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Biden to issue memorandum to protect access to abortion pills

President Biden will issue a presidential memorandum that will further protect access to medication abortion by ensuring doctors can prescribe and dispense it across the United States to mark 50 years since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.

Vice President Harris will announce the memorandum on Sunday in remarks in Florida for the anniversary.

“Members of our Cabinet and our Administration are now directed to identify barriers to access and recommend actions to make sure that: doctors can legally prescribe, doctors can dispense, and women can secure safe and effective medication,” Harris will say, according to speech excerpts.

The memorandum will direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, along with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, to consider new guidance to support patients, providers, and pharmacies who want to access, prescribe, or provide mifepristone legally. 

Mifepristone, which is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)- approved drug used in medication abortion, has become an increasingly common method for ending pregnancies, especially in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. It accounts for more than half of all abortions in the country.

The memorandum will also ensure patients know their right to access reproductive health care, including medication abortion from a pharmacy.

Earlier this month, the FDA said it will allow U.S. retail pharmacies to offer abortion pills directly to patients with a prescription in states where abortion is legal. Medication abortion has been available in the U.S. since 2000, when the FDA approved the use of mifepristone, but many states with strict abortion bans also limit the availability of mifepristone, either through restrictions on who can prescribe and dispense the pill or outright bans.

Harris’ speech on Sunday will focus on the next steps the administration will take to fight for reproductive rights, according to a fact sheet from her office. She is set to call out Republicans for actions to restrict abortion access, including Republicans in Congress who have called for a national ban on abortions.

“The right of every woman in every state in the country to make decisions about her own body is on the line. Republicans in Congress are now calling for an abortion ban at the moment of conception nationwide. How dare they?” Harris is expected to say.

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats may have to bend on negotiations with GOP on debt ceiling 

Strategists and policy experts in both parties believe Democrats will have to come to the bargaining table soon to negotiate a debt ceiling deal that would avoid an economic catastrophe.  

President Biden and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) are so far refusing to negotiate with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on raising the nation’s debt ceiling, but voices across the political spectrum argue the precedent for such talks has been set.

Former President Obama negotiated with the House Republican majority in 2011 to extend the nation’s borrowing authority, while former President Trump agreed to big discretionary spending increases in 2019 to raise the debt ceiling.

Obama agreed to negotiate big spending cuts with Republicans before the 2012 presidential election because he knew he was ultimately responsible for the health of the U.S. economy, which would have taken a major hit if the federal government had defaulted on its debt obligations in 2011.  

Trump agreed to a $320 billion increase in domestic and military spending as part of a two-year budget deal because he wanted to take the threat of default off the table before his reelection bid.

Experts say Biden is now in a similar position as he readies his own reelection bid and won’t be able to resist negotiations.

“A failure to deal with the debt limit would be catastrophic for the economy. Any serious person who has studied this knows the economic consequences would be deep, long-lasting and disastrous,” warned former Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). 

Conrad said he understands why Democrats refused to negotiate with Republicans on raising the debt limit during Obama’s second four years in office, but he expects Biden to sit down with Republicans this year on the issue.  

“You can see that there is the possibility at least of a negotiation,” he said.

Conrad said a negotiation between Biden and Republicans in Congress would be an “opportunity to deal with some of the long-term challenges facing the country.” 

“The hard reality is both Social Security and Medicare are headed for insolvency,” he said. “There’s an opportunity to deal with some of these long-term challenges that are critically important to the country.“

Other Democrats also think a bipartisan negotiation will take place, though they predict that Republicans won’t win the same steep spending cuts they got from Obama a decade ago.  

“Ultimately Schumer, McConnell and Biden will figure something out,” said Jim Kessler, a former Schumer aide who now serves as executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think tank.  

“In the end, I think the likelihood is the agreement will come out of the Senate and the House will be forced to take it. McConnell’s view is, ‘We’re not going to default,’” he said.  

McConnell predicted at an event at the University of Louisville on Thursday that Republicans would negotiate a deal with Biden. 

“In the end, I think the important thing to remember is that America must never default on its debt. It never has, and it never will,” he said. “We’ll end up in some kind of negotiation with the administration over what the circumstances or conditions under which the debt ceiling be raised.”  

Biden so far is not getting tremendous pressure from his party to enter negotiations, with the exception of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who represents a state that tends to be deep-red in presidential elections.

