The election is finally over (with the exception of LA-Sen and a few recounts). It was a wave year for Republicans, and the question now becomes whether Congress and President Obama can get anything done. Read on for today’s top news and analysis.
Joni Ernst handily won in Iowa. If you haven’t followed our analysis of the race, you can read here why InsideSources predicted she would defeat Bruce Braley.
Energy
Tom Steyer, greens have rough night at the polls
POLITICO
Andrew Restuccia
For Tom Steyer and other environmentalists, $85 million wasn’t enough to help Democrats keep the Senate blue or win more than a single governor’s mansion in Tuesday’s toughest races. The billionaire’s super PAC and other green groups saw the vast majority of their favored candidates in the battleground states go down to defeat, despite spending an unprecedented amount of money to help climate-friendly Democrats in the midterm elections.
Tom Steyer Spent $74 Million on the Election. He Didn’t Get Much to Show for It.
NATIONAL JOURNAL
Jason Plautz
NextGen Climate — Steyer’s PAC that got nearly $67 million of his money — focused on Senate races in four states and three gubernatorial contests to boost candidates promoting action on climate change, which Steyer has said politicians must act on now. That was good enough for an easy win for Gary Peters in Michigan and victory for Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire. But industry-backed Republicans won out in closer—and more expensive—Senate races in Colorado and Iowa, with Cory Gardner and Joni Ernst respectively overcoming millions in opposition from NextGen.
Elections give Keystone a filibuster-proof majority
POLITICO
Elana Schor
Republicans will command a filibuster-proof Senate majority in favor of the Keystone XL pipeline after Tuesday’s election victories — and they could be within striking distance of assembling a veto-proof bloc for the project, increasing their leverage over President Barack Obama.
Denton voters pass fracking ban
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Voters in the oil-rich North Texas city of Denton voted Tuesday to ban further permitting of hydraulic fracturing, upsetting a campaign backed by big oil and gas companies opposing the measure. The vote made Denton, which sits atop a large natural gas reserve, the first city in Texas to pass such a ban. It sets up a legal showdown between the city and industry groups that have warned the ban could be followed by lawsuits and a severe hit to Denton’s economy.
New Oil Shipment Shows Cracks in U.S. Export Ban
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Christian Berthelsen and Lynn Cook
A major energy company will soon sell U.S. oil abroad without explicit permission from the government, another sign that the decades-old federal ban on crude exports is crumbling. BHP Billiton ’s deal to sell about $50 million of ultralight oil from Texas to foreign buyers without formal government approval is likely to be only the first of many such moves as energy companies seek new markets and higher prices for the surge of crude now pumped in the U.S.
Why Americans don’t trust lower gas prices
WASHINGTON POST
Danielle Paquette
The defining trait of American gas prices over the last two decades is fluctuation — and public opinion hasn’t recovered from the whiplash.
Bad public policy hinders small business
THE HILL
Dan Bosch
As the U.S economy remains stuck in neutral, small businesses owners, often an optimistic group by nature, have grown increasingly cynical about the future. The problems are clear. But, despite concerns from businesses of all sizes, federal agencies continue to dole out costly and burdensome new regulations at the expense of sustainable growth. The impacts of such aggressive federal policies are typified by one regulation in particular. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed to vastly expand federal authority by redefining the “waters of the United States.”
Technology
Net neutrality was the biggest tech issue of the year. But nobody campaigned on it.
WASHINGTON POST
Brian Fung
A few months ago, I argued that the expanding role of technology in people’s daily lives has made tech policy a more relevant and viable campaign issue in the 21st century election cycle. Looking back now on this midterm cycle, however, it’s clear that I was completely, totally off-base. Flat-out wrong, even.
Fox warns that the traditional US cable bundle is ‘fraying’
FINANCIAL TIMES (Subscribe)
Shannon Bond
The traditional US cable bundle is “fraying” as younger viewers flock to Netflix and other streaming sites, but pricey packages of hundreds of channels will remain the way most people will watch television “for years to come”, according to 21st Century Fox’s chief operating officer.
