Donald Trump eyes changes to Barack Obama’s tax and Wall Street rules
The Trump administration embarked Friday on new efforts to study and possibly dismantle some of the tax and financial regulations established by former President Barack Obama. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order to review tax regulations set last year by his predecessor, as well as two memos to potentially reconsider major elements of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reforms passed in the wake of the Great Recession. The review of tax regulations could give greater leeway to companies looking to shelter income overseas, or simply seeking to reduce paperwork related to the enforcement of such regulations. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said a “significant” issue to be examined will be the crackdown by Obama on inversions, which are mergers that enable U.S. firms to relocate their headquarters overseas where tax rates are lower. The review could also touch on overlapping rules designed to stop foreign-based companies from shifting their U.S. profits abroad. Mnuchin said the goal of the executive order is to reduce the burden of time and money from complying with tax regulations. “The tax system is way too complicated and burdensome,” he said. The administration is also trying to pass tax reform that would reduce corporate rates and encourage businesses that have trillions of dollars stowed overseas to bring their profits back to the U.S. “We’re not going to do anything that makes U.S. businesses less competitive,” Mnuchin said. The two memos would focus on possible adjustments to the Dodd-Frank law, which was designed to stop banks from growing “too big to fail” and requiring public bailouts. One memo will order Mnuchin to review a component of the law that allows federal regulators to liquidate failing financial firms during an economic crisis if those companies are large enough that their collapse would pose a threat to the entire U.S. economy. The other memo will order the Treasury to review a process that designates which non-bank firms could threaten the financial system if they fail. Critics argue this process is costly and arbitrary. Both measures will be suspended while they’re under review. Mnuchin said taxpayers won’t be left on the hook. “Let me make it absolutely clear: President Trump is absolutely committed to make sure that taxpayers are not at risk for government bailouts of entities that are too big to fail,” he said. His report will explore if it would be better to liquidate troubled financial firms through a modified form of bankruptcy. Former Federal Reserve chair Ben Bernanke argued in a February blog post that there is no provision for the government to inject money into a failing firm as was done during the 2008 financial meltdown. This means that all losses would be borne by private investors. Also, Bernanke said his experience is that financial regulators are often better equipped to respond to these emergencies than bankruptcy judges. Mnuchin suggested Friday that it might be necessary to update bankruptcy laws to accommodate collapsing firms during an economic crisis. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Tim Kaine promotes his lengthy government experience
The Latest on the Democratic National Convention (all times EDT): 10:17 p.m. Tim Kaine is promoting his lengthy government experience in his first major speech as the Democratic vice presidential candidate. The Virginia senator – in a prime-time speech at the Democratic convention – is detailing his rise from a member of the Richmond City Council to the city’s mayor, to Virginia’s lieutenant governor to governor. Kaine says if he’s good at his work, it’s because he “started at the local level listening to people, learning about their lives and trying to get results.” Kaine says it was hard work steering his state through the recession, but he says, “Hey, tough times don’t last – and tough people do.” 10:14 p.m. Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine says his Republican father-in-law has been voting for a lot of Democrats recently. Kaine’s father-in-law is a former Virginia governor, Linwood Holton. Kaine tells Democrats at their national convention that his father-in-law is in attendance – at age “90-plus and going strong.” Kaine says his father-in-law remains a Republican, but is voting for Democrats because “any party that would nominate Donald Trump for president has moved too far away from his party of Lincoln.” Kaine is inviting other voters “looking for that party of Lincoln,” to join the Democratic Party. 10:10 p.m. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine is “humbly” accepting his party’s nomination for vice president. Kaine tells the Democratic convention in Philadelphia that he formally accepts the party’s nomination on behalf of his wife, Anne, “and every strong woman in this country,” their three children and everyone in the military. The former governor of Virginia and mayor of Richmond says he’ll run for vice president on behalf of families working to get ahead, for senior citizens hoping for a dignified retirement and for every person who wants America to be a beloved community. And Kaine says he’ll do it for his friend and running mate, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton 10 p.m. A video introducing Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine is emphasizing his working-class roots and his service as Virginia’s governor and senator. The video playing for convention delegates says Kaine’s life is “built on selfless humble service” and that he had a “Midwestern start in a working-class home in Kansas City.” The tribute notes his work as a civil rights lawyer, commitment to family and work to bring Virginia together after a shooting at Virginia Tech while he was governor 9:45 p.m. Vice President Joe Biden is calling Vladimir Putin a “dictator” – a term the U.S. government doesn’t use when referring to the Russian president. Biden says in his speech at the Democratic convention that GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump is belittling U.S. allies while embracing “dictators like Vladimir Putin.” Earlier in the day, Trump said: “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” He was referring to emails on Hillary Clinton’s private server as secretary of state that she said she deleted – because they were private – before turning other messages over to the State Department. The U.S. regularly chastises Putin for cracking down on dissent, but doesn’t consider Russia a dictatorship. Putin has won three presidential elections, most recently in 2012. 9:43 p.m. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is endorsing Hillary Clinton – and that’s giving her the support of an independent who says he votes based on the candidate, “not the party label.” Bloomberg says at the Democratic National Convention that the country must unite around Clinton because she can “defeat a dangerous demagogue.” He’s offering a tough critique of businessman Donald Trump, saying, “I’m a New Yorker and I know a con when I see one.” Bloomberg points to his work to build a business and compares that with Trump’s beginning in real estate: “I didn’t start it with a million dollar check from my father.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Tim Kaine’s mission: Win over skeptical liberals in VP speech
Facing a backlash from the left, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine is expected to affirm his liberal credentials in his first prime-time speech as Hillary Clinton‘s running mate. Kaine was speaking Wednesday to the Democratic National Committee as supporters of Clinton’s one-time Democratic rival Bernie Sanders warned that Kaine had yet to forcefully oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. Kaine, a former Virginia governor, was introduced by Clinton last weekend in Miami, where he switched easily between English and Spanish and spoke of his time as a Catholic missionary in Honduras, his work as a civil rights attorney and an education-focused governor who managed a state through tough times. He officially became the nominee in the early moments of Wednesday’s session, joining the ticket by acclamation to cheers and a few scattered boos. Addressing his home state delegation Wednesday morning, Kaine called the campaign “a civil rights election,” panning Republican Donald Trump for mocking disabled people and using “demeaning and offensive language” about women. “The next president is going to be the one celebrating 100 years of women getting the right to vote,” Kaine said. “Is it too much to ask that it be a woman rather than somebody who offends women every time he opens his mouth?” Yet the threat of Trump hasn’t led to an open embrace of Kaine by liberals, who had pined for Clinton to select Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a champion of tougher restrictions on Wall Street and liberal causes. Much of their unhappiness has centered on Kaine’s vote in 2015 to support so-called “fast track” authority, allowing the president to put forward the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The Pacific Rim trade pact has been promoted by President Barack Obama as a way to increase U.S. influence in Asia and act as a counterweight to China. Kaine now opposes the deal, a position in step with Clinton, but liberals raised concerns about him after he praised parts of the agreement. “His support of this is deeply troubling to progressives,” said Shyla Nelson, a Sanders delegate from Vermont. She said that his vote for “fast-track suggests to me that he’s willing to advance a process that is undemocratic in order to achieve an objective with this. It starts to sound like parsing to me and others.” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta praised Kaine’s “strong progressive credentials,” saying he “comes from a place of deep conviction.” He added that Clinton and Kaine will be offering a progressive agenda. Kaine’s allies, both in the Clinton and Sanders’ camps, say his record must be judged in totality. They point to his work as a civil rights attorney specializing in fair housing, his opposition to the death penalty, and record as governor of defending education funding during tough times. “I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised by the range and depth of his progressive credentials,” said Rep. Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont who backed Sanders. “He’s got a low-key style but don’t let that mislead you into an intensity of purpose.” Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination, said Kaine had brought his beliefs in Catholic social justice to his public service, something he has practiced throughout his career. “I think a person’s character is a product of a lifetime and if you look at Tim’s lifetime, you see that as a young person he was called to serve and actually went to Honduras,” said O’Malley. “And it wasn’t because of the beaches.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Julie Delegal: We get drunk on Donald Trump, the Bundy brothers
