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The Daily 202: A Republican schism on taxes -- Scrap the code? Or be practical?

From:email@e.washingtonpost.com To: john.podesta@gmail.com Date: 2015-12-09 11:10 Subject: The Daily 202: A Republican schism on taxes -- Scrap the code? Or be practical?

View on the Web: <http://link.washingtonpost.com/view/5483d5bc3b35d0d76d8c549c3dzmn.adsd/e76f3ff6> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE DAILY 202 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - By James Hohmann - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Share on Twitter: <http://link.washingtonpost.com/click/5691551.484429/aHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS8_c3RhdHVzPUNoZWNrJTIwb3V0JTIwVGhlRGFpbHkyMDIlMjBmcm9tJTIwJTQwUG93ZXJQb3N0JTIwaHR0cDovL2xpbmsud2FzaGluZ3RvbnBvc3QuY29tL3B1YmxpYy81NjkxNTUxJndwbW09MSZ3cGlzcmM9bmxfZGFpbHkyMDI/5483d5bc3b35d0d76d8c549cC3d75302d> Share on Facebook: <http://link.washingtonpost.com/click/5691551.484429/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZmFjZWJvb2suY29tL3NoYXJlci5waHA_dT1odHRwOi8vbGluay53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vcHVibGljLzU2OTE1NTEmd3BtbT0xJndwaXNyYz1ubF9kYWlseTIwMg/5483d5bc3b35d0d76d8c549cCd60ba786> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - THE DAILY 202: A REPUBLICAN SCHISM ON TAXES — SCRAP THE CODE? OR BE PRACTICAL? <http://link.washingtonpost.com/click/5691551.484429/aHR0cDovL3d3dy53YXNoaW5ndG9ucG9zdC5jb20vbmV3cy9wb3dlcnBvc3Qvd3AvMjAxNS8xMi8wOS90aGUtZGFpbHktMjAyLWEtcmVwdWJsaWNhbi1zY2hpc20tb24tdGF4ZXMtc2NyYXAtdGhlLWNvZGUtb3ItYmUtcHJhY3RpY2FsLz93cG1tPTEmd3Bpc3JjPW5sX2RhaWx5MjAy/5483d5bc3b35d0d76d8c549cCbc9d6f2a> Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist (AFP Photo/Jim Watson) THE BIG IDEA: — While the GOP’s rigidity when it comes to opposing any new tax increase is well known, a robust debate is playing out on the right about what exactly tax reform should look like. Grover Norquist, the conservative crusader who runs Americans for Tax Reform, says he’s happy that so many more presidential candidates have detailed plans for how they’d like to change the tax code compared to four years ago. “Republicans putting these plans down on paper is really healthy,” he said. “They’re all generally moving in the right direction.” The GOP field falls into two camps: those who want to simplify the existing code and those who want to blow it up and start from scratch. Who falls into which group closely mirrors the larger ideological cleavage in the field between the pragmatists and the ideologues. The incrementalists: John Kasich and Jeb Bush each call for reducing the number of tax brackets from seven to three and setting the top marginal income tax rate at 28 percent. (The top rate now is 39.6 percent.) Marco Rubio, working with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), proposed three rates on individuals: 35 percent, 25 percent and 15 percent. Chris Christie also advocates going to three rates, with his top rate at 28 percent. Even Donald Trump backed three rates: 10 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent, with a 15 percent corporate tax rate. The start-from-scratch crowd: Ted Cruz calls for starting over with an across the board flat tax rate of 10 percent. Rand Paul backs a slightly higher flat rate of 14.5 percent on individuals. Both the Texas and Kentucky senators propose controversial business taxes that have been compared to the value-added tax used in Europe. Ben Carson wants a tax model based on the tithing called for in the Bible, but he has not laid out specifics in a way that can be scored by economists. Rick Santorum endorses a 20 percent flat tax, with special breaks for manufacturers. For 90 minutes yesterday at Norquist’s office, economic policy advisers representing five of the GOP campaigns argued with each other each other about the dueling approaches. Bush adviser Danny Heil nodded to the fact that voters see flat taxes as regressive and that across-the-board cuts tend to benefit the rich more than the poor. That, he explained, would make the Cruz and Paul plans a tougher sell in a general election. He said the Bush plan is the most comprehensive thing that is achievable within “the existing system” and that it could be “readily implemented.” Rubio’s campaign policy director, Johnny Slemrod, said there are things to like about other plans but the Florida senator’s focus is on offering something that actually has a chance of getting enacted. He said theirs is “the most realistic plan to get there.” Kasich adviser Kerry Knott called Trump’s plan “a fantasy” that has no chance of ever going into effect, and he criticized Cruz