June 7, 2018 The Most Amazing Breakdown of Politics in Trump’s America The Daily Caller By Henry Rodgers The well-known government affairs firm Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas did an incredible job of summarizing the current state of play in D.C. politics in a must-read memo published June 4. It lays out 10 important trends that are critical to strategic government relations planning. Read the full article »
April 19, 2018 #MeToo, Social Media, and Keeping an Eye on the Big Picture The Cook Political Report By Charlie Cook Far more interesting to me even this week are the broader changes in American politics and society. Some of the more interesting things that cross my desk are PowerPoint presentations prepared by some of the sharpest and most thoughtful minds in Washington, people like Bruce Mehlman and Doug Sosnik. Bruce, a Republican, and Doug, a Democrat, have watched Washington up close for well over a combined half century, and have acquired the ability to explain political trends and developments in a visually powerful way, preparing slide decks for clients and friends that have developed a cult following among political aficionados. Read the full article »
April 11, 2018 Paul Ryan to Retire With Few Health Policy Wins Bloomberg Law By Alex Ruoff “Losing Speaker Ryan’s leadership and passion for these issues will almost certainly make the road to these reforms longer and more difficult,” Dean Rosen of lobbying firm Mehlman, Castagnetti, Rosen & Thomas, tells Bloomberg Law. Read the full article »
April 10, 2018 Axios AM Axios By Mike Allen 9. First look: Data du jour: Courtesy of Bruce Mehlman of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas: Read the full article »
February 22, 2018 Bruce Mehlman Discusses Why 2018 Will Make 2027 Seem Tame Fox News Bruce Mehlman on Fox News explaining why 2018 will make 2027 seem tame. Read the full article »
January 19, 2018 Podcast: Why 2018 Will Make 2017 Seem Tame Politics Inside and Out With Chris Frates By Chris Frates A portion of Christ Frates’ conversation with government affairs strategist David Castagnetti about his new report. Hear the entire conversation on Politics Inside Out on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel 12 www.siriusxm.com/potus for air times Read the full article »
January 17, 2018 Bruce Mehlman Discusses the 2018 Iran Protests Fox News Sunday Bruce Mehlman appears on “Fox News Sunday” to give insight on the Iran protests and global populism. Read the full article »
January 12, 2018 Matt Lewis and the News Podcast Matt Lewis and the News Podcast By Matt Lewis To listen to an audio podcast, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to download and subscribe to podcasts. Read the full article »
January 9, 2018 4 Scary Numbers for Republicans in 2018 CNN By Chris Cillizza The reality — and I’m not sure how much of this was accurately conveyed to Trump — is that every leading indicator points to a wave headed Republicans’ way that could well deliver control of the House to Democrats in 2019. Here are four numbers that tell the story (with a special thank you to super-lobbyist Bruce Mehlman’s always terrific quarterly PowerPoint). Read the full article »
January 8, 2018 The Daily 202: Why Trump and Republicans are suddenly talking up bipartisanship The Washington Post By James Hohmann Republican lobbyist Bruce Mehlman notes that 2017 saw levels of party-line voting not seen in 100 years. Read the full article »
January 5, 2018 The Mehlman Outlook Politico Influence By Theodoric Meyer Bruce Mehlman of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas is out with his annual metrics-driven look at what 2018 will bring. Spoiler: It doesn’t look good. Here’s the slideshow. Read the full article »
Washington Brief: Trump Wants Republicans to Make Infrastructure Top Priority for 2018 Morning Consult By N/A Research Reports and Polling: Why 2018 Will Make 2017 Seem Tame Bruce Mehlman, Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas House & Senate Majorities Up for Grabs. Intense State-Level Elections With Big Redistricting Impact. Read the full article »
January 4, 2018 Axios AM Axios By Mike Allen For a quick gander across the 2018 political terrain, Bruce Mehlman of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas has put together a PowerPoint, “Why 2018 Will Make 2017 Seem Tame.” Read the full article »
January 2, 2018 ‘Fox News Sunday’ Panel Looks Ahead To 2018 Midterms Fox News Sunday By Tim Hains Dana Perino hosts Bruce Mehlman of the ‘Internet Innovation Alliance,’ Mo Elleithee, Marie Harf, and Michael Needham. Read the full article »
November 17, 2017 Bruce Mehlman Discusses the 2018 Midterm Elections Fox News Sunday Bruce Mehlman appears on “Fox News Sunday” to give insight on how retirements and resignations impact the balance of power on Capitol Hill. Read the full article »
November 4, 2017 Dems divided over Brazile’s claims about Clinton and DNC Fox News By Television Appearance Political strategist Bruce Mehlman weighs in on the divisions within the party. Read the full article »
