Taxes & Budget
Coverage of the national budget and your taxes.
A nonprofit group that advocates for “freedom from religion” has missed a key deadline in its effort to end a tax exemption for ministers’ housing allowances.
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President Trump’s plans to redesign the iconic Air Force One could be put on hold due to an amendment in the newest House version of the defense budget.
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Sen. Tom Cotton said Tuesday that tariffs on Chinese products will have “some negative impact” on the U.S. but added that Americans believe in sacrifice to keep America’s economic power.
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An emboldened President Trump said Monday that his tariff threat forced Mexico to strike a border deal, and he vowed that China will be the next target brought to heel by weaponization of access to the U.S. economy.
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The new Democratic majority on the House Armed Services Committee has released its first blueprint for the nation’s defense budget, a $733 billion authorization bill for the Pentagon for the coming fiscal year that blocks any funds for President Trump’s border wall, puts new restrictions on the Guantanamo terrorist detainee prison, and includes no money for Mr. Trump’s proposed Space Force.
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House Armed Services Committee members are barring the White House from funneling any Defense Department dollars toward the construction of a border wall between the United States and Mexico.
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By Christopher Rugaber - Associated Press
U.S. hiring slowed in May as employers added just 75,000 jobs, a sign that businesses may have become more cautious in the face of slowing global growth and widening trade conflicts.
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The chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee — the country’s top tax lawmaker — said Thursday he’ll introduce legislation next week to block President Trump from following through on his promise to impose tariffs on Mexico.
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Mexico’s president said he will rally at the U.S. border this weekend to try to head off President Trump’s vow to impose economically crippling tariffs, but offered no new solutions Thursday as the two sides rushed to beat Mr. Trump’s Monday deadline for action.
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Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that Mexico is negotiating, but its offers so far on how to stem the border crisis are “not nearly enough” to stop President Trump from imposing tariffs on Monday.
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President Trump said Thursday he will decide whether to slap tariffs on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese goods after the G20 summit later this month, signaling his threat remains an option if the two superpowers cannot seal a truce to their trade war.
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U.S. city officials increasingly are trying to find their own ways to repair roads, build bridges, improve sewers and provide communications amid squabbling among federal officials over funding a $2 trillion infrastructure plan.
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White House top trade adviser Peter Navarro on Wednesday forcefully pushed back against criticism that U.S. consumers would end up paying for tariffs on Mexican goods.
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Sen. Chris Coons said Wednesday Republicans are privately grumbling about President Trump’s threats to raise tariffs on Mexican products in the coming week.
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Sen. Cory A. Booker on Wednesday unveiled a plan aimed at boosting affordable housing through items such as renters’ credit and incentives for localities to relax their zoning rules.
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Sen. Rand Paul warned President Trump Tuesday that running the government “by emergency” may only grow opposition against him as he threatens to raise tariffs on Mexican products in the coming week.
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President Trump deleted a tweet flubbing the progress of a $19.1 billion bipartisan disaster relief bill that passed the House Monday, leading to ridicule from Democrats.
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Democrats in Washington are increasingly antsy to begin impeachment of President Trump — but voters back home seemed to have plenty of other things on their minds over the last week.
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The federal government has wasted hundreds of billions of dollars over several decades by building its information technology from scratch rather than buying off-the-shelf systems, public watchdog groups say.
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To bring a new and improved Tyndall to life would cost at least $4.25 billion, Pentagon officials say, and that money isn’t close to being available. Air Force officials are looking to reduce the costs and size of the base.
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Chuck Grassley, the Senate’s top Republican, said Thursday that President Trump’s new tariffs on Mexico are a mistake, saying the White House is bungling complex economic relationships in its zeal for force action on immigration.
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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will be returning to restaurant work this week to show support for measures that would raise the minimum wage and pay New York’s tipped employees a full wage.
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Chinese officials have made their most explicit threat to date that they are willing to use their near-monopoly on so-called “rare earth” minerals to force President Trump to back off on his trade war with Beijing.
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An increasing number of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are looking to upset the fragile truce on abortion that has reigned at the national level for decades, saying it’s time taxpayers start paying for them.
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A visibly disgusted President Trump announced Wednesday he won’t work with Democrats while they’re seeking to impeach him, cutting short a meeting with Democratic leaders at the White House and vowing to go it alone until Democrats finish their “phony investigations.”
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Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, who is mounting a long-shot 2020 primary challenge to President Trump, says if elected he would prod Congress to pass a law requiring presidents to disclose their tax returns.
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President Trump’s decision to lift steel tariffs on Canada and Mexico while postponing a fight with the European Union over auto imports leaves him free to focus on China — an escalating trade war in which both sides are digging in.