Go ahead, America. Tie one on. Let’s get it out of our system: our sick and ailing body politic. Let’s see how drunk we can get on the likes of Donald Trump and the Bundy brothers. Let’s stagger around in swagger, enjoying the warm rush of bravado that only our American concoction can deliver. Then, let’s sober up and get down to the real business of governance. The political brew of our times — a strong swirl of xenophobia, religious bigotry, gun rights, and trickle-down economics — is, in the end, poison. It’s a specially fermented brand of identity politics, designed to extract votes from white, working-class people. The elixir helps us take our minds off the bigger, more pressing issues: our nation’s evolving role in a very scary world, and the forever-changed nature of work. Automation; overseas outsourcing; corporate dominance; cheap labor markets in the Third World; an entire sector that makes its money by gambling on Wall Street; and a broken, completely monetized electoral system: All of these things threaten to derail the American dream. And that makes us anxious. So we drink our bad brew and look around for people to blame for our struggles: Mexican immigrants. Syrian immigrants. Muslims. Gay people. Black people. Feminists. Atheists. People who don’t follow the right interpretation of the Bible. And, of course, the government. Forty years of this noxious mash has led us to a near-fatal stupor. What other than the political equivalent of “beer goggles” would prompt the eminently reasonable John McCain to pick Sarah Palin as his running mate? What else could bring us to the point where potential GOP-presidential nominee Donald Trump is seriously advocating a religious test for new immigrants? Oh, but that tough talk is so intoxicating! What a nice, nostalgic-for-high-school buzz the nation got when Palin poked fun at Obama’s “mom jeans.” What warm, heady laughs America enjoyed when Trump insulted everyone from supermodel Heidi Klum (“no longer a ‘10’”) to actor Robert DeNiro (“not Albert Einstein”). Trump saved his worst insult, however, for his biggest rivals, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. According to the reality-TV boss who can slam Muslims and leap tall buildings in a single day, Bush and Clinton are “low energy.” Maybe they’re introverts. Maybe they’re contemplative. Maybe, as my Grandma used to say, “Still waters run deep.” While Trump, by contrast, just runs. What other but our toxic, electoral swill could embolden a treasonous band of armed insurgents to take over a federal building in Oregon? Gun-toting ranchers are occupying the building at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, just outside the township of Burns. Their leader is Ammon Bundy and his two brothers, all sons of the domestic terrorist from Nevada, Cliven Bundy. Dubbed “armed protesters” by the news media, these insurrectionaries are angry that a federal court ruled against their fellow ranchers, convicted arsonists Dwight and Stephen Hammond. The court lengthened the Hammonds’ sentences for burning federal lands. The Bundy brothers, like their father, are turning land management disputes with the federal government into questions of territorial sovereignty. And while they say they don’t intend to harm anyone, they came armed, and have promised to defend themselves as necessary. That’s not peaceful protest. It’s armed insurgency. By calling for other “patriots” to come help locals “claim back their land,” the Bundy brothers are setting the stage for an armed conflict similar to their father’s Nevada standoff over impounded cattle. After the standoff, Cliven Bundy found conservative-media celebrity, which he promptly used to share his racist views with the rest of America. He claims that his states’ rights views were a revelation from God. We’ve gone around the bend, our country has, and it’s going to take more than 30 days in detox to bring us back. It’s going to take every peace-loving defender of the U.S. Constitution to stand up and say, “No more,” not only in print, but at the ballot box. Only We the People can do this. Our would-be leaders, faced with armed traitors challenging the authority of the United States government, have chosen to remain silent. They stand to lose votes, you see, for the presidency of a government that their constituents claim is illegitimate. Will we destroy ourselves with identity politics? Or will we get sober, quit blaming the “other,” and try to figure out how to make America work better for everyone? Right now, we seem to want to continue our indulgence. The first step toward healing, it is said, is admitting we have a problem. • • • Julie Delegal, a University of Florida alumna, is a contributor for Folio Weekly, Jacksonville’s alternative weekly, and writes for the family business, Delegal Law Offices. She lives in Jacksonville, Florida. For more state and national commentary visit Context Florida.