“We have to work together. It’s bipartisan, it’s always been bipartisan as far as the debt ceiling,” Manchin told Fox Business in an interview in Davos, Switzerland. “I think what we have to do is realize that we have a problem. We have a debt problem.”  

Manchin, who is up for reelection in 2024, floated the idea of considering reforms to prolong the solvency of federal programs such as Medicare and Social Security in exchange for Republican support for raising the debt ceiling.  

“We would put bipartisan, bicameral committees together to look at each one of the trusts and come up with solutions of how you fix it,” he said.  

A Senate Republican aide said refusing to negotiation with Republicans “isn’t sustainable especially with folks like Manchin floating ideas out there.”  

Besides Manchin, who hasn’t said whether he plans to run for reelection next year, vulnerable Senate Democrats include Sens. Jon Tester in Montana, Sherrod Brown in Ohio and Jacky Rosen in Nevada, as well as Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) will be watching the debt ceiling maneuverings closely. 

Schumer and then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) refused to negotiate spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt limit in the fall of 2021 and instead put pressure on McConnell to work out a deal to bring along at least 10 Senate GOP votes.  

McConnell agreed to a procedural workaround that allowed debt-limit legislation to circumvent a filibuster in the Senate, allowing him to make the argument that Democrats alone raised the debt limit. But McConnell still came under withering criticism from former President Trump and some conservatives because GOP votes were needed to allow the debt limit bill to bypass a filibuster.  

Republicans say Democrats can’t expect McConnell to help pave the way for a clean debt limit increase this year. 

“Mr. Schumer and others are talking about, ‘We can do what we did in ’21 and that’s just hold out and Republicans will cave,’ I don’t think that’s realistic when you have a divided Congress,” said Bill Hoagland, senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former Senate Republican leadership aide.  

“My sense here is, and Biden’s been here before — he went through it in 2011 — at the end of the day it’s not ‘My way or the highway.’ He has to give something to Congress and Congress has to give to something to him,” Hoagland predicted.  

“I think some form of limitation on discretionary spending is likely,” he added. “It shows the president is willing to work with Congress.”  

Hoagland said reforms that would reduce or put new restrictions on Medicare and Social Security benefits are less likely than negotiated cuts to discretionary spending because Republicans don’t want to be accused of forcing cuts to popular entitlement programs before the next election. 

Trump warned Republican lawmakers in a video message circulated on Friday not to cut “a single penny from Medicare or Social Security.”  

Already, Democratic leaders are revving up their message that the new House GOP majority wants to put those programs on the chopping block.  

“From rising home costs, interest rates, cuts to Social Security, Medicare and more, it’s clear who will actually pay the price for gratuitous partisan politics: American families,” Schumer said in a statement.  

Newly elected House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) tweeted Friday: “Social Security is not negotiable.”  

Source: TEST FEED1

9 killed in shooting near LA after Lunar New Year festival

MONTEREY PARK, Calif. (AP) — Nine people were killed in a mass shooting late Saturday in a city east of Los Angeles following a Lunar New Year celebration that attracted thousands, police said.

Sgt. Bob Boese of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the shooting was reported at 10:22 p.m. and occurred at a business on Garvey Ave. in Monterey Park. The shooter is a male, Boese said early Sunday.

Officials provided no information for several hours after dozens of police officers had responded to reports of the shooting.

Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 people with a large Asian population that’s about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from downtown Los Angeles.

Seung Won Choi, who owns the Clam House seafood barbecue restaurant across the street from where the shooting happened, told the Los Angles Times that three people rushed into his business and told him to lock the door.

The people also told Choi that there was a shooter with a machine gun who had multiple rounds of ammunition on him so he could reload. Choi said he believes the shooting took place at a dance club.

Saturday was the start of the two-day festival, which is one of the largest Lunar New Year events in Southern California.

Source: TEST FEED1

DOJ search of Biden home turned up six more classified documents: lawyer

Department of Justice officials found six more documents with classified markings at President Biden’s Wilmington, Del., home during a Friday search, the president’s personal attorney said in a statement on Saturday.

Bob Bauer, a personal lawyer for Biden, said in a statement that the Justice Department was given access to the president’s home after previous searches in recent weeks had turned up a total of 11 classified documents.

“DOJ requested that the search not be made public in advance, in accordance with its standard procedures, and we agreed to cooperate,” Bauer said.

