Free Republic

President Trump indicated Wednesday the U.S. government would start paying down the $21.6 trillion in debt it's accrued over the last 80 years. "We're going to start paying down debt, we have a lot of debt," Trump said during a Wednesday discussion at the White House on the economy. "We're going to start paying down debt." Trump didn't elaborate, but he made the comment in the context of a discussion about how to improve some of the trade and economic agreements the U.S. has reached over the years. Trump said those past agreements have only helped to let U.S. wealth...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., will introduce legislation Wednesday aimed at making the nation's largest companies accountable to employees and their local communities, not just shareholders. In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Warren said companies in the late 20th Century started operating in a way that made them slaves to shareholders. "That shift has had a tremendous effect on the economy," she wrote. "In the early 1980s, large American companies sent less than half their earnings to shareholders, spending the rest on their employees and other priorities." "But between 2007 and 2016, large American companies dedicated 93% of their...

"I think there is a wide swath of views that have been expressed on the campaign trail from more than one candidate that has caused concern among many foreign leaders," spokesman John Kirby told reporters. Kirby didn't name names, but his comments came a day after Secretary of State John Kerry said the 2016 race is an "embarrassment" for the United States, which was widely seen as a comment on Trump's campaign. Kerry said "every leader I meet" is shocked about the race, and said the rhetoric being used is an "embarrassment to our country."