New Senate Bill Would Legalize Hemp Nationwide as an Agricultural Product

(TIM) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced he will introduce a new bill on Monday that would legalize hemp, a non-psychoactive relative of marijuana, as an agricultural product. The bill is co-sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Rand Paul(R-KY). In addition to legalization, the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 would remove the product from the federal government’s schedule of controlled substances, while […]

House Democrats Asked To Vote Against Stopgap Spending Bill

Update: In what could be a serious problem for Ryan and the rest of the GOP leadership, Democratic leaders in the House have asked their members to vote against the Republican continuing resolution bill as it stands.

 

.@WhipHoyer says House Democrats are being asked to vote against the stopgap-defense-disaster spending package.

“We are asking our members to vote no. If Republicans want Democrats’ votes, they need to work with us on a serious compromise.”

— Jennifer Shutt (@JenniferShutt) December 19, 2017

 

* * *

House Republicans have decided to attach provisions reauthorizing a popular child health-insurance program and allocating an unprecedented $81 billion in disaster-aid spending to a continuing resolution that would keep the federal government funded until Jan. 19, Politico reported Tuesday, citing anonymous Congressional aids.

House Speaker Paul Ryan disclosed the new strategy in a GOP conference meeting Wednesday morning.

 

NEWS— Ryan tells House Republicans he will attach the $81 billion supplemental disaster spending bill to the stopgap bill to keep the government open.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 19, 2017

 

Funding for the federal government is set to run out on Friday at midnight, and Republican leaders have been preoccupied with tax reform and unable to focus on averting a shutdown and the myriad other legislative priorities that demand action before Congress enters recess.

By combining all the measures into one bill, Ryan will likely attract the support of Democrats in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, California and other states affected by this year’s natural disasters, who probably wouldn’t risk being seen opposing badly needed funding for their home states.

However, as the Hill explained earlier, even with CHIP and disaster aid attached to the House bill, averting a shutdown is far from assured. Indeed, Ryan is standing by a measure in the bill that would authorize spending for the Pentagon through September. That provision is incredibily unpopular with Democrats, whose votes Senate Republicans will need to overcome a filibuster.

Eight Democratic votes are needed in the senate to overcome a fillibuster. However, when it comes to locking in a year’s worth of defense spending, Ryan is facing a dilemma. Eliminating the provision could alienate conservative Republicans who might band together to oppose the bill. But cutting the defense-spending provision would likely attract Democratic votes.

Forty-four Democrats signed onto a letter vowing to oppose a combination CR–defense omnibus bill because of concerns about prioritizing defense spending over domestic programs.

Another issue likely to become a problem in the senate is reauthorizing the Obamacare subsidies that Trump cancelled back in October - a decision that has prompted participating insurers to warn of more premium hikes.

Susan Collins, a moderate Republican who was one of the last senators to throw her support behind tax reform, could be an obstacle for the spending bill. Once the CR reaches the senate, Republicans might try to attach the ObamaCare fixes that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised Collins in exchange for her vote on tax reform. However, conservatives like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz could try and block the bill from passing if these measures are added. Indeed, observers will be watching to see if McConnell breaks his promise to Collins, who could continue to create serious headaches for the leadership given their thin majority.
 

Senate Passes “Sweeping” Tax Bill Which Nobody Read: Here’s What’s in It

(ZHE) — Shortly before 2am on Saturday, the Senate passed “the most sweeping rewrite of the U.S. tax code in three decades, slashing the corporate tax rate and providing temporary tax-rate cuts for most Americans” handing Republicans a badly needed legislative and political victory. Senators voted across party lines in a 51-49 vote, ending days of debate and “hand wringing” as leadership worked frantically behind the scenes to win over holdouts and get the proposal in line with the chamber’s rules.

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, who had cited concerns over the bill’s effects on federal deficits, was the only Republican dissenter. Corker, who is retiring after 2018, said in a statement ahead of the vote that he “wanted to get to yes” on the tax plan. “But at the end of the day, I am not able to cast aside my fiscal concerns and vote for legislation that I believe, based on the information I currently have, could deepen the debt burden on future generations,” he said.

Corker’s dissent however was not enough to halt passage, and shortly thereafter Vice President Mike Pence presided over the final passage vote. GOP senators, who stayed on the Senate floor until the vote closed after midnight, broke out into applause after Pence announced the bill had passed.  

“This is a great day for the country,” Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said during a 2 a.m. press conference after the vote.  “We have an opportunity now to make America more competitive, to keep jobs from being shipped off shore and to provide substantial relief for the middle class.”

The bill would lower tax rates for individuals through 2025 and permanently cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20% (more details below). The bill’s tax cuts for individuals are temporary in order to comply with budget rules that the measure can’t add to the deficit after 10 years. The bill would also repeal ObamaCare’s individual mandate, a priority for President Trump and many Republicans.

* * *

The vote brings the GOP close to delivering a much-needed policy win for their party and President Donald Trump. After the vote, Trump said on Twitter that he looks forward to signing a final bill before Christmas. The president expressed gratitude to McConnell and Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch for steering the measure through the Senate. “We are one step closer to delivering MASSIVE tax cuts for working families across America,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

We are one step closer to delivering MASSIVE tax cuts for working families across America. Special thanks to @SenateMajLdr Mitch McConnell and Chairman @SenOrrinHatch for shepherding our bill through the Senate. Look forward to signing a final bill before Christmas! pic.twitter.com/gmWTny3SfS

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017

On Saturday morning, Trump followed up his praise to the Senate GOP, tweeting the “Biggest Tax Bill and Tax Cuts in history just passed in the Senate. Now these great Republicans will be going for final passage. Thank you to House and Senate Republicans for your hard work and commitment!”

Biggest Tax Bill and Tax Cuts in history just passed in the Senate. Now these great Republicans will be going for final passage. Thank you to House and Senate Republicans for your hard work and commitment!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017

* * *

Amid the republican jubilation over the passage of a bill which is heavily weighted to benefit corporations and pass-throughs, and will encourage all self-employed businesses to become LLCs, there was just one problem: nobody actually read the 479-page bill.

As Montana Senator Jon Tester wrote late on Friday:

I was just handed a 479-page tax bill a few hours before the vote. One page literally has hand scribbled policy changes on it that can’t be read. This is Washington, D.C. at its worst. Montanans deserve so much better. pic.twitter.com/q6lTpXoXS0

— Senator Jon Tester (@SenatorTester) December 2, 2017

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo showed what the “handwritten notes on the page” looked like:

Senate Republicans are so desperate for a win they are going to pass a tax increase on New York with handwritten changes to the bill. pic.twitter.com/pT2Xvubiy2

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) December 2, 2017

Commenting on this, Senate Democrat Charles Schumer noted that a set of last-minute revisions to the bill changed it in ways that had yet to be analyzed by the Joint Committee on Taxation, Congress’s official scorekeeper for the effects of tax legislation. “Is this really how Republicans are going to rewrite the tax code? Scrawled like something on the back of a napkin?” However, McConnell said the bill, the first text of which was introduced on Nov. 20, went “through the regular order.” He dismissed complaints like Schumer’s. “You complain about process when you’re losing,” McConnell said.

Bottom line: the chaotic process was similar to how Obamacare was passed on Christmas Eve in 2009: in fact maybe a slight improvement: at least this time Congress didn’t have to “pass the bill to find out what is in it.” And it’s not like anyone reads these bills anyway.

So what happens next?