“DOJ had full access to the President’s home, including personally handwritten notes, files, papers, binders, memorabilia, to-do lists, schedules, and reminders going back decades,” Bauer continued. “DOJ took possession of materials it deemed within the scope of its inquiry, including six items consisting of documents with classification markings and surrounding materials, some of which were from the President’s service in the Senate and some of which were from his tenure as Vice President. DOJ also took for further review personally handwritten notes from the vice-presidential years.”

The search lasted roughly 13 hours, Bauer said, and covered working, living and storage spaces in the home. Representatives from Biden’s personal legal team and the White House counsel’s office were there while Justice Department officials conducted the search.

Biden is spending the weekend at his property in Rehoboth Beach, Del., which is about 90 miles south of Wilmington. Biden spent last weekend in Wilmington.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment when asked Friday if the decision for Biden to go to Rehoboth Beach was related to documents being found in Wilmington.

In a separate statement, White House special counsel Richard Sauber said Biden directed his personal lawyers to fully cooperate with the Justice Department.

“Since the beginning, the President has been committed to handling this responsibly because he takes this seriously,” Sauber said in a statement.

Saturday’s disclosure marks the fourth time officials have found documents from Biden’s time as vice president at either his old Washington, D.C., office or his Wilmington home.

Personal lawyers for Biden first found a small number of documents with classified markings at the office he used while working for the Biden-Penn Center from 2017-2019. The documents were found on Nov. 2, 2022, but the findings were not publicly disclosed until Jan. 17 after they were reported by CBS News.

Days later, the White House confirmed six more documents were found at Biden’s WIlmington residence during a search conducted in December. 

Last Saturday, the White House confirmed a search had been conducted two days earlier at Biden’s home and turned up five additional documents with classified markings.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has appointed a special counsel to oversee the investigation into the handling of the documents. Presidents and vice presidents are required under the Presidential Records Act to turn over materials to the National Archives upon leaving office.

The Biden White House has been steadfast that it is cooperating with the Justice Department in its investigation, and the president has emphasized that he has been surprised by the disclosures and takes the handling of classified materials seriously.

“I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there. I have no regrets, I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. That’s exactly what we’re doing, there’s no there there,” Biden said Thursday during a trip to California to survey storm damage.

While the White House has maintained that it has been slow to share new details in order to avoid the release of incomplete information, the slow drip of additional findings has given fuel to Republican critics.

House Republicans have already said they intend to use their new majority to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents, and former President Donald Trump has been quick to equivocate between the Biden controversy and his own mishandling of classified materials.

In Trump’s case, the former president had hundreds of sensitive government materials at his Mar-a-Lago estate more than a year after leaving office. He and his team refused to cooperate with federal officials, prompting an FBI search last August to secure additional documents Trump was keeping in Florida. A separate special counsel is overseeing a DOJ probe into Trump’s conduct.

Updated at 7:41 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden enters year with low approval ratings despite midterm boost

President Biden is entering the new year with approval ratings that are close to the lowest levels seen in his presidency, despite the shot-in the-arm the White House received from a relatively successful midterm election that saw Democrats hold the Senate and keep House losses to a minimum. 

A Reuters-Ipsos poll out on Thursday showed that 40 percent of Americans approved of Biden’s job performance. It was a point higher than last month’s survey, but low enough to stir angst among Democrats reading for a 2024 reelection signal from Biden that is expected to come after the State of the Union address. 

“I don’t know if anyone wants to be hovering around 40 percent when they’re launching a reelection bid,” said one party strategist. “You, at the very least, want to be five or six points higher.” 

Biden’s approval ratings fall between those seen by his immediate predecessors, former Presidents Trump and Obama, at this point in their terms.  

In his third year of the presidency, Obama’s approval rating hovered around 44 percent, according to Gallup. Trump, at the same point, had an approval rating of 37 percent. Obama went on to win reelection relatively easily over Republican nominee Mitt Romney, while Trump lost his reelection bid in a close race with Biden.  

The White House is dealing with a new controversy — the discovery of classified documents from Biden’s time as vice president. Some were found at his residence and some at his former office in Washington, D.C. 

Biden’s aides have generally shrugged off political worries about the controversy while noting that the White House Office of Counsel notified the National Archives of the discovery immediately.  

Democrats have also suggested the public is more focused on the economy and pocketbook issues than the documents fight, especially with Trump facing his own classified documents controversy.  

“I don’t think you’re going to see much of an impact,” said Rachel Bitecofer, the political scientist and strategist.  

