| Leaders make little progress to funding deal: Congressional leaders and White House officials appear nowhere closer to a bipartisan deal to fund the government, raising the chances that lawmakers may need to pass another stopgap spending bill to avoid a shutdown in just over two weeks. The "Big Four" congressional leaders huddled in the Capitol Wednesday afternoon with Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney and White House legislative affairs director Marc Short to discuss the outlines of a package to fund the government through September. Time is running short, as lawmakers are seeking to prevent automatic across-the-board spending cuts, known as sequestration, from taking effect later this month. But shortly after the meeting, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) seemed to dismiss one of Democrats' top priorities in the budget deal: parity between defense and non-defense spending hikes. "There is no reason why funding for our national security and our service members should be limited by an arbitrary political formula that bears no relationship to actual need," McConnell tweeted. Already there is chatter that another short-term continuing resolution (CR) may be needed to buy more time for more negotiations. Congress passed a stopgap spending bill before the holidays that will keep the government's lights on until Jan. 19. "Another short term CR is not a complete surprise to me," Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) told The Hill on Wednesday. "Continuing to do a short-term extension that funds the military [spending] anomalies would not be a nonstarter." In addition to a boost for non-defense programs, Democrats also outlined their desire Wednesday for an agreement on protections for young immigrants, disaster aid and a spate of health care issues, according to a Democratic leadership aide. The Hill's Mike Lillis, Melanie Zanona, and Scott Wong have the details: http://bit.ly/2CzcGJz White House: Trump hasn't shifted on not cutting entitlements: President Trump has not changed his position on protecting entitlement programs from funding cuts, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday. After last month's GOP victory on tax reform, many Republicans are calling for changes to the social safety net as a way to cut government spending. But, asked about Trump's repeated campaign pledge to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, Sanders said he doesn't support cuts to the programs. "The president hasn't changed his position at this point," she said at a White House briefing, adding that conversations with lawmakers are ongoing. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), though, has set his sights on entitlement reform for 2018. "We're going to have to get back next year at entitlement reform, which is how you tackle the debt and the deficit," he said in an interview last month. The Hill's Jessie Hellmann has more: http://bit.ly/2Ckodct. US voters more concerned about nation's ballooning debt: Concern about the nation's debt is rising among voters while pessimism is growing about the ability of elected officials to deal with the issue, according to a new index released on Wednesday. A December fiscal confidence index showed that 58 percent of respondents said the country is on the wrong track on the national debt compared with only 30 percent who said the nation is headed in the right direction, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation's monthly index that measures attitudes about the national debt. Heading into 2018, voters were less optimistic about the ability of Congress to make progress on the national debt, with only 45 percent optimistic compared with 59 percent who held a positive view at the start of last year. The latest index showed that 66 percent say their level of concern about the debt has increased in recent years. These attitudes are nearly the same across parties -- Democrats (67 percent), Independents (67 percent) and Republicans (65 percent) are all saying their concerns have increased. "Americans remain united in their concern about our nation's fiscal health as we head into 2018, and for good reason," said Michael Peterson, president and CEO of the Peterson Foundation: http://bit.ly/2CmOrLl. Cuomo: NY to sue over Trump tax law: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said Wednesday that his state would sue over the new tax law, which he has said could harm his state through its limit on the state and local tax deduction. "We believe it is illegal, and we will challenge it in court as unconstitutional," Cuomo said during his State of the State address. He called the law "the first federal double taxation in history, violative of states' rights and the principle of equal protection." The new tax law caps the state and local tax (SALT) deduction at $10,000, which has been a particular concern for elected officials in New York and other high-tax states. "Washington's tax plan now uses New York and California as piggy banks to finance tax cuts for Republican states," Cuomo said. He added that the law could cause people to leave New York and could make it harder to attract new businesses to the state. The lawsuit is part of a three-pronged approach for addressing the tax law that Cuomo outlined in his speech: http://bit.ly/2Co9ZY1. Happy Wednesday and welcome back to Overnight Finance. 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. US blocks sale of Moneygram to Chinese firm: U.S. regulators are blocking the sale of MoneyGram, a money transfer firm, to a subsidiary of the Chinese company Alibaba, the companies announced Wednesday. The chiefs of MoneyGram and Ant Financial said the sale was canceled after opposition from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The CFIUS is as an interagency group of regulators based out of the Treasury Department that reviews pending foreign purchases of U.S. businesses for national security concerns. Ant Financial had been in talks to buy MoneyGram for "nearly a year" before the CFIUS blocked the deal, said MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes. "The geopolitical environment has changed considerably since we first announced the proposed transaction," Holmes said. "Despite our best efforts to work cooperatively with the U.S. government, it has now become clear that CFIUS will not approve this merger." CFIUS has blocked several other pending sales of U.S. businesses to Chinese firms since Trump took office amid growing tensions between the two countries over trade, intellectual property and Beijing's support for North Korea. Trump in September on the advice of the CFIUS blocked the sale of Lattice, an Oregon-based semiconductor and chip manufacturer, to a group of investors who included Chinese state-owned entities: http://bit.ly/2Cia8Mr. DC collects more than $50M in prepaid property taxes: The District of Columbia government said it collected more than $50 million in prepaid property taxes from 7,500 taxpayers as homeowners rushed to limit the federal tax increases they may face under the new tax law. The office of D.C.'s chief financial officer released the preliminary data on prepaid property taxes on Wednesday: http://bit.ly/2Cjh246. Canada starts appeal of US softwood lumber tariff decision: The Canadian government on Wednesday said it has launched a legal challenge to hefty duties imposed by the United States on its softwood lumber industry. Chrystia Freeland, Canada's minister of foreign affairs, said Ottawa is following through with an appeal of the U.S. International Trade Commission's (ITC) decision made in November to levy countervailing and anti-dumping duties on lumber imports. "The Government of Canada will continue to vigorously defend our industry and its workers against protectionist trade practices," Freeland said in a statement.
"U.S. duties on Canadian softwood lumber are unfair, unwarranted and troubling," she said. "They are harmful to Canada's lumber producers, workers and communities and they add to the cost of home building, renovations and other projects for American middle-class families." Canada has won similar tariff fights in the past with the United States: http://bit.ly/2CniyCw. Southwest announces plan to give $1000 bonuses to employees: Southwest Airlines said on Tuesday that its employees will receive a $1,000 cash bonus this month in celebration of the GOP's rewrite of the tax code. The bonuses, set to go out Jan. 8, will be given to all full-time and part-time employees, the airline said in a statement. "We applaud Congress and the President for taking this action to pass legislation, which will result in meaningful corporate income tax reform for the transportation sector in general, and for Southwest Airlines, in particular," said Gary Kelly, Southwest's chairman and CEO. "We are excited about the savings and additional capital, which we intend to put to work in several forms – to reward our hard-working Employees, to reinvest in our business, to reward our Shareholders, and to keep our costs and fares low for our Customers," he added. Southwest also said that it would increase its fleet investment with aircraft manufacturer Boeing. The sweeping tax-reform plan cleared the House and Senate last month, before it was signed into law by President Trump: http://bit.ly/2CjHxGO. From The Hill's opinion pages: NerdWallet CEO: Americans need the CFPB now more than ever Pension plans can't be the next big taxpayer bailout in America | 
