Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: POLITICO Playbook: What you need to know about Covid talks

POLITICO Playbook: What you need to know about Covid talks

Aug 02, 2020

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By Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer

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DRIVING THE DAY

HAPPY SUNDAY MORNING. Treasury Secretary STEVEN MNUCHIN said on ABC's "THIS WEEK" he and W.H. chief of staff MARK MEADOWS would be on Capitol Hill every day until they find a deal on Covid-19 relief.

HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED IN SATURDAY'S CLOSED MEETING. Speaker NANCY PELOSI hosted MEADOWS and MNUCHIN for a closed-door meeting in her Capitol office suite Saturday. Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL was not in this session, but the administration is keeping him abreast of their talks. PELOSI had a breakfast spread for the participants -- donuts, bagels, muffins and strawberries.

BOTH SIDES DESCRIBED THE MEETING as productive, and indeed, the three-hour session was modestly productive. Here's how to define productive in this case: They talked about where they agree, where they disagree and where their red lines are. They didn't make huge progress on bridging gaps between the two parties.

HERE ARE A FEW AREAS TO THINK ABOUT: The two sides are still far apart on school money -- how much to spend, and how to apply it. Dems are pushing for hazard pay for people making up to $200,000, and Republicans want to lower that threshold to closer to minimum wage. They will figure out PPP money and an eviction moratorium. They agreed to keep talking about SNAP/food money. These are all secondary to the big items.

THERE ARE A SET OF POLICY AREAS where stumbling blocks remain. DEMOCRATS want new money for the Postal Service, new money for elections and nearly $1 trillion for state and local governments. REPUBLICANS seem open to USPS money to address operational shortfalls, but they are a hard no on money going to a new mail-in balloting system. Dems want $25 billion for the USPS, Republicans think the number is closer to $5 billion. DEMS want state and local cash -- Republicans have pushed for flexibility with already appropriated money. Republicans likewise will not give on more money for the election.

SENATE MINORITY LEADER CHUCK SCHUMER pushed hard for the reversal of SALT caps.

OF COURSE, the structuring of enhanced unemployment insurance and a liability overhaul remain the two biggest areas that need work for the GOP. Republicans have not taken a consistent position on enhanced UI -- they floated $600 per week for one week, $200 per week, 70% of wages and 66% of wages. In other words, they are all over the map -- and Democrats have rejected each one of their plans, and say they want a UI fix only as part of a big package. MCCONNELL allies have privately suggested they're open to negotiation on the liability shield, and they've said publicly that it's Sen. JOHN CORNYN'S (R-Texas) proposal that needs to be in the bill.

SO, A DEAL REALLY ISN'T CLOSE. As MEADOWS put it on CBS' "FACE THE NATION," "I'm not optimistic that there will be a solution in the very near term."

TIMING: Remember: whatever the product is from this room will be subject to many opinions from Senate Republicans, who are all over the map when it comes to Covid relief. The Senate can move quickly when everyone is in agreement, but here they are not.

WHAT PELOSI IS SAYING … PELOSI, in a letter to House Democrats on Saturday, said: "Today's meeting was more productive than our previous discussions, but no agreement can be reached yet. Work will continue on a staff level tomorrow. Leader Schumer and I will meet again with Secretary Mnuchin and Chief of Staff Meadows on Monday."

LOL: PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP at 3:18 p.m. Saturday: "Payroll Tax Cut plus Dollars!" … Talking about the payroll tax cut at this point -- after it's been scratched from the negotiations -- is almost embarrassing.

A message from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network:

Congress addressed the affordability of Covid-19 testing and treatment. Cancer care needs the same. It's time to reduce out-of-pocket costs and ensure cost-sharing assistance benefits cancer patients. Congress: cancer patients need you to act quickly to remove hurdles to quality care.

HOUSE MAJORITY WHIP JIM CLYBURN (D-S.C.) to CNN's DANA BASH on "STATE OF THE UNION" on TRUMP: "I feel very strongly that this man has taken on strongarm tactics. And I feel very strongly that he is Mussolini, Putin is Hitler. … I don't think he plans to leave the White House. He doesn't plan to have fair and unfettered elections. I believe that he plans to install himself in some kind of emergency way to continue to hold onto office. And that's why the American people had better wake up."

PELOSI on DEBORAH BIRX, on "THIS WEEK": "I think the president is spending -- spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his -- she is his appointee. So, I don't have confidence there, no."

THE PRESIDENT has nothing on his public schedule today. TRUMP left the White House at 8:25 a.m., and arrived at his golf course in Virginia at 9:05 a.m., per Bloomberg BNA's CHERYL BOLEN.

-- HE PROMISED TO SIGN A COMPREHENSIVE HEALTH CARE plan by today. It doesn't seem like he will.