“The public has spent years marinating in large daily scandal,” Bitecofer said, reflecting on the Trump presidency. “There’s massive scandal fatigue.” 

But it promises to be a nagging issue with Republicans planning investigations to keep the subject in the public eye.  

A Quinnipiac University poll out on Wednesday showed that 60 percent of those surveyed said they believe Biden acted inappropriately in retaining classified documents. Thirty-seven percent of those polled say Biden should face criminal charges. The poll included Democrats, Republicans and independent voters.  

Democratic pollster Mark Mellman agreed that “anybody running for reelection would like to have better numbers” than Biden is seeing right now as he plots out a possible reelection bid.  

“There’s no question Biden has to improve his numbers,” Mellman said.  

Still, he added, there’s a considerable amount of time left before the 2024 election to make those gains and much of the calculus is also dependent on Biden’s opponent.  

“It’s not a referendum. It’s a choice,” he noted.  

If Biden runs against former Trump, for example, Mellman predicted he would win. 

Trump has announced his own new bid for the White House, though he has not held a series of public events since doing so and has kept his public comments limited to his Truth Social account.  

The former president is expected to face competition for the GOP presidential nomination — possibly from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 

The White House has recent to feel confident about a second battle against Trump.  

A Club for Growth survey out this month showed Trump trailing Biden by 8 points in a 2024 race. That poll followed a USA Today survey from last month showing Biden beating Trump by seven points, 47 percent to 40 percent.  

“When we do focus groups, even Republicans are kind of sick of Trump and the divisions he causes,” said Margie Omero, a Democratic pollster. “That comes out loud and clear.” 

This week, a WPA Intelligence Survey also found Biden trouncing Trump in a match-up, but it showed Biden losing to DeSantis 45 percent to 42 percent.

The economy is likely to play a major role in Biden’s fortunes, with fears of a recession circulating amid large layoffs in the tech sector from Microsoft and Google.  

“At this point, it could go either way for the President,” the Democratic strategist said. “It’s dependent on a number of factors” including the strength of the economy and other major events. “But I think it’s more likely that he pulls this out and defies expectations, as he’s done in the past.”  

While some Democrats have expressed concern that the documents scandal could bring down Biden in much the same way that Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server led to her loss in the 2016 presidential election, Bitecofer said she sees it differently. 

“That’s not to say there isn’t a scandal and it doesn’t matter,” she said. “This is not going to be ‘But her emails.’ This country was very different. With what we’ve been through scandal-wise, the bar is very, very high.”  

On Thursday, the president sought to downplay the special counsel probe into the classified documents.  

“I think you’re going to find there’s nothing there,” a frustrated Biden told reporters in California, as he was surveying damage from the recent storms there. “I’m following what the lawyers have told me they want me to do. That’s exactly what we’re doing, there’s no there there.” 

Mellman said the issues that come before Biden in the coming months will ultimately serve as the biggest indicator of the president’s standing. 

If the country goes into a recession, for example, “it’ll be a tougher road to hoe for him.” 

“There are a lot of variables here that nobody can really predict,” he said.  

Source: TEST FEED1

A growing number of Americans face potentially crippling credit-card debt

Americans are piling on credit-card debt just as interest rates are reaching historic highs. 

Multiple polls show American consumers sinking deeper into credit-card debt. A new survey from Bankrate, the consumer finance company, found 46 percent of cardholders carrying credit-card balances from month to month, up from 39 percent a year ago.  

A survey by NerdWallet, the personal finance company, found the average U.S. household carrying $7,486 in credit-card debt, a 29-percent increase from a year earlier. A third poll, from the personal-finance website GOBankingRates, found that 14 million Americans owe more than $10,000 in credit-card debt. 

Card balances are rising at a time when consumers may find it harder than ever to pay them down. Credit-card interest rates hit 20 percent in late 2022, according to the Federal Reserve, the highest level in nearly 30 years of tracking.  

To buy now and pay later is a classic consumer impulse.  

“Americans love their credit cards,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree, the consumer finance company. “We always have credit-card debt, and it is almost always rising.” 

The nation’s collective credit-card balance totals $925 billion, according to LendingTree. That’s just below the historic record of $927 billion, set in pre-pandemic 2019. 

But surveys suggest the recent rise in credit-card debt is less about impulse buying and more about survival. American wages are rising: consumer prices are rising faster. Simply put, stuff costs more. 

“When grocery and gas and utility costs are going up, it’s not like you can cancel them like a Spotify subscription,” Schulz said. 

