The letter goes on to question why, unlike most other financial institutions who refused to lend money to Trump due to his numerous bankruptcies, “Deustche Bank continued to do so—even after the President sued the bank and defaulted on a prior loan from the bank—to the point where his companies now owe [Deutsche Bank] an estimated $340 million.” It seems like a fair question!

Waters and Co. later cite numerous examples of the bank’s “pattern of regulatory compliance failures and disregard for U.S. law,” which doesn’t seem like the best way to convince a group of people to help you out. And, unfortunately, the request is simply a request—the members can’t compel Deutsche Bank to turn over anything, or even respond with a curt “Got your note, thx.” The committee could subpoena the German lender for the documents, but that would require cooperation from Republican members of the Financial Services Committee. Given that not a single one of them signed it—and that committee chair Jeb Hensarling would lay down in traffic for a financial institution—a team-effort subpoena seems unlikely.

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Guy who made a $2 trillion math mistake says the Treasury may have miscalculated when the government will run out of money, too

There were more than a few issues with the budget proposal the Trump administration released Tuesday. There is, for starters, the fact that the plan would slash critical programs like Social Security Disability Insurance, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and food stamps, all of which make it glaringly obvious how little the G.O.P. cares for the poor when a big, fat tax cut is to be had. Perhaps even more brazen was the fact that the proposal contained what Larry Summers called “the most egregious accounting error[s] in a Presidential budget” ever: counting its $2 trillion in savings twice—once to make it seem like Trump’s tax cuts would pay for themselves (already a leap of faith), and then again to make the budget balance over ten years.

When asked about that error—if it can be called that, and not simply a scam—White House budget director Mick Mulvaney basically told reporters, Sorry, we wanted the numbers to look good for the big roll out, we’ll figure out the details later. Now, Mulvaney has casually dropped into conversation that his team may have also miscalculated when the government will run out of money. Per MarketWatch: