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Capital Journal
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Good morning from the WSJ Washington Bureau.
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Trump's Day: President Trump meets with Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga at the White House. Mongolia pledged to give the president’s 13-year old son Barron Trump a pony as a gift.
Fed Decision: The Federal Open Market Committee will release its decision on interest rates at 2 p.m. ET, followed by a press briefing with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Here's what to watch.
North Korea: The Kim regime appears to be trying to add pressure on the U.S. during an impasse in nuclear talks, firing two short-range ballistic missiles off the country’s east coast early Wednesday morning.
Debates: The second of two nights of the Democratic debates starts at 8 p.m. ET in Detroit. More below on last night's debate.
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Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, right, welcomes United States Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, middle, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to Shanghai. PHOTO: POOL/REUTERS
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U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators wrapped up their meeting in Shanghai with no signs of a breakthrough. China described the talks as constructive and said the next round would be held in the U.S. in September, Chao Deng reports.
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Plodding progress in trade negotiations is partly the result of a new tactic from Beijing, which increasingly thinks waiting may produce a more favorable agreement.
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Air Force Gen. John Hyten began making his case to become the second-highest ranking U.S. military officer on Tuesday, amid a cloud of suspicion over an accusation by a female military service member of sexual misconduct, reports Nancy A. Youssef. “Nothing happened," he said.
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The president called on the House Oversight Committee to investigate “corrupt government” in Baltimore and singled out the committee’s chairman, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D., Md.).
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Mr. Trump's allies see a personal grudge, not a political strategy, in the president's Twitter attacks on Baltimore and Mr. Cummings.
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Video: Tuesday night's debate showed the Democratic Party has deep differences in how to approach governing. WSJ's Eliza Collins looks at the key moments highlighting the divide between the Democrat's centrist and progressive wings.
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Progressive Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) defended themselves against several moderates trying to keep their campaigns alive during a Democratic presidential debate that showcased the party’s divide over how far the federal government should reach into people’s lives, report John McCormick and Tarini Parti.
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The debate underscored the party’s differing views on proposals to eliminate private health insurance, raise taxes, reshape the economy and confront some powerful American corporations.
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Both the top-tier Democratic hopefuls championed sweeping overhauls. Ms. Warren said the best path to beating Mr. Trump is through big ideas, not incremental change.
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Mr. Trump was uncharacteristically silent on Twitter during the debate.
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A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by the Democratic National Committee against Russia, the Trump campaign, WikiLeaks and others, ruling that allegations of a conspiracy to interfere in the 2016 election were “moot or without merit,” reports Rebecca Davis O’Brien.
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House Democratic Campaign Chairwoman Cheri Bustos shook up committee staff in an emergency meeting culminating in the resignation of executive director Allison Jaslow, after being accused of mismanagement and failing to address concerns over diversity, reports Natalie Andrews.
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California will require presidential candidates to hand over their tax returns in order to appear on the state’s primary-election ballot, setting up a likely legal conflict with President Trump over his continued refusal to disclose any tax documents, Richard Rubin reports.
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In Washington, Everyone Wants Infrastructure, But No One Wants to Pay for It
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The latest iteration of infrastructure legislation to grip Washington has quickly run into an all-too-familiar obstacle: how to pay for it.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously advanced a bill Tuesday that provides for $287 billion in highway spending over the next five years. Roughly $5 billion goes towards making roads and bridges more resilient to damage caused by natural disasters. The bill also aims to accelerate the timeline for approving new projects.
President Trump lent the bill his support in a tweet early Tuesday, writing “Do I hear the beautiful word, BIPARTISAN? Get it done. I am with you!”
But the Environment and Public Works committee does not have a plan to pay for the legislation.
“In terms of paying for this, this is something that must be paid for, and we’re working with Sen. Grassley and the Finance Committee on that,” Sen. John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), the chairman of the Environment and Public Works committee, said.
The last round of infrastructure negotiations, in May, ended abruptly when Mr. Trump walked out of a meeting with Democratic leaders who had gathered to discuss how to pay for a $2 trillion package. It’s far easier politically to promise repairs to bridges and roads than it is to raise the revenue to pay for those repairs.
“I think there’s a path forward,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas.), a member of Senate leadership and the Finance Committee. “But two things that I don’t think are viable is one raising the gas tax and two more deficit spending, so I think we’re going to have to look at user fees.”
Some Democrats have floated raising the gas tax as a possible way to pay for any infrastructure project. Sen. Ron Wyden (D., Ore.), the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, said he was not sure how the negotiations will turn out.
“I decided a long time ago, I was kind of like Yogi Bera, I don’t do predictions, especially about the future,” he said.
Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
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The immigration pact signed last week between the U.S. and Guatemala would likely change migration dynamics in the region, lessening the flow of asylum-seeking families but raising the number of single migrants who try to enter the U.S. undetected, report Juan Montes and José de Córdoba.
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U.S. federal immigration authorities have separated more than 900 children from their parents in the past year, according to government data that the American Civil Liberties Union cited in a court filing Tuesday.
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South Bend, Ind.,Mayor Pete Buttigieg's declaration at Tuesday night's debate that Democrats need to make structural reforms in government if they hope to implement any of their programs may have been the most important answer of the night. (Vox)
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The Democratic Party's debate over race figures to take center stage Wednesday night when former Vice President Joe Biden appears alongside Sens. Kamala Harris and Cory Booker. (ABC News)
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Democratic candidates have yet to explain how a Medicare For All plan would pass the deeply divided Senate. (Huffpost)
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This newsletter is a production of the WSJ Washington bureau. Our newsletter editors are Tim Hanrahan, Kate Milani, Troy McCullough and Daniel Nasaw. Send feedback to capitaljournal@wsj.com. You can follow politics coverage on our Politics page and at @wsjpolitics on Twitter.
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