President Joe Biden on Friday hailed passage of a bipartisan deal to raise the U.S. debt limit and avoid a government default, addressing the nation from the Oval Office. “No one got everything they wanted, but the American people got what they needed,” the president said. “We averted an economic crisis and economic collapse.” Biden…
The U.S. Senate voted 63-36 in favor of a crucial debt-ceiling bill on Thursday night, sending the measure to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The Fiscal Responsibility Act, which the Republican-run House of Representatives approved on Wednesday night in a 314-117 vote, raises the ceiling for federal borrowing and avoids a market-shaking…
With Congress raising the debt-ceiling and both sides of the aisle grumbling about the outcome, the debate over the mechanics of paying for the U.S. government’s obligations and the close call with default now fades back into obscurity. Until the next time. Assuming Congress won’t do away with the debt ceiling and push all spending…
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 314-117 in favor of a crucial debt-ceiling bill on Wednesday night, keeping Washington on track to meet the Treasury Department’s Monday deadline. There were 149 Republicans and 165 Democrats voting for the measure, while 71 Republicans and 46 Democrats voted against it. Those tallies show the extent…
While President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a debt-ceiling deal over the holiday weekend, that doesn’t mean it’s now all smooth sailing. Congress still must give its OK, starting with the Republican-run House of Representatives. Here’s what’s next, as the Treasury Department has called for action by this coming Monday in order…
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will announce his presidential bid during a discussion with Twitter owner Elon Musk, a spokesperson for DeSantis’s political team confirmed. NBC News first reported the pending announcement. Musk and DeSantis, a Republican, will appear in an event on Twitter Spaces, the site’s platform for audio chats, on Wednesday at 6 p.m….
The debt-ceiling deal struck by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy over the weekend contains many compromises for both Republicans and Democrats. Some may be harder to stomach than others. Chief among them: changes to the federal government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food-stamp program. “The agreement prevents the worst possible crisis, a…
Turkish stocks climbed on Monday, while the lira hit a fresh record low after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was re-elected and embarked on his third decade in the top position. The results of a runoff poll, after no clear winner emerged in the May 14 election, showed Erdogan with 52% of the vote, while his…
Debt-ceiling talks are “up and down,” Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a key deputy for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, told reporters on Friday. “We are in the middle of a lot of different conversations and a lot of different paper coming back and forth, and as I said, the details are thornier, the…
“‘I would say 70% of the time being president is a hoot.’ ” Former President Barack Obama, speaking with trailblazing public-radio host Ira Glass during a LinkedIn event focused on finding purpose at work, says he loved being president about 70% of the time. The other 30% he didn’t enjoy quite so much. “This, I…
President Joe Biden’s team and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s deputies are nearing a deal that would raise the U.S. debt ceiling and avoid a market-shaking default, though getting it through Congress quickly could prove tricky. McCarthy has said he’ll follow a rule to post any bill for 72 hours before votes, so that could mean…
Congress and President Biden are currently pretending to debate whether or not to raise the so-called debt ceiling from its current legal level, which is $31.4 trillion. “Pretending?” Yep. To hear both sides talking, you’d think this was some kind of debate about whether to raise the U.S. national debt above…er…“$31.4 trillion.” Cue laughter. U.S….
The U.S. government could run out of cash as soon as June 2 if Congress doesn’t raise the federal borrowing limit, according to a new analysis released Tuesday by the Bipartisan Policy Center. The think tank said in a statement that it “estimates an elevated risk that the debt limit X date — when the United States…
Americans’ discontent with the size of their federal income-tax bill is at a two-decade high, according to a new poll — even though Congress hasn’t passed any direct income-tax increases in recent years. One month after the 2023 tax season’s conclusion, 51% of respondents in a newly released Gallup poll said their income taxes were…
The radio came blaring on when I started my car, the voice of a politician hitting me in the face as I settled in. His message amounted to “Default is a bargaining point. We’re not going to get all the way there, but we need it on the table to force the other side to…
Debt-ceiling negotiations ran into trouble and spooked markets Friday, though analysts said setbacks should be expected in this process. “We’ve decided to press pause, because it’s just not productive,” said Republican Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana, a deputy for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Graves also suggested the Biden White House’s representatives in the talks were…
I often think that if you took away cable news, social media and the politicians who care more about getting on TV than solving problems, the debt crisis the U.S. is in would have been solved a long time ago. Instead, polticians have let things drag out to the point where the possibility of an actual…
““Sorry, how do you mean?”” — Rishi Sunak, U.K. Prime Minister, interviewed by Sky News That was the U.K.’s most powerful leader, and the richest ever, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, struggling to answer a simple question posed by Sky News, while attending the weekend Group of Seven leaders summit in Hiroshima, Japan. “Prime Minister, you’re…
“‘Increasing the debt limit the way Congress and presidents have repeatedly done, and most likely will do this time around, will mean there will be no meaningful limit on the debt. This will eventually lead to a disastrous financial collapse.‘ ” — Ray Dalio, founder, Bridgewater Associates That’s billionaire investor and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio,…
Congress is taking debt-ceiling negotiations uncomfortably near a vague, but fast-approaching deadline that is closely monitored by markets. It’s not clear exactly when that deadline will arrive or exactly what will happen if it does. But from Wall Street to Washington there is fear that the fallout could be very bad. The debt ceiling is…