Before it goes to Trump, lawmakers will have to reconcile differences between the Senate bill and one the House passed last month, a process that will begin Monday. Although both versions share common topline elements, negotiations on individual provisions inserted to win votes, particularly in the Senate, may be protracted and difficult. The final product will end up being a central issue in the 2018 elections that will determine control of Congress.

“We’re going to take this message to the American people a year from now,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said after the vote.

* * *

Among the major overhauls, both the House and Senate measures would cut the corporate tax rate to 20% from 35% – though the Senate version would set that lower rate in 2019, a year later than the House bill would. Also, the Senate bill, unlike the House version, would provide only temporary tax relief to individuals, ending tax cuts for them in 2026. Both bills are expected to add more than $1.4 trillion to the federal deficit over 10 years, before accounting for any economic growth. Bloomberg reported that last minute revisions to help shore up GOP support added about $32.5bn to the measure’s 10-year cost, according to a one-page analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.

The House and Senate bills also align on the contentious issue of individual deductions for state and local taxes: They’d eliminate all but a deduction for property taxes, which would be capped at $10,000. They differ on the home mortgage-interest deduction; the House bill would restrict that break to loans of $500,000 or less with regard to new purchases of homes. The Senate legislation would leave the current $1 million cap in place.

According to Bloomberg, the bills also differ on the tax rates they’d apply to multinational companies’ accumulated offshore earnings. The House bill would tax those profits at 14 percent for earnings held as cash and 7 percent for less-liquid assets. The revised Senate bill contains a lengthy section that has no direct mention of the rates, but a person familiar with the Senate plan said they’d be 14.5 percent for cash and 7.5 percent for less-liquid assets.

The Senate also approved a 23% tax deduction on business income earned from partnerships, limited liabilities and other so-called pass-through businesses. The House version would create a 25% tax rate for such business income, with restrictions on which businesses could qualify. Small businesses would get extra relief under the House legislation as well.

The House bill would also eliminate the estate tax, while the Senate version would limit the tax to fewer multimillion-dollar estates, but leave it in place. And after 2025, the limits would lift. Under current law, the estate tax applies a 40% levy to estates worth more than $5.49 million for individuals and $10.98 million for married couples. The Senate bill would temporarily double the exemption thresholds. The House bill would double the exemption thresholds, and then repeal the tax entirely in 2025.

As discussed previously, the House bill would consolidate the current seven individual tax brackets to four, leaving the top tax rate at 39.6%. The Senate bill would have seven brackets – with lower rates, and a top rate of 38.5 percent. As Bloomberg notes, “studies have shown that many of the tax bill’s benefits would go to the highest earners – and some middle-class taxpayers might actually pay more – a finding that could impact the House-Senate talks.”

Most importantly, perhaps, the Senate bill includes a repeal of Obamacare’s mandate that most Americans have health insurance or pay a penalty. The House bill does not.

Here is a side-by-side comparison of the two plans thanks to the WSJ:

Also while we have yet to get confirmation, below is a list of last minute changes and revisions that made it into the final bill per Reuters:

• PASS-THROUGHS: Senators Ron Johnson and Steve Daines announced their support for the tax bill after securing agreement on a bigger tax break for the owners of pass-through enterprises, including small businesses, S-corporations, partnerships and sole-proprietorships. An original 17.4 percent deduction would rise to 23 percent.


• FULL EXPENSING: Senator Jeff Flake, who was a holdout over deficit concerns, agreed to vote “yes” after Republican leaders agreed to change a provision allowing the full expensing of business capital investments to sunset after five years. Flake worried that Congress would be unable to eliminate the benefit cold turkey, allowing it to bleed red ink for years to come. But the Arizona Republican says the change would instead phase out full expensing over three years beginning in year six.


• RETIREMENT SAVINGS: Senator Susan Collins said she persuaded Republican leaders to retain catch-up contributions to retirement accounts for church, charity, school and public employees.


• MEDICAL EXPENSES: Collins also said she was able to include language to reduce the threshold for deducting unreimbursed medical expenses for two years to 7.5 percent of household income from 10 percent.


• STATE AND LOCAL PROPERTY TAXES: Collins has proposed an amendment that would retain a federal deduction for up to $10,000 in state and local property taxes.


• INDIVIDUAL ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX: Rescinding a proposed repeal of the AMT and instead increase exemption levels and phase-out thresholds is also on the table.


• CORPORATE ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX: So is rescinding a proposed repeal of the corporate AMT.


• REPATRIATION: Another change could be to increase tax rates on U.S. corporate profits held overseas to 14 percent for liquid assets and 7 percent for illiquid holdings, up from 10 percent and 5 percent, respectively

Attention now shifts to a House-Senate conference committee – a specially appointed, temporary panel that will be charged with hashing out the differences in the bills and preparing a final version for both chambers to consider. Party leaders will select a small group of lawmakers, likely from the House and Senate tax-writing panels in each chamber, who would then be approved by each chamber. That work could start as early as Monday, with many high-stakes issues to be worked through. The deadline of Dec. 31 is an artificial one, though – aimed partly at securing a victory well in advance of the 2018 congressional elections. Republicans would have until the end of 2018 before they lose their ability to clear final passage in the Senate without a filibuster.

By Tyler Durden / Republished with permission / Zero Hedge / Report a typo

This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. Anti-Media republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Anti-Media editorial policy.

Republican Leaders Say GOP Has The Votes To Pass Tax Plan

Update: Mitch McConnell has confirmed that the Republicans have the votes to pass the Senate"s tax-reform plan. McConnell"s comments put a slight bid back in stocks, which have fallen sharply following Mike Flynn"s guilty plea.

 

McConnell says Republicans `have the votes" for Senate tax bill https://t.co/WdC1mWiyJd pic.twitter.com/cGbSwodXxx

— Shailendra Nair (@shailendra_nair) December 1, 2017

              

* * *

John Cornyn, the No. 2 man in the Republican Senate leadership, said Friday that they have secured enough votes to pass the Senate version of the Republican tax reform bill, according to the Washington Post. Earlier in the morning, James Lankford of Oklahoma and Jerry Moran of Kansas, both said they’d support the bill, but Maine’s Susan Collins had said she’s still unconvinced. Hours later, Lindsey Graham echoed his claims.

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin said he planned to back the bill after announcing last week that he would vote against it because it didn’t provide enough tax relief to taxpayers who use the pass-through rate. Steve Daines of Montana, who objected to the bill on similar grounds, also said he’d vote for the bill.

Cornyn said the leadership had “at least 50” votes, but are working to secure one more ‘yea’ vote to provide a buffer against any surprises, like when John McCain voted to kill the senate’s repeal and replace plan over the summer.

Speaking with reporters outside of a meeting with the Republican caucus,Cornyn said “We have at least 50, and we’re still working."

The comments from Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican in the Senate, came just hours after Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he planned to back the bill. He was one of the final holdouts, though the GOP needed a little more help to ensure they had the 50 votes they needed. Cornyn did not say who else had committed to support the package.

 

Johnson’s support followed a late night of negotiations, following a standoff on the Senate floor Thursday when Johnson and two other members aired concerns about the bill.

 

He has long complained that the tax cut package does not provide enough benefits for a certain type of business, though he has requested numerous changes in recent days and it could not be immediately learned what precisely made him decide to back the bill.

 

Support from the Wisconsin Republican is a boost for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), but GOP leaders still need to win backing from at least one more holdout before they can be assured they have enough votes to pass the bill.

Unsurprisingly, Tennessee’s Bob Corker and Arizona’s Jeff Flake were two of the last confirmed holdouts. Both men were pushing measures that would reduce the bill’s impact on the deficit by paring back some of the proposed cuts. As the Post points out, the two men represent a unique challenge for the Republican leadership because they aren’t running for re-election.

