The Iowa Straw Poll -- and its ability to elevate anyone to frontrunner status -- might be kaput, so our dream of nominating that Ronald Reagan toenail clipping we bought on eBay could be crushed. People are distancing themselves from Jeb Bush’s comments about public shaming, though it may well leave Hester Prynne with a lucrative punditry career. And funding for Metro might be cut, making the system less safe and downgrading the Suitland stop to Buttondownandkhakisland. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Wednesday, June 10th, 2015:
TPA STILL UNCERTAIN IN HOUSE - Laura Barron-Lopez: "Republicans appear poised to bring up controversial legislation as early as Friday to hand over fast-track authority on trade deals to President Barack Obama, but it’s unclear if the votes are even there. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Wednesday that Republicans don’t expect it to be an easy lift to get the votes necessary to give Obama expedited powers to speed through Congress trade deals like the one he is currently negotiating with 11 Pacific nations...Boehner met with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Tuesday night to discuss remaining conflicts between their two parties over a trade adjustment assistance bill, which helps domestic workers displaced by trade deals. Democrats didn’t want to cut Medicare to pay for part of that assistance. Boehner said the two leaders reached an agreement on an alternative to pay for the trade assistance legislation. 'In terms of fixing the Medicare offset, we worked together to come up with an alternative, and we did. But how we are going to consider this -- the process for considering the four different votes -- is still up in the air,” Boehner said, referring to other trade-related bills. Boehner said Republicans plan to attach the fix for trade assistance to a different trade bill, not the trade adjustment assistance bill itself, but Democrats aren’t happy about that." [HuffPost]
Bernie Sanders won't raid Social Security, but he has a history of raiding the fridge.
@ChadPergram: Test vote to kill Ex-Im Bank fails in the Senate.
IOWA FEELING ANXIOUS, PANICKY ABOUT STRAW POLL - Cheer up, Iowa. Jennifer Jacobs: "Friday could be the day the Iowa Straw Poll dies. The governing board for the Republican Party of Iowa will revisit going forward with the event during a conference call Friday morning, as some party officials resign themselves to the view that the much-criticized party fundraiser could potentially damage Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses, GOP insiders told The Des Moines Register Wednesday." [DesMoinesRegister.com]
SENATE DEMS TRY TO FORCE ACTION ON SPENDING DEAL - Lest Republicans feel the pain of MURRAYSMASH. Sam Stein: "The Senate Democrat who cut the last budget deal to avoid the full impact of sequestration is warning Republicans they risk a government shutdown unless they craft a similar agreement soon. In a speech on Wednesday afternoon, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) called on any deal to relieve the forthcoming spending cuts to follow four guidelines. Reflecting the extremely low bar that Congress has set for itself, the first of those guidelines is that the deal can be small in nature. 'Sure,' Murray said, according to excerpts of her prepared remarks, 'it would be great to work together to address some of the big challenges we face when it comes to our long-term budget challenges -- but if we can’t find a path to another small deal, we are not going to discover the way to a big one.'" [HuffPost]
The House Appropriations Committee tucked an anti-D.C. weed provision into some legislation today, because apparently the House GOP forgot it already lost that fight.
DAILY DELANEY DOWNER - Republicans in Congress passed budget blueprints earlier this year that would dramatically cut spending on a variety of domestic programs next year, including food stamps. However, major changes to food stamps won't make it into actual spending bills that could become law in the fall, according to the GOP's point man on nutrition assistance. "That's not actually going to happen in the near future," House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-Texas) told HuffPost in a brief interview on Wednesday. Conaway's laying the groundwork for what Democrats suspect will be proposals for big cuts in the future. [HuffPost]
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U.S. SENDING 450 TRAINERS TO IRAQ TO FIGHT ISIS - If Ike and Vietnam are any indication, advisers are the glue-huffing of U.S. military intervention with weakened allies. Soon the U.S. will be selling its school desks for stronger fixes. Akbar Ahmed: "The United States will send another 450 military personnel to Iraq to help forces there combat the extremist Islamic State group, the White House announced Wednesday, signaling a shift in focus for the U.S. and a tacit acknowledgement that the militants have not been weakened as much as the Obama administration has claimed. The additional personnel will establish a new U.S. training site -- the fifth in Iraq -- at Taqaddum military base in Iraq's Sunni-majority Anbar province, according to White House spokesman Josh Earnest. Earnest said that President Barack Obama made the decision following requests from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and recommendations from top military commanders and national security advisers. But the announcement also suggests a possible resolution to an ongoing struggle within the Obama administration about how best to move forward in Iraq, as military commanders have previously said that sites in Anbar province -- such as the provincial capital, Ramadi, which was captured by the Islamic State last month -- are less important than potential offensives elsewhere." [HuffPost]
WARREN POKES DEBT-FREE, COLLEGE-EDUCATED THUMB IN HILLARY CLINTON'S EYE - But what does Lincoln Chafee have to say? Tyler Kingkade: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) laid out a plan Wednesday she insists would create a pathway for a debt-free college education. In a speech at the Shanker Institute and the American Federation of Teachers headquarters in Washington, D.C., Warren called for restoring bankruptcy options for student loans, eliminating government profits for public student loans and new proposals to get colleges to have some 'skin in the game' on whether their graduates are buried in debt. 'We can't make change by nibbling around the edges,' Warren said in her speech,according to a copy of remarks. 'It's time to dramatically reform higher education, to move the whole system toward greater affordability for everyone. And while not every college needs to graduate every student debt-free, every kid needs a debt-free option -- a strong public university where it’s possible to get a great education without taking on loads of debt. It’s time to open the doors of opportunity wider and to invest in our future.'" [HuffPost]
A chicken in every pot, a pantsuit in every feed: "Looks like Hillary Clinton is getting ready to share more with the Internet. The Democratic presidential hopeful opened an Instagram account on Wednesday, joining over 300 million active users on the photo-sharing app. Clinton’s inaugural post featured a rack of red, white and blue pantsuits -- her fashion trademark -- with the caption, 'Hard choices,' the title of her 2014 memoir." [HuffPost]
Female politicians' clothes are unfairly scrutinized, but we'd be remiss if we didn't mention that Rosa DeLauro's shoes are so on fleek they've saddled the fleek and are riding the fleek through rings of fire.
