Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Tuesday officially asked Congress to claw back $9.4 billion in already approved spending, taking funding away from programs targeted by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.It’s a process known as “rescission,” which requires President Donald Trump to get approval from Congress to return money that had previously been appropriated. Trump’s aides say the funding cuts target programs that promote liberal ideologies. The request, if it passes the House and Senate, would formally enshrine many of the spending cuts and freezes sought by DOGE. It comes at a time when Musk is extremely unhappy...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants the world to know he’s no “chicken” just because he’s repeatedly backed off high tariff threats.The U.S. Republican president’s tendency to levy extremely high import taxes and then retreat has created what’s known as the “TACO” trade, an acronym coined by The Financial Times’ Robert Armstrong that stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” Markets generally sell off when Trump makes his tariff threats and then recover after he backs down.Trump was visibly offended when asked about the phrase Wednesday and rejected the idea that he’s “chickening out,” saying that the reporter’s inquiry was...

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt sparred with an Associated Press reporter Tuesday over ... an "insulting" question "trying to test [her] knowledge of economics." AP's Josh Boak asked about President Donald Trump's address at the Business Roundtable (BRT) quarterly meeting that was set to occur after the White House press briefing. He claimed that despite Trump previously touting tax cuts during his last BRT meeting in 2024, the president is now pushing "tax hikes" through tariffs. Leavitt objected to this line of questioning, interrupting him, saying, "Not true." "I’m curious why he is prioritizing that over tax cuts," Boak...

The Associated Press’s in-house public relations flunky for President Joe Biden, Josh Boak, is following the dragged out trend of leftist media figures treating Americans like they’re just too impatient to understand the true genius of Bidenomics. Boak’s January 15 propaganda piece disguised as news, “How Biden’s domestic policy record stacks up against public perception,” was laced with a hodgepodge of excuses and celebratory ramblings about Biden’s economic policies, which he mourned were hampered by a disgruntled voter base. “President Joe Biden ends his term with a gulf between his policy record and his public reputation,” he wrote. He implied...

Donald Trump loved to use tariffs on foreign goods during his first presidency. But their impact was barely noticeable in the overall economy, even if their aftershocks were clear in specific industries. The data show they never fully delivered on his promised factory jobs. Nor did they provoke the avalanche of inflation that critics feared. This time, though, his tariff threats might be different. The president-elect is talking about going much bigger — on a potential scale that creates more uncertainty about whether he'll do what he says and what the consequences could be. “There's going to be a lot...

— Sitting in the Oval Office behind the iconic Resolute desk in 2022, an animated President Joe Biden described the challenge of leading a psychologically traumatized nation.The United States had endured a life-altering pandemic. There was a jarring burst of inflation and now global conflict with Russia invading Ukraine, as well as the persistent threat to democracy he felt Donald Trump posed. How could Biden possibly heal that collective trauma?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump pledged to fix U.S. infrastructure as president. He vowed to take on China and bulk up American manufacturing. He said he would reduce the budget deficit and make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. Yet after two years as president, it’s Joe Biden who is acting on those promises. He jokes that he’s created an “infrastructure decade” after Trump merely managed a near parody of “infrastructure weeks.” His legislative victories are not winning him votes from Trump loyalists or boosting his overall approval ratings. But they reflect a major pivot in how the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — With inflation raging near its highest level in four decades, the House on Friday gave final approval to President Joe Biden’s landmark Inflation Reduction Act. Its title raises a tantalizing question: Will the measure actually tame the price spikes that have inflicted hardships on American households? Economic analyses of the proposal suggest that the answer is likely no — not anytime soon, anyway. The legislation, which the Senate passed earlier this week and now heads to the White House for Biden’s signature, won’t directly address some of the main drivers of surging prices — from gas and...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to highlight deficit reduction in remarks Wednesday at the White House, noting that the government will pay down the national debt this quarter for the first time in six years. The Democratic president has placed renewed emphasis on deficit reduction … the burst of $1.9 trillion in coronavirus relief approved in 2021 has already paid off in the form of faster growth that now makes it easier to stabilize government finances. It is unclear if greater fiscal responsibility can deliver politically for Biden as Democrats try to defend control of Congress. His two...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing political attacks over rising costs, President Joe Biden exaggerated his role in reducing the federal deficit and skirted responsibility by asserting that a flood of government spending into the economy has no impact at all on higher prices. It actually does. Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, went too far in pinning blame for surging gasoline prices on Biden..... THE FACTS: The Republican leaders of Congress are overstating Biden’s ability to influence energy prices and the impact of the canceled Keystone pipeline. Gasoline prices have been rising in tandem with oil prices since spring 2020 because demand has grown...