Collins has suggested that she plans to support the tax package, but she is insisting on several changes of her own, including a plan to allow Americans to deduct up to $10,000 in property taxes and an expansion of the child tax credit. Collins already helped vote against the Republican repeal and replace plan and has a history of voting against tax cuts.

GOP leaders were meeting in McConnell’s office Friday morning to try to resuscitate the bill after a proposed trigger that would raise taxes if revenue targets were missed was rejected by the senate parliamentarian.

“I think Senator [Steve Daines (R-Mont.)] and Senator Johnson are supporting the bill, and we’re working hard to get the last two members we think we need to get onboard - Senator Flake and Senator Corker,” said Sen. John Cornyn, the second-highest ranking Republican in the Senate.

 

Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) was also attending the meeting in McConnell’s office. As he entered, he told reporters that lawmakers were still trying to figure out how to resolve the concerns raised by Corker and Flake. Corker had wanted to put a provision in the bill that would automatically raise taxes after five years if the growth projections that GOP leaders had promised did not come to fruition.

 

The tax increases would kick in through a “trigger” mechanism that was somehow tied to economic growth.

 

But the Senate’s parliamentarian told Corker on Thursday evening that there were issues with how the trigger would be designed. GOP leaders then had to decide whether to try to craft a new trigger or simply add new taxes back into the bill to lessen the impact on the debt.

 

On Friday morning, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said, “I think we’re doing real well.” When asked whether he believed Republicans had the votes to resolve the trigger issue, Hatch said, “I think so.

Corker and Flake are pushing for as much as $350 billion in tax cuts to be reversed if Republicans want the final bill to pass. There’s still no guarantee that the bill makes it to Trump’s desk - it will need to go through the reconciliation process, then be passed against by both the House and Senate.

Republican leaders are hoping to take the vote tonight.
 

Top Democrats "Abruptly" Pull Out Of White House Meeting After Trump Twitter Attack

Following this morning"s tweet, in which Trump said that he was meeting with top Democrats Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi to keep the government open, but because "they want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked", he "doesn"t see a deal", and which sent the T-Bill market turmoiling as mid-December government shutdown odds surged, moments ago the top two Democratic leaders in Congress pulled out "abruptly" (in AP"s words) of the previously scheduled meeting with President Donald Trump.

Instead of meeting Trump, Schumer and Pelosi shot back with a statement asking for talks with top GOP leaders in Congress. The top democrats said they’d skip a “show meeting” at the White House and instead ask for a meeting with their Republican counterparts, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“Given that the President doesn’t see a deal between Democrats and the White House, we believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our Republican counterparts in Congress instead,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement.

Some Democrats have called for any year-end spending deal to include legislation that would codify an Obama administration policy providing protection against deportation for young undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children. Trump, who announced in September he was ending the program, has said any deal protecting the so-called “Dreamers” should be paired with funding for a border wall and legislation that would reduce legal immigration.

If Democrats and Republicans do not reach a deal on spending by Dec. 8, the federal government could face a partial shutdown. Trump’s meeting with the Congressional leaders, which will also include Republicans House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, is scheduled for 3 p.m.

As a reminder, the Dec. 8 deadline was set in a deal Schumer and Pelosi struck with Trump - against the wishes of Ryan and McConnell - to avoid a government shutdown and debt default in September. They agreed to fund the government at current levels and suspend the debt limit for three months.

As Bloomberg reminds us, since that deal was struck, Congress has focused mostly on a tax overhaul and has made little progress reaching a spending deal to keep the government open. Other issues have also piled up, including the fate of cost-sharing subsidies that help defray deductibles and coinsurance payments for low-income patients with Obamacare insurance policies. Trump stopped paying the subsidies.

The negotiations also include efforts to lift legislative caps on military spending, raise the debt limit, provide more funding for disaster assistance, and extend a children’s health insurance program and an intelligence surveillance program. Several of those issues face year-end deadlines and may end up in a huge spending plan that requires votes from both Republicans and Democrats.

The Trump administration does not want to include immigration as part of the year-end spending deal to keep the government open, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Monday. “We hope that the Democrats aren’t going to put our service members abroad at risk by trying to hold the government hostage over partisan politics, and attaching that,” Sanders told reporters on Monday.

Markets reacted favorably to the news, with stocks jumping on speculation that a meeting between the top Democrats and Republicans will be more productive than the "show meeting" between Trump and the democratic duo.

While stock euphoria is predictable, those curious if the government"s shutdown odds are rising are urged to look at the Dec. 7-Dec. 21 Bill spread which, ominously, continues to blow out.

RNC Pulls Financial Support From Roy Moore

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has pulled its financial support from GOP Senate hopeful Roy Moore by severing official fundraising ties, leaving Moore "increasingly isolated as he confronts charges of sexual misconduct with teenagers." According to Politico, the RNC is terminating a joint fundraising agreement it had with Moore and is also canceling a field program it had set up ahead of the state’s Dec. 12 special election. The committee had about a dozen paid canvassers in Alabama working for Moore. It will no longer transfer any money to the race.

New documents filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission show the RNC is no longer listed alongside other groups involved in the joint fundraiser. The two parties now listed on the documents include “Judge Roy Moore for US Senate” and the Alabama Republican Party. According to The Hill, the initial FEC filing, dated Oct. 24, included both the RNC and National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) . The new filing does not include either of those groups.

Practically, this means that whereas a donor could have given up to $521,200 per year to the joint fundraising committee when it included both the RNC and NRSC. Now that they have pulled out, a donor can only give a max of $12,700 per year to the committee.

The severing of financial ties comes as the GOP intensifies its effort to pressure Moore out of the race. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called on the candidate to “step aside.” McConnell, whose view was also echoed by Paul Ryan on Tusday, also said he believed the accounts of Moore’s female accusers, who told the Washington Post that Moore pursued them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s.

Moore, a former state Supreme Court justice, has denied the allegations and has vowed to remain in the race. "We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: Judge Moore is an innocent man and has never had any sexual misconduct with anyone,” his campaign said on Monday.

“The person who should step aside is @SenateMajLdr Mitch McConnell,” Moore tweeted on Monday. “He has failed conservatives and must be replaced. #DrainTheSwamp.”

Meanwhile, Even if Moore were to exit, his name would still appear on the ballot because state law prevents a candidate from withdrawing from a race within 76 days before an election.

One possibility being discussed is waging a write-in campaign. But with just over four weeks until the election, such an effort would be a long-shot. Strange, who Moore defeated in a September runoff, has expressed little interest in being a write-in candidate, according to three people with direct knowledge of his thinking.

"I Believe The Women" - Mitch McConnell Calls For Moore To "Step Aside"

Following Roy Moore"s vehement denial of teen sex abuse allegations on Friday, the weekend saw political furore rising and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell may have just sealed the Bannon-backed candidate"s future.

"It never happened... If you abuse a 14-year-old you shouldn"t be a Senate candidate. I agree with that," Moore said. "But I did not do that."

But, as The Hill reports, Mitch McConnel  on Monday called for GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore to "step aside," according to the Associated Press...

Here is the video of @SenateMajLdr saying he believes the women accusing Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexually assaulting a 14-year old and pursuing other teens. pic.twitter.com/169YSHlXym

— Nick Storm (@NStorm_Politics) November 13, 2017

McConnell was asked if he believes the allegations are true.

"I believe the women," he said.

McConnell is not the first, as multiple lawmakers have called for Moore to step aside following the reports; however, he is the highest-ranking GOP official yet.