and Paul for supporting ideas that sound good in theory but don’t work in practice. Cruz and Rand’s representatives, meanwhile, made the case that the flat tax makes the most economic sense. Because of the venue and the nature of the debate, they did not engage about the huge deficits that several of these plans could lead to. One flash point between the Floridians: Jeb thinks an internet sales tax is necessary for fairness while Rubio promises to veto it. — Steve Forbes is out this week with a new book, “Reviving America,” that makes an exhaustive case for a 17 percent flat tax for individuals and corporations. The two-time presidential candidate said several candidates are “just about there” with the plans they’ve rolled out so far. He criticizes the “traditionalists” who want piecemeal fixes instead of a total overhaul. “The best thing is to start all over again,” Forbes said. “Don’t negotiate with yourself! Put the purist thing out!” He says it is dangerous to keep multiple tax rates because, like rabbits, they multiply. Forbes, who stumped for Rick Perry four years ago, told the 202 that he will “probably” endorse again this year. “I feel like I’m in the dating game,” he said. “I’m an agitator. That’s my role now.” — Thinking ahead: Even if there’s a Republican president in 2017, Norquist predicts that Paul Ryan will still be in the driver’s seat on tax reform and exert more influence over the outcome than anyone else. Overhauling the code is the new Speaker’s pet issue, and he made clear when he agreed to give up his chairmanship of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee that he was not going to let go. Grover told the 202 that he hopes debating these approaches now will make it easier to pass something during the first few months of the next Republican administration. WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING: — The third Paris attacker who blew himself up at the Bataclan concert hall was identified as 23-year-old French national Fouad Mohamed-Aggad. He had traveled to Syria in 2013. (BBC) Foued Mohamed-Aggad, the third bomber at the Bataclan music hall, posted this picture of himself on Facebook last year. (AFP/Getty Images) — NO DEAL…YET: The House is still struggling to approve a government spending bill before Friday, when the government will shut down if there’s no action. With time running out, leaders might move a short-term bill to extend funding for a bit while they continue negotiating. Sticking points include GOP riders to prevent Syrian and Iraqi refugees from entering the U.S.; attempts to block President Obama’s environmental regulations; and a weakening of financial reforms in the Dodd-Frank Act. MEET THE “HOPE YES, VOTE NO” CAUCUS: The spending bill is one of new Speaker Paul Ryan’s first tests of how well he can control his right flank. As Mike DeBonis puts it, Ryan needs to persuade the 120 or so members of the “Hope yes, vote no” caucus, meaning those Republicans who “privately fear the repercussions of a federal shutdown or default but have been compelled to vote against compromise bills because of political pressure from the right.” Along with the 40 or so House Freedom Caucus-members, this bloc of Republicans has bucked leadership on a series of key spending and debt limits votes since the GOP retook the House majority in 2011. Bringing them in line is a central factor to determine whether Ryan succeeds where John Boehner failed. GET SMART FAST: Iraqi forces say they have driven ISIS out of large portions of Ramadi, the capital of Iraq’s largest province, after a seven-month occupation. (Mustafa Salim and Hugh Naylor) Russia for the first time hit ISIS targets in Syria using missiles it launched from a submarine stationed in the Mediterranean. (Reuters) The House passed a bill that imposes new restrictions on the visa waiver program by a 407-to-19 vote. “But there are key differences between the House bill and a measure from Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), which has not yet been scheduled for a vote,” Karoun Demirjian reports. The House measure has the backing of travel industry lobbyists, who aspire to water down any reforms as much as possible. U.S. and Cuban officials met in Havana to begin negotiating a possible settlement for $1.9 billion worth of American assets seized by Fidel Castro in the early 1960s. (Nick Miroff) The Supreme Court appears divided along partisan lines as to whether “one person, one vote” means all residents in a given area, or just eligible voters, with John Roberts saying voters and Sonia Sotomayor saying it’s not that simple during oral arguments for what could be a landmark case from Texas. Separately, the