Coverage of the national budget and your taxes.
Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg on Thursday said 2020 rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been “extremely evasive” on whether she would raise middle-class taxes to help implement a universal “Medicare for All” health care system.
The House on Thursday passed a stopgap funding bill to avert a potential government shutdown at the end of the month and postpone the budget showdown over President Trump’s border wall until just before Thanksgiving.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slammed President Trump’s plan to pay for a border wall via military funding as “appalling” on Thursday.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signaled Tuesday there’s partisan wrangling between Republicans and Democrats in their negotiations to fund the government ahead of the current deadline at the end of the month.
Trump administration officials on Tuesday defended their plan to Congress for ending government control of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, clashing with Democratic senators on whether the change would raise home borrowing costs and neglect lower-income homeowners.
President Trump on Monday washed his hands of two incidents that involved taxpayer money flowing to his private business, saying he had “nothing to do” with Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to stay at his Irish golf resort or the Air Force crew that opted to stay at his Scotland property in March.
President Trump has successfully stiff-armed Congress’ attempts to probe his continued ties to his business empire even as he sits in the White House — until last week.
Democrats rooting for a recession to torpedo President Trump’s bid for reelection have had their hopes dashed yet again.
U.S. employers added a modest 130,000 jobs in August, a sign that hiring has slowed but remains durable amid economic weakness and President Trump’s trade war with China.
President Trump hinted at good news when the government releases its jobs report Friday for the month of August.
The House and Senate are gearing up for several major battles over defense policy, with the Trump administration’s use of Pentagon money for a Mexico border wall only making it harder to reconcile the differences in rival versions of the massive, must-pass 2020 National Defense Authorization Act.
The Trump administration doled out nearly $2 billion Wednesday to track the opioid crisis and help states tailor treatment programs to their needs.
Mike Pence on Tuesday defended his two-night stay at a Trump golf resort in the Irish village of Doonbeg, where the vice president has some family ties, as a “logical” move that allowed him to showcase the bond between the U.S. and Ireland.
Vice President Mike Pence is meeting Tuesday with leaders in Dublin after staying overnight at a Trump property on the other side of Ireland, prompting Democrats to accuse him of “funneling” taxpayer money to his boss.
Hurricane Dorian slammed into the Bahamas Sunday at Category 5 strength as debate raged over the Trump administration’s decision to divert disaster-relief funds to immigration enforcement.
Democratic presidential hopeful Andrew Yang said his proposal to give Americans a $1,000-per-month stipend is preferable to a federal jobs guarantee championed by 2020 rivals such as Sen. Bernard Sanders and proponents of the “Green New Deal” to tackle climate change.
President Trump has continually praised farmers and ranchers as “great patriots” who are willingly enduring the lost markets and declining crop prices as he seeks to force China to renegotiate fair trade terms for the U.S. But there are increasing signs their patience is running out.
President Trump on Thursday abandoned a push for cuts in foreign aid, faced with opposition from lawmakers in both parties.
Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke on Thursday announced his plan to boost labor unions and workers, dubbing it his “21st Century Labor Contract.”
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is a huge proponent of school choice, and it turns out she’s not alone.
President Trump’s fondness for tariffs will take a small but very real bite out of the U.S. economy, the government’s chief scorekeeper said Wednesday.
The budget deal President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi struck last month will cost taxpayers $1.7 trillion over the next decade, the government’s chief scorekeeper said Wednesday, adding to a sea of red that threatens to swamp Washington.
President Trump confirmed Tuesday that he is considering cuts in payroll taxes and capital gains taxes to spur more economic growth, but said such action wouldn’t be necessary if the Federal Reserve would “do its job” by cutting interest rates further.
Some White House officials are floating a possible temporary payroll tax cut to help prevent the economy from slowing, as the 2020 election approaches.
Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has churned out scores of plans to fix America, and almost all of them require cracking the federal checkbook wide open.
White House advisers on Sunday said the country isn’t heading for a recession and played down the effects of President Trump’s trade war after a wobbly week on Wall Street, arguing that pessimism is the only thing that could hold America back.
On Wednesday, President Trump blamed the Federal Reserve for hurting the economy. On Thursday, he blamed the media.