Howeverm, as The Hill notes, even if Moore withdraws from the Senate race - something he has said he will not do - Republicans are stuck with his name remaining on the ballot.

The deadline for the party to remove Moore"s name from the ballot passed in October, though Republicans could mount a write-in challenge. Republicans have also floated trying to move back the December election date.

McConnell said on Monday that the party is exploring a write-in bid, though he declined to say specifically who would be the candidate.

"That"s an option we"re looking at, whether or not there is someone who could mount a write in successfully," he said.

Pressed if Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.), who Moore defeated in the GOP primary runoff (and was backed by President Trump), would be the write-in candidate, McConnell added: "We"ll see."

Senate Passes 2018 Budget Paving Way For $1.5 Trillion In Tax Cuts, Sending Yields, Dollar Sharply Higher

Senate republicans took a major, if relatively easy, step toward passing Trump"s tax plan on Thursday night with the critical passage of a budget blueprint that would protect a $1.5 trillion tax cut from a Democratic filibuster. Senators narrowly voted 51-49 to pass the fiscal year 2018 budget after a several hour-long marathon on the Senate floor. The budget resolution could also pave the way for opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil exploration by ensuring that drilling legislation can pass with only Republican votes according to the NYT.

With a 52-seat majority, Mitch McConnell had a narrow path to getting the 50 votes needed to clear the budget through the upper chamber. But GOP leadership caught a break this week when Sen. John McCain, a holdout over defense spending, announced he would vote yes, and Sen. Thad Cochran, recovering from health issues, returned early to Washington.

The budget’s passage could keep Republicans on track to pass a tax package late this year or early in 2018. That said, there are still plenty of possible complications, not least of all bickering within the GOP over the final shape of the tax package - where the fate of state and local tax exemptions has still to be decided - as the following Goldman flowchart shows: the steps that were successfully passed tonight are shown in green.

The House could pick up the Senate-passed budget as early as next week and give final approval to parliamentary language protecting the Republicans’ coveted tax effort. If House Republicans instead insist on negotiating a compromise that melds the Senate and House budget plans, tax legislation could be delayed.

“Passing this budget is critical to getting tax reform done, so we can strengthen our economy after years of stagnation under the previous administration,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

The Senate gave its approval to the budget blueprint on Thursday night after considering a flurry of amendments, a tedious process that gives the minority party an opportunity to force the majority to endure politically difficult votes. One Democratic amendment that was rejected sought to stop tax cuts from going to the top 1 percent; another would have restored cuts to Medicare.

The Senate approved the budget after the previously discussed so-called vote-a-rama, a legislative whirlwind in which amendments are considered one after another

Giving tonight events an aura of fatalistic determinism, Senator Lindsey Graham, and a member of the Budget Committee, said "this is the last, best chance we will have to cut taxes,” and warned that the consequences would be ruinous if the party failed. “That will be the end of us as a party,” he said, “because if you’re a Republican and you don’t want to simplify the tax code and cut taxes, what good are you to anybody?”

Where things get laughable is when one considers the context of what just happened: In Congress, the annual budget resolution provides an outline of federal spending and revenues. The Senate’s blueprint, for the 2018 fiscal year that began Oct. 1, claims to achieve a balanced budget within a decade, assuming greater economic growth and using an accounting method that excludes Social Security. In order to erase projected deficits, it calls for trillions of dollars in spending cuts over the coming decade.But the cuts exist only on paper, without legislation to achieve them.

And as the GOP predicts that by 2028 US government spending will equal revenues, here is what will really happen:

 

Meanwhile, as Republicans played with excel"s "goalseek" function, Democrats sounded the alarm, warning that the aspirational cuts in the budget plan called for slicing more than $1 trillion from Medicaid and about $470 billion from Medicare over a decade. Unfortunately for Democrats, they have exactly zero say in the matter: Though Democrats have pleaded to have more say in the tax overhaul, parliamentary language in the budget resolution would allow Republicans to pass a tax bill without any cooperation from the minority party.

“Passing this budget is not a requirement for passing tax reform,” said Senator Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan. “Passing this budget is only a requirement to pass a tax bill with as few votes as possible, without input or buy-in from members of the minority.”

For Republicans, the budget debate provided a moment to showcase their main goal in the coming months, which according to the NYT is approving an overhaul of the tax code for the first time in decades, which they hope will lead to greater economic growth. But before they can move ahead with a tax bill, the House and Senate need to agree on the same budget resolution. The House approved its budget resolution, which had long been stalled, on Oct. 5. The House budget also lays the groundwork for a tax bill, but, unlike the Senate’s approach, it calls for the legislation to not add to the deficit.

The House budget resolution also seeks more concrete action when it comes to cutting spending, instructing committees to come up with legislation that would produce at least about $200 billion in savings.

However, according to The Hill, a House GOP source says the amendment seems sufficient to avoid a conference committee between the two chambers, and allow the House to simply pass the Senate resolution.

Ultimately, however, the only reason why the vote passed so easily is because as the Hill explained, it doesn"t matter, and was merely viewed as a mere vehicle for passing tax reform

"This is the biggest hoax cast upon the American people ever that this budget process even exists. The only thing about this that matters is in preparation for tax reform," said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), who voted for the budget.  Corker noted bluntly that he believes the budget doesn"t have a real-world impact and if he was chairman of the Budget Committee he would disband it. When a staffer told him he was about to miss an amendment vote, he shot back: "yeah, on a vote that doesn"t matter."

McCain, explaining why he would support the budget, added: “At the end of the day, we all know that the Senate budget resolution will not impact final appropriations.”

Then again, all of these nuances were lost on the shotgun headline scanning algos, which read that Trump"s tax plan is one step closer to passage and sent both the USDJPY...

... and 10Y yields surging...

 

With gold lower...

 

With Dow Futs up over 100 points...

... and the Fed cursing their fate, because as Dudley explained yesterday, the last thing the feed needs right now as it is desperate to avoid tightening fast, is a burst of wage inflation, something which Trump"s tax proposal, if it passes, will promptly lead to, crushing the Fed"s carefully laid plan to take years and years in unwinding it balance sheet and rising rates.

John McCain Says He Will Vote 'Yes' On Crucial Budget Bill

Confirming rumors that had circulated earlier in the day, Sen. John McCain said Tuesday evening that he would ‘yes’ on a budget bill that once passed will unlock reconciliation, allowing the senate to pass President Trump’s tax reform plan with a simple majority.

While it’s still unclear if the budget bill has enough votes to pass, McCain’s support is a crucial obstacle and follows similar declarations by Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski – two other holdouts who had opposed the Republican plan to repeal and replace Obamacare.

“For too long, draconian budget cuts to the military have crippled readiness and put the lives of our service members in danger,” McCain said in a statement. "At the end of the day, we all know that the Senate budget resolution will not impact final appropriations."

McCain had been holding out support based on an insistence that defense spending increase by billions of dollars. Final spending numbers for the year are expected to be negotiated between congressional Republicans, Democrats and the White House ahead of a Dec. 8 funding deadline, the Hill reported.

I support the budget resolution so we can get to #taxreform. But, we must negotiate a deal to lift caps on defense. https://t.co/z6WOoHAFMk pic.twitter.com/PgHXPmHry6

— John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) October 17, 2017

McCain said that he will vote yes on the budget because he supports tax reform.

The Arizona Republican"s decision follows a public feud with Sen. Rand Paul over McCain’s push to increase military spending. Paul seems unlikely to be able to push his demand to cut $43 billion worth of "off-book" defense spending, or block the resolution"s passage, especially now that Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran has returned from a medical leave, giving the Republican leadership more breathing room to advance the bill.