SNEAK PEEK … THE PRESIDENT'S WEEK: Monday: THE PRESIDENT will sign an "executive order on hiring American" and he will have lunch with VP MIKE PENCE. Tuesday: THE PRESIDENT will hold a signing ceremony for The Great American Outdoors Act and will have lunch with Secretary of State MIKE POMPEO.

-- JUST ASKING: Did Rep. JOE CUNNINGHAM (D-S.C.) ever score the invite he was seeking to this signing ceremony?

WHAT AMERICA IS READING … THE NATION'S FRONT PAGES: L.A. Times: "How county's virus tracking failed to keep workers safe" … San Diego Union-Tribune: "COVID-19 IS REWRITING EMPLOYMENT LAW: Experts say hundreds of labor lawsuits already filed are just the start" … Miami Herald: "Florida makes it harder for immigrants to get a license" …

… Tampa Bay Times: "Florida's a swing and amiss: July 2020 was no party for either party seeking support in the presidential election." … Wichita Eagle: "Kansas, Missouri prepare for counting votes in pandemic" … Dallas Morning News: "U.S. Postal Service hopes Senate will deliver relief"

TRUMP'S FRONTS: WAPO … NYT … N.Y. POST

ANITA KUMAR: "Trump gets an education in the art of reversal"

ICYMI … Arizona Rep. RAÚL GRIJALVA (D-Ariz.) -- a heavy smoker -- became the 10th lawmaker to test positive for Covid-19. GRIJALVA is the chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, on which Rep. LOUIE GOHMERT (R-Texas) sits.

BETSY WOODRUFF SWAN: "Cuccinelli relaxed oversight of DHS intel office": "Before the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence arm put together intelligence reports about journalists, its leaders advocated for less internal oversight of the office.

"Several months ago, the leadership of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis asked DHS's second-in-command, Ken Cuccinelli, to limit a department watchdog from regularly reviewing the intelligence products it produces and distributes. Cuccinelli signed off on the move, according to two sources familiar with the situation, which constrained the role of the department's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in approving the intelligence office's work."

ABBOTT SAYS NO THANKS TO CONVENTION … TEXAS TRIBUNE'S PATRICK SVITEK: "Gov. Greg Abbott will skip the Republican National Convention later this month in North Carolina as he continues to respond to the coronavirus pandemic in Texas, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick will instead chair the state's delegation to the scaled-down gathering.

"Abbott announced the plan in a letter dated Friday to the national GOP chairwoman, Ronna McDaniel. 'It was an honor being selected to serve as Chair of the Texas Delegation for the 2020 Republican National Convention,' Abbott wrote. 'However, as we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, my top priority remains focused on protecting the health and safety of Texans.'"

NEW CBS BATTLEGROUND TRACKER POLL … NORTH CAROLINA: JOE BIDEN 48, DONALD TRUMP 44 … GEORGIA: JOE BIDEN 45, DONALD TRUMP 44

VEEP WATCH … Rep. KAREN BASS (D-Calif.) on her ties to communist CUBA on NBC'S "MEET THE PRESS": BASS: "In my early 20s, I went to Cuba to help the Cuban people to build houses, but over the last 20 years, Chuck, I have been working -- one, I've always believed in bridging the divide between our two countries. Cuba's 90 miles away. But for the last 20 years, I've actually been working on health care-related issues in Cuba. You know, the Cubans train U.S. doctors, and I've been recruiting those doctors to work in the inner city because they come in tuition-free. The Cubans also have two medicines -- one for diabetes, of which my mother died for, lung cancer, which my father died for, and I would like to have those drugs tested in the United States.

"Now that doesn't excuse the fact that I know the Castro regime has been a brutal regime to its people. I know that there is not freedom of press, freedom of association, and interestingly, when I went in my late teens and early 20s, you know, one of the things that, one of the reasons was the -- to build relations with the Americans that were there because there were over 100 young people that were there, and all of us worked on different issues. Well, what's interesting is that we had the ability to come home and protest against our own government, but the Cuban people most certainly cannot do that. They couldn't do it then, and they can't do it now."

TODD: "Congresswoman, I have to say, you sound a lot tougher on Castro now than you did when you talked -- when you described him as 'comandante en jefe' when he died, and then you said something that I found interesting. You said you didn't quite realize how sensitive folks were in South Florida about this … So I'm just curious, sort of, that you thought well Californians wouldn't mind that description, but it might offend Floridians. Forget that a minute. It still seemed as if you had a soft view of Castro, if you will."

BASS: "And let me explain too because I think the use of the term 'comandante en jefe,' what I meant by that is, is that clearly in Florida, that is a term that is endearing to him. I didn't see it that way. I was expressing condolences to the Cuban people, to the people in Cuba, not Cubans around the world. I don't think that is a toxic expression in California, but let me just say, Chuck: lesson learned, wouldn't do that again. Talked immediately to my colleagues from Florida and realized that that was something that just shouldn't have been said."

