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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 and first lady Melania Trump welcome Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and his wife, Patricia Marroquin, to the White House.
Congress: The House is nearing votes on impeachment and a bill to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. More below.
ACA Enrollment: The Trump administration extended the deadline to sign up for health coverage on the federal Affordable Care Act exchange to Dec. 18 after some people experienced problems using the website Sunday.
Border Wall: An effort to build a privately funded wall along the U.S.-Mexico border is running into trouble.
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‘I wouldn’t mind a long process,’ Mr. Trump has said of a Senate trial. MICHAEL CANDELORI/NURPHOTO/ZUMA PRESS
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Senate Republicans hope to seek a quick acquittal for Mr. Trump, but the president wants more. According to people who have discussed plans with Mr. Trump, he doesn’t just want to be acquitted in a Senate trial that would follow a House impeachment. He hopes to be vindicated, Michael C. Bender and Lindsay Wise report.
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More Democrats from competitive House districts said they will back the impeachment of Mr. Trump, putting the effort on track to pass later this week despite some fears that their position could put their seats at risk, Siobhan Hughes, Lindsay Wise and Natalie Andrews report.
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The impeachment debate has cemented the tribalization of politics in America. When Donald Trump launched his presidential bid in 2016, he was disdainful of the Republican party establishment. When the House votes on impeachment today, he is likely to enjoy complete support from that same party. That represents one of the most remarkable transformations in modern American politics, writes Jerry Seib.
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Five Senators to Watch During Impeachment Trial
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As the case for impeachment heads toward the Senate, here are the senators worth keeping an eye on.
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A nearly $1.4 trillion spending agreement would permanently repeal a number of health-care-related taxes and raise the legal age for purchasing tobacco products to 21, report Andrew Duehren and Richard Rubin. The agreement covers the rest of the fiscal year and follows months of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the White House, and it leaves just days before government funding expires after Friday for lawmakers to pass the bill and President Trump to sign it.
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The deal would raise discretionary federal spending by about $50 billion compared with last fiscal year.
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The package includes provisions repealing the so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost employer health insurance and a tax on medical devices.
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Congress would also approve about $1.38 billion in funding for building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mr. Trump had sought $8.6 billion.
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Congressional leaders struck a tax-policy deal late Monday. The agreement that will extend lapsed and expiring tax breaks but won’t be as expansive as many lawmakers had hoped, reports Richard Rubin. The measures are being added to the spending bill slated for passage this week.
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The House Ways and Means Committee is set to hold a hearing on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement today. The U.S. and Mexico appeared to resolve an 11th-hour labor dispute that had threatened to sour a planned congressional vote, report William Mauldin and Anthony Harrup.
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New Congressional Maps Skake Up North Carolina Races
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A new set of congressional districts in North Carolina is quickly shaking up political races in the state.
Rep. Mark Walker (R., N.C.) said on Monday that he would not run for his seat again in 2020, when North Carolina will redraw his district to be far more Democratic.
He said he plans to run for Senate in 2022, when Sen. Richard Burr (R., N.C.) has said he intends to retire from politics.
Mr. Walker is the second North Carolina Republican to step down from his House seat after the state legislature redrew the congressional map under pressure from state courts. Rep. George Holding (R., N.C.) said earlier this month that he was not running again.
“I should add, candidly, that, yes, the newly redrawn Congressional Districts were part of the reason I have decided not to seek re-election,” Mr. Holding said in his statement announcing his decision to step down.
Mr. Walker had been publicly considering running in a primary against Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), who has been battling criticism from conservatives in the state. Mr. Tillis’s main competitor in the primary, Garland Tucker, recently ended his campaign, but not before spending significantly to attack Mr. Tillis as disloyal to President Trump.
The turnover among North Carolina Republicans in the wake of the new maps is a prelude to the disruption the 2020 Census could bring to political ecosystems across the country.
Write to Andrew Duehren at andrew.duehren@wsj.com
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Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has worked to set himself apart from Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. PHOTO: SCOTT MORGAN/REUTERS
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Michael Bloomberg opened his first campaign field office in North Carolina, a Super Tuesday primary state and expected major battleground in the general election. The investment is part of Mr. Bloomberg’s overlapping primary and general-election strategy that his advisers believe keeps their sights on President Trump, reports Tarini Parti.
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President Trump threatens to bypass debate commission, attacking its integrity. (Full story)
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Andrew Yang releases plan to expand Medicare. (Full story)
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In Iowa, Elizabeth Warren talks "choice" in her Medicare for All transtion plan. (Full story)
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Who's running for president? (Graphic)
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A federal judge has rejected an effort by Michael Flynn's attorneys to dismiss the criminal case against him, setting a sentencing date of Jan. 28 for the former presidential adviser, reports Byron Tau. Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty two years ago to lying to investigators about his contact with the Russian ambassador.
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The number of people sentenced to death dropped this year to the second-lowest level since 1973, as executions have fallen into disuse in all but a handful of states, reports Laura Kusisto. So far in 2019, fewer than 40 death sentences are likely to be imposed, according to a new report.
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The former and now discredited Ukrainian prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, may be as responsible as anyone for the Ukraininan controversy that has blown up into an impeachment debate. (New Yorker)
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A new USA Today/Suffolk University poll finds President Trump leading all his Democratic rivals in his bid for re-election. (USA Today)
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Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland endorsed Joe Biden, giving the former vice president an important boost in a key state. (Associated Press)
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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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