Welcome to Wednesday, July 31st, perennials and annuals...

10 contenders for the 2020 Democratic presidential ticket took the stage in Detroit last night, hoping their policies and pull-quotes landed with the electorate.

Click here for our roundup of the quotes of the night. Here's a peek:

Marianne Williamson, Spiritual guru: "Flint is just the tip of the iceberg... If you think any of this wonkiness is going to deal with this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country, then I'm afraid that the Democrats are going to see some very dark days."

Elizabeth Warren, Senator from Massachusetts: “We are the Democrats. We should stop using Republican talking points.”

Steve Bullock, Governor of Montana: "I’m a gun owner, I hunt. Like far too many people in America, I have been personally impacted by gun violence. Had an 11-year-old nephew, Jeremy, shot and killed on a playground. We need to start looking at this as a public health issue, not a political issue. I agree with Senator Klobuchar. It is the N.R.A.”

Tonight, ten more candidates will answer questions in the Fox Theater:

What do you think of the 2020 Democratic contenders?

On the Radar

Family Ties No Longer Basis for Asylum Claims

Attorney General Bill Barr issued a ruling Monday to restrict the ability of migrants to claim asylum based on family members being persecuted in their home countries.

Barr said that being part of a nuclear family targeted for prosecution doesn’t qualify as a “particular social group” eligible for asylum in the U.S.

“The fact that a criminal group — such as a drug cartel, gang, or guerrilla force — targets a group of people does not, standing alone, transform those people into a particular social group,” the attorney general wrote.

Jeremy McKinney, with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, called Barr’s ruling “a poorly reasoned decision from an administration that seems intent on ending legal asylum.”

Do you support restricting asylum claims based on family relations? 

California Requiring Trump's Taxes

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has signed a bill that requires presidential candidates publicly disclose five years' worth of tax returns or forfeit appearing on the Golden State ballot.

"As one of the largest economies in the world and home to one in nine Americans eligible to vote, California has a special responsibility to require this information of presidential and gubernatorial candidates," Newsom said in a statement.

All 10 Republicans in the state Senate had voted against the bill.

"I get that playing the resistance card may be good politics for the majority party, but I would submit that it's bad policy for Californians," Sen. Brian Jones (R) said.

Should presidential candidates have to release their tax returns to be on the ballot?

Under the Radar

Capital Gains Tax Break

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is leading a group of 20 GOP senators in urging the Treasury Department to bypass Congress and provide a tax cut to investors by indexing capital gains to inflation.

In a letter sent to Steve Mnuchin on Monday, Cruz urged the Treasury Secretary to use his “authority” to index capital gains (those made from real estate, stocks, or bonds) to inflation. If enacted, investors would pay less when selling than they do under existing law.

Chye-Ching Huang, director of federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, tweeted that Cruz's proposal "would add ~$100-200 billion to deficits" and "86% would go to the top 1%, with new loopholes for the wealthy.”

Do you support a tax break for investors?

START Anniversary

On July 31, 1991, President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (aka START), the largest nuclear arms control treaty in history.

START imposed restrictions on the number of ICBMs, SLBMs, heavy bombers, and the “throw weight” of deployed nuclear warheads and created a verification regime to ensure both parties abided by it over its 15 year lifespan.

The New START, agreed to by President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Prague in April 2010, reduced stockpiles to less than 1,550 operational warheads and less than 700 deployed launchers. It will expire on February 5, 2021, unless both the U.S. and Russia agree to extend it for another five years or reach another nuclear arms reduction agreement.

How do you feel about START on its anniversary?

What You're Saying

Here's how you're answering Should States Have to Report Abortion Data to the CDC in Order to Get Medicaid Funding for Family Planning Programs?