC has been consistently lower than the Canadian average.”

Former Sen. Mark Udall warns against oil shale mining in NYT oped:“In Utah, Enefit proposes strip mining over 9,000 acres and developing an oil shale processing operation intended to yield 50,000 barrels a day. It’s asking the [Bureau of Land Management] to let it run three pipelines and a power line across federal land. If the agency says yes, Enefit could break ground on the first serious commercial-scale oil shale project in the United States as early as next year. That would open the door to oil shale mining nationally.”

Former Bush national security adviser Stephen Hadley warns about climate change. The Hill quotes:“Climate change and a lot of other economic dislocations have put a lot of people out of work. They are on the move and they have no place to go, and it means they are recruiting grounds for terrorists and extremists and potential refugee flows that will tax Europe even more.”

BREAKFAST SIDES

Solid jobs report could spark interest rate hike. NYT:“The American economy roared ahead last month, as employers added 255,000 jobs … the Federal Reserve may take a fresh look at raising interest rates when it meets in September … the government provided an extra tailwind, adding 38,000 jobs last month … Wages also showed signs of life, with average hourly earnings rising 0.3 percent in July, bringing the 12-month gain to 2.6 percent … increases in the minimum wage in many states recently, plus increases in the lowest-tier salaries by big employers like Walmart,Target and Aetna, are beginning to ripple through the broader work force.”

Speaker Paul Ryan douses cold water on TPP. The Hill quotes:“As long as we don’t have the votes, I see no point in bringing up an agreement only to defeat it … I have my own problems with TPP, it is not ready, the president has to renegotiate some critical components of it … The sands are burning through the hourglass pretty fast, I don’t see how they’ll ever get the votes for it.”

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