On The Money: IRS whistleblower said Treasury official might have tried to interfere with Trump audit | Warren unveils sweeping labor plan | Economic optimism drops to 3-year low: poll | Why Pelosi, Trump may reach trade deal despite impeachment

Happy Thursday 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–IRS whistleblower said Treasury official might have tried to interfere with Trump audit: An IRS official filed a complaint alleging that he was told that at least one Treasury Department official tried to interfere with an audit of President Trump or Vice President Mike Pence’s tax returns, according to the Washington Post, citing people familiar with the complaint. 

The whistleblower spoke to the Post and confirmed that he had filed the complaint to Congress’s tax-writing committees and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

“I steadfastly refuse to discuss the substance or details of the complaint, but I have some legitimate concerns about reckless statements being made about whistleblowers,” he told the Post.

 

The background: 

• The Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee mentioned in an August court filing that it had received credible allegations from a federal employee. 

• The employee reported potentially inappropriate attempts to influence the IRS’s mandatory audit program for presidential and vice presidential tax returns.

• The court filings are part of the Ways and Means Committee’s lawsuit to obtain six years of Trump’s tax returns, which the panel says is relevant to potential legislation relevant to how the IRS audits presidents.

 

The Post’s story provides details that had not been in court documents, including that the complaint was made by a career IRS employee. The complaint also alleges potential interference in the audit program by a political employee at Treasury. The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda fills us in here.

 

Speaking of the lawsuit for Trump’s taxes, The Manhattan district attorney’s office on Thursday blasted the Department of Justice (DOJ) for siding with President Trump in a lawsuit over a subpoena for the president’s tax returns.

The DOJ on Wednesday filed a court document that agreed with Trump that the lawsuit belongs in federal court. The DOJ also called for enforcement of the subpoena to be temporarily blocked if necessary while the court considers Trump’s constitutional claims. 

But the district attorney’s office said in its new filing that DOJ’s document “ignores the reality” underlying Trump’s lawsuit. Here’s more from Naomi.

 

LEADING THE DAY

Pelosi, Trump may reach trade deal despite impeachment: President Trump has said that an impeachment inquiry would block all prospects for cooperating with Democrats on legislation, but the furor seems to have had little effect so far on the prospects for his signature trade deal, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

• It’s not certain the deal meant to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will get through Congress, but both sides are sounding positive notes even as they trade barbs over impeachment.

• At first blush, Pelosi would seem to have no incentive to reach a deal that could help Trump cement a major campaign promise and take credit for overturning the much-maligned NAFTA.

• But Democratic strategists say Pelosi is being strategic, showing that Democrats can “walk and chew gum” at the same time on impeachment while also pushing a Democratic campaign message.

The Hill’s Niv Elis explains why here.

 

While the outlook for USMCA might not be as cloudy, faith in the economy overall has faded, according to a new poll from CNBC.

Optimism about the economy has dropped to a three-year low, according to the poll, with roughly a third of Americans saying they expect the economy to get worse in the next year.

Just 23 percent of respondents in the CNBC poll released Thursday said they expect the economy to improve, while 32 percent said they expect it will get worse in the next year.

That marks the first time since President Trump took office that the level of economic optimism in the poll has fallen below that of economic pessimism.

The survey showed a slump in expectations in the third quarter on topics such as wage increases and views about a robust stock market. Niv breaks it down here.

 

Even so, the National Retail Federation (NRF) on Thursday projected a strong holiday sales season, with an expected increase of 3.8 to 4.2 percent over last year despite the rising costs of tariffs. 

 

Warren unveils comprehensive labor plan: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) unveiled a plan to raise wages and strengthen the rights of workers to organize on Thursday, saying that “returning power to working people will be the overarching goal” of her presidency if she is elected.

On Day One of a Warren administration, she said she would sign an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay a $15-per-hour minimum wage, and she said she’d push Congress to pass a $15-per-hour minimum wage for all workers, including disabled workers and tipped workers.

Warren said she would prohibit states from adopting “right to work” laws, and that she would back “card check” rules strongly opposed by business groups that would make it easier for unions to organize workers by allowing a union to be certified if a majority of employees sign union cards or otherwise offer support.

Warren said she would reinstate an Obama-era rule that made more workers eligible to be paid overtime — a rule the Trump administration rolled back. She also said she would update the rule’s salary threshold so that more workers would qualify for overtime.

“We cannot have a truly democratic society with so little power in the hands of working people,” Warren, who has been rising in national polls in the Democratic presidential contest, said.

More details from the ambitious plan here.

And click here to read the 14-page plan.

 

And here are five takeaways from Warren’s labor proposal:

Warren’s plan calls for overhauling labor laws, which she said don’t fully cover domestic and agricultural workers.

Warren’s plan pushes for a bill that would stop what she calls the “misclassification” of independent contractors.

Warren confirmed in her plan that she would push for the Raise the Wage Act, which would increase the minimum federal wage to $15 an hour for all workers.

To better enforce her proposals, Warren outlined a plan to increase penalties for violations of wage-and-hour laws, worker safety rules and anti-discrimination statutes.

Warren said she backs what’s known as sectoral bargaining, a system widely used in Europe that has not been adopted on a large scale in the U.S.

Details on the takeaways here.

 

GOOD TO KNOW

• The French government Thursday announced it will respond with “retaliatory measures” to the U.S.’s new tariffs on a number of the European Union’s exports.

• The social media giants are stuck in a vise as both Democrats and the Trump campaign look for an edge by accusing the platforms of favoring the other side.