The Hot Topic at the GOP’s Policy Retreat

By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey The Hot Topic at the GOP’s Policy Retreat Had Nothing to Do With Policy Congressional Republicans’ three-day retreat this week was supposed to be about hammering out a policy agenda for the year. It didn’t work out that way. “The hot topic at congressional Republicans’ annual policy retreat that began Thursday is not infrastructure, immigration, or even tax cuts — it’s ‘The Memo,’” the [Boston Globe said]( Friday. “While Republicans are dutifully attending seminars in a West Virginia mountain resort on reforming the government and overhauling the nation’s roads, bridges, and airports, they’re also waging a preemptive spin war” — and that was even before the midday release of the controversial classified [GOP memo]( alleging surveillance abuses by law-enforcement officials investigating Russian interference in the 2016 elections. While the spin war will only intensify now that the memo is out, GOP lawmakers will come away from their time at the Greenbrier resort “with little consensus on how to address the long to-do list awaiting them in Washington, D.C.,” [Roll Call reports]( adding that “the silence on contentious lingering issues such as health care, government spending and immigration was deafening.” The Next Short-Term Funding Bill Will Extend Deep into March Facing a February 8 deadline to keep the government from shutting down again, GOP lawmakers are planning another continuing resolution that would fund the government for six more weeks, or until about March 23, [The Hill]( reports. The stop-gap bill could pass early next week, before Democrats head out of town for a retreat on Wednesday. Republicans were unable to agree upon a long-term strategy during their three-day retreat, and the tentative plan now is to pass a short-term funding bill then reach a deal on immigration quickly before turning to an omnibus spending bill to cover the rest of the 2018 fiscal year. Most lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, are saying that another government shutdown is unlikely. But the list of issues that need to be addressed — including the fate of the so-called Dreamers, defense spending levels and raising the debt ceiling — is long and complex, leaving plenty of room for conflict and error. Numbers of the Day: 665.75 and 2.852 The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell almost 666 points, or about 2.5 percent, on Friday after the monthly payrolls reports showed employers added 200,000 jobs in January — and annual wage growth was the highest since 2009, raising expectations of higher inflation. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed to 2.852 percent, its highest level in four years. “It feels as though the grand era of interest rates below 3 percent will soon be in the rear-view mirror,” Mike Terwilliger, a portfolio manager for the Resource Credit Income Fund in New York, [told Reuters](. House Budget Chair Eyes Budget Process Reforms Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR), the newly elected chair of the House Budget Committee, said Thursday that he’s considering foregoing a budget resolution for 2019 and focusing instead on reforming the budget process. “My guess is that, and I can’t speak for all of my Budget Committee, but a lot of them, while they want to do resolutions, I think really have in their mind that doing budget process reform will be something that can be legacy in nature, that can serve the interests of this country for years to come,” he said, [according to Roll Call](. Potential changes to the budget process include “putting everything subject to appropriations, the whole ball of wax, putting caps on mandatory spending,” Womack said. The committee could also examine the [Congressional Budget Office’s budget baseline](. Some lawmakers are also pressing for the elimination of the filibuster on spending bills. Any such changes, Roll Call notes, “would be a heavy legislative lift.” Indiana Gets Green Light for Medicaid Work Requirements Indiana on Friday became the second state to [receive permission]( from the Trump administration to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, joining Kentucky. Once in place, the new requirements could affect roughly 130,000 Indiana residents receiving benefits, according to the state’s waiver application. Eight other states — Arkansas, Arizona, Kansas, Maine, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Utah and Wisconsin — have applied for waivers, which allow states to craft their own rules for Medicaid recipients, including the need to work, volunteer or be in school to maintain eligibility. Indiana has been experimenting with new rules for the program for several years. Seema Verma, who currently runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, led a program in Indiana under then-Gov. Mike Pence that imposed monthly fees on Medicaid recipients, starting in 2015. A new analysis of that program, called Healthy Indiana, found that 25,000 adults lost Medicaid coverage after they failed to pay the required fees, according to [Kasier Health News](. About half of those found coverage elsewhere, most through a job. Your Prize for Making It Through the Week Since it’s Groundhog Day (Punxatawney Phil [saw his shadow]( so we’re looking at six more weeks of winter), go back and read this [New York magazine piece]( on Danny Rubin, the man who wrote the 1993 Bill Murray movie that became a pop culture classic. And since the Super Bowl is on Sunday, take a look back at some of the [best ads]( ever to air during the big game — or watch [some of the best]( that will be airing this year. You might thank us when it’s time for a bathroom break Sunday. News - [Massive Deficit-Busting Spending Deal Leaves Fiscal Hawks in the Cold]( – Politico - [Tax Bill Beginning to Deliver Bigger Paychecks to Workers]( – Associated Press - [Paul Ryan Renews Welfare Reform Push]( – Politico - [GOP Chairman: Leaders Could Add Health-Center Funds to Stopgap Spending Bill]( – The Hill - [Trump Created More Jobs Than Previously Reported. So Did Obama]( – Bloomberg - [Is the Fed’s Inflation Target Kaput?]( – Bloomberg Businessweek - [Trump's Controversial New Health Care Idea]( – Politico - [Steven Mnuchin Met with Many CEOs While Developing Tax Plan]( – Wall Street Journal - [Maryland to Sue Over Trump Tax Law]( – The Hill - [Why Pay Has Been Lagging as Job Growth Continues]( – New York Times - [CDC to Cut Global Disease Prevention Efforts by 80 Percent]( – Washington Post - [Super Bowl Host Will Squeeze Taxes from Eagles, Patriots Players]( – Philly.com Views - [Death of the Debt Hawks]( – James Pethokoukis, The Week - [Jobs Report Could Signal a Real Turning Point]( – Michael R. Strain, Bloomberg View - [The Jobs Market Looks Good Under Trump but Not Because of Tax Cuts]( – Diane Lim, The Hill - [The Republicans' Deficit Scam Is Exposed for All to See]( – Steve Benen, MSNBC - [Trump’s Tax Cuts Are Rocketing Us into the Debt Ceiling]( – Catherine Rampell, Washington Post - [The Republican Tax Act Could Turn Texas Blue]( – Will Wilkinson, New York Times - [Broken, Repetitive Funding Process Endangers Americans’ Health]( – Harold P. Wimmer, The Hill - [Trump’s Infrastructure ‘Plan’ Is Shoddily Built – and Sure to Collapse]( – Eric Levitz, New York - [Trump's $1.5 Trillion Infrastructure Plan Would Be Great — in the 1950s]( – Joann Muller, Forbes - [The Great Coal Mining Jobs Boom Has Been Postponed]( – Justin Fox, Bloomberg View - [A Good Health Care Deal, but Only for Some]( – Elisabeth Rosenthal¸ New York Times Copyright © 2018 The Fiscal Times, All rights reserved. You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed at our website, thefiscaltimes.com. 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