Another Urgent Item For Biden: A Looming Social Security Crisis

Congress offered a partial solution, but the fix hasn't been widely publicized, consumer advocates say. “If you're a single parent or a couple with kids living on, say, $25,000 a year, you might see 25% or more of your annual income in the form of your federal tax refund because of these credits,” says Timothy Flacke, executive director of Commonwealth, a nonprofit that…

WASHINGTON- Shortly after President Biden took office, he proposed an immigration plan that would offer an eight-year path to full citizenship for 11 million immigrants who currently reside in the United States without legal status. The plan from Biden and Vice President Kamala D. Harris would give qualified immigrants from Central America temporary legal…

WASHINGTON- In the most ambitious U.S. effort to stave off the worst of climate change, President Joe Biden signed executive orders Wednesday to transform the nation's heavily fossil-fuel powered economy into a clean-burning one, pausing oil and gas leasing on federal land and targeting subsidies for those industries. But his effort it also carries…

WASHINGTON— When you inherit a mess, as President Joe Biden has, everyone needs you to make their issue a priority. The novel coronavirus is still spreading, causing thousands of deaths each day, and we can't get enough vaccines in the arms of people to stop it, or at least slow it down. Right now, while the Democrats control the House and Senate, Biden needs to put this on…

On Tuesday, January 19, 2021, the Treasury secretary designate Janet Yellen outlined before the Senate Finance Committee the likely course of President Joe Biden’ s economic policies in the months ahead. Given the fragile state of the US economy as a result of covid-19, Yellen favors Biden’ s $1.9 trillion spending plan to provide support to the economy.

Matt Eyles, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said that his organization wants to assist the administration in its goals of COVID-19 relief and economic recovery, while calling for health equity in America’s communities.

—President Joe Biden is set to announce a wide-ranging moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on U.S. lands and waters, as his administration moves quickly to reverse Trump administration policies on energy and the environment and address climate change. Biden will direct all U.S. agencies to use science and evidence-based decision-making in federal…

Now President Joe Biden is calling up the nation’ s top scientists and public health experts to regularly brief the American public about the pandemic that has claimed more than 425,000 U.S. lives. President Donald Trump claimed center stage and muddled the message of the nation’ s top public health experts in the critical early days of the virus and eventually…

President Joe Biden is expected to take executive action as early as Thursday to reopen the Affordable Care Act marketplaces as well as to lower the barriers to enroll in Medicaid.

—Sophisticated hackers, identity thieves and overseas criminal rings stole over $11 billion in unemployment benefits from California last year, but the extent of the fraud might grow far larger: billions more in payments are under investigation. California Labor Secretary Julie Su told reporters in a conference call Monday that of the $114 billion the state…

House Democrats, who will walk the impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” to the Senate on Monday evening, are hoping that strong Republican denunciations of Trump after the Jan. 6 riot will translate into a conviction and a separate vote to bar Trump from holding office again. Democrats say the extra days will allow for more evidence to come out about…

Janet Yellen is one step closer to becoming Treasury secretary, with the Senate Finance Committee’s unanimously approving her nomination on Friday.

—Three new senators were sworn into office after President Joe Biden's inauguration, securing the majority for Democrats in the Senate and across a unified government to tackle the new president's agenda at a time of unprecedented national challenges. In a first vote, the Senate confirmed Biden's nominee for director of national intelligence, Avril Haines.

When it gazes into the mirror, the United States does not generally see a land of process and procedure. And it turned out, after four years of a loud and splashy presidency, that there can be comfort- inspiration, even- in the performance of process and procedure that sends a resounding message to the idealistic and the disaffected alike: The United States continues.

The trade war under President Donald Trump hurt workers and farmers in both countries, though some in Vietnam and elsewhere benefited as companies moved production outside China. A more confident China may push back harder on issues such as technology, territory and human rights. Analysts draw parallels to the 2008 global financial crisis, from which China…

President Joe Biden is calling on Americans to overcome their divisions, declaring in his first address in office that“ without unity, there is no peace.”. HERE’ S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT JOE BIDEN’ S INAUGURATION AS THE 46 TH U.S. PRESIDENT:. Joe Biden took the oath of office at noon Wednesday to become the 46th president of the United States.