Reporters revolted and protested in the White House after Press Secretary Jen Psaki pulled the plug early on a briefing before others had a chance to ask questions. The press briefing lasted 40 minutes, but most of that time was taken up by just a few reporters in the first two rows who were allowed to ask Psaki multiple questions and follow-ups. During the Monday briefing, Associated Press reporter Josh Boak signaled to Psaki that time was up. “Thanks, Jen,” Boak shouted out as a reporter asked Psaki a question about whether the U.S. intended to get oil from Venezuela.

ROME (AP) — President Joe Biden wrapped up his time at the Group of 20 summit on Sunday trying to convince Americans and the wider world that he’s got things under control — and taking Russia, China and Saudi Arabia to task for not doing enough to deal with the existential threat of climate change. Biden’s overall take on his efforts: On climate change, he’s got $900 billion planned for renewable energy, and Congress will vote this coming week. On supply chains, he has plans to make the ports run better and tamp down inflation. For workers, he’s building an...

WASHINGTON — In a season of daunting wildfires and flooding, the Biden administration is taking an initial step to assess how climate change could harm financial markets — planning to launch on Tuesday a 75-day comment period on how the impacts could reshape the insurance sector. Insurers face payouts from wildfires and flooding risks that could cause premiums to rise for many Americans, but they’re also among the largest investors in U.S. financial markets, with $4.7 trillion in assets as of the end of last year, according to the Treasury Department notice being posted in the Federal Register. A senior...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and other top U.S. officials were stunned on Sunday by the pace of the Taliban’s nearly complete takeover of Afghanistan, as the planned withdrawal of American forces urgently became a mission to ensure a safe evacuation. The speed of the Afghan government’s collapse and the ensuing chaos posed the most serious test of Biden as commander in chief, and he was the subject of withering criticism from Republicans who said that he had failed. Biden campaigned as a seasoned expert in international relations and has spent months downplaying the prospect of an ascendant Taliban...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that his infrastructure and families agenda must be passed to sustain the economic momentum of his first six months in office, aiming to set the tone for a crucial week of congressional negotiations on the two bills. But a Wednesday deadline set by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the bipartisan infrastructure bill was in doubt as Republicans signaled they would likely oppose a procedural vote, for now, while details are still being worked out. Senators are wrangling over how to pay for the new spending in the $1 trillion package of...

The record unemployment rate reported on Friday captured the pain of a nation where tens of millions of jobs suddenly vanished, devastating the economy and forcing President Trump to overcome historic headwinds to win a second term. Months ago, Trump planned to campaign for reelection on the back of a robust economy, now a distant memory after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April, leading to an unemployment rate of 14.7%, the highest since the Great Depression. There's no parallel in U.S. history for the suddenness or severity of the economic collapse. The president is now tasked with...

WASHINGTON -- The “great American comeback” President Donald Trump claimed in his State of the Union speech drew on falsehoods about U.S. energy supremacy, health care and the economy as well as distortions about his predecessor’s record. In arguing, in essence, that he has made America great again, Trump took credit for an energy boom that actually began under Barack Obama in an assertion he recycled from his last State of the Union address. He inflated manufacturing gains, misrepresented policy on migrant detention and glossed over a rate of economic growth that has yet to reach the scale he promised....

“It seems like Republicans and Democrats are intractable,” said Mark Updegrove, a presidential historian and chairman of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation. “They are both adhering to their own versions of reality, whether they’re based in truth or not.” [snip] The biggest known unknown for both parties may be how the ongoing impeachment proceedings will be viewed by Americans one year from now. [snip] Updegrove, the presidential historian, said the question a year from now will be whether that matters. “If not, what will matter to the American people as a whole?” he asked. “Is there anything?”

The solid economy is doing little to bolster support for President Donald Trump. Americans give Trump mixed reviews for his economic stewardship despite the growth achieved during this presidency, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Nearly two-thirds describe as “good” an economy that appears to have set a record for the longest expansion in U.S. history, with decade-long growth that began under Barack Obama. More people consider the economy to be good today than did at the start of the year. But significantly fewer approve of Trump’s handling of the economy, even...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- He was a first-term senator-turned-president, a former law professor with little experience in economics or management. When he entered the White House he had one essential task: piece together the shards of a shattered U.S. economy. It wasn't smooth and it wasn't fast. But President Barack Obama will leave behind, by most measures, an economy far stronger than the one he inherited. Unemployment is 4.6 percent, a nine-year low. Stocks keep setting highs. An additional 20 million Americans have health insurance coverage. The nation has shifted toward cleaner energy sources: natural gas, wind and solar.