 Happy Tuesday and welcome back to On The Money. I'm Sylvan Lane, and here's your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line. See something I missed? Let me know at slane@thehill.com or tweet me @SylvanLane. And if you like your newsletter, you can subscribe to it here: http://bit.ly/1NxxW2N. Write us with tips, suggestions and news: slane@thehill.com, vneedham@thehill.com, njagoda@thehill.com and nelis@thehill.com. Follow us on Twitter: @SylvanLane, @VickofTheHill, @NJagoda and @NivElis. THE BIG DEAL--Trump teases shutdown while staff signals willingness to deal: President Trump on Tuesday said it is "too early" to determine whether a partial government shutdown will be averted, even as his White House signaled it wants to avoid a funding lapse. "We'll see what happens," Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the prospect of a shutdown. "It's too early to say." The president also stressed he is determined to get $5 billion for his long-desired wall along the southwest border. "We need border security," he said. Trump's provocative comments came after several signs of a potential deal emerged from the White House and Capitol on Tuesday. - Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted on Tuesday there would not be a shutdown, saying the Trump administration is "extremely flexible" in striking a spending deal.
- Republicans and Democrats appeared to be closing in on an agreement on a short-term extension after Democrats rejected an offer to spend $1.6 billion on border fencing and other barriers, similar to what the Senate Appropriations Committee approved earlier this year, and $1 billion for other immigration efforts.
- White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump would seek wall funding from other sources, telling Fox News he has "other ways to get to that $5 billion."
- And Sanders later told reporters later that Trump has asked all Cabinet agencies to come up with funding for the wall, which may not be totally legal.
LEADING THE DAY Trump warns Fed against rate hike: 'Feel the market': President Trump on Tuesday early Tuesday called on the Federal Reserve to refrain from further interest rate hikes, citing a Wall Street Journal op-ed detailing why such a move would be harmful. "I hope the people over at the Fed will read today's Wall Street Journal Editorial before they make yet another mistake. Also, don't let the market become any more illiquid than it already is. Stop with the 50 B's. Feel the market, don't just go by meaningless numbers. Good luck!" he tweeted. Trump was also referring to the Fed's ongoing process of letting $50-billion worth of Treasury and mortgage bonds amassed during the recession mature each month. Trump was referring to a Journal op-ed published on Monday titled "Time for a Fed Pause," which argued that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell should "ignore the politics, inside and outside the Fed, and follow the signals that suggest a prudent pause in raising rates." Warren calls for probe into name change for consumer bureau: Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has asked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) internal watchdog to investigate whether the Trump administration's pending name change for the agency violates federal law. Warren asked Mark Bialek, inspector general for the Federal Reserve system and CFPB, in a Monday letter to open a probe into the cost, legality, rationale and impact of changing the agency's name. "We are concerned that the name change effort imposes unnecessary and significant costs on taxpayers and the business community, deprives the CFPB of funds it can use to protect consumers, and violates legal requirements," Warren wrote in the Tuesday letter. I've got more on her request here. The background: - Under former acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney, the agency in March began referring to itself as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, its formal legal name under the Dodd-Frank Act.
- While the name change might seem superficial, an internal CFPB analysis reported by The Hill this month found that the entire process could cost the CFPB between $9 million and $19 million and firms regulated by the agency roughly $300 million.
- It's unclear if the CFPB's name change will move forward under Director Kathy Kraninger, who began her five-year term leading the agency last week. Kraninger told reporters last week that she was aware of the potential cost and planned to take action on the issue soon.
Mnuchin blames Democrats in part for deficit: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin argued Tuesday that Democrats share responsibility for the recent ballooning of the federal budget deficit. In an interview with Bloomberg, Mnuchin acknowledged that a federal spending bill passed early this year that included significant military spending increases played a role in the growing deficit, but suggested the fiscal shortfall was worsened by Democratic demands. "In an effort to get the military spending -- which the president thought was critical and which I fully support -- given the issues we have all over the world and the under-investment we have had in the last eight years, this required bipartisan support and the Democrats required big increases in non-military spending," Mnuchin told the news outlet. "So that's a major component of deficit today." Mnuchin added that President Trump is "definitely" focused on getting his Cabinet secretaries to cut back their budgets in an effort to contain the debt. Mnuchin's remarks came less than a week after a Treasury Department report showed the U.S. budget deficit climbed to $205 billion in November, up 48 percent from the same month in 2017. The department projected that the 2019 deficit would surpass $1 trillion and that the U.S. would need to borrow almost $1.2 trillion to pay its bills. GOOD TO KNOW - President Trump will travel to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, next month, the White House said Tuesday, making it the second consecutive year Trump will attend the event.
- House Speaker Paul Ryan's general counsel, Mark Epley, has been named executive vice president and general counsel of Managed Funds Association, which represents the global hedge fund industry.
- The Communications Workers of America (CWA) wants likely incoming House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) to investigate how AT&T and other large companies are using the tax savings they've received from President Trump's tax-cut law.
- Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Tuesday that the bull market is no longer intact and has "really fumbled."
- President Trump's threat to intervene in the arrest of a Chinese tech executive is setting the stage for a fight between the White House and Republican lawmakers.
- A bipartisan group of lawmakers is scrambling at the eleventh hour to include controversial language in a year-end spending bill prohibiting U.S. companies from joining boycotts of Israel launched by the United Nations or similar groups.
ODDS AND ENDS - More than half of millennials fear that a lack of skills will limit their career advancement, according to a new survey from Prudential Financial.
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