justices decided unanimously that a Maryland man can challenge that state’s redistricting plan, something lower courts had dismissed. (Robert Barnes) The Chicago Teachers’ Union will begin to vote on whether to strike after talks with the school district have gone nowhere. (Emma Brown) Ratings show 46 million people watched Obama’s Sunday speech from the Oval Office, up from the 33 million who watched his State of the Union this January. (Deadline) Speaking of that, Fox Business Network announced it will host another GOP presidential debate on Jan. 14, two days after Obama’s final State of the Union. A suspected burglar who was hiding in a Florida pond was killed by an alligator. (Yahoo) POWER PLAYERS IN THE NEWS Diane Rehm will retire from WAMU after the presidential election, ending a nearly 40-year radio career. (Paul Farhi) Bernie Sanders compared the poverty he saw during a tour of Baltimore to a third-world country, but he made news for refusing to engage with reporter questions about terrorism. “Don’t ask about ISIS today,” his spokeswoman told reporters before a press conference. (John Wagner) Martin O’Malley, trying to appeal to liberal college students, attacked the Sanders plan to tackle climate change as “not good enough.” (Iowa City Press-Citizen) Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) became the fourth senator to endorse Bush. Ben Carson unveiled a 16-member foreign policy team that lacks any real star power or big names. (Jose A. DelReal) Iowa social conservative activist Bob Vander Plaats and his group, the Family Leader, are widely expected to endorse Ted Cruz on Thursday. Vander Plaats backed Rick Santorum in 2012 and Mike Huckabee in 2008, both of whom went on to win the caucuses. The executive director of the House Freedom Caucus, Steve Chartan, is joining Cruz’s Senate office in a policy role. (Politico) The Union Leader editorial board attacks Cruz today for becoming more hawkish to match the mood. Solicitor General Don Verrilli urged the Supreme Court not to review Bob McDonnell’s corruption conviction and two-year sentence. (Matt Zapotosky) The environmentalist who founded the North Face clothing company, Douglas Tompkins, died during a kayaking trip in Chile. He was 72. (Reuters) LATEST ON THE TRUMP FALLOUT: Donald Trump in South Carolina (Reuters/Randall Hill) “I WILL NEVER LEAVE THIS RACE,” Trump told my colleagues Steven Ginsberg and Robert Costa over breakfast last week. The full Q&A, with great scenes and fun dialogue, is worth reading. IS HE SERIOUS?: Trump is again flirting with an independent bid or, at the very least, daring Republican leaders: “A new poll indicates that 68% of my supporters would vote for me if I departed the GOP & ran as an independent,” he tweeted last night. IS TRUMP THE NEW GEORGE WALLACE? Dan Balz, the Post’s chief correspondent, floats it on the front page of our paper: “Nothing in modern politics equates with the kind of rhetoric now coming from Candidate Trump. There are no perfect analogies. One must scroll back decades for echoes, however imperfect, of what he is saying, from the populist and racially based appeals of then-Alabama Gov. George Wallace in 1968 and 1972 to the anti-Semitic diatribes of the radio preacher Charles Coughlin during the 1930s. Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace stands in the “school house door” confronting National Guard Brig. Gen. Henry Graham at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa on June 11, 1963. (AP Photo) “Historian David Kennedy of Stanford University said there are few comparisons, adding that, in branding an entire religious class of people as not welcome, Trump “is further out there than almost anyone in the annals of [U.S.] history.” More of what Professor Kennedy told Dan about Trump: “We’ve known for a long time that we’re just less trustful as a people. We have less confidence in our major institutions and our leaders. . . . He gets denounced routinely when he does these things and everyone gets up and says this is not a voice we should listen to. But nobody has credibility on the other side. Nobody has the cultural authority to put this guy down. . . . All the condemnation in the world falls on deaf ears.” Post columnist Dana Milbank mocks the NRSC for comparing Trump to Wendell Willkie, the 1940 GOP nominee, and argues that he’s a lot more like Benito Mussolini. “And not only because of the superficial: Trump’s chin-out toughness, sweeping right-hand gestures and talk of his ‘huge’ successes and his ‘stupid’ opponents all evoke the Italian dictator’s style.” HATEFUL WORDS HAVE REAL-LIFE CONSEQUENCES: There here have been two dozen attacks documented against Muslims in