WASHINGTON— In the 11 weeks since Election Day, the collision of crises confronting President-elect Joe Biden have gone from staggering to almost unimaginable. More than 170,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 during that stretch alone, sending total U.S. deaths soaring past 400,000. The deep partisan divisions roiling the nation boiled over into…

Joe Biden will govern a nation divided in many ways- and the pandemic-battered economy is one prime example. My trusty spreadsheet, filled with government data, parsed some of the business-related differences between the states that Biden won in the presidential race vs. those he lost. It certainly seems that disappointing business outcomes factored into…

WASHINGTON– Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden's choice as Treasury secretary, said Tuesday that the incoming administration would focus on winning quick passage of its $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan, rejecting Republican arguments that the measure is too big given the size of U.S. budget deficits. Democrats voiced support for the Biden proposal…

—In one of his final acts as majority leader, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is pressuring Democrats to keep the filibuster— the procedural tool that liberals and progressives are eager to to do away with so President-elect Joe Biden's legislative priorities can be approved more easily over GOP opposition. McConnell has told Senate Democratic…

—President-elect Joe Biden’ s national security Cabinet may be bare on Day One of his presidency, but an inauguration eve spurt of Senate confirmation hearings suggests that won’ t be the case for long. The Senate typically confirms some nominees, particularly the secretaries of defense, on Inauguration Day, though raw feelings about President Donald Trump four…

A Senate trial could begin as soon as this week, just as Democrat Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president. Jamie Raskin, D- Md., did not say when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D- Calif., will send the single article of impeachment against Trump— for“ incitement of insurrection”— to the Senate, which will trigger the beginning of the trial. The House voted to impeach Trump last…

On Wednesday, Trump became the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice, with the House of Representatives charging him for his role inciting the violent siege of the Capitol earlier this month. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is yet to send the article of impeachment to the Senate. Joaquin Castro, the House impeachment manager, told ABC’ s“ This Week.”“ So there…

Biden intends a series of executive actions in his first hours after his inauguration, an opening salvo in what is shaping up as a 10- day blitz of steps to reorient the country without waiting for Congress, aide Ron Klain said. Biden will end Trump’ s restriction on immigration to the U.S. from some Muslim-majority countries, move to rejoin the Paris climate accord…

When he took the oath of office of March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a nation in deep into the economic crisis known as The Great Depression and outlined the path forward. Starting his second term 68 years earlier, Abraham Lincoln looked forward to rebuilding a nation that was in the final days of the bloody Civil War. It's going to take actions, “said…

WASHINGTON— Incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain says the coronavirus pandemic will get worse before it gets better, projecting another 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the first five weeks of President-elect Joe Biden’ s administration. —China has finished building a 1,500- room hospital for COVID-19 patients to fight a surge in infections the…

Firearm sales have soared in Vermont since last week’ s riots at the U.S. Capitol, according to local gun dealers. The uptick comes as President-elect Joe Biden’ s inauguration approaches and as Democrats are poised to take control of the U.S. Senate. According to John Cragin, owner of Cragin’ s Gun Shop in Rutland, sales have“ spiked drastically” since supporters of…

As Washington insider Jim Papa puts it:“ If the Republican Party had its own Mount Rushmore, that mountain would have three faces: Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. Here are five steps that can save the Grand Old Party. Republicans are surely entitled to different feelings than the Democrats have about objective reality— but what they are not…

The Justice Department watchdog has launched a review of federal law enforcement’ s preparation and response to the Capitol riots. Five people died during the mayhem at the Capitol. The feds have launched a massive investigation seeking to arrest people who breached the Capitol.

Jan. 15— HARRISBURG— Harrisburg, Pa., is not Washington D.C. The ornate state Capitol building is smack in the middle of the city's downtown. So when a mob of President Donald Trump's supporters besieged the U.S. Capitol last week and the FBI said every state capital in America could see armed protests, some Harrisburg residents flashed back to April.

