US Congress news and information
It’s no secret that DOGE cuts in the federal government have thrown a wrench into both hiring and day to day operations. What’s particularly concerning is that with cuts to the National Science Foundation (NSF), there is a very good chance that AI development is going to be scaled back considerably. Just after Inauguration Day,…
It’s no secret that tariffs are typically considered as bad for an open economy. There are a few times when they can be a useful tool in temporarily supporting a sector, or preventing foreign governments from intentionally undermining a business, but generally they just increase prices for everyone involved. The smattering of tariffs, and the…
Several states held elections on April 1, mostly on the local/county level, but some had nationwide significance, as was the case for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. While turnout is almost always relatively low for off-year elections, there are a points of information which can be drawn from some of the elections. In Wisconsin The most…
There have been no shortage of headlines surrounding DOGE recently. The organization’s aim to trim the fat from the bureaucracy that is the U.S. federal government has been both heavily scrutinized by those who depend on funding, and highly praised by people who believe the government has become bloated. What has been concerning to those…
Fluctuations in the stock market in the first couple of months of a new presidency are relatively common. Obama and Bush Jr. both saw the stock markets fall in their first quarter while Clinton saw a modest gain early in his presidency. Bush Jr. and Obama’s stock market falls were essentially from events out of…
An announcement from the White House on March 26 places a 25% tariff on a large number of vehicles while the consumer will likely eat most of the cost. Earlier analysis from the Joint Economic Committee in the House came to the conclusion that, at bare minimum, tariffs are going to cost the average U.S….
There are 195 countries (depending on your definition of a country) in the world with 195 different sets of federal-level laws. Of those, only 9 countries do not guarantee paid parental leave for either the mother or father of a newborn. The U.S. is one of those nine and there is no current legislation going…
In 2022, faced with major credit issues due to ballooning student loan payments and COVID related economic problems, the Department of Education began a program they dubbed “Fresh Start”. This program basically erased student loan defaults from millions of borrowers’ credit reports and moved them into a “current” status. The program also allowed borrowers to…
The recent executive order signed by President Trump, authorizing what is essentially a heavy dismantling of the Department of Education, is supposed to be about saving the taxpayers money and returning power to the states. Diving deep into the numbers, it looks like if the E.O. is carried out to the most extreme limits, it…
Personnel cuts have been (and are still being) implemented across the Federal government for the last two months. Getting rid of actual government bloat isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but completely eviscerating whole programs and government sectors is not the way to do it. Enter California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren who introduced 5 bills this week…