The Trump administration doesn’t expect to release a detailed health care plan until the Supreme Court rules on the legality of the Affordable Care Act, said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic that has sickened more than 2.4 million Americans, the Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to invalidate the Affordable Care Act, arguing the individual mandate has been made unconstitutional due to recent tax legislation.
President Trump and Melania Trump on Thursday visited the Korean War Memorial in Washington to mark the 70th anniversary of the start of the conflict that divided the Asian peninsula, with the U.S. backing the south. Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Lee Soo Hyuck— South Korea's ambassador to the U.S.— also…
—The last time President Donald Trump visited Wisconsin he staged a massive, raucous rally at an arena in downtown Milwaukee. The Republican president will head to conservative, rural Wisconsin for a private tour of a shipyard far away from Milwaukee, where local coronavirus restrictions now prevent large rallies. The two parts of Wisconsin targeted by Trump…
—Voters rebuffed President Donald Trump and nominated two Republicans he opposed to House seats from North Carolina and Kentucky on Tuesday. Calls in higher-profile races in Kentucky and New York faced days of delay as swamped officials count mountains of mail-in ballots. In western North Carolina, GOP voters picked 24- year-old investor Madison Cawthorn,…
Signum Global Advisors is warning clients in a new alert to be ready for a blue wave in November that gives Democrats control of government. The research firm has previously maintained that at least the Senate will remain in Republican control.
The state's largest city and hometown of a serious challenger for the Democratic nomination for the Senate, Louisville— population nearly 600,000— had just one in-person polling place. Like other states, Kentucky and New York have made it easier for voters to cast ballots by mail, instead of risking exposure to the virus by waiting on long lines.
With more than a dozen Supreme Court decisions still pending before the session is scheduled to close at the end of the month, it is looking more and more likely the term will be extended into July— a rare occurrence for the justices. There are some whoppers the justices are mulling, too, including whether Congress can get its hands on President Trump's financial…
A warehouse manager in Faribault, he went on to stints as chairman of Republican Party units at the congressional and county level. Thul is a “Never Trumper,” one of a small but vocal class of Republican dissenters in Minnesota and around the country who believe President Donald Trump has hijacked the conservative cause. Despite overwhelming support for Trump in…
U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman announced he would leave his post, ending increasingly nasty exchanges between Barr and Berman. This episode has raised new questions about political interference in the Justice Department, particularly given that Berman was investigating Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
—The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld legal protections for young immigrants, but President Donald Trump could still take away the ability for hundreds of thousands of them to live and work legally in the United States. They face a White House that's prioritized immigration restrictions and a divided Congress that's unlikely to pass legislation giving them a…
Jun. 19– President Donald Trump's new $1 trillion infrastructure plan could create one million jobs, according to a recent analysis from the Penn Wharton Budget Model. The infrastructure plan, which is still under construction by the Department of Transportation, would fund typical infrastructure projects such as roadways or bridges. The Wharton program…
The pandemic has stretched out the amount of time the census is being conducted, contributing to worries over accuracy. Kena Benakur/AFP via Getty Images. For the Census Bureau, the timing of national shutdowns due to the pandemic could not have been much worse. People are supposed to report where they were living on April 1.
At a meeting in Hawaii with a top Chinese diplomat, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged China to reveal all it knows about the pandemic. China maintains that controlling the virus's spread should be given priority. China is also being called on to relieve the virus' financial consequences in Africa.
Both Democrats and Republicans have introduced legislation to reform policing in America, but they diverge on some issues. The far-reaching legislative proposal from Democrats, the Justice in Policing Act, would limit legal protections for police, create a national database of excessive-force encounters and ban police chokeholds, among other changes.
The economic shutdowns to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, spurring the deepest recession in decades, has had the unintended consequence of halting the flow of coins through households, businesses and banks, the head of the Federal Reserve confirmed Wednesday. As the economy ground to a halt earlier this year,“ the flow of coins through the economy has…
Jerome Powell said the the Fed would continue to deploy all its financial tools to help “get back as quickly as we can to a tight labor market.” And he reiterated his belief that Congress must avoid withdrawing its own rescue efforts too quickly or else the most disadvantaged households would disproportionately suffer.
Stocks surged Tuesday on better-than-expected retail sales numbers and hopes for more stimulus as the Federal Reserve pledged to continue supporting a U.S. economy showing signs of inching back from the coronavirus-related lockdowns. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome H. Powell said he's confident in a long-term recovery but that the Fed would continue to…
Layoffs are slowing, unemployment is declining and hiring is gradually rising, suggesting a steady rebound in the U.S. job market. The outlook is so opaque that at a news conference last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell used the words “uncertain” or “uncertainty” seven times to describe the outlook for economy.
Jun. 16– While unemployment applications continue to surpass 1,000 a week in Frederick County, many applicants are still not receiving their benefits. Congressman David Trone said about 600 people have come to his office to request help with their unemployment requests since the beginning of the pandemic. He doesn't blame the Maryland Department of Labor for…
The Federal Reserve said Monday that it will begin purchasing corporate bonds as part of a previously-announced plan to ensure companies can borrow through the bond market during the pandemic. The Dow Jones rose 0.8% in afternoon trading.
