The Tap: Monday, September 26, 2016

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The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022.

Review of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #36 of The Tap, which was published on October 1, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal

  • Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump met for their first debate of the 2016 general election season. The event took place at Hofstra University in New York. Lester Holt of NBC News was the moderator. The widely anticipated debate turned out to be the most-watched debate in presidential debate history. With 84 million viewers on average—not including online viewers—the debate surpassed the previous record of 80 million set by Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan in 1980. In 2012, an average of 67.2 million watched the first debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
  • Ballotpedia’s coverage of the first presidential debate of the 2016 general election season included our Insiders Poll, guest commentary written by Karlyn Bowman of the American Enterprise Institute and David Kusnet of the Podesta Group, and a statistical analysis of the debate. We also have articles on the Commission on Presidential Debates and the candidates’ debate prep teams.
    • Insiders Poll: Our survey of more than 150 Democratic and Republican strategists, pollsters, media consultants, activists, lobbyists, and allied interest group operatives found Clinton to have been the winner of the debate. A total of 66 percent of respondents said Clinton won, while 17 percent gave the victory to Trump. 18 percent said it was a draw. Among the 75 Democratic Insiders who responded, an overwhelming 93 percent declared Clinton the “biggest winner” of the night. Another 5 percent called the debate a draw, and 1 percent (one Democratic Insider) said that Trump had prevailed. The 76 Republican Insiders who responded to the survey were much more divided, but a plurality of 38 percent still gave the edge to Clinton. Another 30 percent thought the debate was a draw, and 32 percent thought Trump had bested Clinton. The Insiders also approved of Lester Holt’s handling of the debate, with 66 percent saying he was “fair,” while 32 percent said he was harder on Trump than he was on Clinton.
    • Guest commentary: Ballotpedia guest writers, Karlyn Bowman of the American Enterprise Institute and David Kusnet of the Podesta Group, offered their expert opinions on the debate. Bowman, a widely respected analyst of public opinion, noted that Clinton's performance could have a positive short-term impact on her position in the polls but added that the overall impression of pollsters "is that the totality of the debates doesn’t really change things much." Kusnet, who served as chief speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton, emphasized the importance of preparation in debates. "Last night, we saw a well-prepared candidate out-perform a poorly trained Trump by every traditional standard of successful debating. ... [P]reparation helps even the best-informed speaker explain complexities and make her case."
    • Stats: Who spoke the most? Trump spoke for three more minutes than Clinton. He also spoke at a faster rate, saying approximately 2,200 more words than Clinton. Total word counts were 6,314 for Clinton and 8,515 for Trump. Clinton’s most commonly used words were “think,” “well,” “people,” “work,” and “Donald.” Trump’s most commonly used words were “very,” “country,” “look,” “think,” and “thing.” The candidates spent a lot of time talking about other countries, mentioning Iran 19 times, Russia 13 times, China 12 times, and Iraq 11 times.
  • The Washington Post reported that Trump’s charity, Donald J. Trump Foundation, received $2.3 million “from companies that owed money to Trump or one of his businesses but were instructed to pay Trump’s tax-exempt foundation instead.” $400,000 came from Comedy Central for Trump’s appearance on the network for a “roast.” The other $1.9 million came from a man named Richard Elbers, who, according to the Post, “sells sought-after tickets and one-of-a-kind experiences to wealthy clients.” Elbers bought “goods and services” from Trump or his business. These two payments account for half of the money given to the Trump Foundation since 2008. When asked if Trump had paid income taxes on these payments, a senior aide said, “To my knowledge, Mr. Trump has followed all applicable rules and regulations. The rest is pure speculation and worthless conjecture on your part.” Last week, The Washington Post reported that the Trump Foundation had spent $258,000 to settle lawsuits related to Trump’s for-profit business. “Those cases, which together used $258,000 from Trump’s charity, were among four newly documented expenditures in which Trump may have violated laws against ‘self-dealing’ — which prohibit nonprofit leaders from using charity money to benefit themselves or their businesses,” wrote reporter David Fahrenthold. The Trump campaign denied the accusations in an official statement. In mid-September, The New York attorney general’s office opened up an investigation into the Trump Foundation to ensure that it is “complying with the laws governing charities in New York.”
  • The National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Council endorsed Trump. The council is a union that represents 5,000 federal immigration officers throughout the country. Trump is the council’s first political endorsement in its history, according to a statement on Trump’s website. Chris Crane, the council’s president, said of Trump, “In his immigration policy, he has outlined core policies needed to restore immigration security -- including support for increased interior enforcement and border security, an end to Sanctuary Cities, an end to catch-and-release, mandatory detainers, and the canceling of executive amnesty and non-enforcement directives. … Donald Trump is the only candidate who is willing to put politics aside so that we can achieve that goal.”
    • In Monday night’s debate, Trump said that he had been endorsed by ICE, an acronym commonly used to describe the federal agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A spokesperson for ICE told The Daily Beast, “Per the Hatch Act, federal agencies are prohibited from engaging in partisan political activity including the endorsement of any candidate for office. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has not and will not endorse any candidate for office.”
    • See also: Trump on immigration
  • The Internal Revenue Service announced that it will begin collecting overdue federal tax debts using private companies beginning next spring. According to a press release from the agency, “The new program, authorized under a federal law enacted by Congress last December, enables these designated contractors to collect, on the government’s behalf, outstanding inactive tax receivables. As a condition of receiving a contract, these agencies must respect taxpayer rights including, among other things, abiding by the consumer protection provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. These private collection agencies will work on accounts where taxpayers owe money, but the IRS is no longer actively working their accounts.”
  • In a show of force against North Korea, the United States Navy and the South Korean Navy held exercises in the Sea of Japan. According to CNN, “It was the first time U.S. and South Korean vessels have operated together in waters so close to the east coast of North Korea, a US Navy official said. The ships were armed with long-range, precision, land-attack cruise missiles, the official said.” The show of force was in response to North Korea's recent testing of nuclear warheads and ballistic missiles. Rear Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Korea and Task Force 78, said in a statement, "We work side-by-side with our ROK partners every day; we are by their side today at sea, and we will remain by their side to defend against North Korea's unprovoked acts of aggression.”
  • During his eighth and final Tribal Nations Conference, President Barack Obama thanked members of the tribal communities who shared their experiences with him and discussed the progress he and tribal leaders have made for Indian Country. He said, “So today, the most important thing I want to say is thank you. After almost eight years as your President, I have been so privileged to learn from you and spend time with many of you while visiting more tribal communities than any other President. … And in a spirit of cooperation and mutual respect, we’ve made a lot of progress for Indian Country over the past eight years. And this moment highlights why it’s so important that we redouble our efforts to make sure that every federal agency truly consults and listens and works with you, sovereign to sovereign.”
  • U.S. Labor Department Secretary Thomas Perez sent a letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) explaining that the department would review all complaints and alleged violations concerning the practices of Wells Fargo. Last week, Warren asked the department to investigate “possible wage and working-hour law violations involving Wells Fargo tellers and sales representatives who may have stayed late to meet sales quotas,” according to Forbes. In response, Perez wrote, “Given the serious nature of the allegations, the recent actions of our federal partners, and recent media reports, I have directed enforcement agencies within the Department to conduct a top-to-bottom review.” The department also created the website www.dol.gov/wellsfargo “to help ensure current and former Wells Fargo employees are aware of worker protection laws.” According to Forbes, “Wells Fargo was ordered to pay $190 million earlier this month to settle civil charges alleging its employees had set up about 2 million accounts and credit cards in customers’ names that may not have been authorized.”
  • Carter Page stepped down as a foreign policy advisor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign amid speculation that he had engaged in discussions with top officials in the Russian government while in Moscow for a July speech. According to Yahoo News, U.S. intelligence officials were investigating allegations that Page had "talks about the possible lifting of economic sanctions if the Republican nominee becomes president." Upon leaving the campaign, Page denied the allegations to The Washington Post, saying, "All the ones that are mentioned in the various articles, I didn’t meet with any of those guys. It’s completely false and inconceivable that someone would even accuse me of that." Page then said he would leave the campaign to avoid further distractions: "This is another distraction that’s been created here. There’s so little time between now and the election, this is in the best interests of the candidate."
  • The Government Accountability Office released a report examining cybersecurity in health information technology and actions taken by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The report found that when HHS identifies cybersecurity weaknesses, its proposed solutions are often overly technical and unrelated to the problems. The GAO also said that HHS has not provided doctors and hospitals with adequate guidance about cybersecurity and that although the department conducts cybersecurity audits, there were never any benchmarks established to measure the effectiveness of the audits. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (R-Wash.) had requested the report. Since September 2009, nearly 170 million Americans have had their medical records breached.

