On The Money: Brady to share tax cut 2.0 outline with House GOP | GOP lawmaker proposes carbon tax | Russia summit puts spotlight on Trump tax returns

Happy Monday and welcome back to On The Money, where we’re begrudgingly getting ready for the 2020 campaign cycle  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 — Brady to share 2.0 tax cut outline with House GOP: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said that he will lay out to House Republicans an outline for a second package of tax cuts on Tuesday.

“This is a big week for the [tax cuts] 2.0 process,” Brady told reporters Monday.

He added that he will hold a series of “listening sessions” with GOP lawmakers and get their feedback on the outline over the August recess, so that the House can vote on legislation in September.

Brady has said that he expects tax cuts 2.0 to consist of multiple bills, with the centerpiece focusing on making the 2017 tax law’s cuts for individuals permanent. Other parts of the package may focus on encouraging retirement savings and business innovation.

Why it matters: President Trump and House Republicans have expressed a lot of interest in pursuing a second round of tax cuts this year, to build off the tax overhaul the president signed in December, known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. A vote on a second package of tax cuts is expected to receive a vote in the House before the midterm elections, with House Republicans seeing more tax cuts as both good policy and a chance to make Democrats take a potentially tough vote. Many Democrats cited the temporary nature of the individual tax cuts as a reason for voting against the 2017 law.

Naomi Jagoda has more here.

 

ALSO A BIG DEAL — Putin summit puts spotlight back on Trump’s tax returns: President Trump’s tax returns are back in the spotlight after his private one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump’s comments during the joint press conference alarmed lawmakers, leading some to wonder about the president’s possible financial ties to Russia.

Democrats have since stepped up their calls to have Congress request Trump’s tax returns from the Treasury Department in order to learn more about the president’s finances.

“I think we have a cloud that hangs over this whole administration at this moment in time,” said Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda tells us why here.

The details:

• Trump broke with tradition when he became the first major-party presidential candidate in decades to refuse to release his tax returns, citing an ongoing IRS audit, even though the IRS has said audits do not prevent people from releasing their own tax information.
• Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) — two lawmakers with the authority to request Trump’s returns from Treasury — oppose efforts to obtain the documents.
• If Democrats win control of at least one chamber of Congress in the November midterm elections, they would have the ability to request Trump’s returns from the Treasury Department. But right now it’s unclear whether they would do so.

 

ON TAP TOMORROW:

• The Heritage Foundation hosts an event entitled “Trade Wars Are Bad and America Is Losing: Time to Ditch Section 232 Tariffs,” featuring Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), 8 a.m.
• Americans for Financial Reform hosts “Regulating Wall Street — Ten Years Later, Where Do We Stand?,” featuring Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
• Senate Banking Committee: Confirmation hearing for Elad Roisman to be a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Michael R. Bright to be president of the Government National Mortgage Association; Rae Oliver to be inspector general of Department of Housing and Urban Development; and Dino Falaschetti to be director, Office of Financial Research, 10 a.m.
• Senate Agriculture Committee: Confirmation hearing for Dan Michael Berkovitz to be a commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, 10 a.m.
• House Financial Services Committee: Markup of seven bills related to homelessness, housing, insurance standards and bank inspections, 10 a.m.
• House Judiciary Committee: Hearing on the impact of the Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision and its impact on consumers, 10 a.m.
• House Small Business Committee: Hearing entitled “Investing in Rural America,” 10 a.m.
• The Cato Institute hosts an event entitled “Should Cryptocurrencies Be Regulated like Securities?” 12 p.m.

 

LEADING THE DAY

Mnuchin cleans up Trump attacks on Fed: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stressed his support for the Federal Reserve’s “independence” from the rest of the federal government over the weekend, days after President Trump blasted the Fed during an interview for raising interest rates.

Mnuchin told reporters at a Group of 20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank representatives that the Trump administration “completely supports” the Fed’s “independence,” while declining to call Trump’s comments on the bank a mistake.

“Where the Fed ends up on interest rates is one, completely up to them, and [two], is also dependent upon what happens to the economy,” he said, according to CNN.

“There was no need for me to call him to reassure him,” Mnuchin added. “He understands that the Fed is independent.”