-- BASS on "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": "I support what President Obama and Vice President Biden did, in opening up relations with the island of Cuba, that's 90 miles away."

SEN. TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-Ill.) to CHRIS WALLACE on "FOX NEWS SUNDAY": "I think any one of the women whose names have been mentioned being considered are fabulous women and well prepared or step up and do the job of vice president or step up and take over as president if needed."

BIDEN'S K STREET CABINET … NYT, by KEN VOGEL and GLENN THRUSH: "After eight years as vice president and decades in the Senate, Mr. Biden maintains extensive ties to Washington's permanent political class of policy and political experts who move between government and private sector positions.

"Mr. Ricchetti spent years as a registered lobbyist, and through a company called Ricchetti Consulting Group is being paid by both the Biden campaign and AT&T, his only corporate client over the last nine years. Anita Dunn, Mr. Biden's chief campaign strategist, was also still doing work for AT&T last month.

"As of Saturday Ms. Dunn is taking 'an official leave' from her firm, which had been paid millions in recent years to help an airline advocacy group, while also providing communications advice to an Israeli spyware firm and the fugitive Nissan executive Carlos Ghosn, for whom the firm had been registered to lobby. It ended all those client relationships in the past year.

"A leading candidate to become defense secretary, Michèle A. Flournoy, started a firm whose website lists work for financial services, technology and pharmaceutical companies. The former C.I.A. and Obama national security official Avril Haines, who consulted for the data-mining company Palantir, on Saturday resigned from Ms. Flournoy's firm to begin work on Mr. Biden's transition team."

HOLLY OTTERBEIN in Philadelphia: "'Hating Joe Biden doesn't juice up their base': Key swing state slips away from Trump"

AP'S STEVE PEOPLES: "Foreign threats loom ahead of U.S. presidential election": "When asked directly, the Trump campaign refused to say whether it had accepted materials related to Biden from any foreign nationals. Trump was impeached last year after being caught pressuring Ukrainian leaders to produce damaging information about work Biden's son did in the country, even though repeated allegations of corruption against the Bidens have been widely discredited.

"A Biden spokesman said 'absolutely not' when asked if the campaign had received any materials from foreign actors."

HAPPENING 8/4 @ 10 a.m. EDT - ECONOMIC RECOVERY IN THE MIDST OF A PANDEMIC: The coronavirus has caused a record-setting economic decline and tens millions of Americans have lost their jobs. Join POLITICO chief economic correspondent Ben White for an interview with LinkedIn chief economist Karin Kimbrough to discuss prospects for economic growth, the uptick in jobless claims after weeks of decline and how extending unemployment benefits could help in the economic recovery. REGISTER HERE.

PLAYBOOK READS

A memorial to the victims of the El Paso mass shooting is pictured. | Getty Images

PHOTO DU JOUR: A memorial in El Paso, Texas, honors the victims of the mass shooting that killed 23 people one year ago Monday, the deadliest attack targeting Latinos in modern U.S. history. | Mario Tama/Getty Images

BOSTON GLOBE: "Methuen's police chief is one of the highest paid in the country — and he says he deserves more," by Andrea Estes: "This community on the New Hampshire border may be smaller than 772 other American cities, but the salary of police Chief Joseph Solomon is anything but small. His salary of $326,707 in 2019 made Solomon one of the highest-paid police chiefs in the nation, paid more than his counterparts in Boston, New York, Chicago, and many other major urban areas.

"And, unlike them, Solomon doesn't have to face a serious crime problem: Methuen had one murder last year. Still, Solomon believes he is underpaid.

"He is refusing to take 10 unpaid furlough days to help the cash-strapped city work down a $7 million shortfall. He is the only department head to refuse the request from the city's mayor, Neil Perry, who recently cut his own pay from $80,000 to $68,000 a year." Boston Globe A1

NEW … JOE LOCKHART and KATIE BARLOW have a new interview with ROD ROSENSTEIN for their Words Matters podcast. The interview

HMM … THIS WASN'T ON HIS SKED … LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL: "Trump meets with John Yoo at White House," by Debra Saunders: "President Donald Trump met with UC Berkeley law professor John Yoo at the White House on Thursday, the Review-Journal has learned — the first face-to-face meeting between the president and his new legal guru and author of a piece that argues a recent Supreme Court ruling can help Trump enact new policies without congressional action.

"'He was upbeat and energetic,' Yoo told the Review-Journal. Yoo said he would not reveal the content of their conversation, but did offer that the man who greeted him was not 'Nixonian in the bunker and paranoid and dark. I didn't see that.' …

"The Review-Journal spoke with Yoo on Saturday, hours after Trump posted a favorable tweet about Yoo's new book, 'Defender in Chief: Donald Trump's Fight for Presidential Power.'"

