The US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) predicted on Friday that, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, America’s deficit will reach $3.7 trillion this year, Politico reports. The CBO also said that unemployment will rise to 16 percent in 2020, before going to down to 9.5 percent by the end of 2021.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a $484 billion bill on Friday to aid employers and hospitals under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic as the related death toll rose to more than 50,000 Americans.
President Donald Trump and congressional leaders have agreed on a new, nearly $500 billion stimulus package to help small businesses impacted by stay-at-home orders in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. governors appealed Saturday for $500 billion in federal aid, saying states face a budget crisis due to the new coronavirus pandemic that threatens essential services. They urged Congress to “meet the states’ budgetary shortfalls that have resulted from this unprecedented public health crisis.”
The federal government debt of the United States has reached a record $24 trillion despite warnings by the nation’s leading watchdog that it is unsustainable for the world’s largest economy.
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, the socialist democrat who pledged to lead a political revolution into the White House, has ended his presidential bid. He left the race after his once-strong lead in the Democratic primary evaporated as the party’s establishment lined swiftly up behind rival Joe Biden. The Vermont senator’s announcement came as a setback for many young people supporting Sanders. But it cleared a significant hurdle for Biden, who is now the expected Democratic nominee to challenge President Donald Trump in a general election overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic.
As Congress races to craft the next coronavirus rescue package, President Donald Trump’s sudden request Tuesday to pump $250 billion more into a just-launched payroll program for small businesses may hit roadblocks.
President Trump on Thursday railed against “partisan investigations” and “witch hunts” amid the coronavirus pandemic after Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) established a special House committee to examine the federal response to the pandemic.
On the same day the federal government announced more than 6.6 million Americans filed unemployment claims, President Donald Trump said a program to help businesses continue to pay workers launches Friday.
The pastor of a Louisiana church was charged Tuesday with defying state efforts to curtail the coronavirus outbreak. Tony Spell of the Life Tabernacle Church near Baton Rouge faces six counts of misdemeanor for holding services in violation of state-wide orders to stay home and to limit essential gatherings to 10 persons. Spell has said the government is infringing on the right to religion and that he will continue to hold services.
President Trump pushed Congress to adopt ‘very big and bold’ infrastructure investments in future legislation to combat the coronavirus.
A Christian watchdog group in the UK published a new report this week on the erosion of religious freedom in China under President Xi Jinping, whose ‘sinicization’ campaign has set out to absorb faith into the Chinese socialist system.
President Donald Trump signed a $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill Friday just hours after it passed in the House, making law out of a package that will send billions of dollars directly to Americans and provide hundreds of billions more for businesses, health care systems and others impacted by the pandemic that has crippled the economy.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin signaled on Thursday that the federal government could take stakes in airlines in exchange for the billions of dollars that have been set aside for the beleaguered industry in Congress’s $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package.
The U.S. Senate’s unanimous passage of an estimated $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill sent the unprecedented economic rescue legislation to the House of Representatives, whose leaders hope to pass it on Friday.
As the markets continue to drop and the U.S. looks to Congress for agreement on a massive stimulus package to save the economy from impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the newest offer by House Democrats includes a very forward-looking kind of stimulus: the creation of a ‘digital dollar’ and the establishment of ‘digital dollar wallets.’ In what will send shock waves through the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, particularly for those following central bank digital currencies around the world, this signals the U.S. is serious in establishing infrastructure for a central bank digital currency.
Many provisions in the failed Senate bill touted as an essential aid to help those on the front lines battling the coronavirus includes a litany of pork barrel spending that is totally unrelated to emergency relief for the virus, critics contend.
Talks between Democrats and Republicans for a massive funding package to combat the impact of coronavirus have stalled, as lawmakers spar over issues like worker protections and funding for states battling the crisis.
Saying that ‘in a sense’ he is ‘a wartime president,’ President Donald Trump wants Congress to approve $500 billion in new spending to send money directly to American households reeling from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 273,000 in February, surpassing economists’ 175,000 estimate. Unemployment also slightly dropped to 3.5 percent, matching its lowest level in more than 50 years, according to the latest report by the U.S. Department of Labor.