Today in 5 Lines
Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi pulled out of spending negotiations with President Trump after he tweeted, “I don’t see a deal.” In response, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker Paul Ryan issued a statement saying the Democrats’ “antics” put government operations at risk. The Senate Budget Committee approved the Republican tax bill in a party-line vote, moving the legislation closer to a floor vote later this week. A federal judge sided with the Trump administration and refused to block Mick Mulvaney from continuing as interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And North Korea test-fired another ballistic missile.
Today on The Atlantic
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‘A Quiet Starvation’: The Trump administration’s attack on the AT&T-Time Warner merger is an attack on the press—and should be a wake-up call for American journalists. (Julia Ioffe)
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Proxy War: The dispute over who should lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is about more than the agency: It’s a fight over how to fix America’s broken political system. (David A. Graham)
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Backfired: In his attempted sting operation against The Washington Post, Rosie Gray and McKay Coppins write that right-wing media darling James O’Keefe “found himself stung” instead.