Sen. Rick Scott suggested Monday the U.S. government should provide Americans tax relief to counteract tariffs on Chinese goods as the U.S.-China trade war escalates.
In a new video, former GOP Rep. Mark Sanford warned that a “big storm” is looming on federal spending and the debt and that people have suggested he mount a primary challenge to President Trump as a way of elevating those issues into the national conversation.
The Trump administration finalized rules Monday that could reshape the flow of legal immigrants who earn a place in the U.S., proposing to penalize migrants for having used welfare programs when they apply for permanent status.
Marine 1st Lt. Matthew Davis was killed in the line of duty in 2014 when he was struck by a drunken driver while on base at Camp Pendleton, California, leaving behind his wife, Elizabeth, and their 10-year-old daughter, who was named as the beneficiary of his Survivor Benefit Plan.
President Trump and the Republican National Committee filed lawsuits against the state of California Tuesday to block a recently passed law to force Mr. Trump to release his tax returns.
“Want to join the gig economy? Join Census,” advises U.S. Census — which now has a half-million “gigs” to offer.
Judicial Watch, a conservative law firm, announced Monday is has sued California to stop the state’s new law requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns or else be left off the primary ballot.
U.S. employers slowed their hiring in July, adding a still-healthy 164,000 jobs to an economy that appears poised to extend its decade-plus expansion.
Congress gave final approval Thursday to spending increases in 2020 and 2021, but it delivered a final black eye to President Trump when nearly half of Senate Republicans refused to back the deal he struck with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The White House on Wednesday said U.S. and Chinese negotiators enjoyed “constructive” trade talks in Shanghai and will try to land an enforceable deal in September, when they resume in Washington.
President Trump said Wednesday that he wants to cut spending in his second term because the military “is very close to being totally rebuilt.”
They may be split on Obamacare and whether to decriminalize illegal immigration, but a consensus is emerging among the 2020 Democratic presidential field that the 2017 cut to the U.S. corporate tax rate needs to be repealed.
For all of his tough talk about cutting spending and reducing deficits, President Trump has failed glaringly to get Congress even to make a dent in the budget.
The House approved new budget limits Thursday, surging spending and debt over the next two years — though the vote showed a growing rebellion among Republicans over surging deficits and President Trump’s willingness to sign hefty funding increases.
House Democrats told a federal judge to butt out Thursday, saying the courts have no role to play in refereeing whether Congress uses a New York law to try to get a look at President Trump’s taxes.
President Trump urged House Republicans Thursday to vote for a two-year, $1.37 trillion budget measure, saying it’s needed to keep building up the military and help veterans.
Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke on Wednesday released a plan intended to close socioeconomic gaps in schools across the country, including a $500 billion fund to address what his campaign called a “structural inequity” in the country’s education system.
The Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would ensure the health care compensation fund for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks doesn’t run out of money.
Top White House advisers on Tuesday defended a new two-year budget deal against objections from conservatives about greater borrowing and spending, saying the agreement will disarm House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s efforts to block President Trump’s agenda through 2020.
President Trump and congressional leaders reached a deal Monday evening to boost spending by hundreds of billions of dollars, while carving out trillions of dollars in new debt space for future borrowing.
Sen. Rand Paul defended himself Thursday after receiving pushback for blocking legislation to extend the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund and took shots at comedian Jon Stewart in the process.
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic presidential candidate, called Friday for the federal tax code to include a “caregiver credit” for people who drop out of the labor force to take care of a child or someone who is battling health problems.
The House voted Wednesday to repeal Obamacare’s “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health insurance plans, doling out a win to labor unions and some employers while threatening to balloon deficits and remove a tool that economists favor as a way to control health spending.
Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont says odds are that middle-class individuals and families will pay more in taxes to help fund his “Medicare for All” proposal, but the additional levy would be more than offset by the overall savings those same people would receive from doing away with annual health care premiums.
Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California said Tuesday that her vision for a “Medicare for All” program wouldn’t require a tax hike on middle-class Americans, and that her push requires a transition period of more than four years.
A judge on Tuesday formally banned the citizenship question from the 2020 census.
If presidential politics were still about “the economy, stupid,” then President Trump should be on a glide path to reelection.