Jan. 15— The Jan. 6 terrorist attack on our nation's Capitol has produced images as powerful as planes striking the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001. A noose hung from a gallows on the Capitol grounds. The purpose of the attack was to make members of Congress afraid to affirm the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, said U.S. Rep.

While the development and approval of two effective COVID-19 vaccines offer great promise that the public health crisis inflicted by COVID-19 will soon fade, the sputtering rollout of the vaccines is bogging down the economic recovery, the leader of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston said Tuesday.

—A coronavirus action plan being unveiled by President-elect Joe Biden centers on a mass vaccination campaign and closer coordination among all levels of government. Biden has also talked about asking Congress to pump more money to states, to help their efforts to contain the pandemic and replenish depleted coffers that pay for basic services.

Financial services trade associations raise substantial sums of political action committee funds, money that supports lobbying efforts on important issues. In light of last week’s mob attack on the Capitol and the tense political atmosphere, trade associations are reviewing donor policies.

The Treasury Department reported Wednesday that three months into the budget year, the deficit was $216.3 billion higher than the same October-December period a year ago. Beginning in the spring, Congress passed trillion-dollar-plus spending measures to combat the harm being done to the economy from a pandemic-induced downturn. The spending figure did…

Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, said Tuesday that she supports the impeachment of President Donald Trump in the wake of the Capitol riot last week. The U.S. House pressed forward Tuesday toward impeaching President Donald Trump for the deadly Capitol attack, taking time only to try to persuade his vice president to push him out first. His incendiary…

—After days out of sight following the Capitol siege, President Donald Trump travels to Texas to trumpet one of the pillars of his presidency: his campaign against illegal immigration. Trump will be flying Tuesday to Alamo, Texas, a city in the Rio Grande Valley near the U.S- Mexican border. Indeed, the trip will mark the first time Trump has been seen in public since…

In keeping with the theme of unity, the committee also announced that after he is officially inaugurated, Biden, Vice President-elect Harris and their spouses will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, and will be joined there by former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and their wives.

President-elect Joe Biden announced Monday he is nominating William Burns, who has served in the State Department under five different administrations, as his director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Burns served as U.S. ambassador to Jordan under former President Bill Clinton and ambassador to Russia under former President George W. Bush.

A delayed shipment of baked goods to loyal customers that cost a Zoar bakery owner about $900 in losses. A health insurance payment check that failed to arrive for a month, jeopardizing a retired Canton ironworker's health care coverage and delaying his colonoscopy. These are among the reported impacts of chronically delayed mail by the U.S. Postal Service in…

His self-identification as a“ pro-choice pastor” angered conservatives, but Warnock’ s win in a state that Biden turned blue for the first time since 1992 has religious progressives hopeful that Democrats will keep broadening their outreach to voters of faith. Harkins acknowledged that Democrats haven’ t always maintained consistent engagement with…

Trump led off a video from the White House by condemning the violence carried out in his name a day earlier at the Capitol. Silenced on some of his favorite internet lines of communication, he watched the resignations of several top aides, including two Cabinet secretaries. The invasion of the Capitol building, a powerful symbol of the nation’ s democracy, rattled…

The nomination of Walsh was rumored for weeks, but comes two days after Democrats swept a pair of Senate races in Georgia. The wins by Rafael Warnock and Jon Ossoff over Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, respectively, gives Democrats control of the Senate.

While Americans are starting to get their $600 stimulus payments passed by Congress last month, one big question is whether the $2,000 payments demanded by President Donald Trump are still a possibility. It means the Senate will be split 50-50, with the Democrats holding the tiebreak advantage when President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is calling on President Donald Trump’ s Cabinet to remove him from office following Wednesday’ s violent assault on the Capitol by the president’ s supporters. In a statement Thursday, Schumer said the attack on the Capitol“ was an insurrection against the United States, incited by the president.” He added,“ This president…