Over the past three years, according to a NerdWallet analysis, median income has grown by 7 percent, while consumer costs have risen by 16 percent.  

A December survey by U.S. News & World Report asked consumers to give the main reason for their credit-card debt. The most common response was “increased costs coupled with insufficient income.” Large numbers of respondents cited unexpected expenses, medical emergencies, job loss and car repair. Only one-tenth of those with credit-card debt blamed their balances on frivolous spending.  

 “The pressure people are feeling from rising costs at the grocery store or gas pump, it creates this situation where people are using more of their income even though they’re not consuming more,” said Bruce McClary, a senior vice-president at the nonprofit National Foundation for Credit Counseling. “The things that they typically buy are costing more.” 

America’s credit card customers fall into two camps. One group, large but shrinking, pays off its card balance every month. Card companies call those customers “deadbeats,” a term laden with irony. Customers who carry no credit card debt don’t earn much money for the card companies, because they don’t spend much money for the privilege of carrying a credit card.  

The other group, smaller but growing, carries credit-card debt from one month to the next. In the U.S. News survey, 15 percent of respondents reported card balances of $10,000 or more. 

At current interest rates, a five-figure credit-card balance can cripple a household budget.  

A household with the average credit-card debt of $7,486, as measured by NerdWallet, and the average interest rate, 20.4 percent, would have to spend $695 a month to retire the debt in 12 months, according to an online interest calculator.  

And what if the family can afford only $200 a month? Then they will be paying off the balance for five years. By the time the debt is repaid, assuming a constant interest rate, the family will have spent $4,239 on top of the $7,486 they actually borrowed. And all of this assumes the family never uses the card again. 

Credit-card rates are rising along with interest rates generally. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by more than four full percentage points in 2022, one of the most dramatic money-tightening campaigns in U.S. history, to tamp down inflation.  

The rate hikes pushed mortgage rates to their highest levels in more than a decade, around 7 percent.  

Credit card rates range much higher than mortgage rates. Lenders want to make a profit, and they issue cards to consumers with a wide range of credit scores, with an attendant risk that some customers will default on the debt.  

As recently as 2016, average card rates hovered in the 13- to 14-percent range: high, but not like today. At the start of 2022, the average credit card came with a 16-percent interest rate. By year’s end, the average topped 20 percent. 

A large group of card customers —43 percent in one recent survey — don’t know how much interest they are paying. 

“I have several cards of my own, and I couldn’t tell you the rates on any of them,” said Sara Rathner, a credit-card expert at NerdWallet. “When you pay your bills in full on time every month, it’s not an issue.” 

Lenders generally market credit cards less on interest rates and more on “rewards,” offering perks such as small quotients of cash returned to the consumer on certain purchases, credits toward airplane travel, or “points” that might be redeemed for any number of goods or services. 

“When you look at the credit-card company marketing materials, what do you see? You see the rewards,” said Rodney Sullivan, executive director of the Richard A. Mayo Center for Asset Management at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. “They’re front and center, always.” 

Credit-card customers, too, tend to dwell more on rewards than rates. In the recent BankRate survey, 36 percent of cardholders cited rewards as the best feature of their card. Only 10 percent cited a competitive interest rate. 

“You definitely see a lot of people get seduced by rewards, because they are seductive,” Rathner said. “And a lot of them are aspirational.”  

Flight attendants roam airplane aisles, offering applications for cards that might one day yield a free first-class ticket to Rome. 

“Humans, by our nature, we love rewards,” Sullivan said. “We love getting benefits.” 

Credit-card rewards can deliver meaningful benefits to the cardholder who makes a lot of charges and pays the balance off every month. Fail to retire the debt, however, and the game quickly turns against the player. 

“Those rewards,” Sullivan said, “are not going to be worth the 20-percent interest that you’ll be paying.” 

—

Trying to escape the pit of credit-card debt? Here are six strategies to consider.

Source: TEST FEED1

Six ways to escape the pit of credit-card debt

Don’t run up a balance on your credit cards, they said. If you can’t pay it off every month, they said, cut it up and throw it away. 

Too late. You ran up a balance. You owe thousands of dollars, maybe tens of thousands, on cards with interest rates approaching your chronological age.  

A consumer can go gray chipping away at credit-card debt. A borrower who owes $10,000 on a card with 20-percent interest and pays $200 a month will retire the debt in eight years and change, at a total cost of $21,000, according to a popular credit-card interest calculator. And that’s assuming the consumer never uses the card again. 