Hopes that the Trump administration would manage to pass tax reform by its self-imposed year-end deadline have dimmed in recent weeks as lawmakers criticized the administration"s nine-page outline, complaining that it would raise taxes on many members of the middle class while cutting taxes for corporations and the wealthy. President Donald Trump said yesterday during a press conference with Mitch McConnell that while the administration was shooting to pass tax reform by the year-end deadline, it took the Reagan administration "many years" to pass the last major tax initiative - suggesting that it wouldn"t be the end of the world if the plan doesn"t pass until next year.

Trump And McConnell Make A "Truce Of Necessity" To Save Tax Reform

Inbetween firing off tweets and defending his decision to end cost-sharing payments to insurance companies, sending healthcare stocks sliding and eliciting accusations of sabotage, president Trump reportedly swallowed his pride and did something he’s been loath to do for months: he called Mitch McConnell.

Axios is reporting that, after months of frosty distance that was the subject of an anonymously sourced New York Times scoop back in August and has occasionally spilled into public view, President Trump picked up the phone yesterday and called the Senate Majority Leader ahead of what’s looking like a make-or-break weak for Trump’s legacy defining, narrative sustaining tax-reform program.

While it may come as a surprise to some - such as Goldman, which still says odds of a tax deal are well over 50% - Axios says Republican insiders privately believe the future of tax reform looks bleak. But if Trump and McConnell can patch things up and work together, even temporarily, the GOP has a better chance at avoiding an embarrassing legislative shutout that could imperil the republican majority in Congress.

The stakes are high: after the House passed its 2018 budget resolution a week and a half ago, unlocking the special budget provision that will allow the senate to pass its reconciliation bill with only 51 votes, the senate bill has yet to be called to a vote. It must pass the senate this week or risk tanking the centerpiece of Trump"s legislative agenda. As Axios glibly surmises, “no budget, no tax reform.” Trump and McConnell had a productive conversation on the agenda, and bonded over their joint effort to nominate and confirm conservative judges across the country. Trump was reportedly upbeat and mentioned a Kim Strassell column in The Wall Street Journal, "Scalias all the way down," giving the president credit for "remaking the federal judiciary."

Furthermore, Axios reports that Trump and McConnell communicate more frequently than many realize. They also are said to trade intel such as whip counts. The president and majority leader are scheduled to eat lunch together at the White House on Monday.

Still, as Axios concludes, the truce is one of necessity. It doesn’t represent a meaningful thaw in frosty relations between Trump and the Senate GOP leadership, who the president blames for the biggest defeat of his administration by failing to repeal and replace Obamacare. Of course, Steve Bannon’s “war” with the establishment, a war being waged with the goal of “saving” the Trump presidency, has added further strain to the relationship. But in a sign that fickle Senate Republicans might finally be falling in line, Susan Collins of Maine said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that she was leaning toward a ‘yes’ on tax reform.

Will the market buy, literally and figuratively, this latest diplomatic detente? For the answer, keep an eye on the relative performance of high-tax corps (to the S&P). As we showed on Friday, following a brief burst of euphoria in the last days of September, the market has once again given up hope that Trump can pull off the biggest tax reform package in decades.

Democrats Jump On Gun Control Quickly After Las Vegas Shooting

California Senator Dianne Feinstein is getting some Republicans to show interest in her gun bill, which could signal quick gun control in the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting. Although it is claimed that it is newly crafted, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s top-ranking Democrat has already offered the bill.

Of course, gun rights activists think Feinstein has several gun control bills lying around, and after a tragedy, she simply dusts one off to exploit. The narrowly written Democratic gun-control bill would ban “bump stock” rifle attachments that enable rapid firing.

“You never let a serious crisis to go to waste,” said Barack Obama’s advisor in 2008.

Since then, we’ve seen many Democrats attempt to destroy gun rights in the aftermath of atrocities. But Democrats say that the bill offered by Senator Feinstein, responds to the revelations that some of the weapons that alleged Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock used to commit the worst mass shooting in U.S. modern history Sunday were apparently outfitted with “bump stock devices,” which are legal.

Demcrats describe the bum stock’s legality as a “gap in the current law” which allows shooters with semi-automatic weapons to accelerate the rate of fire by attaching bump stocks, slide fire devices, and other similar accessories. The bump stock automatically forces the trigger to “bump” against the shooter’s finger after each shot.

“Some have said we shouldn’t do this now,” Feinstein said. “Now is not the time. When is the time going to be there? There is no better way to honor the 59 people who were slaughtered than to take action to prevent this from happening again.” But that’s just the problem with Democrats and their line of thinking. You can’t prevent this. You can’t prevent any evil. No amount of laws are needed to keep a good person from hurting others and bad people will always find their way around heaps of laws to commit crimes if they are so inclined.

And Republicans now appear open to gun control. We know Donald Trump hasn’t always been a perfect advocate for gun rights.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said it was “premature” to discuss “legislative solutions, if there are any,” when asked whether he could support a ban on equipment to convert semi-automatic weapons into automatic ones. That was a pretty wishy-washy response and could mean he will consider gun laws in the near future. Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Alabama, shut down talk of limiting bump stocks quickly. “I’m a Second Amendment man, I’m not for any gun control,” Shelby said. But he may be one of the few. Senator John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota and a member of Senate leadership, said some of his colleagues are “at least interested” in learning more about “that narrow issue.” Thune added, “I am somebody who I’d like to think is fairly familiar with a lot of firearms, and you know the use of those in that incident out there is something I think we need to take a look at.”

Gun control appears on the surface that it will be more easily accomplished now that Republican is in the White House. Barack Obama attempted big gun control legislation in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting and he failed. He went on to note that gun laws are his “biggest frustration.”

Unfortunately, it’s very likely we will see small bills like this one creep up with some getting passed, while within the next few months, larger bills will surface. And we humbly speculate that security will be heightened at hotels and casinos, and complete with metal detectors at all entrances. There could even be an enormous ramp up in the police state around concerts and gatherings. It could get ugly, but it’s too soon to say just how much, and these are speculations based on the speeches from not only president Trump but other politicians on both sides of the freedom-trampling aisle.

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Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 252 people
Date: October 5th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

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"There's A Time For War": Bannon Vows Full Assault On Republican Establishment

Following Roy Moore"s decisive win in Alabama earlier this week (something we covered here), Steve Bannon has predictably seized on the momentum vowing that it is only the beginning of his "war" against the Republican establishment.  Per McClatchy:

“There’s a time and season for everything under heaven. And sometimes there’s a time for peace. And sometimes there’s a time for war,” he told a raucous, religious revival-style crowd packed into a barn.

“Yeah!” a woman yelled back.

“We’re not going to hug out our differences,” he continued. “We’re going to have to fight for our differences.”

With several seats opening up in the Senate in 2018, including Senator Bob Corker"s of Tennessee who recently announced his retirement, conservatives see no reason why they can"t beat out establishment Senators across the deep south.

The hard-right’s fight for total control of Donald Trump"s Washington is just getting started.

The victory of deeply conservative candidate Roy Moore in Tuesday’s hotly contested Alabama Senate primary has emboldened activists and potential candidates alike, threatening to set off a wave of tough GOP races and ushering in a new era of internecine Republican warfare that party leaders had hoped would end when they won control of the government.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a determining factor for a lot of Deep South states, no question,” said Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel, who lost a hugely controversial primary contest against Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014 but is considering another Senate primary run in 2018. “If Alabama can send a true conservative to Washington, and Texas can send a true conservative to Washington, so can Mississippi and Tennessee and Florida and other states.”