Martin Dyckman: As rhetoric descends, up pops evil
John Kasich has taken heat for a web ad that subtly compares Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. Narrated by a former Vietnam POW, retired Air Force Col. Tom Moe, it paraphrases German pastor Martin Niemoller’s famous statement of regret that he did not speak up for the tyrant’s victims until he became one “and there was no one left to speak for me.” Hitler analogies should be rare and expressed carefully lest comparisons to lesser evils trivialize his monstrosities. Too many events have already been compared to the Holocaust, for example. But let’s see what the ad says: You might not care if Donald Trump says Muslims should register with their government, because you’re not one. And you might not care if Donald Trump says he’s going to round up all the Hispanic immigrants, because you’re not one. And you might not care if Donald Trump says it’s OK to rough up black protesters, because you’re not one. And you might not care if Donald Trump wants to suppress journalists, because you’re not one. But think about this: If he keeps going, and he actually becomes president, he might just get around to you. And you better hope there’s someone left to help you. Although Kasich tried Sunday to disclaim the implication as Moe’s words, not his, the candidate’s super PAC produced it and he deserves the responsibility and the credit. That’s right, credit. It would be just as wrong to ignore Hitler’s examples as to trivialize them. History often repeats itself. Bad history should be taken as warning. It does not necessarily trivialize Hitler to observe that Trump’s strategy and tactics recall some of those favored by the one-time Austrian army corporal. Like Hitler, Trump is a demagogue. He demonizes minority targets. He relishes personal insults. He revels in baseless insinuations, as in persistently questioning President Obama’s citizenship. He invents his own “facts,” such as having personally witnessed crowds of Muslims cheering 9/11. He lies with glee – the bigger the lie the better – and then lies again when he denies saying or implying what millions of people heard and saw him say. His fundamental theme is to inflame the suspicions of people who think their country is failing itself, failing them, and riddled with conspiracies. So was Hitler’s. He sold himself as the avenger for all that was wrong and everyone who felt wronged. So does Trump. As Hitler exploited Germany’s economic crisis and inflamed the belief that Germany’s defeat in World War I owed to the country being sold out from within – by communists and Jews – rather than to exhaustion and failure at arms, Trump wants Americans to believe our country is failing. He promises to “make America great again,” as if it no longer is. It’s a witch’s brew of bigotry, paranoia and scapegoating – and it’s working. The more outrageously he behaves, the more devoted his mob seems to become. None of this is necessarily means that a president Trump would emulate how Hitler misused power. But he has said – and should be taken at his word – that he would try to round up and expel an estimated 11 million people without any care for the staggering consequences to them or to the industries – agriculture, construction, and hospitality in particular – that would collapse in their absence. How this could be done without concentration camps taxes the imagination. When he talks loosely about surveillance of mosques and identity cards for Muslims, the image that comes to mind is of yellow stars on clothing and passports stamped “Jude.” We have already shown a vulnerability to forfeiting our freedoms in the name of “security.” As the columnist Leonard Pitts wrote recently, Sept. 11 not only destroyed lives and buildings: … It also shredded the Constitution and made America unrecognizable to itself. The government tortured. It disappeared people. It snooped through innocent lives. It created a secret ‘no-fly list’ of supposed terrorists that included many people with zero connection to terrorism … it also gave the president unilateral power to execute American citizens suspected of terrorism without trial or even judicial oversight. And here comes Trump, who calls for waterboarding, which is torture. Where would that stop? Establishment, politicians, journalists, and campaign contributors still have some trouble believing that Trump could secure the Republican nomination, let alone win the White House. But it bears remembering that Hitler never won an election either. He used his strong showing in German’s 1932 election, and the unrequited passion of his followers, to blackmail an aging President Paul von Hindenburg into appointing him chancellor. Hindenburg’s death a year later sealed Germany’s doom. When Trump demands “respect,” is it the vice presidency he has in mind? Or some other lever of power? The truly tragic side to this is that Americans have many rightful complaints. The middle class is marginalized and floundering. Young people can’t afford homes and can’t envision a bright future. The government is unable or unwilling to admit and rectify its responsibility for widening income disparity. Wall Street remains much too unaccountable. Health care reform is incomplete and out-of-pocket costs continue to spiral. But there’s an anti-establishment presidential candidate who speaks to all these concerns without the bigotry, bombast, boorishness and bullying that characterize Trump. He is Bernie Sanders, whose additional virtues include the experience and judgment that Trump so boastfully lacks. He’s a reformer but he’s not a demagogue. He’s not a racist. He’s a humane, decent man. He’s everything that Trump is not. And if Trump doesn’t like being compared to Hitler, let him stop sounding like him. Martin Dyckman is a retired associate editor of the St. Petersburg Times. He lives near Asheville, North Carolina.