State

  • Indiana University Health Plans, part of the IU Health system, announced it would be withdrawing from the state’s Affordable Care Act exchange in 2017. The company will continue to sell individual plans on the exchange, but the 27,000 people who purchased an IU Health plan through the exchange will need to find new coverage during open enrollment this fall. In a press release, IU Health Plans President James Parker said the decision was “necessary to adapt to new market dynamics and potential federal responses to withdrawals by many companies nationally from the federally facilitated marketplace.” Indiana has a federally facilitated exchange, meaning the federal government manages it through Healthcare.gov.

Local

  • Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the bond status of Chicago Public Schools, pushing its rating into a lower level of junk bond status. The firm decided on the downgrade due to the following three factors: a reliance on short-term borrowing, the district’s budget being "built on unrealistic expectations" of aid from the state government, and a “deepening structural deficit.” Additionally, the school district announced a loss of $45 million in funding after enrollment fell below projected levels for the current school year. The district served 396,683 students during the 2014-2015 school year, making it the largest school district in the state and the third-largest school district in the country.
  • U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper ruled that a transgender discrimination lawsuit against the Kenosha Unified School District in Wisconsin could move forward. The lawsuit against the district’s school board argued that not allowing a student who identifies as male to use the men’s restroom qualifies as discrimination under the Title IX law. The school district served 22,818 K-12 students during the 2013-2014 school year. It was the third-largest school district in Wisconsin during the 2012-2013 school year.
  • Police in Kansas City, Missouri, began a test of a police body camera system. The three-month test will outfit 25 officers with cameras that must be turned on manually. The test is designed to see how footage would be stored and whether the current body camera equipment could be implemented more widely. Police Chief Darryl Forté said in a statement that the test would be important because a number of agencies nationwide had promised to roll out body camera programs but had been forced to recall them after seeing the costs associated with video storage. Kansas City is the 37th-largest city in the country by population and the largest in Missouri.

Preview of the day

The excerpts below were compiled from issue #35 of The Tap, which was published on September 24, 2016. READ THE FULL VERSION HERE.

Federal




The Tap covered election news, public policy, and other noteworthy events from February 2016 to February 2022.
March: 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31
April: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30
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June: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30
July: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31
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September: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30
October: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7• 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30 • 31
November: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17 • 18 • 19 • 20 • 21 • 22 • 23 • 24 • 25 • 26 • 27 • 28 • 29 • 30
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February: 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 • 6 • 7 • 8 • 9 • 10 • 11 • 12 • 13 • 14 • 15 • 16 • 17
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