Here are six strategies to get out of debt a little faster. All of them can save time and money. Choose the one that suits you best. 

Get a zero-interest credit card 

It sounds too good to be true: A bank will send you a credit card that accrues no interest for 12 or 18 or 21 months, with no real strings attached.  

A zero-APR credit card may be the single best way to drive down card debt, in terms of pure savings. The typical card allows the customer to transfer thousands of dollars of debt from other accounts for a one-time fee that equals a few percent of the balance being transferred.  

After that, in most cases, your entire monthly payment reduces your debt. Not a penny gets lost on interest.  

“A zero-percent balance-transfer credit card is an incredibly powerful tool,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at Lending Tree, the online lending marketplace. “Being able to go a year, sometimes up to 21 months, without accruing any interest on a balance is a really big deal.” 

The downside: Once the promotion expires, the lender will start charging interest on the remaining balance. To avoid it, make a budget. If you can afford to pay $300 a month on a zero-interest card, and you have 18 interest-free months, then transfer no more than about $5,000 onto the card. In 18 months, the debt will be gone. 

Remember, too, that “this is going to be a credit card that you are going to have in your wallet and that you will potentially be using once this promotional period is over,” said Bruce McClary, a senior vice president at the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.  

In other words, resist the temptation to amass more debt on the card once the zero-interest clock runs out. 

Pay off the smallest balance first 

A consumer who holds several debts with different rates and amounts can score a quick and painless victory simply by wiping one of them off the list. And why not start with the smallest debt? 

Financial planners call this technique the snowball. List all of your debts, pick the smallest one and pay it off as quickly as possible. Soon enough, a roster of seven or eight debts can shrink to five or six, delivering a rush of snowballing momentum. 

“It’s that momentum that keeps people excited,” McClary said. 

Pay off the debt with the highest interest 

A popular alternative to the snowball is the avalanche: Arrange your debts from the highest interest rate to the lowest. Then, make aggressive payments on the one with the highest rate. 

For a consumer with several debts, focusing on the one with the highest rate makes perfect financial sense.  

“Over time, you will pay less in interest, because you are targeting the highest interest rate first,” said Sara Rathner, credit-card expert at NerdWallet, the personal finance company.   

The downside: If that high-interest debt is a large sum, paying it down may take years. The avalanche may feel more like a glacier. 

Snowball or avalanche? “It’s really about finding out what motivates you,” Schulz said. “Some people are motivated by small wins, so it’s better for them to pay off that small balance first and tear up that card and feel the motivation. For others, it’s just about the math.” 

Call a credit counselor 

The techniques listed above aren’t for everyone. Borrowers with subpar credit scores may not qualify for a zero-interest credit card. Dividing and conquering one’s debts only works for those with the cash to pay them down.  

Some borrowers are in over their heads. They may lack the funds even to make minimum payments, triggering costly fees. Fees and interest can push a credit card’s balance past the customer’s credit limit, triggering yet more fees.  

For them, one option is the nonprofit National Foundation for Credit Counseling. A credit counselor “can sit down and review your financial situation and offer an action plan,” McClary said. 

Nonprofit credit counselors can rescue borrowers from past-due notices and debt collectors. They work with lenders to halt or waive late fees, “over limit” fees and other charges and to slash interest rates, reducing how much the consumer owes. The client makes a single monthly payment to the counselor, who divvies up the money and sends it to the creditors.  

A counseling service can deliver a desperate borrower from debt “in four years or less, in many cases,” McClary said.  

Call the bank 

A consumer with one or two credit cards who wants a head start in retiring debt should consider placing a simple phone call to the banks that issued the cards.  

First, look up your credit score. The higher the score, the stronger your bargaining position. Then, call the credit-card company and start a polite negotiation. The card issuer may agree to lower your interest rate. The company can also waive onerous fees that pad your debt, or offer a temporary reprieve from monthly payments.  

“It becomes a little more difficult to achieve success if you have multiple credit cards,” McClary cautioned. And the cardholder may only succeed in achieving temporary leniency, while a professional counselor can negotiate on a more permanent basis. 

Hide the card 

Consumers who aren’t paying off their credit-card balances every month should not be using credit cards. But going cold turkey on credit is not so easy, especially if the card is sitting right there in your purse or wallet.  