November 2, 2017 Top Lobbyists 2017: Hired Guns The Hill By The Hill Staff Bruce Mehlman and David Castagnetti, Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas Inc. When they aren’t fighting for clients on Capitol Hill, Mehlman and Castagnetti travel around the country providing insight for groups outside the Beltway into how American leaders think. Read the full article »
White House wants a tax bill by Friday PoliticoPro By Nancy Cook When House Speaker Paul Ryan warned President Donald Trump during a Tuesday Oval Office meeting that the rollout of the long-awaited tax reform bill might have to be postponed a day, the president said that was fine. The White House has so far been blasé about the delay, provided it doesn’t extend into the weekend, according to three senior administration officials — and Trump even told Ryan he’d be fine if it takes until Friday, said two people briefed on their conversation. “It’s an additional 24 hours of suspense — not great for the blood pressure, but by no means fatal,” said Sage Eastman, former deputy staff director to Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.), former chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, which released its own tax proposal in 2014. Read the full article »
October 27, 2017 Budget Vote Raises Red Flag For GOP on Tax Reform The Hill By Naomi Jagoda and Cristina Marcos “This was a win for leadership,” said Sage Eastman, a former Ways and Means Committee aide who now works as a lobbyist at Mehlman Castagnetti. “They muscled the budget through without having to go to conference and without having to negotiate a tax deal…They now have the runway clear to move the tax bill,” said Eastman. “It doesn’t make the tax bill any easier or harder, but it does give them the chance to land it.” Read the full article »
America’s tech giants have no political party to protect them The Economist “If data is the new oil, is [Amazon’s Jeff] Bezos the new Rockefeller?” asks Bruce Mehlman, a Republican lobbyist, in a report called “Navigating the New Gilded Age”, which is circulating in Washington. Read the full article »
October 26, 2017 America’s tech giants have no political party to protect them The Economist By Print Edition The tech giants have suddenly found themselves without a political party to protect them, just when they most need one. On November 1st executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter will testify before the House Intelligence Committee about how their platforms were used by Russia’s government during last year’s election. Politicians on both sides of the aisle, though they see eye-to-eye on very little, seem to agree that giant internet companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google may pose a threat to society. “If data is the new oil, is [Amazon’s Jeff] Bezos the new Rockefeller?” asks Bruce Mehlman, a Republican lobbyist, in a report called “Navigating the New Gilded Age”, which is circulating in Washington. Read the full article »
October 20, 2017 Is Mark Zuckerberg the new Rockefeller? Australian Broadcast Corporation By Television Appearance Republican strategist Bruce Mehlman explains why there are “eerie” parallels between the Gilded Age and modern America today Read the full article »
October 13, 2017 Mike Allen’s Top 10 Axios By Mike Allen The income inequality that was the hallmark of the Gilded Age in the late 1800s was driven by changes in employment as the nation moved from agriculture to manufacturing. Lobbyist Bruce Mehlman finds a similar trend in Census data showing growth of service industry employment and continuing decline of manufacturing jobs. Read the full article »
Modern American Faces Turn National Review By Michael Barone Is America in a new Gilded Age? That’s the contention of Republican political consultant Bruce Mehlman, and in a series of 35 slides, he makes a strong case. Read the full article »
October 12, 2017 The Second Gilded Age and Its Discontents The Cook Political Report By Charlie Cook Washington is a town full of smart people, and one of the smartest is Bruce Mehlman of the bipartisan lobbying firm of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas. It isn’t the bachelor’s degree from Princeton or the law degree from the University of Virginia that make Mehlman stand out, nor is it his past positions as policy director for the House Republican Conference or as assistant secretary of Commerce during George W. Bush’s administration. It is his consistently insightful and creative quarterly PowerPoint presentations that he sends out to clients and friends, and puts on his firm’s website. Read the full article »
October 11, 2017 Mehlman’s Latest Politico Influence By Theodoric Meyer Bruce Mehlman of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas sent out his signature quarterly PowerPoint to clients this morning, explaining the political climate using a range of data. It’s an abbreviated version of the one sent out last week highlighting the parallels between the Gilded Age and today, which got pickup from The Washington Post and the Cook Political Report. Read the full article »