NEW HAMPSHIRE GOP WANTS ***MOAR*** CANDIDATES - Considering this is a state with, roughly, 54,300,191 people in its statehouse, we're not surprised the Live Free or Die State has a higher tolerance for crowded debates. Igor Bobic: "A slew of current and former members of the New Hampshire Republican Party, unhappy with the criteria and format of the Aug. 6 GOP presidential primary debate, sent out a letter Wednesday urging the debate's host, Fox News, to change course so as to present a more inclusive and diverse field to its national audience. In a strongly worded open letter addressed to Roger Ailes, the network's chairman, and Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, the party members expressed concern that the network's approach to the debate -- limiting the number of participants to 10, and choosing them based on who ranks highest in an average of various national polls -- is 'unnecessarily narrow and risks eliminating potentially viable candidates based on unreliable national polling that is rarely predictive of primary election outcomes.'" [HuffPost]
Nathaniel Hawthorne couldn't be reached for comment (what is he hiding?): "Robert Steinback, the former Miami Herald columnist that Jeb Bush cited in his 1995 writings on shame, distanced himself on Wednesday from the former Florida governor's comments. Bush cited one of Steinback's columns in a chapter of his 1995 book Profiles in Courage, which argues that society needs to 'relearn the art' of public shaming in order to deter young teenagers from becoming pregnant out of wedlock...'Pregnancy is not and should never be treated as a crime,' added Steinback. 'Unwed girls in such circumstances are most likely experiencing considerable personal and psychological stress and anxiety that would only be exacerbated by shaming them publicly.'" [HuffPost's Laura Bassett]
METRO FUNDING UNDER THE AXE - David Hawkings: "[T]his year, many can follow the fight over ending the sequester through a tiny number that shapes their daily experience: 56 cents. If you divide the proposed $50 million cut by the number of weekday subway riders in the Washington area, that small change is effectively the difference between what Metro has been expecting to spend on safety and capital improvements in the coming year and what Congress is ready to allocate so long as the budget impasse remains...Republicans are advancing a collection of tightly constructed domestic appropriations bills through the House. The most recent, which moved toward passage Tuesday night, would cut discretionary spending on transportation to $17.2 billion, which is 3 percent less than what’s being spent this year and a whopping 28 percent less than President Barack Obama wants for federal aid to highways, rail lines, airports and mass transit systems...The impact is in part because the $150 million Congress has been contributing annually to Metro’s fund for maintenance and safety upgrades has been matched with $50 million each from Maryland, Virginia and the District. Those were the terms of a 10-year arrangement enacted as a 2008 law recognizing the unique reliance the workers of Congress and the executive branch have on the nation’s second-busiest subway system. But if the appropriation drops, there’s no reason to expect the three local jurisdictions will keep up their end of the deal." [Roll Call]
BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR - Here's a cat and a piece of deli meat.
ISAKSON DIAGNOSED WITH PARKINSON'S - "Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) announced on Wednesday that he has Parkinson’s disease, but he said the diagnosis will not impact his run for reelection in 2016. 'My diagnosis has not impacted my ability to represent the state of Georgia in the U.S. Senate,' Isakson said in a statement…Isakson said he was diagnosed in 2013 after going to see the doctor about stiffness in his arm. He said he’s in the early stages of the disease, and that the only symptoms right now are the arm stiffness and a slower walk. The Georgia Republican said he struggled with whether to disclose his diagnosis publicly and only recently informed his three children and members of his staff. 'In the end, I decided I should handle my personal health challenge with the same transparency that I have championed throughout my career,' Isakson said." [The Hill]
COMFORT FOOD
- Proof that Apple is losing some of the magic.
- The head of giphy discusses his favorite GIF.
- There's an 8K video on YouTube and if you happen to have access to Deep Blue, you can probably watch it... maybe.
TWITTERAMA
@emmaroller: I strive to use the word “milquetoast” as much as possible to ensure everyone hates me
@timothypmurphy: "What do you think about Tom Riddle?" "I like him." "What do you like about him." "Where he stands on the issues."
@TimFernholz: "My tax plan would literally destroy the public budget."
*crickets*
"I bought an expensive boat."
*DRUDGE SIREN*
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