Yellen pushes back on GOP banking deregulation plan: Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen is pushing back on Republican efforts to ease certain post-recession regulations on banks intended to keep them stable through a financial crisis.
Yellen told the Senate Banking Committee that “we can never be confident that there won’t be another” panic on Thursday morning, just weeks after she predicted there wouldn’t be another financial crisis in our lifetimes. She also asked lawmakers to maintain requirements targeted by Republicans for how much cash major banks must hold.
Yellen also called on lawmakers to preserve the main framework federal regulators use to test a “systemically important” bank’s ability to continue lending during a financial crisis. Several major financial institutions lacked the capital to operate during the 2008 crisis triggered by a collapse in risky mortgage-backed securities.
{mosads}”Our stress-testing regime is forcing banks to greatly improve their risk management and capital planning,” Yellen said. “It’s given us assurance that even if there is a very significant downturn in the economy, they will be able to function and provide for the credit needs of the economy.” I have more here: http://bit.ly/2ujI3TV.
Trump dodges on Russia sanctions bill: President Trump on Wednesday refused to say whether he would sign a Russia sanctions bill, adding uncertainty to the measure that is currently stalled in Congress.
“We have very heavy sanctions on Russia right now,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling to France.
“I would not and have never even thought about taking them off. Somebody said, Donald Trump wants to — I don’t want to take them off.”
The Senate passed the sanctions bill 98-2 last month, but it has been stuck in the House due to partisan and procedural disputes.
The legislation codifies sanctions on Moscow for interfering in the 2016 presidential election. Congress would be able to override Trump if he decided to lift the sanctions. The Hill’s Jordan Fabian reports: http://bit.ly/2ujT8nR.
Mnuchin touts growth as solution to Social Security, Medicare woes: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Thursday said economic growth could be a fix for the Social Security and Medicare trust funds after a new report reaffirmed the limited financial lifespans of both programs.
“To help make these programs sustainable into the future, we should focus on strengthening the economy today. Compounding growth will help ease projected shortfalls,” he said.
The Trump administration has relied on the promise of higher economic growth as a means of solving budgetary and fiscal woes, as well as keeping certain reforms revenue neutral.
Thursday’s annual report of the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees found that Social Security’s fund would run out in 2034 — consistent with last year’s findings — and that scheduled tax revenues would only be able to cover about three-fourths of the expenses after that. The Hill’s Niv Elis explains: http://bit.ly/2ujHDgl.
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Trump may levy quotas, tariffs on steel imports: President Trump said he is considering slapping tariffs and quotas on steel imports, a move that could irritate trade tensions with key allies.
Trump said China and other nations are responsible for selling cheap steel imports here, turning the United States into “a dumping ground.”
“They’re dumping steel and destroying our steel industry, they’ve been doing it for decades, and I’m stopping it. It’ll stop,” the president told reporters during a Wednesday flight to Paris on Air Force One.
“There are two ways — quotas and tariffs. Maybe I’ll do both,” he said.
The Commerce Department is investigating whether tariffs should be slapped on countries that import steel for national security reasons. A report was expected last month but has been delayed while the Pentagon evaluates the effects of the policy. The Hill’s Vicki Needham explains: http://bit.ly/2vhT9WN.
Dems skeptical of GOP tax reform outreach: Democrats say they have little reason to believe that Republicans are serious about doing tax reform on a bipartisan basis, saying they have yet to put meaningful action behind their words.
While Republicans have expressed an interest in bipartisanship on the issue and held a few meetings with Democratic lawmakers, they are also planning to pass tax-reform legislation through a process known as reconciliation, which would allow a bill to pass the Senate with only GOP support.
Additionally, key Republicans are working to reach agreement on a tax framework in talks that Democratic lawmakers have not been invited to.
The lack of deep bipartisan outreach is frustrating Democratic lawmakers, who say they agree with Republicans that the tax code needs to be overhauled.
“The history of this is you get both sides in early, and you get both sides invested,” Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, said this week. “It’s a prescription for trouble to not do it.” The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda reports: http://bit.ly/2ujLkCw.
Senate appropriators approve first bill, with no budget in sight: The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved its first spending bill for the 2018 fiscal year, despite the fact that no budget numbers have been set by the Budget Committee.
Under normal order, the budget committee of each chamber is meant to produce top-line spending figures before the appropriators dole out the funds to various agencies and programs.
Neither the House nor Senate budget panels have approved their budget resolutions for the 2018 spending year, which begins in October.
On the House side, appropriators have moved forward based on an informal agreement on where the budget numbers will fall, and they plan to finish all appropriations work by next Wednesday. Niv Elis explains: http://bit.ly/2ujO9Uh.
Trump to certify Iran complying with nuclear deal: report: President Trump plans to certify that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal brokered by former President Obama, the Weekly Standard reported Thursday.
The administration faces a Monday deadline, imposed by Congress, to affirm that Tehran is abiding by restrictions on its nuclear program, for which it receives sanctions relief.
Trump promised during the 2016 campaign that he would “tear up” the Obama-era agreement, which he and other Republicans say did not go far enough in dismantling Iran’s nuclear program.
But the decision about whether to scrap the deal has reportedly sparked fierce internal divisions, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson arguing the U.S. should keep the seven-nation accord: http://bit.ly/2ujOciP.
CBO: Trump budget would not balance: President Donald Trump’s budget would not balance after a decade, according to a score from the Congressional Budget Office released Thursday.
The CBO analysis found that the budget would reduce deficit spending from the current baseline of 3.6 percent of GDP by about a third, with deficits over the decade ranging between 2.6 percent of GDP and 3 percent of GDP.
When Trump released his budget proposal, the White House said it would eliminate the deficit in a decade and reduce the national debt to 60 percent of GDP, down from the current 77 percent.
CBO assessed that the debt burden would rise to 80 percent. That’s 11 points below the current projections, but far from the promises touted by the White House: http://bit.ly/2ujZzHL.
Trump budget director coins new term: MAGAnomics: White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney is touting a new term for President Trump’s economic agenda, calling it “MAGAnomics” in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.
“We are promoting MAGAnomics — and that means sustained 3% economic growth,” Mulvaney wrote.
The substance of MAGAnomics, — which uses an acronym for Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again” — is no different than what Mulvaney has been describing as Trumponomics for weeks.
In May, The Economist published a withering cover story entitled, “Why Trumponomics won’t make America great again.” After interviewing the president on his economic agenda, the magazine concluded that Trumponomics “is not an economic doctrine at all.”
In the aftermath of the article, Mulvaney made multiple appearances stating that Trumponomics meant achieving sustained 3 percent economic growth: http://bit.ly/2ujfExd.
Norquist: ObamaCare taxes kept in health bill should be repealed in tax reform: Senate GOP leadership should pledge to repeal ObamaCare’s taxes on high earners in tax-reform legislation since they were left in place in the chamber’s revised healthcare bill, anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist said.
“All Obamacare taxes should be repealed,” Norquist, the President of Americans for Tax Reform, said in a statement Thursday. “The Trump tax reform plan, the House health bill, and the original Senate health bill abolished the Obamacare 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax. Given the most recent language leaves some of the taxes in place, it is important for Senate Leadership to make it clear that those taxes will be abolished in tax reform this year.”
The revised Senate healthcare bill, released Thursday, would keep two ObamaCare taxes that apply to high earners: the net investment income tax and the 0.9-percent Medicare surtax. The measure still repeals other ObamaCare taxes, including taxes on the medical device and prescription-drug industries: http://bit.ly/2ujPDxF.
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