WASHINGTON — JPMorgan Chase, the $2 trillion bank and financial services firm, predicts that the newly Republican-controlled U.S. House will clash with the still-Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate to the point where progress on large legislation is completely halted, according to a confidential memorandum dated Nov. 3 and obtained by OpenSecrets Blog.
“Many expect the next two years may be heavy on rhetoric but light on legislative achievements, states the 11-page memo, which is authored by the bank’s “government relations department, another term for the lobbying arm of the company. “The 112th Congress could be remembered as a gridlocked one without any landmark legislation.”
The memo, marked “confidential JPMC Internal Only,” discusses the nation’s economic challenges — high unemployment, national and state budget shortfalls and the fall-out from the housing crisis — and deciphers what the midterm election means for the company and its clients on both a national and statewide level.
In the memo, the financial giant speculates, for example, that Democrats will jettison both the DREAM Act and “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal from the defense budget during the lame duck session later this month.
It further speculates that the tax cuts signed into law by President George W. Bush will be extended for at least one year, noting that the “biggest question mark” is “whether the administration can find support for extending only the tax breaks for middle-class filers.”
Read OpenSecrets Blog’s full report, and the confidential memo, by clicking here.
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