Tensions expected as Trump meets with top Democrats and Republicans in effort to avoid shutdown

Trump and Republicans are unfazed at prospect of shutdown, and talks with Democrats are anticipated to be confrontational

  • US politics – latest updates

Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for a crunch White House meeting with Donald Trump in an 11th-hour bid to avert a potentially damaging federal government shutdown.

Monday’s gathering is aimed at reaching an agreement over funding the government and largely hinges on Democrat demands for an extensi...

The pandemic is over — let Biden’s health insurance handouts expire

Ronald Reagan once quipped that “nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program.”

He could have been talking about the effort to extend — for a second time — former President Joe Biden’s Affordable Care Act-enhanced tax credits, a set of extremely generous federal health insurance subsidies intended to help Americans get through the COVID-19 crisis.

That crisis ended two years ago. Biden’s extra help, enacted by a Democratic-majority Congress in 2021 and ex...

If Trump wants to cut health spending, he’s defunding the wrong agency

The second Trump administration has made it a core mission to cut spending on public health programs. But ironically, one agency in its crosshairs is pivotal to cost-effectiveness research in health care delivery.

The Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, housed within the Department of Health and Human Services, is aimed at helping health care organizations and providers to deliver safe, high quality and equitable health care. 

Despite this vital mission ...

GOP under pressure to extend Obamacare tax credits

*{box-sizing:border-box}body{margin:0;padding:0}a[x-apple-data-detectors]{color:inherit!important;text-decoration:inherit!important}#MessageViewBody a{color:inherit;text-decoration:none}p{line-height:inherit}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{mso-hide:all;display:none;max-height:0;overflow:hidden}.image_block img+div{display:none}sub,sup{font-size:75%;line-height:0}#converted-body .list_block ol,#converted-body .list_block ul,.body [class~=x_list_block] ol,.body [class~=x_list_block] ul,u+.b...

Democrats haven’t won a positive campaign since Obama

Democrats haven’t won a national election without running against Trump since 2012.

This poses a problem for them: In 2028, Trump will be off the ballot. This span of more than a decade epitomizes the breadth of the Democrats’ dilemma: In three years, do they want to run on the past and what has worked, or positively on the future, which hasn’t succeeded for them in 16 years?

The last time Democrats won a national election running for someone, that someone was Barac...

Trump, GOP face tough choices for second tax bill

President Trump and Republican lawmakers passed their major tax-and-spending cut bill earlier this summer, faster than almost anyone else in Washington, D.C., was expecting.

Now, they're planning their second act.

The new law extended Republicans’ 2017 tax-rate reductions while making big cuts to healthcare and other social programs, adding $3.4 trillion to the national deficit through the next decade.

But there's still plenty of tax policy left for Con...

RFK Jr. further limits COVID-19 vaccines

*{box-sizing:border-box}body{margin:0;padding:0}a[x-apple-data-detectors]{color:inherit!important;text-decoration:inherit!important}#MessageViewBody a{color:inherit;text-decoration:none}p{line-height:inherit}.desktop_hide,.desktop_hide table{mso-hide:all;display:none;max-height:0;overflow:hidden}.image_block img+div{display:none}sub,sup{font-size:75%;line-height:0}#converted-body .list_block ol,#converted-body .list_block ul,.body [class~=x_list_block] ol,.body [class~=x_list_block] ul,u+.b...