October 10, 2017 Axios AM: Mike’s Top 10 Axios By Mike Allen The income inequality that was the hallmark of the Gilded Age in the late 1800s was driven by changes in employment as the nation moved from agriculture to manufacturing. Lobbyist Bruce Mehlman finds a similar trend in Census data showing growth of service industry employment and continuing decline of manufacturing jobs. Read the full article »
October 9, 2017 Is data the new oil? Big tech companies face political pressure CNBC By Television Appearance Bruce Mehlman, consultant at Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, speaks with CNBC’s “Squawk Alley” about tech giants such as Facebook and Google facing political pressure. Read the full article »
October 6, 2017 We are in a new “Gilded Age” Politics Inside and Out With Chris Frates By Radio Political strategists Bruce Mehlman and David Castagnetti talk about their new report which states we are in a new “Gilded Age.” Read the full article »
Boom Time Ahead for Tech Lobbyists as Policy Threats Intensify Axios By Ina Fried While tech giants like Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple have already stepped up their lobbying efforts, there is a growing belief the companies will have to pay even more attention to policy in the coming years as regulators across the globe increase scrutiny, Axios’ Kim Hart reports. What we’ve heard: Prominent tech lobbyist Bruce Mehlman tells Kim that the industry giants face issues related to trade, security, privacy, market power and more. And it’s not just those in Washington taking notice. Read the full article »
Podcast: We are in a new “Gilded Age” Politics Inside and Out With Chris Frates By Chris Frates Political strategists Bruce Mehlman and David Castagnetti talk about their new report which states we are in a new “Gilded Age.” Read the full article »
October 4, 2017 The Second Gilded Age and Its Discontents National Journal By Charlie Cook Washington is a town full of smart people, and one of the smartest is Bruce Mehlman of the bipartisan lobbying firm of Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas. It isn’t the bachelor’s degree from Princeton or the law degree from the University of Virginia that make Mehlman stand out, nor is it his past positions as policy director for the House Republican Conference or as assistant secretary of Commerce during George W. Bush’s administration. It is his consistently insightful and creative quarterly PowerPoint presentations that he sends out to clients and friends, and puts on his firm’s website. Read the full article »
The Daily 202: Why a Republican strategist thinks we’re in a new Gilded Age The Washington Post By By James Hohmann Everywhere he looks, Republican strategist and lobbyist Bruce Mehlman sees “eerie” parallels between the Gilded Age and today. Read the full article »
September 20, 2017 Tech Lobbyists Join Fight Over DACA and Immigration Roll Call By Kate Ackley “They see this as a straight-up fairness issue,” said Republican Bruce Mehlman, a partner with Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, whose lobbying clients include the Technology CEO Council and Adobe Systems. “You will find every tech company and a large number of other sectors affirmatively lobbying Congress to legalize the immigration status of the Dreamers.” Read the full article »
August 31, 2017 How to Get Rich in Trump’s Washington The New York Times By Nicholas Confessore “White Houses are always somewhat opaque places of fascination, where you don’t quite know who is up and who is down, or how decisions are ultimately reached,” said Bruce P. Mehlman, a prominent Republican lobbyist who served in the George W. Bush administration. “The added complexity here was there was not a single consistent governing philosophy. It was not clear if the president saw trade the way that Gary Cohn sees it or the way Steve Bannon sees it.” Read the full article »
August 23, 2017 Tech Goes From White House to Doghouse in Trump’s Washington Bloomberg Government By Todd Shields, Mark Bergen and Ben Brody “Republicans have always been fine with most of tech, because Republicans have usually defaulted pro-business,” said Bruce Mehlman, a Republican lobbyist and former Commerce Department official said in an interview. “This is less about any one issue and more about the new populist wing of the Republican party — populism is suspicious of bigness, and the biggest companies now are tech.” Read the full article »
August 4, 2017 Tax writers see peril in Trump’s Obamacare persistence PoliticoPro By Bernie Becker and Aaron Lorenzo Republicans acknowledge that the aggressive timeline they have set up for overhauling the tax code this fall leaves them little room for error. Read the full article »
July 21, 2017 Healthcare groups seek alternative ways to kill ACA taxes if GOP repeal effort fails Modern Healthcare By Harris Meyer With GOP efforts to gut the Affordable Care Act on the verge of derailing, healthcare industry groups seeking repeal of ACA taxes on their members are looking to hitch a ride on a new legislative train. Read the full article »
