Why would Republicans rule out Social Security and Medicare reform?

The year's first meeting of the Federal Reserve's interest rate policymaking panel starts Tuesday. On Wednesday, after the decision is announced and Fed Chair Jerome Powell holds his regular news conference, analysts will be looking for signals of what's to come for this economy. Because these views of the future are affecting the economy right now, "…

That’ s certainly the case when it comes to some Republicans and their new“ never touch Social Security and Medicare” position. Now, to be fair, the GOP’ s well-intentioned engagement in the overall debt-ceiling dispute is limited by the short time Congress has to raise the limit, all but ruling out credible reforms of Medicare or Social Security.

Consistently falling prices alongside a stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter gross domestic product and next week's anticipated less aggressive interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve are changing economists' tune and renewing hopes about the overall health of the economy. The day before, data came down showing that the U.S. economy grew at an…

The Commerce Department will issue its first of three estimates of fourth-quarter GDP growth at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Thursday. Despite a likely second straight quarter of expansion, the economy is widely expected to slow and then slide into a recession sometime in the coming months as increasingly high interest rates, engineered by the Federal Reserve,…

The Federal Reserve's quantitative-tightening program risks being propelled toward an early end as U.S. politicians bicker in Washington over raising the national debt limit, according to some economists and bond-market participants. By shrinking its bond portfolio by up to $95 billion a month, the central bank is draining liquidity from the U.S….

Many hate inflation, for reasons both rational and not. One, the Biden Administration sensibly tapped the US's strategic oil reserves, thus reducing supply pressures until energy markets stabilized. Further downward price pressure on fuel has come from Europe's unusually, if not somewhat unsettling, balmy winter.

On that front, the Federal Reserve has been getting good news lately. By May 2021, household expectations for inflation a year forward, as tracked by the Conference Board, New York Federal Reserve and University of Michigan, averaged about 5%. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell missed all this.

Higher interest rates and costs are the biggest threats, the economists said. While the economy certainly hasn't broken down yet in the face of the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes, economists don't have a rosy outlook for the next year. The National Association of Business Economics Business Conditions Survey for January, which polled 60 business…

Former President Donald Trump is pressuring Republicans in Congress to steer clear of making cuts to the biggest drivers of the national debt— Medicare and Social Security— in their quest to bring some fiscal sanity to Washington. “Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security to help pay for Joe Biden’ s…

Fed-speak, Alan Greenspan once explained, was about practicing the art of constructive ambiguity. Testifying to Congress as Fed chairman, Greenspan would resolve a sentence in a deliberately obscure way that made it incomprehensible, "but nobody was quite sure I wasn't saying something profound when I wasn't." Speaking on Tuesday at a symposium on central bank…

Federal Reserve officials say they will stay out of politics. Members of Congress blame the Fed for raising interest rates to combat inflation. Through myriad actions in financial markets, the Federal Reserve can push interest rates low, even to zero, to influence the availability of credit.

WASHINGTON- The Treasury Department says it has started taking "extraordinary measures" as the government has run up against its legal borrowing capacity of $31.381 trillion. New USDA rule boosts "organic" food oversight, targets fraud. The rule strengthens enforcement of the USDA's strict definitions of organic, which requires these foods to be made with…

Democrats and the White House are adamant they won't agree to drastic spending cuts to discretionary programs, which fund the vast majority of federal agencies, or mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday during the daily briefing that the Biden administration is "just…

WASHINGTON- Growing evidence that high inflation is finally easing shows that the Federal Reserve's sharp interest rate hikes are working as intended, says Loretta Mester, a key Fed policymaker. "We're beginning to see the kind of actions that we need to see," Mester, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Head of largest U.S. bank sees challenges for the economy and financial regulators. Dimon, has been the CEO of JPMorgan- Get Free Report, the largest U.S. bank by assets, for almost two decades. Now he's making a bold prediction for the U.S. financial world, even as some are projecting the Federal Reserve is nearing a pause in its interest rate hikes.

WASHINGTON— Wholesale prices in the United States rose 6.2% in December from a year earlier, a sixth straight monthly slowdown and a hopeful sign that inflation pressures will continue to cool. The data reflects the prices that are charged by manufacturers, farmers and wholesalers, and it flows into an inflation gauge that the Federal Reserve closely tracks:…

But that doesn't mean Federal Reserve policymakers are ready to ease up on interest rates. Esther George, a graduate of Missouri Western State University, had a seat on the influential Federal Open Market Committee that charted a course of interest rate hikes last year in an effort to tamp down the highest level of inflation in 40 years. That suggests that the…

U.S. retail sales fell by the most in a year and business equipment production slumped, raising concerns that the economy is losing momentum under the weight of tighter Federal Reserve policy. The value of overall retail purchases broadly decreased 1.1% in December after a downwardly revised 1% drop in the prior month, Commerce Department data showed…

Republican federal lawmakers are investigating the historic wave of COVID-19 pandemic fraud that struck New York, raising allegations of Democratic leadership failures and a potential political coverup. A state audit estimated $11 billion was lost to fraud, while state Labor Department officials asserted the true total is $4 billion.