Economy

OVERNIGHT MONEY: The flip side

by Bernie Becker, Vicki Needham, Erik Wasson and Peter Schroeder - 05/26/11 12:23 AM ET

With that in mind, tomorrow’s plan could again stress the House GOP’s desire to get top marginal corporate and individual tax rates down to 25 percent. Boehner and especially Cantor have also talked up the idea of letting U.S. multinationals bring offshore profits here at a reduced tax rate.

Republican lawmakers in both chambers have also pushed for swift passage of the pending trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, which are now somewhat mired in a dispute over a worker assistance program. Some House Republicans have also called patent reform a priority.

WHAT ELSE TO WATCH FOR:

Together again: But far from for the first time. Vice President Biden and the group of bipartisan lawmakers are set to talk debt ceiling again, after the vice president said Tuesday that he believe the group is on pace to get more than $1 trillion in deficit cuts as a down payment on fiscal reform. The group is looking at mandatory savings, such as cuts to federal employee retirement benefits, but so far the GOP is not budging on any revenue increases

Locke it up: Commerce Secretary Gary Locke – a.k.a, the Obama administration’s choice for next ambassador to Beijing – has a nomination hearing for that gig tomorrow. But keep in mind: Senate Republicans have vowed to not confirm any successor to Locke – as well as any other trade-related nominees – until the three trade deals are passed.

{mosads}Speaking of which: The Senate Finance Committee is slated to discuss that Korea agreement, with testimony from Demetrios Marantis, deputy U.S. trade representative.

The banking world: The Senate Banking Committee is expected to hear from various housing stakeholders — developers, builders, realtors – as it joins the debate on reforming that market on Thursday — and with a full panel hearing, no less. (The hearing comes a day after their House counterparts weighed a second set of GOP bills to wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).

Senate Banking is also scheduled to kick off tomorrow’s festivities with a vote on another administration nominee: Timothy Massad, for Treasury’s assistant secretary for financial stability. Massad has served in that role in an acting capacity since September 2010.

Meanwhile, a House Financial Services subcommittee is set to talk up oversight of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation with Sheila Bair, the agency’s outgoing chairwoman. The banking regulator has had a bigger role to play over the last year, as it works with other financial regulators to prop up the Dodd-Frank financial overhaul.

Bureaucrats!: With Republicans maintaining the federal payroll is bloated, a House Oversight subcommittee is set to take a hard look at where the workforce can be trimmed, nipped and tucked on Thursday.

The press conference circuit: A bipartisan group of lawmakers will gather tomorrow to press their case for the repeal of a rule that would require federal and state and lots of local governments to withhold, for taxes, 3 percent of payments to contractors.

The provision, enacted by Congress in 2006, was recently pushed back for a year by the IRS and would go into effect at the end of 2012 – unless this group of lawmakers can kill it for good.

The think tank circuit: Peter Orszag, President Obama’s former budget director and current Citigroup executive, is slated to discuss deficits and the debt ceiling at the Peterson Institute.

Economic indicators:

— The Commerce Department is set to unveil its second estimate of the first quarter’s gross domestic product.

— And, per usual, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its weekly figures on initial unemployment claims.

BREAKING WEDNESDAY:

Christmas in May?: Senate Democrats and Republicans each may have received powerful gifts, with the Senate rejecting both the Ryan budget plan and the Obama 2012 budget. Forty GOPers voted for the Ryan plan – including Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, who is being challenged from the right in his reelection campaign. (Olympia Snowe of Maine, who could also face a serious primary challenge, decided to vote against the budget.)

For their part, Republicans hope to embarrass the president with the fact that his budget proposal, greeted warmly by many Democrats in February, received exactly no votes in the Senate. Obama himself had reversed course last month, calling for more deficit reduction than was in his budget.

The real inside scoop?: A new report from academics says that House members did a good bit better in the stock market – 6 percent, to be exact – than the population at-large. (The same researchers found several years back that senators were even sharper, getting a 10 percent better return.)

According to a Huffington Post article on the study, the researchers suggest, but don’t outright say, that lawmakers’ secret weapon may be their access to non-public information. In any event, Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and Tim Walz (D-Minn.) used the release of the report to push their measure that looks to put the kibosh on members profiting from information not available to the public at-large.

The gulf on unemployment: The House Rules Committee had been set to take up just the latest issue to illustrate Congress’ partisan divide: a GOP-sponsored measure that would provide states with more flexibility on how to spend their share of the $31 billion in federal unemployment funds. But that meeting was delayed late on Wednesday.

House Democrats had Wednesday blasted out a list of questions and answers on the legislation, to highlight their stance that the bill would end guaranteed federal unemployment insurance.

Under the Republican proposal, states must pass laws that direct how the unemployment money is distributed before any changes can be made on the allocations. If states don’t make that call, the funds can only be spent on federal extended and emergency benefits.

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:

On the Money’s Wednesday:

— Elizabeth Warren and House Republicans: The fallout continues.

— Tim Geithner: “Our fallback plan is for Congress to pass the debt limit.”

— Bill Clinton’s statement on default? It didn’t come out right.

— But he does think Democrats need to look at Medicare, even with Tuesday’s House victory.

— Paul Ryan on that loss: “Demagoguery,” “Mediscare” helped us lose.

— Max Baucus: Trade deals, TAA a package.

— Gene Sperling on Eric Cantor: He’s all right.

— Alan Simpson on Grover Norquist: He’s a nut.

— Cathy McMorris Rodgers wants to yank the U.S. out of the Euro debt crisis for good.

— Democrats, Republicans spar over refundable tax credits.