On The Money: McCarthy offers bill to fully fund Trump border wall | US to press China on currency in trade talks | Mnuchin plans to go ahead with Saudi trip | How America’s urban-rural divide is changing the Dems

by Sylvan Lane - 10/12/18 4:24 PM ET

Happy Friday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.

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THE BIG DEAL– McCarthy offers bill to fully fund Trump’s border wall: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) introduced a bill on Friday to fully fund President Trump’s proposed border wall, a chief campaign promise that Congress has struggled to deliver.

The measure, dubbed the “Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act,” provides $23.4 billion to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, with $5.5 billion in funding available immediately.

Around $16.6 billion would be dedicated to physical barriers, while the rest would cover technology, operations and other infrastructure costs associated with border security.

The measure does not indicate where in the budget the money would come from. As an advance appropriation, it would be up to appropriators to decide where future cuts will need to come from in order to cover the costs of the bill.

In McCarthy’s words: “President Trump’s election was a wakeup call to Washington. The American People want us to build the Wall and enforce the law,” said McCarthy, a Trump ally, who is looking to replace retiring Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) next year.

Background: Congress passed a short-term spending bill last month to fund several agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, which has jurisdiction over the wall, essentially delaying a contentious fight over the issue until after the midterm elections.

While GOP leaders warned Trump that pushing for the wall before November could lead to a disastrous government shutdown, they have made clear that they are willing to go to the mat for the issue in December.

LEADING THE DAY

Mnuchin says US-China trade talks must include currency: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Friday told China that any future trade talks between Washington and Beijing must include currency issues, he said in an interview with Reuters.

“I expressed my concern about the weakness in the (renminbi) currency and that as part of any trade discussions, currency has to be part of the discussion,” Mnuchin said of a meeting he had with People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Indonesia.

Mnuchin also said that Beijing must identify “action items” to address the two countries’ trade disputes before trade talks could continue.

“I think we had a productive explanation from his standpoint on those issues,” he said, adding that current circumstances have driven the yuan down against the dollar.

Mnuchin’s comments come as President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping appear more likely to meet late next month at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires to discuss their escalating trade dispute, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The White House told Beijing that it wants to move forward with a face-to-face meeting at the international gathering in hopes of determining how to solve their long-standing trade differences, the WSJ wrote.

Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow are taking the lead on coordinating the meeting between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies.

Mnuchin ‘planning on going’ to Saudi event despite journalist’s disappearance: From CNBC: “Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin still plans to attend a Saudi investment conference later this month, despite growing outrage over the disappearance of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“‘We all want information, so let’s wait and see what information comes out in the next week,’ Mnuchin said.

‘Several top executives and media companies, including CNBC, have announced they are pulling out of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) in Riyadh, scheduled for Oct. 23-25. It comes after allegations were made about the kingdom’s connection to Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on Friday said Mnuchin should not participate in the conference after the secretary said he planned to go.

“Secretary Mnuchin should cancel his travel to Saudi Arabia later this month until the world receives answers about what happened to journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul,” the Indiana Republican tweeted Friday morning.

How America’s urban-rural divide is changing the Democratic Party: For decades, the shotgun marriage between the Minnesota Democratic Party and the Farmer-Labor Party engineered by Hubert Humphrey created a prairie populist machine that ran this state.

Republicans have not won Minnesota’s electoral votes since 1972. No Republican candidate running for a U.S. Senate seat or the governorship has won more than 50 percent of the vote since Arne Carlson in 1994.

But now, as Minnesota’s largest cities surge and rural communities lose both population and economic staying power, that coalition is fraying, fractured by tensions between urban and small-town residents worried about their futures.

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, some worry, is losing the farmer and the laborer. The Hill’s Reid Wilson tells us what that means for Minnesota and beyond.

NEXT WEEK’S NEWS, NOW

The House and Senate have both left Washington and won’t return until after the midterm elections. It will be quiet in Congress until mid-November, so we’ll be keeping a closer eye on the regulators and White House, especially the Federal Reserve. Fed vice chairman of supervision Randal Quarles and governor Lael Brainard are scheduled to give speeches on Thursday and Wednesday respectively.

GOOD TO KNOW

The Senate unanimously passed two major bills on Friday that go after Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
Former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen criticized Trump’s growing attacks on the Fed and expressed confidence in her successor, Jerome Powell, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Fifty consumer groups are calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to withdraw a plan allowing fintech firms to test financial disclosures on consumers.
Global business leaders are reassessing their ties with Saudi Arabia, stoking pressure on the Gulf kingdom to explain what happened to a dissident writer who disappeared after visiting its consulate in Istanbul, according to the AP.

ODDS AND ENDS

Sears is planning to close up to 150 of its department and discount stores and keep at least another 300 open as part of a plan to restructure under U.S. bankruptcy protection, according to Reuters.

RECAP THE WEEK WITH ON THE MONEY