Of course, it"s not just the deep south.  Arizona is also likely to draw a lot of attention from Bannon allies as Senator Jeff Flake, a consistent and vocal Trump Critic, is up for re-election and Senator John McCain is suffering from severe health issues which could result in another special election at any moment.

Led by Breitbart News head Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, they sought to make the race a referendum on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has grown increasingly unpopular with the base. And they took Moore’s win as a sign that other incumbents will be vulnerable to the same kind of anti-Washington messaging, even though it’s the Republican Party that controls the White House, the House and the Senate.

“If you can defeat a guy like Luther Strange by simply tying him to Mitch McConnell, what does that mean for guys like Jeff Flake and Dean Heller, who are literally Never Trumpers, or a guy like Roger Wicker, who’s in Senate leadership?” said Andy Surabian, a senior adviser to Great America Alliance, a group with close ties to Bannon that supported Moore in Alabama. His comment was in reference to GOP senators from Arizona, Nevada and Mississippi. “I hope none of them have a long-term lease in Washington D.C.”

Arizona is an obvious next priority for many of these Trump-aligned activists and organizations.

There, Flake—a frequent and vocal Trump critic whom Trump has clashed with repeatedly—is already facing a primary challenge from Kelli Ward, who unsuccessfully primaried Sen. John McCain last cycle but this time around has received Twitter support from Trump. Pro-Ward efforts have been boosted by major Trump donor Robert Mercer, who is close to Bannon. Eric Beach, the co-chair of Great America Alliance who is also assisting Ward, devoted space to the race in a broader USA Today op-ed published after Alabama.

“Establishment, beware,” he wrote. “We’re coming for you in 2018.”

Meanwhile, Nevada also looks to be a target...

Some conservative activists have also turned their attention to the Nevada Senate race. Trump, as president, hasn’t been as critical of Heller as he has been of Flake, but some see an opportunity to highlight Heller’s past criticism of Trump from the 2016 campaign, something they expect will rile up a conservative base already miffed that Hillary Clinton won Nevada (though Heller said last month—close to a year after the election—that he did vote for Trump).

On Tuesday night, Heller’s primary challenger, Danny Tarkanian, tweeted his congratulations to Moore and added: “Primary voters showed they"ll drain the swamp across country.” In an interview with McClatchy ahead of the election, he argued that Heller would be in a weaker position with the staunchly pro-Trump GOP base than Strange was, because Strange embraced Trump.

“I haven’t seen that Luther Strange was a Never Trumper, that he did anything against Trump,” said Tarkanian, who has run for office multiple times before but met with Bannon recently. “On the contrary, Heller was one of the first Never Trumpers in Nevada. He cost Trump the election in Nevada.”

And while it"s impossible to predict how these various races will play out, it seems fairly certain that 2018 won"t be a predictable and/or tame off-year election season.

Buchanan: "Why Trump Dumped The Do-Nothing Congress"

Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

Donald Trump is president today because he was seen as a doer not a talker. Among the most common compliments paid him in 2016 was, “At least he gets things done!”

And it was exasperation with a dithering GOP Congress, which had failed to enact his or its own agenda, that caused Trump to pull the job of raising the debt ceiling away from Republican contractors Ryan & McConnell, and give it to Pelosi & Schumer.

Hard to fault Trump. Over seven months, Congress showed itself incapable of repealing Obamacare, though the GOP promised this as its first priority in three successive elections.

Returning to D.C. after five weeks vacation, with zero legislation enacted, Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were facing a deadline to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government.

Failure to do so would crash the markets, imperil the U.S. bond rating, and make America look like a deadbeat republic.

Families and businesses do this annually. Yet, every year, it seems, Congress goes up to the precipice of national default before authorizing the borrowing to pay the bills Congress itself has run up.

To be sure, Trump only kicked this year’s debt crisis to mid-December.

Before year’s end, he and Congress will also have to deal with an immigration crisis brought on by his cancellation of the Obama administration’s amnesty for the “Dreamers” now vulnerable to deportation.

He will have to get Congress to fund his Wall, enact tax reform and finance the repair and renewal of our infrastructure, or have his first year declared a failure.

We are likely looking at a Congressional pileup, pre-Christmas, from which Trump will have to call on Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, again, to extricate him and his party.

The question that now arises: Has the president concluded that working with the GOP majorities alone cannot get him where he needs to go to make his a successful presidency?

Having cut a deal with Democrats for help with the debt ceiling, will Trump seek a deal with Democrats on amnesty for the “Dreamers,” in return for funding for border security? Trump seemed to be signaling receptivity to the idea this week.

Will he give up on free-trade Republicans to work with Democrats to protect U.S. jobs and businesses from predator traders like China?

Will he cut a deal with Hill Democrats on which infrastructure projects should be funded first? Will he seek out compromise with Democrats on whose taxes should be cut and whose retained?

We could be looking at a seismic shift in national politics, with Trump looking to centrist and bipartisan coalitions to achieve as much of his agenda as he can. He could collaborate with Federalist Society Republicans on justices and with economic-nationalist Democrats on tariffs.

But the Congressional gridlock that exhausted the president’s patience may prove more serious than a passing phase. The Congress of the United States, whose powers were delineated in the late 18th century, may simply not be an institution suited to the 21st.

A century ago, Congress ceded to the Federal Reserve its right “to coin money (and) regulate the value thereof.” It has yielded to the third branch, the Supreme Court, the power to invent new rights, as in Roe v. Wade. Its power to “regulate commerce with foreign nations” has been assumed by an executive branch that negotiates the trade treaties, leaving Congress to say yea or nay.

Congress alone has the power to declare war. But recent wars have been launched by presidents over Congressional objection, some without consultation. We are close to a second major war in Korea, the first of which, begun in 1950, was never declared by the Congress, but declared by Harry Truman to be a “police action.”

In the age of the internet and cable TV, the White House is seen as a locus of decision and action, while Capitol Hill takes months to move. Watching Congress, the word torpor invariably comes to mind, which one Webster’s Dictionary defines as “a state of mental and motor inactivity with partial or total insensibility.”

Result: In a recent survey, 72 percent of Americans expressed high confidence in the military; 12 percent said the same of Congress.

The members of Congress the TV cameras reward with air time are most often mavericks like John McCain, Lindsay Graham and Jeff Flake, who will defy a president the media largely detest.

At the onset of the post-Cold War era, some contended that democracy was the inevitable future of mankind. But autocracy is holding its own. Russia, China, India, Turkey, Egypt come to mind.

If democracy, as Freedom House contends, is in global retreat, one reason may be that, in our new age, legislatures, split into hostile blocs checkmating one another, cannot act with the dispatch impatient peoples now demand of their rulers.

In the days of Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, Congress was a rival to even strong presidents. Those days are long gone.

Mnuchin’s PR Visit to Fort Knox proves nothing about the US Gold Reserves

Submitted by Ronan Manly, BullionStar.com

On the afternoon of Monday, August 21, US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin, and Kentucky Congressman Brett Guthrie took a visit to the vault of the US Mint’s gold depository in Fort Knox, Kentucky, a vault which, according to the US Treasury, holds gold bars containing 147,341,858 fine troy ounces of gold (4583 tonnes of gold).

The trip was notable in that it is one of the rare occasions in history that a US political/congressional delegation has ever visited the Fort Knox depository, and Mnuchin is now only the 3rd treasury secretary ever to make this visit.

