By the end of the week … will we have interest rate news? Happy Monday, wonks …
TOMORROW STARTS TONIGHT: DEFENSE COMMUNITY BRACES FOR SEQUESTER. Rebecca Shabad: The U.S. Army could be forced to a “breaking point” if spending cuts return in full force, a top defense official is warning.
In an interview published Monday by Stars and Stripes, Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Brad Carson discussed how sequestration is affecting different parts of the military.
NOT THE ONION: SANDERS WOOS THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT, via Ben Kamisar: Sen. Bernie Sanders sought to frame the fight against inequality as a moral obligation in a Monday address to a Christian conservative audience at Liberty University in Virginia.
Quoting scripture at times, the Vermont Independent and self-described Democratic socialist connected issues such as poverty, income disparity and racism with a biblical call for justice and righteousness.
“When we talk about morality and when we talk about justice, we have to, in my view, understand that there is no justice when so few have so much and so many have so little,” he said during the school’s convocation address. http://bit.ly/1ibGIEX
HAPPENING TONIGHT: DONALD TRUMP RALLY IN DALLAS… JUST AHEAD OF THE SECOND PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE. Monica Hernandez for WFAA: DALLAS — Donald Trump has sold out the American Airlines Center. The AAC confirmed that all 20,000 free tickets for his Monday night rally have been issued. Now, tickets are beginning to pop up on websites like Craigslist and eBay for as much as $100 apiece.
http://bit.ly/1Y5aMmC
EX-IM WATCH, via Vicki Needham: A top business group on Monday urged congressional lawmakers to pass a multi-year bill reviving the Export-Import Bank. The Business Roundtable (BRT) argued in a letter to House and Senate leaders that U.S. companies have lost international sales and put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk because Congress failed to reauthorize the bank before its charter expired June 30.
http://bit.ly/1ObiacM
POLL: DON’T SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT OVER PLANNED PARENTHOOD, via Peter Sullivan: A huge majority wants Congress to keep the government open, regardless of whether that means providing funding to Planned Parenthood, according to a CNN/ORC poll released Monday.
The poll finds that 71 percent of adults say it is more important for Congress to approve a spending bill to keep the government open, compared to 22 percent who say it is more important to eliminate all federal funds for Planned Parenthood. http://bit.ly/1VYsoi6
MY EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW OF THE WEEK AHEAD IN WASHINGTON: All eyes in the financial world are fixed on Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, who will hold a press conference Thursday where she could signal an increase in interest rates.
http://bit.ly/1KmxOQ3
SECOND CHANCES? CARSON EYES BIG-MONEY DONORS, via Jonathan Swann and Anna Primosch: Ben Carson’s rise to second place in national polls has been fueled by a small-dollar grassroots fundraising operation unrivaled in Republican politics.
But the retired neurosurgeon turned novice politician has struggled to win money from outside conservative groups, which could create a significant challenge for Carson to win the Republican presidential nomination. http://bit.ly/1QB3QZo