Overnight Finance: Puerto Rico bill coming Wednesday; Trump tax talk

TRUMP: US WON’T DEFAULT BECAUSE IT PRINTS MONEY: Donald Trump declared Monday that the United States never has to default on its debt because it has the ability to print money.

“People said I want to go and buy debt and default on debt — these people are crazy. This is the United States government. First of all, you never have to default because you print the money, I hate to tell you, OK? So there’s never a default,” Trump said on CNN’s “New Day.”

{mosads}The presumptive Republican presidential nominee echoed that sentiment during an interview on Fox Business, saying, “A lot of the papers said, ‘Donald Trump wants to go and start negotiating with creditors.’ First of all, you don’t have to think about this, but we print the money.”

Trump pushed back on coverage of his remarks from outlets including The New York Times, which reported that Trump was suggesting he might reduce the national debt by persuading creditors to accept less than full payment. The newspaper called such remarks unprecedented among modern candidates. The Hill’s Jesse Byrnes walks us through Trump’s claims: http://bit.ly/21PPLgm.

NEW PUERTO RICO BILL TO DEBUT WEDNESDAY: Reworked legislation to address Puerto Rico’s debt crisis will be unveiled Wednesday.

House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) told Reuters he wanted to make the bill public Wednesday, with the goal of having his panel vote on it a week later.

Work on the bill stalled in April, after Bishop had to cancel a previously scheduled markup of the legislation as members aired concerns and questions about the package.

Bishop has consistently maintained that the changes to the bill will be minor and that the overall framework — establishing an outside fiscal control board for the island and giving it debt restructuring powers — will remain intact. The Hill’s Peter Schroeder brings us up to speed: http://bit.ly/1UNQ9Lg.

STUDY: MOST WOULD SEE NET BENEFITS FROM SANDERS’ PROPOSALS: All but the wealthiest households would see net income gains under Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’s proposals, according to a report released Monday.

“For most households, additional government benefits would more than offset the tax increases,” the non-partisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center (TPC) said in the report.

Sanders has released a number of proposals to expand and create new social-insurance programs. These include single-payer healthcare, comprehensive coverage for long-term services and supports, expanding Social Security benefits, free college tuition at public universities and paid family leave. The candidate has proposed paying for these programs through tax changes for individuals and businesses.

TPC in March estimated that Sanders’s tax plan would raise $15.3 trillion over 10 years. Everyone would pay more taxes under his plan, and most of the new revenue would come from the wealthy. The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda tells who gets what: http://bit.ly/1rDpd5p.

HAPPY MONDAY and welcome to Overnight Finance, where we’re kind of over the rain to be honest. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

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ON TAP TOMORROW:

• Senate Finance Committee: Hearing titled “Can Evidence Based Practices Improve Outcomes for Vulnerable Individuals and Families?” 10 a.m. http://1.usa.gov/1q408PP
• Investment Company Institute event titled “Assessing the New DOL Fiduciary Rule: Policy and Practical Challenges.” http://bit.ly/1TMJHBQ

THE INTERNET OF THINGS: Join us on Tuesday, May 10 for Internet of Things: The Next Frontier in Tech Innovation. Policymakers & industry leaders will discuss public-private partnerships for developing and implementing cutting-edge mobile technologies, and the policies and regulations necessary to ensure the security of these new tools. Sponsored by Visa. RSVP here.

TRUMP ENVISIONS CHANGES TO TAX PLAN: Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said in an interview broadcast Sunday that there will be changes to his tax plan after negotiations.

“By the time it gets negotiated, it’s going to be a different plan,” Trump said on ABC’s “This Week.”

According to the candidate’s plan, the tax rate for the wealthiest people in the country would drop from 39.6 percent to 25 percent. But he said that would likely change.

“On my plan, they’re going down. But by the time it’s negotiated, they’ll go up,” Trump said.

“Look, when I’m negotiating with the Democrats, I’m putting in a plan. I’m putting in my optimum plan. It’s going to be negotiated. … It’s not going to stay there. They’re not going to say, ‘There’s your plan, let’s approve it.’ They’re going to say, ‘Let’s see what we can do.’ “

He said the most important parts of his tax plan include lowering taxes on businesses and the middle class. He said he’ll “try and keep everything,” adding that the country is the “highest-taxed nation in the world.” http://bit.ly/1NoCkS1.

But hold on…

‘EVERYBODY IS GETTING A TAX CUT’: Trump on Monday defended his tax proposals, saying he does not plan to raise taxes on the wealthy.

“Everybody is getting a tax cut, especially the middle class,” Trump said on CNN’s “New Day,” pushing back on interviewer Chris Cuomo, who noted reports of Trump discussing increased taxes on the rich.

“I said that I may have to increase it on the wealthy. I’m not going to allow it to be increased on the middle class,” Trump continued.