Trump told CNBC on Thursday that he’s “not thrilled” with Chairman Jerome Powell, who he appointed to lead the bank this February, over Powell’s decision to gradually raise interest rates.

“We go up and every time you go up they want to raise rates again. I don’t really — I am not happy about it. But at the same time I’m letting them do what they feel is best,” Trump said.

“I don’t like all of this work that we’re putting into the economy and then I see rates going up.”

Powell, a Republican, was appointed to the Fed in 2012 by former President Obama and voted in lockstep with Yellen while she led the bank.

The chairman brushed off fears he’d be influenced by Trump in an interview last week, saying “no one in the administration has said anything to me that really gives me concern on this front.”

“We don’t take political considerations into account,” Powell told “Marketplace” on July 12.

 

GOP lawmaker proposes carbon tax: A moderate Republican lawmaker on Monday proposed instituting a carbon tax, breaking with the party’s long-standing opposition to policies that would punish people and companies that emit gases that cause climate change.

Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who is running in an extremely vulnerable Florida district that Democrat Hillary Clinton won handily in 2016, wants to repeal the federal taxes on gasoline, diesel and aviation fuels and replace them with a $24 per metric ton tax on carbon dioxide emissions that increases each year.

The tax would apply to coal mines, fuel refineries, certain manufacturing facilities, natural gas processors and fossil fuel importers. It would increase the costs of fossil fuels and products and services that use them, but the revenues would go to infrastructure, low-income households and climate mitigation projects, among other places. The Hill’s Timothy Cama fills us in here.

 

Right blasts carbon tax bill: Americans For Tax Reform President Grover Norquist called the bill a political loser.

“Carbon doesn’t pay taxes — families pay taxes, people pay taxes, taxpayers pay taxes,” Norquist said at the National Press Club. “This is just the most recent effort by the left to find a way to get into your pockets.”

Conservatives took turns denouncing the legislation, which would impose a tax on companies that emit gases that contribute to climate change. Opponents highlighted the hundreds of dollars in energy price hikes it could bring to U.S. households.

They also characterized Curbelo as a Republican who is trying to appease Democrats. Curbelo is running for reelection in a congressional district that presidential nominee Hillary Clinton won handily in 2016.

Miranda Green has more on the reaction and why Republicans are split.

 

MARKET CHECK: CNBC: “Technology shares rose to an all-time high on Monday as Wall Street awaited the latest quarterly results from some of the largest companies in the sector.

“The S&P 500 tech sector climbed 0.5 percent to close at a record, helping lift the overall index by 0.2 percent to 2,806.98. Tech’s gains also pushed the Nasdaq Composite higher by 0.3 percent to 7,841.87.

“The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 13.83 percent lower at 25,044.29, however, amid lingering concerns outside of tech.”

 

GOOD TO KNOW

• European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will not arrive in the United States for talks with Trump with a specific trade offer, the Commission said on Monday.
• Three Senate Democrats on Monday requested documents from the Treasury Department related to financial ties between the National Rifle Association (NRA) and Maria Butina, an alleged agent of the Russian government.
• The conservative Heritage Foundation on Monday released research finding that the average household in each congressional district and state will receive a tax cut in 2018 from President Trump’s tax law.
• A decade after a financial crisis fueled in part by a tangled web of derivatives, U.S. regulators still have an incomplete picture of who holds what in a $600-trillion market thanks to a loophole.
• JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is worried the economy’s momentum could be derailed by President Trump’s trade conflicts, he told CNN.
• Up to 2.5 billion pounds of beef, pork, poultry and turkey are being stockpiled in U.S. facilities due to a sharp drop in demand triggered by retaliation to Trump’s tariffs, according to The Wall Street Journal.
• China said on Monday it has no intention to devalue its currency to help exports, after Washington said it was monitoring the currency’s weakness, according to Reuters.
• The world’s top financial officials called Sunday for more dialogue on trade disputes that threaten global economic growth, according to the AP.

 

ODDS AND ENDS

• President Trump launched a barrage of tweets on Monday morning, taking aim at a series of familiar targets ranging from the news media to Amazon to the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
• Op-Ed: Kristin Dziczek, vice president of the Center for Automotive Research, says auto tariffs will cost Americans dearly.