Happy Monday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.
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THE BIG DEAL–Trump presses GM, UAW to start talks now over closed Ohio plant: President Trump on Monday ratcheted up pressure on General Motors to engage in talks to reopen a shuttered plant in Ohio, one day after he separately blamed the company CEO and a local union leader for the closure.
Trump urged GM and United Automobile Workers (UAW) leaders to start negotiations “now” rather than waiting until the fall, when the union’s contract runs out.
{mosads}”I want jobs to stay in the U.S.A. and want Lordstown (Ohio), in one of the best economies in our history, opened or sold to a company who will open it up fast!” he tweeted. “Car companies are all coming back to the U.S. So is everyone else.”
“Close a plant in China or Mexico, where you invested so heavily pre-Trump, but not in the U.S.A. Bring jobs home!” he added. The Hill’s Brett Samuels has more here.
- The president has pressured GM via Twitter in recent days over the Lordstown plant, which closed earlier this month.
- On Sunday, he appeared to blame a local union leader for the company’s decision and later tweeted that he spoke to GM CEO Mary Barra to express his displeasure.
- The Youngstown Vindicator reported that the current contract between GM and the UAW expires in September, and the two sides will engage in negotiations in the coming months.
LEADING THE DAY
Trump renews call to pull arts, PBS funding: President Trump’s 2020 budget proposal calls for eliminating popular programs such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund stations such as PBS and NPR, and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
Trump had proposed eliminating the programs in his last two budgets as well, suggestions Congress ignored.
The 2020 request, which was released in its entirety Monday, calls for scrapping $435 million from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and $126 million from the NEA, leaving both with a few million dollars to manage an orderly shutdown. The Hill’s Niv Elis breaks it down here.
- Trump’s overall fiscal 2020 budget will spend $4.7 trillion on discretionary and mandatory programs.
- Regarding public broadcasting, the administration argued that it provides only a fraction of the funds for popular stations such as PBS and NPR.
- Proponents of publicly funded journalism say the funding largely benefits stations in rural areas that would struggle to stay afloat on just ad revenue and that public funding promotes high-quality journalism.
Alan Krueger, former chief Obama economic adviser, dies at 58: Alan Krueger, a Princeton University economist who advised two presidents, has died at the age of 58.
Krueger killed himself, according to a statement from his family. Police reportedly discovered his body inside his home on Saturday and he was later declared dead at a New Jersey hospital.
“It is with tremendous sadness we share that Professor Alan B. Krueger, beloved husband, father, son, brother, and Princeton professor of economics took his own life over the weekend,” the family said in its statement. “The family requests the time and space to grieve and remember him.”
The university first announced Krueger’s passing on Monday morning without stating a cause. It called him “a true leader in his field, known and admired for both his research and teaching” and whose “life exemplified a commitment to public service.” The Hill’s Jordan Fabian and Zack Budryk have more on Krueger’s life and the response to his death.
Washington pays tribute to Krueger:
- “He saw economic policy not as a matter of abstract theories, but as a way to make people’s lives better.” — Former President Barack Obama
- “His convincing empirical research on the most important questions is a lasting legacy. A devastating loss.” — Jason Furman, who succeeded Kruger as Obama’s CEA chief.
GOOD TO KNOW
- President Trump’s trade wars have cost consumers over $20 billion, according to a pro-trade advocacy group that lobbies against tariffs.
- Nearly half of female economists surveyed in the U.S. said they have been discriminated against because of their sex, and some reported that colleagues have sexually assaulted them or attempted to do so, according to a new industry survey.
- President Trump’s 2020 spending proposal has drawn criticism from deficit hawks worried that it fails to balance the budget within a decade, but some Democrats are promoting a new economic theory that says deficits don’t really matter.
- The Trump administration on Monday proposed placing limits on federal student borrowing programs as part of a series of initiatives to amend the Higher Education Act.
- The European Union’s top competition regulator said Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) proposal to break up large tech companies should only be considered as a “last resort.”
ODDS AND ENDS
- Americans are expected to bet $8.5 billion on this year’s NCAA men’s basketball tournament, according to a report released Monday by the American Gaming Association (AGA).