Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivers an economic policy address at the Detroit Economic Club, August 8, 2016. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)
Run the numbers –> The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reports, “Based on our preliminary update of our central estimates, both Clinton and Trump would increase the debt relative to current law — though Trump would increase it by an order of magnitude more, and Clinton’s plan would slightly reduce deficits if we incorporated unspecified revenue from business tax reform. Specifically, we estimate Clinton’s plans would add $200 billion to the debt over the next decade, while Trump’s plans would add $5.3 trillion.”
Lucrative –> Politico reported, and we noted yesterday, that Trump’s campaign has paid his own businesses $8.2 million. Now, Politico’s Ken Vogel and Isaac Arnsdorf report that the Secret Service — and through them, taxpayers — has paid Trump $1.6 million for flying on his plane: “It’s standard practice for the agency — which is tasked with protecting presidential candidates as well as presidents and other federal officials — to reimburse presidential campaigns for the cost of traveling with the candidates. In fact, the Secret Service has reimbursed the Clinton campaign, too: $2.6 million so far this cycle.”
“The difference with Trump is that one of his companies, TAG Air, Inc., owns the plane, so the government is effectively paying him.”
A really big oops –> The New York Times: “Yahoo announced on Thursday that the account information of at least 500 million users was stolen by hackers two years ago, in the biggest known intrusion of one company’s computer network. In a statement, Yahoo said user information — including names, email addresses, telephone numbers, birth dates, encrypted passwords and, in some cases, security questions — was compromised in 2014 by what it believed was a ‘state-sponsored actor.’ While Yahoo did not name the country involved, how the company discovered the hack nearly two years after the fact offered a glimpse at the complicated and mysterious world of the underground web.”
Is bipartisan criminal justice reform possible? –> Eli Hager writes for The Marshall Project, “On Thursday, the House of Representatives quietly — and overwhelmingly — passed what might be the most significant justice reform measure to reach Obama in his tenure.The bill is an update of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, which has been expired since 2007. It would withhold federal funding from states that hold minors in adult jails. Unlike previous versions of the law, the new bill would extend that protection to juveniles who have been charged with adult crimes but are still awaiting trial.”
The cease-fire is dead –> And the Assad regime is relentlessly bombing Aleppo, Syria. Kareem Shaheen and Julian Borger report for The Guardian, “Residents of rebel-held east Aleppo have described scenes of devastation, with activists claiming attacks by Syrian and Russian warplanes on the city hours after the Syrian military announced a major new offensive. As heavy bombing entered a second day, three medical centers and two centers belonging to the White Helmets, a volunteer rescue group, were hit in airstrikes that disabled some of their vehicles and cut off roads in the city, leaving many victims trapped under the ruins of their homes.”
Americans and race –> A county chair for the Trump campaign in Ohio stepped down yesterday after making a series of astounding statements to The Guardian, including, “I don’t think there was any racism until Obama got elected” and “If you’re black and you haven’t been successful in the last 50 years, it’s your own fault…. You’ve had the same schools everybody else went to. You had benefits to go to college that white kids didn’t have.”
Meanwhile, North Carolina Rep. Robert Pittenger told the BBC that black protesters have taken to the streets following a police shooting in Charlotte because they “hate white people.” He later apologized.
Once again we failed to make the cut –> The recipients of this year’s MacArthur genius grants have been announced. One of the most well-known is acclaimed poet Claudia Rankine, who recently told Time that on racial issues, America is “in a state of emergency and we don’t seem to recognize that.” Vox notes: “This year’s roster is heavier on artists than usual — in particular, artists who tell the stories of marginalized communities.”
Johnson turns campaign into bad Star Trek episode –> Mother Jones: “Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for president, takes what he calls the ‘long-term view’ of climate change. ‘In billions of years,’ he said in 2011, ‘the sun is going to actually grow and encompass the Earth, right? So global warming is in our future.'”
Morning Reads was compiled by John Light and edited by Michael Winship. See a story that you think should be included in Morning Reads? Tell us in the comments!
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