Top British Spy Warns of Terrorists’ Use of Social Media
NEW YORK TIMES
Alan Cowell and Mark Scott
One of Britain’s highest-ranking intelligence officials on Tuesday castigated the giant American companies that dominate the Internet for providing the “command-and-control networks of choice for terrorists and criminals” and challenged the companies to find a better balance between privacy and security. The statements were made by Robert Hannigan, the newly appointed director of GCHQ, Britain’s electronic intelligence agency.
Finance
Something Fishy in Sarbox Land
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Bill Shepherd
On Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing argument in Yates v. United States. Since the case turns in part on the fate of missing fish, the court’s decision to take it up has been easily mocked in some quarters. But there’s nothing frivolous about this dispute. Fisherman John Yates, accused of hiding some of his catch from officials, has been charged with violating the Sarbanes-Oxley financial reform act and could have spent 20 years in prison. Yates presents the Supreme Court with the opportunity to slow down the overcriminalization of America.
A Recent Surge of Leveraged Loans Rattles Regulators
NEW YORK TIMES
Peter Eavis
In recent months, the Federal Reserve and the Officer of the Comptroller of the Currency have intervened to tamp down the market. Leveraged loans are made to companies with low credit ratings that could suffer high losses in a downturn. As a result, the regulators have tried to stop the banks they regulate from arranging certain types of leveraged loan deals.
Uber’s ‘Thousands’ of Car Loans Said to Include Risky Subprime Borrowers
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Douglas MacMillan
Uber defended its new-car financing program for drivers after a report raised concerns that the scheme may be helping to facilitate an emerging category of subprime lending. A spokeswoman for the ridesharing startup said in an emailed statement Tuesday that it has helped “thousands” of drivers purchase new cars through its one-year-old financing program, collectively saving them “millions” of dollars. That message ran counter to a report posted earlier in the day by technology blog Valleywag, which claimed that, contrary to saving drivers money, some of those loans may be creating new financial hardships for unsuspecting borrowers.
Ireland Moves to Close One Tax Break and Opens Another
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Caelainn Barr and Theo Francis
Tucked into legislation to eliminate a much criticized tax structure known as the “Double Irish” is a separate provision that would allow companies to pay no corporate tax on profits earned from patents, licenses and other intellectual property. The legislation, which would expand a current tax break that allows companies to shield 80% of that income, also proposes to add customer lists to the types of intellectual property that can be covered.
Businesses See Hope for Stalled Agenda After Midterm Elections
WALL STREET JOURNAL
John D. McKinnon, Kristina Peterson and William Mauldin
American businesses are hoping the dust will settle from Tuesday’s GOP takeover of Congress with new attention on corporate taxes, immigration, trade and energy, top priorities that have eluded breakthroughs in recent years. A post-election landscape that includes a more sharply divided government is likely to lead to continued frustration over some items on businesses’ wish list. At the same time, a reshaped political landscape could lead Congress and the White House to seek legislative breakthroughs on some economic issues before the 2016 election season heats up.
It’s time for fair tax reform
THE HILL
Harry C. Alford
We need to address the issue of tax reform squarely on, without calls of “deficit, deficit” keeping us from achieving comprehensive tax reform that leads to fairness and greater stability. The resulting economic boost and job creation will in and of itself address the deficit problem by making more people tax-contributing citizens and self-sufficient.
Politics
GOP Senate Win Opens Door to Deals
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Siobhan Hughes
Republicans prepared to take control of the Senate in January for the first time in eight years—a power shift that almost certainly will put the chamber’s gavel in the hands of Sen. Mitch McConnell and opens up new possibilities for deal-making after years of partisan gridlock.
