Treasury Secretary Mnuchin sent Congressional leadership a letter today informing them the Treasury has launched extraordinary measures until Congress raises or suspends the debt limit, making true on his promise from last week. The U.S. reached its debt cap yesterday, and the national debt is currently $19.918 trillion, according to Forbes. So in the meantime, the Treasury is allowed to reorganize its government accounts to reduce intragovernmental debt.
But that can't go on forever: The CBO estimates the measures will be exhausted "sometime in the fall of this year without an increase in the debt limit, though an earlier or later date is possible." Cash inflows from tax season will also sustain the Treasury for a few months, according to the CBO.
President Trump plans to meet with Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates on Monday, per Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Gates told Axios recently that he would "continue making the case to the administration and to Congress that it's good for the United States and good for the world to continue our leadership on" clean energy and foreign aid.
"We have to go see Bill Gates and a lot of different people that really understand what's happening. We have to talk to them about, maybe in certain areas, closing that Internet up in some way." — Candidate Donald Trump talking about combatting online radicalization in December, 2015
Update: The Gates Foundation said in a statement that it "has a long history of working with officials on both sides of the aisle to pursue shared priorities like global health and development and domestic education." "Bill will meet with congressional leaders and members of the administration to discuss the tremendous progress made to-date in these areas and the critical and indispensable role that the United States has played in achieving these gains," it said.
Chairman Richard Burr and Vice Chairman Mark Warner released a joint statement saying Trump was not wiretapped by Obama:
Based on the information available to us, we see no indications that Trump Tower was the subject of surveillance by any element of the United States government either before or after Election Day 2016.
Yesterday from President Trump: "I have a lot of confidence in the committee."
Yesterday from House Intel Chair Devin Nunes: "We don't have any evidence..."
Spicer — donning a green tie for St. Patty's Day — said President Trump "still stands by" his claims that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower, even after the Senate Intelligence Committee announced that they found no indication of that happening.
But the media pressed on, and Spicer grew increasingly heated. At one point, he even yelled at a reporter to "calm down!" before turning the tables on the press: "Where was your passion, where was your concern when the committees said there was no connection to Russia? You choose not to cover that...you continue to perpetuate a false narrative." More highlights below:
Variety reports that, starting April 15, Saturday Night Live will air live coast-to-coast for its last 4 episodes of the season. It's the first time in the show's 42-season history that it'll be live in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones.
It's the Trump effect at work again with many Americans tuning in each week knowing that the president is very likely doing the same.
Note to POTUS: You won't want to miss the May 13 episode — master Sean Spicer impressionist Melissa McCarthy is hosting.
During his weekly press conference, Paul Ryan stated that yesterday's Gang of 8 intelligence briefing confirmed that no wiretapping of Trump Tower had occurred. Check out his full response:
Handelsblatt reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel called up Chinese President Xi Jinping before flying to Washington to meet with President Trump tomorrow.
Merkel and Xi hope to find some common economic ground — especially when it comes to dealing with President Trump — before July's G20 summit in Berlin, per Handelsblatt's sources. The two leaders are leading proponents of globalization in direct opposition to Trump's distaste for free trade.
A federal judge from Maryland, Judge Theodore D. Chuang, has temporarily blocked Section Two of President Trump's revised travel ban, per CNN's Laura Jarrett. The restraining order suspends the portion of the bill that has stopped issuing visas to citizens of six Muslim-majority countries.
"These statements, which include explicit, direct statements of President Trump's animus toward Muslims and intention to impose a ban on Muslims entering the United States, present a convincing case that the First Executive Order was issued to accomplish, as nearly as possible. President Trump's promised Muslim ban," Chuang wrote.
Yesterday, a federal judge from Hawaii became the first to place a temporary retraining order on the new executive order.
Dave McClure, founding partner at 500 Startups, doesn't mince words when it comes to his opposition to the Trump administration's immigration and social policies, but he's optimistic about continued opportunities in the U.S. for investors and entrepreneurs. Here are a few excerpts from his Q and A at SXSW:
