(The Center Square) – Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio on Thursday backed a bipartisan proposal to cap annual deficits at 3% of gross domestic product, a resolution that would allow Congress to continue to spend more taxpayer money than it collects for years to come. House Resolution 981 would limit yearly deficits to 3% of GDP Read More…
The Center Square) – California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday afternoon signed legislation that involves a $590 million loan for Bay Area public transportation. Speaking before reporters in San Mateo County, Newsom said the loan will be paid back in 12 years. The first two years will be interest-free. “This is not just about transportation. Read More…
The Trump administration on Wednesday pointed to a stronger-than-expected consumer inflation report as evidence that price pressures are easing and real wages are rising, arguing that the economy has rebounded from what officials describe as the prior administration’s inflation surge. In a statement, White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai said the latest Consumer Price Read More…
(The Center Square) – A national taxpayer advocacy group is calling on President Donald Trump and Congress to address the nation’s rising debt, warning that interest payments and long-term spending commitments are putting increasing pressure on the federal budget. The warning comes after the Congressional Budget Office projected that federal debt held by the public will reach Read More…
DES MOINES, Iowa — The two dozen Democrats seeking the party’s presidential nomination have found few applause lines more likely to earn a standing ovation than a pledge to overhaul campaign finance rules. Now, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) is putting the Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. FEC decision at the center of his long-shot bid for Read More…
Top Democrats in Montana and Washington are really excited about Gov. Steve Bullock running — for the Senate, not the presidency. The Montana governor’s seemingly quixotic presidential run comes as nearly everyone in the party is begging him to challenge GOP Sen. Steve Daines and transform the 2020 Senate map. Unlike any other Democratic candidate Read More…
Sen. Kamala Harris, the California Democrat and 2020 presidential candidate, said she doesn’t support eliminating all private health insurance under Medicare-for-all after suggesting in January that she does. Harris told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday that “supplemental” private health insurance wouldn’t be eliminated under Sen. Bernie Sanders’ Medicare-for-all legislation, which she Read More…
HELENA, Mont.—Yes, another Democrat running for president. Another white guy. Another politician most of the country has never heard of. Another candidate who doesn’t have a lot of money to start with, or any real hopes of meeting the low bar to make the stage for the first debates next month. Another dude whose last Read More…
President Donald Trump is “goading” Democrats to try to impeach him because he believes it would help “solidify his base” of supporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday. Pelosi has not been shy about publicly criticizing the president and his administration. But she has shown clear resistance toward the politically fraught prospect of impeaching Trump, Read More…
There are currently 20 announced Democratic candidates for president deemed “serious” aspirants. (That includes one candidate, Wayne Messam, who isn’t on some lists, although he is mayor of Miramar, Florida, which is larger than Pete Buttigieg’s South Bend). Now two others with solid résumés but little to no national name ID are joining the fray. Read More…
With Stacey Abrams becoming the latest high-profile Democrat to say no to a 2020 Senate bid — and more rejections of party pressure possible on the horizon — running for the Senate no longer looks look like the step up the political ladder it may once have been. A few Democrats have chosen to run for president Read More…
President Donald Trump on Monday filed a lawsuit against House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings to block a subpoena of the president’s financial records from an accounting firm, escalating tensions between the White House and congressional Democrats who are investigating his business empire. In a new court filing, Trump’s attorneys asked for an Read More…
As progressives continue to challenge the Democratic Party’s moderate members, former President Barack Obama says he fears that some may be going a step too far. During an Obama Foundation town hall in Berlin on Saturday, he warned that without compromise, the conflicting ideologies could spur infighting among the left. “One of the things I Read More…
The second 2020 Democratic primary debate will be held in Detroit on July 30 and 31, the Democratic National Committee announced Tuesday. The debate, which CNN will broadcast, will be in the battleground state of Michigan, which Democrats lost in 2016 to President Donald Trump. There will be a total of 12 presidential primary debates Read More…