Negativity Wins the Senate
NEW YORK TIMES
Editorial
Republicans would like the country to believe that they took control of the Senate on Tuesday by advocating a strong, appealing agenda of job creation, tax reform and spending cuts. But, in reality, they did nothing of the sort.
Newly empowered Republicans should set a course to deliver tangible results
WASHINGTON POST
Editorial
The next Congress is capable of addressing these matters, and more, in concert with Mr. Obama — if GOP leaders choose to channel their party’s enthusiasm into tangible results rather than just drawing lines in the sand, and if the president leads more deftly than he has in the past. Voters expect, and have a right to expect, something better than what Washington has delivered over the past two years.
A Shellacking for Obama
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
Mr. Obama preferred the partisan satisfaction of forcing Republicans to swallow a tax increase, and he has insisted on $1 trillion more as his price for any entitlement reforms. He has preferred gridlock to ending automatic defense spending cuts. The result: Slow growth and falling incomes for all but the wealthy. This is not a legacy a liberal President wants to leave. The way to avoid it is to work with Republicans in Congress on pro-growth policies. Several could be quick and easy victories. Repeal the medical-devices tax and fix ObamaCare’s bias against hiring full-time employees. Pass fast-track trade authority and the pan-Pacific trade pact. Liberate energy production and export. Trade more defense spending for more dollars for roads. Immigration and tax reform would take more time, but both are also possible if Mr. Obama is willing to share credit and settle for less than everything he wants.
A Public Union Trouncing
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Editorial
The grand slam was completed by Republican Bruce Rauner, the private-equity manager who defeated incumbent Pat Quinn and the Democrat-public union alliance in Illinois, of all places. Mr. Rauner campaigned on pension reform and repealing Mr. Quinn’s tax increases. The lesson we hope other politicians, Republicans and Democrats, take is that public-union money can be defeated when the cause is just and you stand your ground.
Battle for the Senate: How the GOP did it
WASHINGTON POST
Philip Rucker and Robert Costa
One night in early September, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called a longtime colleague, Sen. Pat Roberts, from his living room in Louisville, furious about the 78-year-old Republican’s fumbling and lethargic reelection campaign.
Republicans’ First Step Was to Handle Extremists in Party
NEW YORK TIMES
Jeremy W. Peters and Carl Hulse
It was late spring, and Republican leaders knew that if they wanted to win the Senate, they needed to crush the enemy: not Democrats, but the rebels within their own party. And Chris McDaniel, a Senate candidate from Mississippi who had a history of making sexist and racially insensitive remarks, was a problem.
President Obama Left Fighting for His Own Relevance
NEW YORK TIMES
Peter Baker
But in a hyperactive, deeply polarized time in history, Mr. Obama now faces a daunting challenge in reasserting his relevance in a capital that will soon enough shift its attention to the battle to succeed him. If the hope-and-change phase of his presidency is long over, he wants at least to produce a period of progress and consolidation to complete his time in the White House. He will kick off that effort on Wednesday when aides expect him to hold a news conference seeking bipartisan accommodation on issues of mutual interest, and he plans to host Republican and Democratic leaders at the White House on Friday.
Voters pass wage hikes, legal pot; divide on abortion
USA TODAY
Greg Toppo and Laura Mandaro
Voters on ballot initiatives in 41 states gave a resounding thumbs-up to recreational marijuana and higher minimum wages, while dividing on abortion-related measures and GMO labeling.
Election Will Leave Medicaid Policies Largely Unchanged
NEW YORK TIMES
Josh Barro and Margot Sanger-Katz
The re-election of four Republican governors means that the future of Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act is unlikely to change course.
Providing Health Insurance Still a Struggle for Small Business
NEW YORK TIMES
Reed Abelson
But a year after the law’s introduction of the insurance exchanges, provisions that were supposed to help small businesses offer employee health benefits are largely seen as a failure. And Mr. Adams, like many of his fellow business owners, is sending employees to the exchanges to buy their own coverage instead.