From the guests sitting next to the first lady to the plaudits Mr. Trump rained on himself, his mission was clear: Black voters should take a chance on backing him in November. Yet Mr. Trump and his team believe the fundamentals haven't changed. The numbers don't lie, “said Bruce LeVell, an early and staunch defender of Mr. Trump and executive director of his national…
Biden’ s campaign and the Democratic National Committee jointly raked in $80.8 million in May, marking their best fundraising month of the 2020 election cycle. Biden’ s best fundraising month prior to Monday’ s numbers was April, when his campaign and the DNC brought in about $60 million between them. President Trump’ s campaign and the Republican National…
—Layoffs are slowing, unemployment is declining and hiring is gradually rising, suggesting that a steady rebound may be afoot in the U.S. job market. The outlook is so opaque that at a news conference last week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell used the words“ uncertain” or“ uncertainty” seven times to describe the outlook for economy. An Associated Press…
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday the U.S. economy, the world’ s largest, is“ now in a recovery stage” from the debilitating effects of the coronavirus pandemic that closed thousands of businesses, even as forecasters say unemployment figures will remain high for months.
In its semi-annual monetary policy report to Congress, the central bank said Friday that the COVID-19 outbreak was causing “tremendous human and economic hardship across the United States and around the world.”
As police brutality rages in the streets, President Donald Trump can't run on ending “American carnage.” Even though the United States recently notched the worst economic numbers since the Great Depression. “I built the greatest economy in the World, the best the U.S. has ever had,” he tweeted Sunday, echoing similar superlative claims he and his aides have been…
The Fed has cut its benchmark short-term rate to near zero. Keeping its rate ultra-low for more than two more years could make it easier for consumers and businesses to borrow and spend enough to sustain an economy depressed by still-widespread business shutdowns from the coronavirus.
Hundreds of millions of people have lost their jobs, and the crisis is hitting the poor and young people the hardest, worsening inequalities, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in its latest analysis of global economic data. If the coronavirus re-emerges later in the year, however, the global economy could shrink 7.6%, the OECD said.
Chairman Jerome Powell faces a challenging task Wednesday: He’ll need to make a convincing case that the Federal Reserve is committed to using all its tools to bolster an economy gripped by recession— without making any policy changes to show it.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee's comment came after the National Bureau of Economic Research's Business Cycle Dating Committee noted the U.S. economy peaked in February and has hit a downturn. Mr. Biden said the president had forgotten about the middle class long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation, causing millions of people to…
The Fed will also extend the program’s loan repayment period from four years to five. All told, the changes appear intended to make the Main Street loans more appealing to businesses and banks as they seek to recover from a deep recession. Fed officials have said that the Main Street program is intended for companies that were healthy before the coronavirus.
Key Democrats, including presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, are distancing themselves from the“ defund” push, which some supporters say is a symbolic commitment to end systemic racism and shift policing priorities rather than an actual plan to eliminate law enforcement agencies. Karen Bass, D- Calif., head of the Congressional Black Caucus.
WASHINGTON— The U.S. economy entered a recession in February as the coronavirus struck the nation, a group of economists declared Monday, ending the longest expansion on record. A committee within the National Bureau of Economic Research, a trade group, determines when recessions begin and end. In the previous recession, the committee did not declare that the…
—Democrats are mounting a new effort to push back against a well-funded Republican campaign that seeks to undermine public confidence in mail-in-voting, which President Donald Trump has said, without offering proof, will lead to election fraud. The aim is to not only counter Republicans in the courts but in public relations, too, while playing offense by…
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and frequent thorn in President Donald Trump’ s side, marched to the White House along with 1,000 protesters on Sunday evening. Tweeting a selfie and declaring,“ Black Lives Matter,” the masked senator walked among a Christian group carrying signs reading“ Racism kills “and“ Be Just, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly,” one of…
As universities across the United States scrambled to get students back home this past March, I talked to one of my students who had returned prematurely from her study-abroad program in India. Now, emerging economies like China and India have expanded and modernized their roads, bridges, and transportation and utilized state-of-the-art technology as to…
That’ s the harsh truth facing workers laid off around the U.S. and the world, from restaurants in Thailand to car factories in France, whose livelihoods fell victim to a virus-driven recession that’ s accelerating decline in struggling industries and upheaval across the global workforce. New U.S. jobless figures to be released Friday are expected to show…
The immigrant rights activist who' s shielded from deportation and allowed to legally work in the U.S. under an Obama-era program sets a 6 a.m. alarm so she’ s alert when the latest Supreme Court decision may be posted online about an hour later. Montoya, like 650,000 others enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, is waiting for the justices…
The pace of applications for U.S. unemployment compensation eased again last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday, as many American employers slowly reopen their businesses after the coronavirus pandemic forced their closure. But overall, 42.5 million workers have now sought unemployment compensation, more than a quarter of the U.S. labor force of…
Biden and President Donald Trump easily swept their respective primary contests that ranged from Maryland to Montana and featured the night’ s biggest prize: Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania, which offered Tuesday’s largest trove of delegates, also represented a significant test case for Republicans and Democrats.
