Free Republic

The US is hurtling towards an entirely preventable economic crisis, and a trillion-dollar coin could solve all of its problems — if the Biden administration decides to take it seriously. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that the government could run out of money to pay its debts as soon as June 1, triggering a never-before-seen debt-ceiling crisis. Even a short default could cost the country almost a million jobs and trigger a recession. But Republicans and Democrats are still waiting for the other to blink. The House GOP narrowly passed a bill last week that would tie massive budget cuts...

The IRS is underfunded and understaffed, and had to deal with new pandemic responsibilities. The result has been a massive backlog of unprocessed tax returns, many of them on paper. A photo from the agency's Austin facility shows just how much paper the IRS is dealing with. The IRS is still full of paper. The agency has been contending with a historic backlog of unprocessed tax returns amidst new pandemic responsibilities, understaffing, and underfunding. The result: A massive build-up of unprocessed tax returns, many of which belong to Americans who have been waiting on refund checks. Natasha Sarin, a tax...

When Utah joined at least 25 other states in cutting off unemployed residents from federal jobless benefits early last summer, many Republicans, including Sen. Mitt Romney, thought it would drive people back to work. By Labor Day, millions of laid-off workers nationwide saw their benefits slashed when pandemic-era programs expired, but anecdotes of labor shortages persist. Plus, the number of workers quitting their job has reached near record-highs for the past five months. So, Insider caught up with Romney, whose state was one of the first to leave enhanced unemployment benefits behind, to see what he thinks is driving the...

Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden wants to tax billionaires' unrealized wealth gains annually. Biden said he supports the proposal as a potential method to fund Democrats' social-spending bill. "I come from the corporate state of America," Biden said. "I just think it's about just paying your fair share, for Lord's sake." House Democrats have proposed a whole host of options to pay for their $3.5 trillion social-spending bill which includes measures like universal pre-K, tuition-free community college, and paid leave for workers. One of those options, proposed by Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, is a change to the way the...

Sens. Mitt Romney and Kyrsten Sinema are working together on their own minimum wage proposal, after an increase to $15 was stricken from reconciliation for the American Rescue Plan. HuffPost first reported a plan was being drafted. "We're negotiating a minimum wage proposal which we would ultimately take to our group of 20 and see how they react to it, and go from there," Romney told reporters on Wednesday. He did not comment on how much the wage would be, or the timeline for it.