the U.S. since the Paris attacks, including a pig’s head being thrown at a mosque, according to USA Today. Indiana Democratic Rep. Andre Carson, one of two Muslims in Congress, announced that he received a death threat. He blames politicians for “fanning the flames of bigotry.” MANY REPUBLICANS RESPONDED FORCEFULLY: “This is not conservatism,” said Speaker Paul Ryan. South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, a daughter of Indian immigrants, called it “an embarrassment to the Republican Party”: “It’s absolutely un-American, it’s unconstitutional, it defies everything this country was based on and it’s just wrong.” (Charleston Post and Courier) BUT SOME GOP LEADERS ARE BEING TEPID: “I don’t agree,” RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said when asked about the Trump proposal. “We need to aggressively take on radical Islamic terrorism but not at the expense of our American values. That’s as far as I’m going to go.” If Republicans again blow a winnable presidential election in 2016, that quote will be in autopsies explaining why. DEMOCRATS CAPITALIZE: Hillary, in an open letter to Muslims, bashed what she called the Republican failure to dismiss Trump’s “prejudice and paranoia,” by noting other GOP candidates’ remarks about the Islamic faith. Bernie, on “The Tonight Show” last night, ripped into Trump as a “demagogue”: “What somebody like a Trump is trying to do is to divide us up. A few months ago, we were supposed to hate Mexicans. He thinks they’re all criminals or rapists. Now we’re supposed to hate Muslims. And that kind of crap is not going to work in the United States of America.” IS TRUMP GOING TO WALK IT BACK? Trump told ABC’s Barbara Walters that his ban would probably be “short term.” He added that he has “tremendous relationships” with Muslims and they agree with him “100 percent.” He also denied that he is a bigot. “You know when I came out against illegal immigration, everybody said the same thing,” he said. “Two weeks later, everybody was on my side, including the members of my own party.” The most memorable line from the interview might be him saying, “I’m the worst thing that’s ever happened to ISIS.” TRUMP STILL LEADS THE GOP POLLS: Cruz vaulted into second place among Republicans in a Suffolk/USA Today national poll, earning 17 percent of likely voters’ support behind Trump’s 27 percent. Rubio is third at 16 percent, and Carson dropped to 10 percent. (Philip Bump) Trump’s lead in New Hampshire grew by 6 points, to 32 percent, in a CNN/WMUR poll that was conducted just before the Muslim proposal. He held an 18-point lead over second-place Rubio. (CNN) A REALLY COOL NEW POLLING TOOL: Morning Consult has built out a free platform called Morning Consult Intelligence that lets anyone search and analyze over 50,000 current and historical survey questions from top polling organizations. It’s much more sophisticated than any of the other free tools out there. Researchers can filter based on the polling or media organization and the date of the survey. A post on the Monkey Cage blog explains more on what should be a helpful resource for operatives, journalists and historians. WAPO HIGHLIGHTS: Tashfeen Malik, center, and Syed Rizwan Farook, right, go through Chicago’s O’Hare airport on July 27, 2014. (Courtesy of ABC News) The latest from San Bernardino –> “Both attackers pledged allegiance to the Islamic State,” by Adam Goldman, Missy Ryan, Julie Tate and Abby Philip: “Federal authorities believe the Facebook posting from one of the attackers who killed 14 people here last week was made on behalf of both shooters … The Facebook posting said, ‘We pledge allegiance’ to the leader of the Islamic State, using the name Khalifah Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Al Qurashi, the emir of the self-proclaimed Islamic State. … This new detail illustrates what federal officials described Monday as the radicalization of both attackers.” “The FBI remains keenly interested in a former neighbor who provided the military-grade rifles … The neighbor, Enrique Marquez, legally purchased the rifles — semiautomatic AR-15s manufactured by DPMS and Smith & Wesson — in California. … An official with the Islamic Center of Corona-Norco, in Corona, Calif., the mosque Syed Farook’s brother Raheel regularly attended, said he believed that Marquez had periodically attended the center. … Marquez was also married to a woman who appears to be a relative of Tatiana Farook, the wife of Syed’s brother Raheel, according to county records. Both Marquez and the bride, Russian-born Mariya Chernykh, list the same home address as Raheel Farook, and Raheel and Tatiana Farook were witnesses to the couple’s