The trip was also notable in that unlike previous political excursions to the vault, the Mnuchin-led visit was very low-key, it was announced to the media and public at extremely short notice, and there is no evidence that any media representatives participated, or at least if they did, they have kept very quiet about it.

US Mint Depository, Fort Knox, Kentucky

In contrast, the previous congressional visit to the Fort Knox depository in September 1974 was heavily publicised in advance, was accompanied by 100 news reporters and photographers, and it even documented the visit via photographs and film which were released to the public.

Mnuchin’s visit to the vault merely appears to have taken the form of a quick peek into one of the cramped vault compartments within the Fort Knox vault, and therefore can only be seen as an odd PR stunt whose real intent remains unclear, which does nothing to improve the transparency of the notoriously secretive gold depository, and which on balance has now re-opened scrutiny on how much gold is, or is not, actually stored in the compartments of the Fort Knox vault.

The trip to the Fort Knox vault was only announced by Mnuchin on Monday morning, August 21 (the morning of the Fort Knox visit) during a speech to the Chamber of Commerce in Louisville, Kentucky, which Mnuchin and Mitch McConnell were attending.

As Grace Schneider, a business reporter for the Louisville, Kentucky based Courier-Journal tweeted that morning.

@USTreasury Sec. Mnuchin says going to Fort Knox after lunch speech at Olmsted. pic.twitter.com/KFP74xwpGj

— Grace Schneider (@gesinfk) August 21, 2017

So Mnuchin announced the visit literally a few hours before it took place. Fort Knox is located about 40 miles south-west of Louisville. In his Monday morning speech at the Chamber of Commerce, the Washington Examiner reports that Mnuchin made the bizarre comment that “I assume the gold is still there”. McConnell, at the same time, quipped that “we’re going to find out”. Mnuchin’s comment is bizarre because as US Treasury Secretary, he is top official of the US Treasury.

The US Treasury owns the gold in Fort Knox. The US Mint is just the custodian. The Director of the US Mint and all other senior officials report to Mnuchin. At any time, Mnuchin can get a full and complete high-level briefing on the real status of the US gold reserves. He can also get a full de-briefing on the extent to which the US gold reserves have been audited over the years – or not audited as the case may be. To say that he assumes the gold is still there shows either a flippant view of the expected accountability of a US Treasury Secretary, or else a disregard for the responsibility to which the US public has entrusted him.

Media Presence

It’s not clear whether any journalists actually accompanied the politicians on last Monday’s visit to the Fort Knox depository. An article by an AP journalist from Kentucky named Adam Beam was published on August 22, the day after the visit to the Fort Knox depository.

Beam, based in Frankfort, Kentucky is listed as a Kentucky Statehouse reporter for AP, so would presumably, due to this role, be well-known in Kentucky political circles and would have privileged access to the Mnuchin & Co delegation. AP’s Beam wrote that:

“Inside the famed vaults at Fort Knox, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell held a 27-pound gold bar in his hands Monday as part of the first civilian delegation to see most of the country’s bullion reserves in more than 40 years.”

But AP’s Beam also wrote in the same article that:

“in an interview, McConnell said he could not say much about the visit for security reasons”

suggesting that Beam may not have been on the actual visit to the vault, because if he was, he would have no need to interview McConnell and could have recorded the vault details himself. if the AP Kentucky Statehouse reporter wasn’t even on the visit, what hope was there for other reporters?

As far as I can see from related coverage, there are no photos of any of the delegation either inside the depository. This would suggest that there were no media photographers nor camera people present inside the vault. For such a historic trip, this is itself quite bizarre. Until that is, you realize that in 1978, the US Mint made the internal plans and structures of Fort Knox classified, which effectively bans any photography or filming from inside the depository.

Only One Compartment Viewed

The same AP article quoted Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin as saying that [Fort Knox] “officials had to cut a seal to open the vault for them“. What Bevin means is that the seal on the door of one of the compartments in the vault was cut so that they could open the door to the compartment. According to the US Mint, Fort Knox stores US Treasury gold bars in 13 compartments within the Fort Knox vault. See BullionStar article “Second Thoughts On US Official Gold Reserves Audits” for details.

By opening just one of the 13 compartments for Mnuchin & Co to peer into, that leaves 12 of the supposed gold storage compartments that were not opened. Still, this didn’t stop Mnuchin stating on Twitter that “Glad gold is safe“. This is a ridiculous statement from a US Treasury Secretary when you consider what the actual visit consisted of, and it would be remiss of the US public to put any trust in it.

Thanks to @usmint staff for hosting at #FortKnox #USBD. First @USTreasury Secretary to visit since John Snyder in 1948. Glad gold is safe!

— Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) August 21, 2017

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin also said something similar in a radio interview following the vault visit, i.e. that the delegation only saw a subset of the supposed gold. Interviewed by Newradio 840 WHAS, and quoted by televison channel WHAS 11, Governor Bevin said:

“I didn’t see every bit of it [the gold], but the amount that I saw was impressive”

 See WHAS 11 video segment here.

The US Treasury Secretary takes a quick look into one of 13 compartments in the vault and says “Yep, the gold is safe, it’s there“. Imagine a commercial gold vault operating on the basis of how Fort Knox operates. It couldn’t. I have been in BullionStar’s precious metals vault in Singapore. I have looked around. There are a lot of gold bars, silver bars, gold coins and silver coins. But I couldn’t say based on a quick casual observation that ‘yep, all the gold and silver is there’.

That’s why there is a rigorous inventory system at BullionStar, and that’s why BullionStar employs a transparent multi-layered auditing system comprising 5 different audit schemes that are all accessible to customers. To ensure that at any given time, both BullionStar staff and customers know exactly what is inside the BullionStar vault.

But the US Treasury seems to think its sufficient that a quick unrecorded trip by 4 US political insiders can somehow instill confidence that all the gold that is claimed to be in Fort Knox is actually there. In case readers may think BullionStar is being unfair to the US Treasury, its worth noting that there have been many articles published on the BullionStar website by Koos Jansen that highlight the myriad of inconsistencies about the supposed gold reserves stored at Fort Knox and US government auditing of said gold reserves. See for example:

“A First Glance At US Official Gold Reserves Audits”, March 2014

“Second Thoughts On US Official Gold Reserves Audits”, February 2015

“US Government Lost 7 Fort Knox Gold Audit Reports”, June 2015

“Dear US Mint, We Gave You The FOIA Funds, Now Give Us The Fort Knox Audit Documents!”, November 2016

“US Mint Releases New Fort Knox “Audit Documentation”. The First Critical Observations”, February 2017

 Conclusion

As a freebie trip for 4 select political insiders, last Monday’s trip to Fort Knox was undoubtedly a memorable one for them. In the same radio interview Bevin said that:

“This is like the mother of all field trips. This is pretty cool”

But as a validation and verification of over 56% of the supposed US Official Gold Reserves, the visit was a complete farce. Announced the morning it took place. No evidence that any media were allowed to participate. Only peeked into one of the 13 storage compartments. And then to round it off, Mnuchin (an ex Goldmanite) tweets that ‘Glad gold is safe“. You couldn’t make this up. And finally, no mention of the fact that most of the gold bars even supposedly stored in Fort Knox are low purity ‘coin bars’ made from melted down gold coins. In fact, of all the gold bars reported to be held within the US Gold Reserves, only 16% of these bars are of LBMA Good Delivery size and purity range.

This article originally appeared on the BullionStar website under the same title "Mnuchin’s PR Visit to Fort Knox proves nothing about the US Gold Reserves”.

Former DNI Clapper Questions Trump's "Fitness For Office"; Fearmongers "Access To Nuclear Codes"

CNN"s Don Lemon and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper linked up for an epic tag-team attack on President Trump last night in which Lemon masterfully teed up one leading question after another and Clapper knocked them all out of the park with provocative sound bites that will undoubtedly be played throughout the day. 

Bravo, team!  Beautiful performance and seamless transition from the fake "Russian collusion" narrative to the new, yet equally fake, "Trump is a racist and unfit for office" narrative.

Here is a small sample of last night"s master class on journalism:

Lemon:  "What did you think of tonight"s performance by President Trump?"

Clapper:"I don"t know when I"ve listened and watched something like this from a President that I found more disturbing."

"Having some understanding of the levers of power that are available to a President, if he chooses to exercise them, I found this downright scary and disturbing."

Lemon:  "Are you questioning his fitness?"

Clapper:  "Yes, I do."

"I really question his ability, his fitness to be in this office and I also am beginning to wonder about his motivation for it.  Maybe he is looking for a way out."

"I do wonder, as well about the people that attracted to this -- to this rally as others. You know, what are they thinking? Or why am I so far off base? Because I don"t understand the adulation. Of course, that"s why I think he gravitated to having this rally as ill-timed as it is."

Lemon:  "You said you questioned his fitness. Is he a threat to national security? The president?"

Clapper:  "Well, he certainly could be. Again, having some understanding of the levers that a president can exercise, I worry about, frankly, you know, the access to the nuclear codes."

And here is the full interview should you have the stomach for it:

Of course, one exchange that you likely won"t see replayed throughout the day on CNN is the one in which Clapper again said he has no evidence of any collusion between Russia and Trump. 

Lemon:  "The New York Times is reporting tonight about the falling out between the President and Mitch McConnell over Russia"s interference in the 2016 election. The report is that the President is furious that McConnell failed to protect him.  You called the accusation of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia "worse than watergate."  What do you think is going on with the President?"

Clapper:  "First, to be clear Don, when I left certainly on the 20th of January I had not seen any evidence of direct collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians." 

WATCH: During Don Lemon & James Clapper"s ranting on #PhoenixRally, they AGAIN admit that there"s no evidence of Trump/Russian Collusion... pic.twitter.com/OySpNHbMHB

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) August 23, 2017

Come on, Clapper...facts have no place in a narrative-building segment...

McConnell Doubts "Trump Can Save Presidency" As Relationship "Disintegrates"

According to a new bombshell report from the NYT, the relationship between President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has "disintegrated" in recent week "to the point that they have not spoken to each other in weeks", prompting the Kentucky senator to express doubts if Trump can succeed in office and "salvage the presidency" after a summer of controversies and crises.

The relationship between President Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, has disintegrated to the point that they have not spoken to each other in weeks, and Mr. McConnell has privately expressed uncertainty that Mr. Trump will be able to salvage his administration after a series of summer crises.

What was once an uneasy governing alliance has curdled into a feud of mutual resentment and sometimes outright hostility, complicated by the position of Mr. McConnell’s wife, Elaine L. Chao, in Mr. Trump’s cabinet, according to more than a dozen people briefed on their imperiled partnership. Angry phone calls and private badmouthing have devolved into open conflict, with the president threatening to oppose Republican senators who cross him, and Mr. McConnell mobilizing to their defense.

In a phone call on Aug. 9, Trump blamed McConnell for the Senate"s troubled efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The Times said the call descended into shouting and profanity.

During the call, which Mr. Trump initiated on Aug. 9 from his New Jersey golf club, the president accused Mr. McConnell of bungling the health care issue. He was even more animated about what he intimated was the Senate leader’s refusal to protect him from investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to Republicans briefed on the conversation. Mr. McConnell has fumed over Mr. Trump’s regular threats against fellow Republicans and criticism of Senate rules, and questioned Mr. Trump’s understanding of the presidency in a public speech. Mr. McConnell has made sharper comments in private, describing Mr. Trump as entirely unwilling to learn the basics of governing.

While McConnell was reportedly troubled by Trump"s remarks that placed equal blame on hate groups and counterprotesters, that was just the tip of the iceberg of the pent up animosity between the two.  The Senator also signaled his unease with Trump’s comments to business leaders who quit their posts on presidential advisory councils in recent days, the NYT reports. But the straw that broke the camel"s back was last month"s failure by the Republican controlled Senate to pass Obamacare repeal, a humiliating defeat for Trump"s main campaign promise.

McConnell said in a speech earlier this month that Trump had "excessive expectations" about moving his legislative agenda through Congress. That led Trump to repeatedly lash out at McConnell on Twitter, questioning why McConnell has not been able to accomplish longtime GOP campaign promises.  Trump went so far as to suggest to reporters at his Bedminster, N.J. golf club that, if McConnell is unable to pass healthcare reform, tax reform and an infrastructure bill through the Senate, he should consider stepping aside from his leadership role.

for the two GOP heavyweights walking into a month of serious major political maelstroms with the debt ceiling, spending bill, tax reform, and a retry at healthcare looming–among other fights. Both Trump and McConnell themselves refused comment for the Times story, but McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said the president and majority leader had “shared goals” including “tax reform, infrastructure, funding the government, not defaulting on the debt, passing the defense authorization bill.”

But while the bad blood between the two is hardly news, the question is how will the allegedly tamer, and Bannon-free Trump react to the previously unreported news that McConnell has wondered whether Trump’s presidency will survive:

In offhand remarks, Mr. McConnell has expressed a sense of bewilderment about where Mr. Trump’s presidency may be headed, and has mused about whether Mr. Trump will be in a position to lead the Republican Party into next year’s elections and beyond, according to people who have spoken to him directly. While maintaining a pose of public reserve, Mr. McConnell expressed horror to advisers last week after Mr. Trump’s comments equating white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., with protesters who rallied against them. Mr. Trump’s most explosive remarks came at a news conference in Manhattan, where he stood beside Ms. Chao.

As the NYT adds, McConnell will no longer be silent should Trump use the bully pulpit for future attacks. Instead, McConnell is now fully committed to firing back at Trump, and protecting his GOP senators.

In a show of solidarity, albeit one planned well before Mr. Trump took aim at Mr. Flake, Mr. McConnell will host a $1,000-per-person dinner on Friday in Kentucky for the Arizona senator, as well as for Senator Dean Heller of Nevada, who is also facing a Trump-inspired primary race next year, and Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska. Mr. Flake is expected to attend the event.

It"s not just the Senate majority leader: McConnell allies like former Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire and former Republican National Committee finance chair Al Hoffman are quoted as well, making ominous predictions about Trump.

“Failure to do things like keeping the government open and passing a tax bill is the functional equivalent of playing Russian roulette with all the chambers loaded,” Gregg said of Trump, blaming him for in the Times’ words “undermining” congressional leaders, adding that if Trump “can’t participate constructively” the House and Senate would take matters into their own hands.

“Ultimately, it’s been Mitch’s responsibility, and I don’t think he’s done much,” Hoffman said, slightly critical of McConnell before adding that he believes McConnell will outlast Trump in this stalemate. “I think he’s going to blow up, self-implode,” Hoffman said of the president, per the Times. “I wouldn’t be surprised if McConnell pulls back his support of Trump and tries to go it alone.”

Whatever Trump"s kneejerk reaction following the conclusion of tonight"s Phoenix rally, the biggest loser may be the market which today surged on a Politico report that Trump"s tax reform suddenly looks like it has a chance of passing. If the NYT report confirms one thing, it is that when it comes to Trump"s legislative agenda, any chance of success in the through the Senate is virtually nil.