Hillary Clinton’s invoking of 9/11 to defend donations draws ire
Hillary Rodham Clinton defended her campaign contributions from Wall Street by invoking her work to help the financial sector rebuild after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, raising eyebrows among her Democratic challengers and Republicans alike. During Saturday’s second Democratic debate, Clinton was put on the defensive by rival Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders when he said Wall Street had been the major contributor to her campaigns. “Now maybe they’re dumb and they don’t know what they’re going to get, but I don’t think so,” he said. Clinton responded that she was representing New York in the Senate when downtown Manhattan was attacked and noted that she helped the city’s financial hub rebuild. “That was good for New York and it was good for the economy and it was a way to rebuke the terrorists who had attacked our country,” she said, her voice rising. Her response drew an incredulous response on social media sites like Twitter, and the debate’s moderators asked Clinton to respond to one Twitter user, who took issue with her mention of 9/11 to justify the contributions. “Well, I’m sorry that whoever tweeted that had that impression because I worked closely with New Yorkers after 9/11 for my entire first term to rebuild,” Clinton said. “I had a lot of folks give me donations from all kinds of backgrounds, say, ‘I don’t agree with you on everything. But I like what you do. I like how you stand up. I’m going to support you.’ And I think that is absolutely appropriate.” The exchange highlighted one of Sanders’ main critiques of Clinton: That she has maintained close ties to Wall Street executives during her political career and would be less forceful in policing the risky behavior of financial firms that Sanders says led to the economic downturn in 2008 and 2009. Both Sanders and ex-Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley support reinstating the Glass-Steagall law which once separated commercial and investment banking but was repealed in 1999 under her husband, President Bill Clinton. The former secretary of state says repealing Glass-Steagall wouldn’t go far enough to curb risks pushed by a shadow banking system. When Clinton raised Wall Street donations along with 9/11, her Democratic rivals quickly bounced. In the post-debate “spin room,” former O’Malley told reporters, “I’ll let her answer that gaffe. I think it was one of the biggest ones of the night.” Mark Longabaugh, a top Sanders’ adviser, said, “Do I think it’s a legitimate defense? No. I don’t see how you can make those two pieces go together.” He called the exchanges over Wall Street the “pivotal moments of the debate.” Republicans said Clinton had shamefully hid behind the 9/11 attacks to deflect attention from her ties to her wealthiest donors. And they signaled that the response would likely find its way into advertising if Clinton becomes the Democratic nominee. “It’s an intersection between stupid and offensive, and I think that’s going to be a big problem as the campaign heads into the general election,” said Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee’s chief strategist. Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta told reporters the Clinton’s “integrity was impugned and what she was saying was that she was proud to represent the state of New York, to help rebuild lower Manhattan.” “When people attack her and call her quote-unquote the ‘Senator from Wall Street,’ they ought to remember that she was instrumental in trying to rebuild an important part of the New York economy,” he said. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