marriage. The Corona mosque is listed as the couple’s religious center. … Marquez, who works as a security guard at Walmart and had lived next door to the Farook family for years, could become a subject of the investigation depending on what the FBI learns, one official said.” In this Oct. 20, 2014, frame from dash-cam video provided by the Chicago Police Department, Laquan McDonald, right, walks down the street just before being shot 16 times by officer Jason Van Dyke. (Chicago Police Department via AP,) Important reform –> “FBI to sharply expand system for tracking fatal police shootings,“ by Kimberly Kindy: “The FBI’s system for tracking fatal police shootings is a ‘travesty’ and the agency will replace it by 2017, dramatically expanding the information it gathers on violent police encounters in the United States, a senior FBI official said Tuesday. The new effort will go beyond tracking fatal shootings and, for the first time, track any incident in which an officer causes serious injury or death to civilians, including through the use of stun guns, pepper spray, and even fists and feet. … The data will also be ‘much more granular’ than in the past and will probably include the gender and race of officers and suspects involved in these encounters, the level of threat or danger the officer faced, and the types of weapons wielded by either party. The data also will be collected and shared with the public in ‘near real-time,’ as the incidents occur … instead of being tallied in aggregate at the end of each year.” The Eiffel Tower lights up with the slogan “Action Now,” referring to the U.N. climate change conference, on Sunday night. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) Update from Paris –> “Amid GOP jeers from Washington, U.S. diplomats seek progress toward a climate deal,” by Joby Warrick and Chris Mooney: “On Wednesday, diplomats from 195 countries attending the talks are expected to produce a new draft of the proposed climate accord that narrows differences over the key issues of transparency and compensation and financial aid for poorer countries. A bloc of developing nations that includes India is demanding that wealthier states finance their transition to cleaner energy while also compensating them for economic losses resulting from man-made climate change. The leader of India’s delegation to the talks suggested Tuesday that the United States and other developed countries were morally obligated to pay for a problem that was largely created by the industrial West.” SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ: — ZIGNAL VISUAL: Ryan vs. Trump. Paul Ryan saw his share of the social media spotlight spike yesterday when he took on Trump, saying his call for banning Muslim immigrants “is not what this party stands for.” Of the 23,000 Tweets that mentioned Ryan yesterday, 13,700 (or 60 percent) also mentioned Trump. Here’s a look at the jump in Ryan mentions, via our analytics partners at Zignal Labs: –Pictures of the day: Leonardo DiCaprio sat down with Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of the Paris climate talks: (leonardodicaprio) Rick Santorum recognized a 2012 front page while visiting the Des Moines Register: (@RickSantorum) On his trip to Ukraine, Vice President Biden met with families of U.S. embassy staff: (vp) –Tweets of the day: J.K. Rowling tweeted that Trump is worse than Voldemort: (@jk_rowling) Hillary Clinton urged her twitter followers to counter Trump with this message: (@HillaryClinton) Trump wasn’t shy about airing the possibility of a third-party run: (@realDonaldTrump) He reiterated plans to travel to Israel within the next few weeks: (@realDonaldTrump) The Pataki family celebrated a major milestone: (@GovernorPataki) Former Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) raised eyebrows with this out-of-the-blue tweet: (@JohnDingell) Turns out it was in reference to this news from Michigan tight end Jake Butt: (@JBooty_88) –Instagrams of the day: Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) were turned into cartoon superheroes by espnW in honor of their work on campus sexual assault: (clairecmc) Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) shared his Secret Santa gift — an Adele album — for Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.): (senatorcarper) Filmmaker Michael Moore shared this image: (michaelfmoore) GOOD READS FROM ELSEWHERE: — New York Times, “Joe Biden, his son and the case against a Ukrainian oligarch,” by James Risen: “When Vice President Biden traveled to Kiev, Ukraine, on Sunday for a series of meetings with the country’s leaders, one of the issues on his agenda was to encourage a more aggressive fight