A former Nevada lawmaker has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of kissing and touching her during a campaign event, an allegation that Biden — a possible presidential contender for 2020 — said he doesn’t recall. The allegations were laid out in a first-person piece written by Lucy Flores, a Democrat who at the time was Read More…
The chairman of the House oversight panel threatened Friday to subpoena testimony and documents related to the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the panel’s Democratic chairman, said officials at the Commerce Department withheld key documents about the decision despite repeated follow-up requests. In a letter to Commerce Secretary Read More…
Stacey Abrams is set to reveal soon whether she’ll run for president or senator or something else. But in recent months, the Democrat has mounted a nationwide, largely below-the-radar effort to expand her donor and political network that will make her an instant force whatever she decides. Abrams has traversed the country meeting with top Read More…
WASHINGTON — Beto O’Rourke raised $6.1 million in his first 24 hours as a presidential candidate, according to his campaign, surpassing Bernie Sanders and every other 2020 Democrat who has disclosed their figures. O’Rourke’s campaign announced Monday that he had taken in $6,136,763 in online contributions in the day after declaring his candidacy Thursday morning. Read More…
Joe Biden is carrying a 20th century voting record into a 21st century political dogfight. During more than 40 years in public life, Biden has taken an array of stances at odds with today’s Democratic Party consensus. As he now prepares for his third presidential campaign, that record could hamper him in a big field Read More…
A massive public lands package including a ban on new mining claims north of Yellowstone and the renewal of a popular conservation fund has now become law. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed S. 47, a broad legislative package including land designations and more affecting areas across the country. It sailed through the House and Read More…
(CNN)Bernie Sanders advocated for the nationalization of most major industries, including energy companies, factories, and banks, when he was a leading member of a self-described “radical political party” in the 1970s, a CNN KFile review of his record reveals. Sanders’ past views shed light on a formative period of his political career that could become Read More…
Facebook removed several ads placed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign that called for the breakup of Facebook and other tech giants. But the social network later reversed course after POLITICO reported on the takedown, with the company saying it wanted to allow for “robust debate.” The ads, which had identical images and text, touted Read More…
WASHINGTON – House Democrats find themselves in one of the trickiest battles on Capitol Hill, trying to prove their unity in the fight against President Donald Trump and on core issues they campaigned on last year. They had a remarkably effective first two months in the majority, defying Trump on his demand for a border Read More…
Former Vice President Joe Biden is in the final stages of preparing for a 2020 presidential campaign that is expected to launch next month, according to multiple people familiar with his planning. A formal kickoff is expected by mid-April and would all but cement the size and scope of the Democratic presidential field that currently Read More…
Howard Schultz’s announcement in January that he was considering running for president as an independent may have been met with chuckles and eye rolls from pundits, but on Twitter, political operatives, trolls and profiteers saw an opportunity. Within days of the announcement, Twitter was home to fan accounts that seemed to span every demographic, praising Read More…
Less than a week after raging against cow farts and urging Americans to stop eating so many hamburgers, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was caught oozing with hypocrisy. On Tuesday night, an image scorched across Twitter showing Ocasio-Cortez and her chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, sitting down for dinner together. While sitting no more than a foot Read More…
A Virginia state employee has complained that her eighth-grade daughter was upset during a tour of the historic governor’s residence when first lady Pam Northam handed a ball of cotton to her and another black child and asked them to imagine being enslaved and having to pick cotton. “The Governor and Mrs. Northam have Read More…
ots” of the Russia investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, saying in an interview that lawmakers on Capitol Hill should be more aggressive in digging into alleged ties between President Donald Trump and the Russian government. The 2016 Democratic nominee — who once worked as an attorney for the House Judiciary Committee during the Read More…
Joe Biden’s big lead in early Democratic 2020 polling might be a bunch of malarkey. While most polls show the former vice president hovering around 30 percent of the Democratic primary vote, well ahead of second-place Sen. Bernie Sanders, two recent surveys paint a starkly different picture — raising the question of whether Biden is Read More…