JAMES ARKIN: "GOP dread over possible Kobach nomination in Kansas": "On Thursday, the top operative for Senate Republicans' campaign arm appeared on a private Zoom call organized by GOP operatives to discuss the party's efforts to stave off a Democratic takeover.

"During the presentation, National Republican Senatorial Committee executive director Kevin McLaughlin warned that if hardline conservative Kris Kobach wins next Tuesday's Kansas Senate primary, it could doom the GOP Senate majority — and perhaps even hurt President Donald Trump in a state that hasn't voted Democratic since 1964. 'The Senate majority runs through Kansas,' McLaughlin warned, according to people familiar with the call."

NYT, A21: "Alienated by Trump, Suburban Voters Sour on G.O.P. in Battle for the House," by Emily Cochrane and Catie Edmondson in Ballwin, Mo.: "Suburban districts like these have long been critical bases of Republican support, packed with affluent white voters who reliably chose Republicans to represent them in Congress. Democrats seized control of the House in 2018 by making inroads in communities like these, and Republicans have tied their hopes of reclaiming power to preserving their remaining footholds there.

"But as Mr. Trump continues to stumble in his response to the pandemic and seeks to stir up racist fears with pledges to preserve the 'Suburban Lifestyle Dream,' such districts are slipping further from the party's grasp, and threatening to drag down congressional Republicans in November's elections.

"Interviews with more than two dozen party officials, strategists and voters in areas like these help explain what recent polls have found: that Mr. Trump's strategy is alienating independent and even some conservative voters — particularly women and better-educated Americans — who are turned off by his partisan appeals and disappointed in his leadership. From the suburbs of St. Louis to Omaha to Houston, they expressed deep concern about Mr. Trump's approach to twin national crises, lamenting his confident declarations that the coronavirus was under control and his move to stoke racial divides after nationwide protests over police brutality against Black Americans."

POLITICO'S "FUTURE PULSE" - THE COLLISION OF HEALTH CARE AND TECHNOLOGY : As the United States remains stuck in a screening crisis, a worldwide competition has been launched to find the top Covid-19 rapid testing solutions. The contest aims to find a system with a painless sample and quick turnaround for results. When will a breakthrough come? From Congress and the White House, to state legislatures and Silicon Valley, Future Pulse spotlights the politics, policies and technologies driving long-term change on the most personal issue for voters: Their health. SUBSCRIBE NOW.

PLAYBOOKERS

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.

BIRTHWEEK (was Saturday): White House's Macaulay Porter

BIRTHDAYS: Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) is 63 … Lawrence Wright, New Yorker staff writer, is 73 (h/t David Andelman) … Stephen Cox is 43 … FHA/HUD's Brian Montgomery … Laura Nasim … Fox News' Rich Edson … Gigi Sohn … former Treasury Secretary John Snow is 81 … Benton Ives is 44 … RNC's Nick Ballas … Peter Mihalick is 38 … Caitlin Huey-Burns of CBS … Emily Gershon … Matthew Rosenberg, NYT reporter and CNN national security analyst … Sarah Bittleman … Hayley Brower, legislative correspondent for Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) … Camille Gallo … Data Trust's Mary Corley … David Eiselsberg … Geneva Kropper … Austin Laufersweiler, press secretary at the Partnership for Public Service, is 29 (h/t Mitchell Rivard) … Seng Peng … Kevin Walling is 35 …

… Jeff Ballou … Patrick Ruffini, partner and co-founder of Echelon Insights, is 42 … retired Army Col. Jack H. Jacobs is 75 … Roger Cohen is 65 … former Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-Kan.) is 65 … former Rep. Dan Boren (D-Okla.) is 47 … Michael Manganiello … MPAA's Arlen Valdivia … Brynn Barnett … Michelle White, COS for Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak … Dennis Prager is 72 … Bryce Dustman … NBC's Dylan Dreyer … Kate Roberts … Corporate Accountability's Gigi Kellett … Daniele Baierlein … Hearst Television's Eric Meyrowitz … Dave Mills … Kristin Carvell Hardwick of GE … Gil Durán, California opinion editor at The Sacramento Bee/McClatchy … Dan Burrows … Jennifer Streaks … Melissa Leebaert … Vicki Seyfert-Margolis … Brendan O'Sullivan … Sim Khan

A message from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network:

COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the significant barriers to affordable health care that cancer patients have long faced. Policymakers took action to address the affordability of COVID-19 testing and treatment. Lawmakers must do the same for cancer patients by removing the red tape of prior authorization and step therapy, reducing out-of-pocket costs, and ensuring cost-sharing assistance directly benefits patients. Learn more.