MORNING MESSAGE
There
are now more than 42 million people struggling to pay student debt. The total
owed is more than $1.3 trillion – roughly three times larger than the total
national debt owed by Greece ... Eighty-six percent of this debt is held by the
federal government ... That’s why we have proposed a bold but simple solution to
the student debt problem – to eliminate it altogether by declaring a “student
debt jubilee” on the entire amount. At the same time, we must return to a system
of tuition-free public college.
DEM TOWN HALL TONIGHT. DEBATE TOMORROW.
CNN
hosts Democratic town hall tonight: “Is Sanders ready to really rip into
Clinton? His winks and nods toward the liberal base are impossible to miss …
Will she continue her line of attack on Sanders that his ideas sound great but
bear little resemblance to the political realities of Washington today?”
Agreement
reached for MSNBC debate tomorrow. Politico: “Sen. Bernie Sanders will
attend Thursday’s debate hosted by MSNBC, he told the hosts of ‘Morning Joe’ on
Wednesday … A source familiar with the negotiations said that the Clinton and
Sanders camps have not yet agreed to the terms on the future three debates.”
SANDERS RIDES MOMENTUM INTO NH
Sanders
way ahead in NH. The Hill: “Sanders leads the Democratic presidential
front-runner by 33 points among registered Democrats in the University of
Massachusetts-Lowell/7 News survey released Wednesday. He takes 63 percent in
the Granite State…”
Sanders
raises $3M after Iowa. W. Post: “He also benefited from new donors in the
hour afters his speech on Monday night. Four in 10 who gave during that stretch
had not contributed previously to the campaign…”
Sanders
questions Clinton’s ideology. Time: “When asked by a reporter if Clinton is
a true progressive, Sanders said, ‘Some days, yes. Except when she announces
that she is a proud moderate, and then I guess she is not a progressive.'”
Sanders
accepts Iowa results. Politico: ““Well, sure,’ the Vermont senator told
NBC’s Matt Lauer … when asked if he accepted the results … Sanders again painted
his close second-place finish as a success, explaining that his campaign started
out in Iowa ‘about 40 to 50 points down’ only to lose it by ‘two-tenths of one
percent.’ ‘Although to tell you the truth, the Iowa caucus is so complicated,
it’s not 100 percent sure we didn’t win it,’ he added.”
Sanders
inspires congressional candidates. TNR’s David Dayen: “This past week, I
interviewed three candidates for Congress, all running in seats currently held
by Republicans, who have endorsed Bernie Sanders. They may not all win—some
might not even represent the Democrats in the general election—but they
exemplify a new energy in the party, expressing pride in liberal ideas instead
of fleeing from them…”
CLINTON SEEKS TO SHRINK NH GAP
Clinton
aims to beat expectations. Politico: “The feeling at Clinton’s Brooklyn
headquarters these days isn’t about pulling off an upset — it’s about closing
the gap, and halting Sanders’ momentum by denying him an easy win in a state
that should be a cakewalk … Between [her] well-oiled field operation, her
endorsements from Gov. Maggie Hassan and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and the Clinton
family’s history with New Hampshire, the state isn’t as out of reach as the
current exercises in expectation-setting suggest.”
Clinton
braces for long primary. W. Post: “…Clinton’s battle with Sanders has
exposed vulnerabilities that her backers find worrisome. Chief among them is
what is being called an ‘enthusiasm gap’ — an apparent inability to ignite the
kind of excitement that the gruff, rumpled Sanders is generating among young
people and on the left.”
Pelosi
may endorse Clinton. The Hill: “‘I assume it will be Hillary Clinton,’
Pelosi said Tuesday during an interview with The Hill in her office in the
Capitol. Pelosi has hinted in the past that she expects Clinton to be the
winner, but Tuesday’s comments had added significance coming one day after the
front-runner’s narrow victory in the Iowa caucuses.”
RUBIO FACES BIGGEST TEST
GOP
establishment holds off on Rubio. Politico: “…if Rubio was hoping for a
stampede to his corner following South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s key
endorsement, it did not materialize on Tuesday. No senators defected to Rubio
from other mainstream Republican hopefuls … ‘let’s see what happens in New
Hampshire,’ [Sen. Dean] Heller said. ‘If Rubio does as well in New Hampshire,
then I think there will be new discussions.'”
Bush
and Christie go after Rubio. W. Post: “‘Maybe he’ll do more than 40 minutes
on a little stage telling everybody his canned speech that he’s memorized,’
Christie said to reporters … Bush said at a town hall meeting in Rindge that
Rubio, 44, and Cruz, 45, did not have the ‘life experience’ to be president and
questioned whether either had ever sacrificed his personal ambition for the
public good.”
Cruz
looks ahead to SC. WSJ: “Mr. Cruz made one stop in Windham, N.H. on Tuesday
afternoon before flying to South Carolina for an evening rally. He resumes a
heavy campaign schedule in New Hampshire on Wednesday … Mr. Cruz is devoting
significant resources and attention to the Palmetto State to blunt the potential
damage to his campaign of a second- or third-place finish in New Hampshire.”
GOP RESISTS TPP
Obama
meets with GOP leaders. The Hill: “President Obama and Speaker Paul Ryan on
Tuesday had their first face-to-face meeting since the Wisconsin Republican took
the reins of the House … The goal for the closed-door lunch, which came after a
joint meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), was to
identify bipartisan legislation … Obama highlighted five priorities during the
meeting: the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, criminal justice reform,
heroin abuse, Vice President Biden’s ‘moonshot’ bid to cure cancer and Puerto
Rico’s fiscal crisis. McConnell and Ryan, meanwhile, pressed the president to
aggressively combat the spread of the Zika virus, and the Speaker raised
concerns about Obama’s enforcement of a new visa waiver law.”
“GOP
in no hurry to move on trade deal” reports The Hill: “House Ways and Means
Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said that while the TPP could
potentially provide the U.S with an economic boost, the agreement has several
major problems that must be resolved before lawmakers can consider taking a vote
on the sweeping deal … The contentious issues include intellectual property
protections for high-tech biologic medicines and a carve-out of tobacco that has
agitated tobacco-state lawmakers.”
Sen.
Warren pushes Senate to reject TPP. The Hill quotes: “I hope Congress will
use its constitutional authority to stop this deal before it makes things even
worse and even more dangerous for America’s hardest-working families.”
Progressive
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