HELENA, Mont. — Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is traveling to Iowa this week, his fifth trip to the Hawkeye State since he began exploring a possible 2020 presidential run last year. At least 11 Democrats are running for president or have formed exploratory committees, but Bullock has repeatedly deflected questions about his plans. He says he’s Read More…
Stripe, a Silicon Valley online payment company which in September hit a massive $20 billion valuation, has become embroiled in an investigation into US President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, The New York Times reports. Citing two people familiar with the inquiry, the Times said federal prosecutors issued a subpoena demanding that officials on the inaugural Read More…
The U.S. government is preparing to begin construction of more border walls and fencing in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, likely on federally owned land set aside as wildlife refuge property. Heavy construction equipment was expected to arrive starting Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. A photo posted by the nonprofit National Butterfly Center Read More…
Some GOP voters want a primary challenge but most would back Trump West Long Branch, NJ – In the run-up to 2020, fewer than 4-in-10 voters back a second term for President Donald Trump. The Monmouth University Poll finds a sizable number of GOP voters who would like to see Trump face a primary Read More…
House Democrats provided a detailed offer Thursday — with dollar figures — of their opening offer in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding negotiations. The plan does not include funding for a border wall sought by President Trump. In her weekly news conference Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressed the ongoing negotiations over border security, making Read More…
SAN FRANCISCO—Before a campaign forum that would help to define her nascent political career, Kamala Harris, then a 38-year-old prosecutor, was bracing for questions about an uncomfortable topic: her relationship with the mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown. Harris’ consultant, Jim Stearns, had warned his candidate that her opponents would dredge up her ties to Read More…
The vast majority of freshman House Democrats are not quite ready to “impeach the motherf*cker.” Over the last two weeks, Axios reached out to every single one of the 64 new House Democrats, and only a tiny fraction said they were on board with impeachment. The big picture: There’s been a cable news feeding frenzy Read More…
White. Male. Old. A Wall Street billionaire. At first glance, Michael Bloomberg would seem to have zero appeal in a Democratic Party where progressive populism is on the rise and activists and elites say it’s time for a woman or a person of color to win the White House. But unlike any of the other Read More…
Several Democratic politicians – known collectively as “the governors” among elite donors – have been in contact with Wall Street’s top political financiers as they each consider running for president in 2020, CNBC has learned. The group includes former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Montana Gov. Read More…
Republican Montana Sen. Steve Daines introduced a bill on the Senate floor Thursday that would withhold the pay of members of Congress during future government shutdowns. Daines’s introduction of the bill, sponsored by Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn, comes hours after Daines announced he sent a letter requesting the secretary of the U.S. Senate withhold Read More…
House Democrats have formally proposed creating a new committee on climate change, without many of the main factors that progressives wanted in the panel’s structure. Democratic leaders unveiled the plans for the “Select Committee on the Climate Crisis” late Tuesday as part of a package of rules to govern House proceedings for the next two Read More…
Wednesday morning, recently reelected Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester broke some exciting news by telling Montana College Democrats that their state’s governor, Steve Bullock, would challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Steve Daines in his 2020 reelection bid. Minutes later, Bullock’s chief of staff offered a contrary view: Not only was Bullock not ready to announce, he’s Read More…
US Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will leave his post at the end of the year, in the latest high-profile departure from President Donald Trump’s administration. When announcing it on Twitter, Mr Trump did not give a reason for Mr Zinke’s departure but the former congressman from Montana has come under scrutiny for his use of Read More…
A federal jury Monday found U.S. Rep. Bob Brady’s top political strategist, Ken Smukler, guilty of nine of 11 counts of repeatedly flouting campaign finance laws in a case that once threatened to ensnare the congressman himself. Smukler, 58, who has helped dozens of Democrats win public office over the last 30 years, was convicted of coordinating Read More…
Trial for Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine, and his wife and former campaign manager, Margaret, was set during a hearing on Monday for Sept. 10. Duncan and Margaret Hunter appeared in federal court in downtown San Diego for a planning hearing stemming for their Aug. 21 indictment. The two face 60 counts of crimes including conspiracy Read More…