against Ukraine’s rampant corruption and stronger efforts to rein in the power of its oligarchs. But the credibility of the vice president’s anticorruption message may have been undermined by the association of his son, Hunter Biden, with one of Ukraine’s largest natural gas companies, Burisma Holdings, and with its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, who was Ukraine’s ecology minister under former President Viktor F. Yanukovych before he was forced into exile. Hunter Biden, 45, a former Washington lobbyist, joined the Burisma board in April 2014. … Geoffrey Pyatt went on to call for an investigation into ‘the misconduct’ of the prosecutors who wrote the letters. In his speech, the ambassador did not mention Hunter Biden’s connection to Burisma. But Edward C. Chow, who follows Ukrainian policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the involvement of the vice president’s son with Mr. Zlochevsky’s firm undermined the Obama administration’s anticorruption message in Ukraine.” — Associated Press, “Clinton intervened for firm after request to son-in-law,” by Stephen Braun: “As secretary of state, Hillary Clinton intervened in a request forwarded by her son-in-law on behalf of a deep-sea mining firm to meet with her or other State Department officials after one of the firm’s investors asked Chelsea Clinton’s husband for help setting up such contacts, according to the most recently released Clinton emails. The lobbying effort on behalf of Neptune Minerals Inc. came while Clinton was advocating for an Obama administration push to win Senate approval for a sweeping Law of the Sea Treaty. … Clinton ordered a senior State Department official in August 2012 to look into the request. Her action came three months after an investor in the mining firm emailed Marc Mezvinsky, Chelsea Clinton’s husband and a partner in Eaglevale Partners LP, a New York hedge fund, asking for his help in setting up State Department contacts.” — Wall Street Journal, “Nancy Pelosi drives hard bargain with Paul Ryan on spending, taxes” by Kristina Peterson: “The two House leaders are facing their first serious battle of wills over Congress’s pile of year-end legislation. Republicans will grade Ryan, elected speaker in late October, on how many conservative policy measures he manages to attach to the spending bill needed to prevent a shutdown when the government’s funding runs out Friday night. Pelosi, determined to block as many GOP policy measures as she can, is demonstrating to the new speaker that Democrats’ support on must-pass legislation won’t come cheap. As such, she is working to prevent Republicans from securing all but the slimmest of policy victories. … Long known as a tough negotiator, Pelosi has stepped up her efforts in recent days on both the spending bill and legislation addressing a slew of lapsed and expiring tax breaks known as ‘extenders.’ On the spending bill, she has sought to block all GOP policy measures, or ‘riders,’ that Democrats don’t like.” — Politico, “Cruz takes climate-science detour from campaign trail,” by Darren Goode: “Ted Cruz took a break from the campaign trail on Tuesday to dive headlong into an aggressive Capitol Hill attack on mainstream climate science — the kind his fellow Republican presidential contenders have mainly sought to avoid. Less than eight weeks before the crucial Iowa caucuses in which he’s leading the latest polls, Cruz convened a Senate subcommittee hearing where he criticized environmentalists as ‘alarmists’ and questioned ‘the objectivity of climate research.’ Also joining the hearing were a half-dozen Democrats, only too eager to get another chance to lampoon the GOP as a party that opposes science. … Cruz’s main thrust was an argument that has long been a talking point among right-wing climate skeptics — that some satellite records show that global temperatures have barely budged since 1998.” — New York Times Magazine, “Trudeau’s Canada, again,“ by Guy Lawson: “Justin Trudeau, who is 43, was still working on getting his staff to call him ‘Prime Minister.’ For years, he was ‘Justin,’ and staff members often still referred to him that way. ‘It’s like your really smart friend suddenly became prime minister,’ Kate Purchase, his communications director, told me. … Pierre Trudeau gave his son a front seat to history. When he was a boy, Justin met Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan (who recited verses from the poem ‘‘The Shooting of Dan McGrew’); Richard Nixon toasted the toddler in Ottawa, predicting he would become prime minister someday. But the younger Trudeau told me he never discussed the subject with his father until the last year of his life. … Justin Trudeau’s lack of qualifications to be prime minister were obvious, as was his lack of his father’s erudition — but he considers himself to have undergone his own peculiar kind of schooling. Trudeau points out that he has visited nearly 100 countries, many of them for international summit meetings with his father, which provided an intimate understanding of statecraft.” HOT ON THE LEFT Arnold Schwarzenegger had quite the response to climate change deniers. From Facebook: “There are two doors. Behind Door Number One is a completely sealed room, with a regular, gasoline-fueled car. Behind Door Number Two is an identical, completely sealed room, with an electric car … I’m guessing you chose the Door Number Two, with the electric car, right? Door number one is a fatal choice – who would ever want to breathe those fumes? This is the choice the world is making right now.” HOT ON THE RIGHT Rupert Murdoch calls for a halt to influx of refugees. From the Hollywood Reporter: “Has Trump gone too far?” tweeted the owner of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, without answering his own question. “Regardless, public is obsessed on radical Muslim dangers, Complete refugee pause to fix vetting makes sense,” he wrote. “Hours after his initial post, Murdoch said he was not endorsing Trump, just supporting his idea.” DAYBOOK: — What’s happening today on the campaign trail: Hillary Clinton holds town halls in Waterloo and Urbandale, Iowa. Ben Carson is in Ypsilanti, Mich. for a town hall and a luncheon. Marco Rubio, also in Michigan, rallies supporters in Waterford Township. Jeb Bush attends a young professionals event in Manchester, N.H., and a reception in New York City. John Kasich addresses the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. Martin O’Malley hears from students at the University of California, Berkeley. — On the Hill: The House and Senate meet at 10 a.m. — At the White House: President Obama delivers remarks at an event commemorating the 150th anniversary of the 13th amendment. Later, he holds a bilateral meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, the hosts a Hanukkah reception. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Stay informed — because stupid people are ruining America,” Herman Cain told an Atlanta crowd last night at a Ben Carson rally. ”God blessed me with a voice and a big mouth and I’m going to use it to try to wake people up and convert some of the stupid people.” NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.: — “Sunshine is probably in short supply today with morning clouds slow to break-up,” the Capital Weather Gang forecasts. “We’ll call it mostly cloudy, but with a light breeze from the south still able to help push afternoon highs to near 50 to the mid-50s. Perhaps some periods of partial sun this afternoon.” — The Caps moved into first place in their division after beating the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 in a shootout. (Isabelle Khurshudyan) VIDEOS OF THE DAY: — Ever wonder what breed the 2016 presidential candidates would be if they were dogs? BuzzFeed has you covered: (BuzzFeed Video) — White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Trump’s comment about Muslims “disqualifies” him from becoming president, as he lit into The Donald: (C-SPAN) — John Kasich’s super PAC released a video juxtaposing Ronald Reagan talking about the GOP being a party of inclusion against Trump reading aloud from his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. Watch here. — From Arlington National Cemetery, Tom Brokaw reflects on Trump’s “dangerous proposal.” Watch the 2.5-minute package here. — Eagles of Death Metal, the band performing at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris when it was attacked last month, trekked back to a memorial at the site. Watch here. U2 welcomed the California rockers onstage at the conclusion of their concert, rescheduled because of the attack, to perform. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Twitter <http://link.washingtonpost.com/click/5691551.484429/aHR0cHM6Ly90d2l0dGVyLmNvbS9Qb3dlclBvc3Q_d3BtbT0xJndwaXNyYz1ubF9kYWlseTIwMg/5483d5bc3b35d0d76d8c549cC1c4e5419> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - You are receiving this email because you signed up for the The Daily 202 or were registered on washingtonpost.com or were invited as a VIP. For additional free newsletters or to manage your newsletters, click here: <http://link.washingtonpost.com/click/5691551.484429/aHR0cHM6Ly9zdWJzY3JpYmUud2FzaGluZ3RvbnBvc3QuY29tL25ld3NsZXR0ZXJzP3dwbW09MSZ3cGlzcmM9bmxfZGFpbHkyMDI/5483d5bc3b35d0d76d8c549cCa614c177>. 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