“Now, if I increase it on the wealthy, that means they’re still going to pay less than they’re paying now,” he said. “I’m not talking about increasing from this point, I’m talking about increasing from my tax proposals.” http://bit.ly/1Yiq6L8.

EX-WHITE HOUSE ADVISER SAYS PLAN IS TOO RISKY: Former National Economic Council Director Gene Sperling said Monday that Donald Trump’s tax plan is the “most regressive, pro-well off tax cut one has ever seen.”

“This is the most risky, reckless and regressive tax proposal ever put forward by a major presidential candidate,” Sperling said in a call held by Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Sperling said that “the only thing one can do is look at [the] black and white of his paper and not be fooled by his shifting comments.”

He noted that while Trump’s plan advertises that the top individual rate would be lowered to 25 percent from 39.6 percent, it would actually be lowered even further, to 15 percent, for people with income from pass-through businesses: http://bit.ly/21PVVND.

‘PANAMA PAPERS’ DATABASE GOES LIVE: A searchable database of the so-called Panama Papers — a massive trove of data exposing thousands of wealthy users of offshore tax havens — is now live online.

The 11.5 million documents, leaked by an unknown source from a Panama law firm, link more than 200,000 shell companies and 14,000 clients to the use of tax havens.

According to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) — which up until now has had sole access to the documents — the database reveals the names of the real owners of many of the exposed shell companies.

Not all of the 11.5 million documents have been published, however. The database that went live on Monday reveals a total of 360,000 names of people and companies, but ICIJ “is not disclosing raw documents or personal information en masse.” The Hill’s Katie Bo Williams tells us more: http://bit.ly/1T1F44C.

TRUMP BECOMES PUERTO RICO WILD CARD: Donald Trump has become a wild card in Speaker Paul Ryan’s effort to win House passage of a debt relief package for Puerto Rico.

A pair of confusing interviews from the presumptive GOP presidential nominee has left competing impressions on whether he actually supports the emerging House legislation, which represents one of Ryan’s top legislative priorities.

House lawmakers are mulling a bill that would set up an outside control board for the island’s finances and allow it to restructure its debt, which now totals more than $70 billion.

Trump told CNN on Wednesday that he opposed a bailout of the island, even though the current House proposal does not direct any new federal dollars to the territory.

A day later, Trump told Fox News that it was inevitable the island would have to restructure its debt, which is a move that can only be forced by an act of Congress.

“You can restructure the debt without a bailout,” he said Thursday. “You can restructure the debt. Bondholders are going to take a hit; let the bondholders take a hit.” Peter Schroeder walks us through the confusion: http://bit.ly/1OcmQ3L.

HOME PRICES TICK UP IN MOST METROS DURING Q1: A majority of U.S. metro areas saw median home prices rise in the first three months of the year amid a combination of more sales and tight supply, according to a new report.

The median existing single-family home price increased in 87 percent of measured markets, with 154 out of 178 metropolitan areas posting gains, according to the latest quarterly report by the National Association of Realtors, issued Monday.

More markets saw price increases in the January–March period than in the final quarter of last year, where increases were recorded in 81 percent of metro areas.

There were 24 areas, or 13 percent, that recorded lower median prices from a year earlier. The Hill’s Vicki Needham maps it out: http://bit.ly/1SZy63w.

REGULATOR REPORTS MAJOR BANK BREACHES: The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on Monday reported to Congress five “major incidents” of data breaches involving taxpayers’ personally identifiable information, The Washington Post reports.

Each case involves employees with authorized access to the data who inadvertently downloaded the information with personal files when they left the agency, according to the Post. The individuals involved signed affidavits affirming that the information was not shared, and the FDIC considers them low-risk cases.

But each case meets the 10,000-record threshold that defines a “major incident,” according to an FDIC Office of Inspector General decision in February.

The reporting follows an incident revealed in April in which a departing employee accidentally breached the data of roughly 44,000 FDIC customers.

According to an agency memo, the employee downloaded the information to a personal storage device “inadvertently and without malicious intent.” http://bit.ly/24HLalq.

PENSION CHIEF WARNS OF DIFFICULT CUTS AFTER TREASURY DECISION: The head of the Central States Pension Fund is warning of the potential for “very, very, very difficult” pension cuts after the Treasury Department blocked a last-ditch effort to ward off insolvency.

Central States, which includes Teamsters members, is weighing whether to submit another rescue plan to the Treasury Department for reconsideration, but Thomas Nyhan, the fund’s executive director, warned it would be “much more severe than our original plan.”

“As time goes on, the benefit cuts have to get larger,” Nyhan told reporters Monday.

“Right now, it would be a very, very, very difficult plan — if we come up with one — requiring very severe benefit reductions, much more severe than was in our original plan,” he added. The Hill’s Tim Devaney explains: http://bit.ly/1OkJyRM.

NIGHTCAP: Krispy Kreme just got bought for $1.35 billion.