OVERNIGHT MONEY: Mock madness

As it stands, Senate Republicans are trying to find out if including Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), the retraining program, as part of the Korean deal negates access to the fast track.

For their part, the Obama administration and Democratic supporters will likely note that fast-track permits the inclusion of “necessary and appropriate” provisions.

But we’ll see how that flies with the GOP.

As for other hurdles: House Republicans aren’t thrilled either that TAA and Korea are being offered together, with Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) saying he won’t consent unless Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also agrees.

Perhaps not surprisingly, prospects aren’t so good on that front.

On Tuesday, McConnell said the inclusion of TAA “risks losing Republican support for something we have long been calling for.”

“I would strongly urge the administration to rethink this action, and urge them to send up all three pending trade agreements without delay and without extraneous poison pills included,” he said.

The House, meanwhile, could hold a mock-up next week at the earliest, after returning from a weeklong Fourth of July recess. 

During a conference call Tuesday night, a senior administration suggested that, if Congress strips TAA from the free trade agreement, the president might not submit the trade deals. 

Still, senior White House officials say they expect Congress to pass three pending trade agreements along with the TAA extension.

WHAT ELSE TO WATCH FOR:

About those 34 days: President Obama called it a “hard deadline” on Wednesday. But Treasury has said the deadline might shift a few days, and that an announcement could come as soon as Thursday.

Where we stand: The Senate will most likely decide Thursday, if not Wednesday night, whether to work through the July 4 holiday recess — a prospect that already has some congressional staffers banging their heads on the table.

If the Senate does stay in, the countdown to a Democratic budget alternative to the House-passed Paul Ryan plan might finally strike zero.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), the Budget chairman, revealed Wednesday that committee Democrats have finally agreed on a way to cut $4 trillion from the deficit. Look for the plan to be heavy on taxes — or, at the very least, heavier than the GOP plan — and expect Republicans to jump all over that.

Lobbying continues: Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Dem messaging guru, will follow up on President Obama’s call for GOP concessions in the debt-ceiling talks by preaching to the choir at the liberal Economic Policy Institute. Schumer is pushing a payroll tax holiday and infrastructure spending to stimulate the economy — both of which Obama happened to back in his Wednesday news conference.

Welcome back: It’ll be just like the early days of the Obama administration at the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, when lawmakers gather to talk deficit reduction. Why? Because Peter Orszag, Obama’s original director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), will be on hand to offer his take. It will be interesting to see if his turn from the public to the private sector — he’s now the vice chairman of global banking at Citigroup — has altered his perspective.

Farewell tour (cont.): Sheila Bair, the outgoing head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, may be T-minus less than a week — she’s out July 5 — but she’ll spend part of her last Thursday on the job with the Senate Banking Committee. Bair is set to unleash her take on the FDIC as she wraps up her five-year tenure running it. 

Fraud watch: Yet another panel of lawmakers will be jumping into the debate about financial fraud, as a Senate Judiciary subcommittee discusses oversight of the government’s Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force.

Appropriatin’: Senate Appropriations is set to mark up the relatively non-controversial 2012 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs bill, which cuts $618 million from current spending levels. The  Senate committee will spring into action not long after the House passed its version with near-unanimity early this month, though it remains to be seen how many bills the panel will put its stamp on as Democrats and Republicans await a debt-ceiling deal.

Think-tanked:

— The American Enterprise Institute is hosting a debate on the nation’s trade policy.

— The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars will be talking about the outlook for China’s economic policy.

— Ron Trostle, economist at the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service outlines new surges in food prices and the risks of such inflation to the U.S. at the National Economists Club. 

— Democracy: A Journal of Ideas will hold an event devoted to ways progressives can pursue an enterpreneurial agenda.

Economic indicators:

— The Labor Department will be out with new weekly numbers on initial claims for unemployment insurance.

— Freddie Mac will roll out its weekly update to national mortgage rates.

BREAKING WEDNESDAY:

Swipe fees!: They’re back! (Or maybe they never left.)

In any event, our Peter Schroeder reports that, after their most recent setback, banks gained something of a victory on Wednesday: The Federal Reserve’s latest proposal on how much financial institutions can charge for debit transactions is much more generous than the last one — though still much less than banks currently charge, on average. 

Corporate jets!: Democrats are trying to better tailor their current case for new tax revenues, The Wall Street Journal says, talking up corporate jet provisions after being widely viewed as having pulled the short straw in last year’s tax-cut compromise. In any event, Republicans still aren’t fans.

European turmoil: Greek officials might have approved new austerity measures on Wednesday, but new emergency loans might only last the debt-ridden country two months, The Washington Post reports. 

And housing: The vast majority of Americans believe homeownership is integral to the American Dream, but some are also skeptical whether it’s worth the cost, a new New York Times/CBS News poll found. 

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED:

On the Money’s Wednesday:

— Geithner on GOP plan to avoid default: “radical and deeply irresponsible” and “untested and unacceptably risky.”

— But Jim DeMint’s not buying it.

— IMF does say to raise the debt ceiling. Stat.

— So do a group of economists. 

— The taxpayer advocate says IRS fails to deal with taxpayers as humans. 

— Senate panel clears veterans’ jobs bill.

— And pending home sales rebound.