On The Money: Trump to seek new round of tax cuts after midterms | Mnuchin meets with Saudi crown prince | Trump threatens to cut foreign aid over caravan

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 says he will push for new round of tax cuts after midterms: 
President Trump said Monday he will push for a vote on a second round of tax cuts during the lame-duck session of Congress following the midterm election.

“We’re doing it now for middle-income people. This is not for business, this is for middle,” Trump told reporters at the White House, adding: “we’ll do the vote after the election.”

The president said he will put forward a proposal in the next two weeks that will include a 10-percent reduction for middle-class Americans.

Trump over the weekend caused confusion when he said the new round of tax cuts would be introduced “sometime just prior to November.” 

The House is currently out of session and will reconvene again on Nov. 13.

What comes next: It’s going to be almost impossible to move major legislation that isn’t a government-funding bill during the lame duck session to start after the midterms. Congress will face a nasty debate over border wall funding and other sensitive issues once lawmakers return to Washington, and the Senate also has a ton of Trump nominees to clear before year’s end.

 

On tap tomorrow

• The Heritage Foundation hosts an event on the U.S. auto industry and free trade featuring Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), 9:30 a.m.
• The Brookings Institution hosts an event on taxing the “gig economy,” 9:30 a.m.
• The Brookings Institution hosts an event on the fallout from Brexit for the U.K., Ireland and Europe, 2:00 p.m.

 

LEADING THE DAY

Mnuchin meets with Saudi crown prince amid Khashoggi crisis: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Monday met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia amid an ongoing international crisis over the death of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi. 

The Saudi Foreign Ministry tweeted a photo of the two men with a caption touting “the importance of Saudi-US strategic partnership.”

Mnuchin’s spokesman Tony Sayegh tweeted that the secretary and crown prince discussed “terrorist financing, implementing Iran sanctions, Saudi economic issues and the Khashoggi investigation.”

Mnuchin was scheduled to meet with Middle Eastern leaders in Riyadh to discuss terror financing, but it was not previously reported that he would be meeting with the crown prince. While the secretary frequently posts pictures of himself with foreign dignitaries on Twitter, his feed had no trace of the meeting with bin Salman. Here’s more on their huddle from The Hill’s Emily Birnbaum.

 

Mnuchin’s meeting came as President Trump told reporters Monday that he’s “not satisfied” with Saudi Arabia’s official explanation for Khashoggi’s death and indicated he would not accept the kingdom’s request to have one month to complete its full investigation into the killing.

“I think that’s a long time,” the president said. “There’s no reason for that much.”

 

More on the U.S-Saudi crisis:

• Mnuchin: ‘Premature to comment on sanctions’ against Saudi Arabia
• Tech giant faces crucial decision over Saudi ties
• White House adviser Jared Kushner on Monday broke his public silence following the death of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, saying the Trump administration is still in the “fact-finding phase.”

 

Trump: US to ‘begin cutting off’ aid to countries associated with migrant caravan: President Trump on Monday said that the U.S. will begin to cut off or reduce aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador as citizens of those countries flee for the U.S. as part of a so-called caravan of migrants.

In a trio of tweets, the president escalated his rhetoric surrounding the group of migrants, declaring a national emergency as they approach the border and claiming that “unknown Middle Easterners” had joined the group, which appears to be an entirely baseless claim.

“Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S. We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them,” Trump wrote in a tweet.

Is that going to happen? Probably not. As I’ve written about before here, foreign aid is popular among lawmakers in both parties and the Pentagon as a way to prevent national security threats from arising in the first place. Congress has rejected Trump’s foreign aid cuts before, and it will almost certainly do it again barring a massive shift within the GOP.

 

Trump to make Iran oil waivers harder to get: The Trump administration will hold countries to a higher standard if they want a waiver from the coming sanctions on importing Iranian oil.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Reuters Sunday that in order to avoid sanctions, countries will have to reduce their Iranian oil imports by more than the 20 percent that the Obama administration had dictated during the 2013 to 2015 sanctions.

“I would expect that if we do give waivers it will be significantly larger reductions,” Mnuchin told Reuters in Jerusalem at the start of a Middle East trip, the news outlet reported.

Mnuchin also dismissed concerns that oil prices could spike if international markets are deprived of Iranian production.

“Oil prices have already gone up, so my expectation is that the oil market has anticipated what’s going on in the reductions,” he said. “I believe the information is already reflected in the price of oil.” The Hill’s Timothy Cama explains here.

Background: The Trump administration plans to restore Iran sanctions next month, as part of President Trump’s rejection of the Iran nuclear deal. Countries that do business with the United States will have to stop importing Iranian oil Nov. 4, or face sanctions themselves.

 

FINANCE IN FOCUS: Republicans are turning positive economic news into attacks on Democratic candidates, warning of dire consequences if the minority party wins control of Congress in the midterm elections. The Hill’s Niv Elis explains why here.

 

GOOD TO KNOW

• Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is introducing a bill to give every U.S. child an interest-bearing savings account at birth in an attempt to reverse rising economic inequality.
• Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) on Monday announced legislation aimed at allowing Republicans to circumvent Senate Democrats and provide funding for President Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel is making a move to open up Germany’s market to U.S. gas companies, following a lobbying push from President Trump, The Wall Street Journal reported.
• Women are becoming a growing share of the workforce as the economy maintains its strength, according to The Wall Street Journal. 
• The Department of Labor on Monday proposed a new rule to allow small businesses to pool together to offer workers retirement plans.  
• The European Union and U.S. are reviewing their trade ties after the U.S. accused the bloc of duping American businesses, according to Bloomberg News. 

 

ODDS AND ENDS

• Washington law firms are preparing for a boom from a projected Democratic takeover of the House in 2019, expecting pharmaceutical, tech and oil and gas companies to com begging for help navigating congressional probes.
• Consumers with a low FICO credit score could get a higher UltraFICO, a new score that factors in bank-account activity as well as loan payments, according to the Wall Street Journal.