—President Donald Trump said he is seeking a new state to host this summer’ s Republican National Convention after North Carolina refused to guarantee the event could be held in Charlotte without restrictions because of ongoing concerns over the coronavirus. Trump and the Republican National Committee had been demanding that the convention be allowed to…
Jun. 2– ATLANTA– On Sunday night, under the glow of the Ferris wheel and with the lingering sting of tear gas in the air, Farees Kaleemah extended his hand to an Atlanta police officer. The day before, the 27- year-old said, he was in handcuffs for protesting inside Cumberland Mall. An officer encouraged Kaleemah to protest the death of George Floyd– a black man killed by…
—Several Democratic governors on Monday pushed back against President Donald Trump's threat to deploy the U.S. military unless they dispatch National Guard units to“ dominate the streets” in reaction to the violence that has erupted across the country. “I reject the notion that the federal government can send troops into the state of Illinois, “Pritzker said on…
Sunday capped a tumultuous weekend and month that saw city and state officials deploy thousands of National Guard soldiers, enact strict curfews and shut down mass transit systems. Even with those efforts, many demonstrations erupted into violence as protesters hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at police in Philadelphia, set a fire near the White House and…
Congress and the White House are debating a“ return-to-work bonus” this summer, aimed at the more than 40 million workers who have lost jobs and filed for unemployment during the deadly pandemic, as a new incentive for those who go back to work.
The coronavirus crisis will reverberate for years, including hastening the depletion of Social Security’s trust fund and bringing ever closer the date when the venerable program will have to cut benefits, according to a new analysis Thursday.
WASHINGTON- The coronavirus crisis threw at least 2.1 million Americans out of work last week despite the gradual reopening of businesses around the country, stoking fears Thursday that the scourge is doing deep and potentially long-lasting damage to the U.S. economy. The confirmed U.S. death toll has topped 100,000, the highest in the world.
—Legislation extending surveillance authorities the FBI sees as vital in fighting terrorism was thrown into doubt as President Donald Trump threatened a veto and Republican leaders and top liberal Democrats said they would oppose it. Combined with strong GOP opposition, the Democrats' defiance of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D- Calif., suggested there might be…
Businesses across the country surveyed by the Federal Reserve don’ t appear to share the Trump administration’s optimism about a rapid economic recovery starting this summer. The Federal Reserve released a report Wednesday that draws on business contacts from the central bank’s 12 regions.
A 68- year-old sales manager from Harleysville, Pa., he voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Trump, who needs to win states like Pennsylvania and hopes to hold onto supporters like Banion, may have a lurking problem. In recent polling of Pennsylvania voters, Trump comes up a few points short of Biden with voters over 45, according to an April Fox poll.
The Labor Department reported 20 million jobs lost in April, raising unemployment to 14.7 percent, and government statisticians believe the chaos caused serious undercounting. For example, Boeing and GE’ s aircraft engine division are girding for depressed air travel for several years, and cleaners, caterers, other business and child care services are losing…
WASHINGTON- The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits in the two months since the coronavirus took hold in the U.S. has swelled to nearly 39 million, the government reported Thursday, even as states from coast to coast gradually reopen their economies and let people go back to work. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said over the weekend…
May 21– WASHINGTON– Former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday criticized President Donald Trump for threatening to stop funding to Michigan amid the coronavirus pandemic and an unfolding disaster in Midland County. “Michigan is in the fight of its life as it battles this pandemic and flooding disaster, and now more than ever, leadership and empathy matter.”
During his appearances on TV and Capitol Hill over the past week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has been hammering the message that Congress should do more to help the economy recover from the damage the pandemic is causing.
—Beyond its hard-hitting rhetoric against China over its handling of the coronavirus, the White House has issued a broad-scale attack on Beijing's predatory economic policies, military buildup, disinformation campaigns and human rights violations. The 20- page report does not signal a shift in U.S. policy, according to a senior administration official, who…
Exact numbers won't be known for a few years, but based on the last recession it's likely that thousands of people who will earn at least $1 million this year but find themselves between work will hold out their hand asking Uncle Sam for an unemployment check. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican, said Wednesday she wants to have Congress cut them off, calling it an affront to…
According to a study by researchers at the New York Federal Reserve, the extension in unemployment benefit duration during the Great Recession resulted in a prolonged increase in unemployment, with 4.6 million more people unemployed in 2010 and 3.3 million more unemployed in 2011.
President Trump has been vilified for initially dismissing the threat as the virus spread from China, but he had help. Well after China was taking aggressive action in Wuhan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was shaking hands, encouraging visits to San Francisco’ s Chinatown and criticizing Mr. Trump’ s travel ban on China.
