Happy Friday and welcome back to On The Money, where we’re wondering how far this Tom Arnold-Michael Cohen bromance will go. 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 floats tariffs on European car imports: President Trump on Friday threatened to place a 20 percent tariff on all European cars entering the United States.
“Based on the Tariffs and Trade Barriers long placed on the U.S. and it great companies and workers by the European Union, if these Tariffs and Barriers are not soon broken down and removed, we will be placing a 20% Tariff on all of their cars coming into the U.S.,” Trump tweeted Friday morning. “Build them here!”
The threat, which the president has made before, illustrates the escalating rhetoric in Trump’s approach to international trade.
Trump last week made good on a promise to punish China for its trade practices, announcing he would impose tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods.
This week, Trump further raised concerns of a trade war by asking his trade representative to evaluate another round of tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese products, a move that followed China’s retaliatory measure against the United States.
The Hill’s Mallory Shelbourne has more for us here on the latest tariff threat.
LEADING THE DAY
Nikki Haley: ‘Ridiculous’ for UN to analyze poverty in America: U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday dismissed a poverty report by the United Nations, saying it’s “ridiculous” for the intergovernmental body to analyze American poverty.
“It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America,” Haley said in a letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
“The Special Rapporteur wasted the UN’s time and resources, deflecting attention from the world’s worst human rights abusers and focusing instead on the wealthiest and freest country in the world.”
Sanders, along with several Democratic lawmakers in both chambers, earlier this month sent a letter to Haley asking her to show President Trump the conclusions of the report published by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.
The report blamed poverty in the United States on politics.
House panel approves belated 2019 budget: A House panel on Thursday approved a budget resolution for the 2019 fiscal year, advancing the measure two months after its legal deadline and well into the appropriations process it is meant to precede.
The resolution passed the House Budget Committee along a strict, party-line vote of 21-13.
“The largest looming shadow of doubt on America’s future is, quite simply, the extent of the nation’s debt,” Committee Chairman Steve Womack (R-Ark.) said in his opening remarks of the two-day markup. The national deficit, he noted, was projected to reach nearly $1 trillion next year.
The resolution approved Thursday lays out a path to balance the budget over a decade and calls for $8.1 trillion in deficit reduction measures to reach that goal.
The Hill’s Niv Elis breaks it down here.
FINANCE IN FOCUS: Will tax law help GOP? It’s a mystery six months in. Voters feel positive about the economy, and polling on the generic congressional ballot isn’t as bad for Republicans as it was several months ago. But the tax law has never become overwhelmingly popular, and aspects of it could be concerning for swing voters.
Both Republicans and Democrats believe that the tax law will be a winning issue for them in the midterms, leading each side to note the six-month mark with a series of events.
“Tax reform, to be blunt, is the game-changer our economy needed,” said Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) at a press conference Wednesday.
At a separate press conference held at the same time, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the tax law a “shameful, dark cloud of a tax break for corporate America and the richest people.”
The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda explores why it’s still so hard pick a winner six months in.
ON TAP NEXT WEEK
Monday:
- R Street Institute hosts an event on fixing the federal budget process, 12 p.m.
Tuesday:
- American Enterprise Institute hosts an event on economic success for black men in America
- House Financial Services Committee: Hearing entitled “Oversight of the Federal Government’s Approach to Lead-Based Paint and Mold Remediation in Public and Subsidized Housing,” 10 a.m.
- Senate Banking Committee: Hearing on legislative proposals to increase access to capital, 10 a.m.
- House Financial Services Committee: Hearing entitled “International and Domestic Implications of De-Risking,” 2 p.m.
- The Heritage Foundation hosts an event on U.S. foreign aid reform, 2 p.m.
Wednesday
- American Enterprise Institute hosts an eventon Federal Reserve reform proposals with Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), 8:30 a.m.
- House Financial Services Committee: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson testifiesbefore the panel during a HUD oversight hearing, 10 a.m.
- House Small Business Committee: Hearingentitled “ZTE: A Threat to America’s Small Businesses,” 11 a.m.
- Federal Reserve Vice Chairman of Supervision Randal Quarles delivers a speech on international regulatory cooperation at a bankers conference in Idaho, 11 a.m.
Thursday:
- Senate Banking Committee: Hearing on legislative proposals to examine corporate governance, 10 a.m.
- Senate Finance Committee: Hearing on the nomination of Charles Rettig to serve as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, 10 a.m.
NEXT WEEK’S NEWS, NOW
- Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson will testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Thursday. Democrats have been highly critical of Carson and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the committee’s ranking member, has called the secretary “an educated fool” who “doesn’t care about people in public housing.” You can expect some fireworks.
- The Senate Banking Committee will hold hearings on Tuesday and Thursday on ways to boost capital formation and improve corporate governance at small businesses and start-ups. Senate GOP leaders promised House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) in May that it would vote on bills from his panel that tackle those topics after he pledged to support the Senate’s Dodd-Frank rollbacks. We’ll see next week how much appetite the Senate has to follow through.
- The Senate Finance Committee will hold a confirmation hearing Thursday for Charles Rettig, who President Trump nominated to lead the IRS. If confirmed, Rettig will be tasked with overseeing the implementation of the new GOP tax-cut law Trump signed last year and will watch over the first tax-filing season under the new code. He would also oversee an agency that is facing a number of technology and cybersecurity challenges.
GOOD TO KNOW
- The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and Russia agreed Friday to make modest crude oil production increases in a bid to stop price spikes.
- Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) praised President Trump’s conservative budget director, Mick Mulvaney, as a “very bright, highly principled individual,” and said he actually recommended the former Freedom Caucus leader for the White House job.
- Cryptocurrencies have lost $350 billion in value year-to-date, according to MarketWatch.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) asked the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to retract its endorsement of Trump’s CFPB director nominee, Kathy Kraninger, over her potential ties to the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy.
ODDS AND ENDS
- Nearly one in four Americans report they have no emergency savings. And many don’t seem too concerned, according to Bloomberg.
- Police say an Uber driver whose self-driving car struck and killed a pedestrian was streaming a television show on her phone when the accident happened.
- The much-awaited rebound in euro-area growth momentum may have finally begun.
The Hill event
Join us Tuesday, June 26 for “Mergers and Innovation: Measuring Performance and Patient Care,” featuring HHS Deputy Secretary Eric Hargan, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas). Topics of discussion include how the landscape of health care delivery in the United States is undergoing a dramatic shift, its implications for health care industry stakeholders and patients and also the role of Congress in ensuring all Americans have access to quality care. RSVP Here.