July 19, 2017 Analysis: Health Care Insiders Are Outside Looking In Roll Call By Kate Ackley Perhaps the health care industry has lost its lobbying mojo. Despite a mystique that K Street controls the unseen levers of power in Washington, a contingent of well-known and flush-with-cash groups representing doctors, hospitals, patients and seniors appears so far unable to kill — or significantly alter — a bill its members despise. Read the full article »
July 13, 2017 The Daily 202: Trump is the disrupter-in-chief in an age of disruption The Washington Post By James Hohmann THE BIG IDEA: With the Russia scandal and self-inflicted wounds paralyzing his White House, it’s easy to lose sight of the tectonic forces that powered President Trump’s victory last year. But they continue to exist, and they’re a major reason why he remains remarkably popular among Republicans. Republican lobbyist Bruce Mehlman, who has long represented technology companies, sees parallels between the cycle of disruption that’s churned through Silicon Valley and what’s now wreaking havoc on Washington. Read the full article »
July 7, 2017 Border Tax Could Be Negotiating Position for GOP Leaders BLOOMBERG BNA By Kaustuv Basu Why won’t House Ways and Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) give up on the controversial border adjusted tax? The two may be hoping that by continuing to push the tax, they will stake out a stronger negotiating position as Republican lawmakers and the White House work on a tax reform bill, former congressional staffers told Bloomberg BNA. Read the full article »
June 28, 2017 The Daily 202: Secrecy backfires on Mitch McConnell as Senate health-care bill teeters The Washington Post By James Hohmann The Senate majority leader believed that the blowback for keeping his health-care bill secret would be less than the blowback for negotiating it in public. Read the full article »
June 20, 2017 Despite pressure over prices, the drug industry is coasting on Capitol Hill STAT By Erin Mershon Less than six months ago, President Trump stood at a podium and roiled the pharmaceutical industry with an emphatic declaration that its executives are “getting away with murder.” Read the full article »
May 8, 2017 ObamaCare Vote Throws Curve Into Tax Reform The Hill By Naomi Jagoda The House’s passage of legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare has thrown a new curve into Republicans’ efforts to overhaul the tax code. The vote, which came just a week after the White House rolled out its tax reform plan, took much of official Washington by surprise. A previous attempt to muscle through the legislation had failed in March. Read the full article »
April 13, 2017 Op-Ed: In Defense Of Chairman Pai Forbes By Bruce Mehlman Since the election of the 45th President, the loyal opposition has registered many criticisms against the new administration and its appointees. Read the full article »
April 12, 2017 Lobbyists Resetting Trump Expectations The Hill By Megan Wilson Lobbyists began the year with high expectations for a Republican-controlled government, but many are recalibrating after a rocky start for President Trump’s agenda. Most Republican lobbyists who spoke to The Hill said Republicans still have plenty of time to rack up big legislative wins, even if the road ahead is a tough one. Read the full article »
March 15, 2017 POLITICO Influence Politico By Theodoric Meyer The ads come less than 24 hours after the CBO released its much-anticipated report showing that 24 million people could lose their health insurance within 10 years. One GOP health care lobbyist, Dean Rosen, a partner at Mehlman Castagnetti Rosen & Thomas, said he doubts the report will do much to affect the bill’s chances of passing the House. Read the full article »
February 25, 2017 Did Someone Say ‘Tax Code Rewrite’? Lobbyists Scramble The New York Times By Alan Rappeport The homebuilders lobby fears that an ambitious rewrite of the entire tax code will stifle the housing market. Retailers fret that it will make the cost of their imports soar. For charities and their representatives, the worry is that donations will be stunted, plaguing nonprofit groups that serve the neediest Americans. Read the full article »
February 3, 2017 Trump agenda off to slow start in Congress The Hill By Peter Schroeder President Trump’s agenda is getting off to a slow start in Congress, as GOP lawmakers search for a path forward on ObamaCare replacement bill and push other big-ticket items to the back burner. Republicans have unified control of government for the first time in a decade, giving them a rare opportunity to enact the kinds of sweeping policy changes that they have long dreamed about. Read the full article »
January 30, 2017 President Trump, Job Creator? The Atlantic By Alana Semuels There has been no shortage of companies talking up their intentions to expand their U.S. operations and create more jobs on U.S. soil as of late. Read the full article »