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The U.S. has reached a deal to lift steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico, removing a major barrier to congressional approval of President Trump’s revised trade deal with the countries.
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By Kathleen Ronayne - Associated Press
The Trump administration cancelled nearly $1 billion in federal money for California’s high-speed rail project Thursday, further throwing into question the future of the ambitious plan to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco.
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Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who is making climate change a central focus of his 2020 presidential run, on Thursday unveiled an economic plan geared toward clean energy his campaign says would create 8 million jobs and spur $9 trillion in investments.
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Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that Congress and the administration have different interpretations of the law regarding Congress’s access to tax returns, and he said if Democrats want President Trump’s returns they’ll have to get the courts to force the release.
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Rep. Bill Pascrell said Monday he would be willing to jail or impeach Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin and the head of IRS if they continue to withhold President Trump’s tax returns.
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China struck back Monday in its escalating trade war with the U.S., saying it intends to raise tariffs on $60 billion worth of American products starting June 1.
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President Trump said Monday that China “will be hurt very badly” by the new round of high tariffs he imposed on Chinese goods this week.
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An IRS agent tried to demand a bribe from a taxpayer earlier this month, promising to cut $23,000 off his bill if he agreed to pay her $5,000, prosecutors charged in documents filed Thursday.
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President Trump said Thursday that he was prepared to go ahead with an increase of tariffs slated to take effect Friday on $200 billion worth of Chinese if high-stakes trade talks beginning with a delegation from Beijing turn out to be unsuccessful.
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President Trump’s 2020 budget proposal would lead to $9.9 trillion of cumulative federal deficits over the next 10 years, which is $2.7 trillion more than the White House estimated over the same period, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday.
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The House Appropriations Committee moved Thursday to stop part of President Trump’s border emergency wall building, voting to claw back money the administration wanted to siphon from military construction and use for new fencing.
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Chinese officials said Wednesday they are prepared to retaliate if President Trump carries out his threat to increase tariffs on $200 billion worth of Beijing’s exports to the U.S.
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President Trump said Wednesday a New York Times report showing he lost more than $1 billion dollars from 1985 to 1994 does not accurately depict real estate practices during that time frame.
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By Chris Carola - Associated Press
New York’s Democrat-controlled Senate approved a bill easily Wednesday that would allow three congressional committees to get access to President Donald Trump’s state tax returns, giving Democrats a potential end-run around the administration’s refusal to disclose the president’s federal returns.
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Sen. Kamala D. Harris, a Democratic presidential candidate, said Monday that if she should win in 2020, then she would repeal all of President Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul that gave tax cuts for companies, the wealthy and the middle class.
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The Treasury Department informed Congress Monday it will not turn over President Trump’s tax returns by a chairman’s deadline, leaving Democrats pondering their next step.
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By Damian J. Troise - Associated Press
U.S. stocks fell in morning trading Monday, following a sell-off in Europe and Asia, after President Donald Trump threatened to escalate a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
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The Treasury Department’s self-imposed deadline to determine the legality of releasing President Trump’s tax returns arrived Monday.
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By Elaine Kurtenbach - Associated Press
Stock markets around the world, particularly in Asia, fell sharply Monday after U.S. President Trump threatened to increase tariffs on imports from China at a time when many investors were banking on an easing in trade tensions between the two countries.
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Black and Hispanic workers are seeing record-low unemployment and rising wages under President Trump, yet community leaders say it likely is not enough to sway their support to the president in next year’s election.
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President Trump raised the pressure on China to strike a trade deal in Washington this week, vowing to increase U.S. tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports by Friday because negotiations have moved “too slowly.”
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Consistent government figures reveal a robust economy and good news on the employment front. The mood in America is just as positive, according to a new Gallup poll.
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By Christopher Rugaber - Associated Press
U.S. employers added a robust 263,000 jobs in April, suggesting that businesses have shrugged off earlier concerns that the economy might slow this year and anticipate strong customer demand.
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The federal government is on pace to run a deficit of $896 billion this year, the Congressional Budget Office said Thursday, projecting what would be the fifth worst tally in history.
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About 20,000 North Carolina teachers and their supporters marched on the state Capitol on International Workers’ Day as part of the Red4Ed movement, which is backed by the nation’s largest teachers union and has drawn criticism from Republican leaders across the country.
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Democrats have redoubled their efforts to force President Trump to release his federal tax returns by threatening to keep him off the 2020 ballot in deep-blue states, to which he might say: So what?
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Sen. Joni Ernst, who promised voters she would make Washington’s big spenders “squeal” like pigs, announced legislation Tuesday to curtail the end-of-year buying sprees that end up leaving taxpayers on the hook for fine china, good lobster and other extravagant expenses.
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