11 Jun
2018
Summits Galore, Including One Really Important One (To Which The U.S. Wasn’t Invited)
- Good morning, Singapore! Well, actually, it’s nighttime there, but in just a few hours, President Trump will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in what could be one of the most significant summits ever between an American president and a foreign leader. The key will be what is accomplished, and whether President Trump can achieve a result that will keep South Korea safe while allowing the North to save face.
- Things can change quickly, however: Two weeks ago, the summit was off, and a few months ago, both countries were disconcertingly rattling their sabers. A timely discussion of North Korea’s willingness to give up its nuclear arsenal will take place on Tuesday at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which hosts “Denuclearization or Deterrence? Evaluating Next Steps on North Korea.”
- If President Trump is successful in Singapore, most people could forget about theanimosity that ended the G-7 summit. Except the people of Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and Italy, who are unlikely to forgive the president’s badmouthing of their leaders and his refusal to agree to the rather benign joint statement crafted by the group. And, don’t forget, Trump suggested that Russia should be welcomed back to the conclave, a recommendation that got the side-eye from most other members.
- Many of those same nations will be present next month at the 2018 NATO Summitin Brussels. NATO, of course, is largely funded by the United States, and President Trump has chastised allies over their perceived failure to pay their fair share of the fare. Those allies are unlikely to approach the meeting with warm feelings toward the president. On Wednesday, the Atlantic Council will conduct a discussion, “Raising the Curtain on the 2018 NATO Brussels Summit.”
- Though the president is out of the country, there’s still plenty going on in Washington this week. At about 4 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Federal Judge Richard Leon is expected to issue an opinion on whether AT&T should be allowed to merge with Time Warner. The government has opposed the merger, making it one of the most influential antitrust cases in decades, according to the New York Times. If it goes through, it bodes well for several other proposed mergers, including Disney+21st Century Fox, CVS+Aetna and T-Mobile+Sprint.
- Other federal judges are also likely to issue some decisions this week, including the justices of the Supreme Court, which has just a few weeks left in its term and more than two dozen cases yet to be decided. Among them are Trump v. Hawaii, about the president’s attempt to ban citizens of several majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S.; Janus v. AFSCME, over whether public employees have a free-speech right not to pay union dues; and Carpenter v. U.S., which looks at whether the warrantless seizure of cell phone records violates the Fourth Amendment.
- The Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee will convene Tuesday and Wednesday to decide whether to raise interest rates for the second time this year. Nearly everyone expects that the central bankers will do so, with the only question being how they frame their policy plans for the remainder of the year. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will give a press conference Wednesday afternoon after the group releases its statement.
- Tuesday is also another Primary Day – this time in five states: Maine, Nevada, North Dakota, South Carolina and Virginia. Two Nevada Democrats are fighting an intense battle for a spot on the ballot for U.S. Senate, while in South Carolina a dozen Republicans have lined up to try to succeed Trey Gowdy, the camera-cozy chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
- The cost of prescription drugs has been an issue in just about every presidential election we can remember. Now comes President Trump’s attempt to solve it. On Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hosts Alex Azar, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, at a hearing entitled, “Examining the President’s Blueprint, ‘American Patients First,’ to Lower Drug Prices.”
- A passel of appropriations bills are undergoing markup this week in both the House and the Senate, with the Senate Appropriations Committee considering amendments on Tuesday and Thursday for funding of the Departments of the Interior, Commerce, and Justice, EPA and related agencies, while the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday takes a look at finalizing bills funding the Departments of State and Defense.
- Bonus ElevenCount: Of course, all these summits are not nearly as important as the meeting of nations that gets underway this week in Russia: The World Cup, which kicks off on Thursday with Russia hosting Saudi Arabia and with the United States sitting at home, having failed to qualify. The Group Stage continues through June 28, after which the knockout phase works its way through to the meeting of the final two on July 15 in Moscow.
- Double Bonus TwelveCount: Finally, Hamilton the Musical opens Tuesday at the Kennedy Center. If case you hadn’t heard, the musical employs hip-hop verse to expound on the life of the first Secretary of the Treasury, which is really a lot better than the description might sound. Despite a frenzied ticket offering, many tickets remain at the Kennedy Center box office for performances through September 16. In anticipation of the much-anticipated event, the Bipartisan Policy Center on Monday hosts “The Real Alexander Hamilton,” a panel discussion that includes looks at original documents from the Alexander Hamilton Collection, including “one of Hamilton’s most revealing love letters to Eliza.” Awwww…