One way to dampen credit-card temptation is to take the card out of play, credit experts say. Encase it in ice. Lock it in a drawer. Cut it in two and throw it away. It’s that much harder to swipe a card you do not have. 

Source: TEST FEED1

White House chief of staff Ron Klain to step down

White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who has served in the position since the start of the administration, is preparing to step down, a source familiar with his plans confirmed to The Hill.

Klain will likely leave following President Biden’s State of the Union address on Feb. 7, The New York Times first reported, citing senior administration officials. Klain has told colleagues since the midterm elections in November that he is preparing to leave.

The White House did not respond to a request for confirmation or comment from The Hill.

A successor is not yet in place, but names floated include Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, senior adviser Anita Dunn, domestic policy adviser Susan Rice and former coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients.

Klain is expected to remain in his current role for some time to help his successor acclimate, the source said.

Klain is a longtime adviser to Biden and has been in the role for longer than any other Democratic president’s chief of staff. The White House has experienced very little turnover among top level officials throughout Biden’s tenure, with no Cabinet officials stepping down and nearly all of Biden’s closest senior aides remaining on the job.

Biden celebrated two years in office on Friday. Klain, who is known for being prolific on Twitter, said to mark the day, “Two hard years. So much to be done. But so much progress.”

Klain’s pending departure comes as Biden readies for a possible reelection bid. The president is on track to signal that he will seek another term around the time of the State of the Union.

Klain’s exit is expected to precede broader staff changes as some in the White House transition out to work on a 2024 re-election campaign.

Biden’s approval rating was slowly rising following the better-than-expected midterm results for Democrats but dropped to 40 percent, which is nearing his record low, this week after the discovery of classified documents from his time as vice president.

– Updated 3:52 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

After Supreme Court ruling, Roe v. Wade at 50 looks far different than anniversaries past

Activists and lawmakers on both sides of the abortion issue are marking Sunday’s 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling by seeking to reenergize supporters and refocus their goals after the landmark decision was struck down by the Supreme Court.

The court’s ruling last June in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe, drastically altered the landscape for both the pro- and anti-abortion movements. 

Each side is using Sunday’s anniversary to remind supporters what’s still at stake and highlight how the battle over abortion rights has shifted from the courts to Congress and the states.

“With a divided Congress for the next two years, and a 2024 presidential race that will certainly bring surprises and some uncertainty for the nation, here’s what we do know: The key battles for reproductive access will be fought at the state level for the next two years and beyond,” said Rob Bonta, attorney general for the state of California.

The split Congress means federal action on abortion is unlikely for the next two years. But officials at all levels of government acknowledge it is an animating issue for millions of voters that will linger well beyond the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

“The people really spoke in the last election to make clear, you know, that they think Roe was rightly decided,” a senior Biden administration official said. “They don’t want a national ban. They do want national protection. And so, yes, we will continue to take up that mantle and fight for it.”

The anti-abortion movement is also crafting a new state-based strategy, as its leaders come to terms with the fall of Roe.

“After all those years, finally that moment came true. And while we prepared, nothing really prepares you for a reality in this area,” Marjorie Dannensfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony (SBA) Pro-Life America, one of the country’s leading anti-abortion groups, said during a call with reporters on Wednesday. “This is week one of the very beginning of a new life for our movement.”

Dannenfelser said with a new focus on states, the legislative goals for abortion restrictions will be as ambitious as possible. SBA leaders said they are targeting Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Nebraska as places where they see the opportunity to enact “strong pro-life protections.” 

This year also brought a significant change to the annual March for Life rally on the National Mall, which anti-abortion groups have held every year since 1974 to protest Roe v. Wade and call for its end.

With the original goal of the march achieved, anti-abortion leaders are at something of a crossroads. 

“While this year marks our most significant victory, the human rights abuse of abortion is far from over, sadly,” said Jeanne Mancini, President of the March for Life Defense and Education Fund.  

To reflect the new reality, the March for Life on Friday took a detour to pass by the Capitol on the way to the Supreme Court. The organization also has five state-level marches planned, and by 2030 aims to have one in every state. 

The march has historically drawn top Republicans to address the crowd, including former Vice President Mike Pence and former President Trump. But in a sign of how this year is different, only two Republican lawmakers spoke: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), a co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus. 

“When you’re in a battle, it’s important to keep your focus on what the mission is. But every step of the way it’s also critical that we celebrate victories along the way, and boy did we get a victory just a few months ago when Roe was overturned,” Scalise said. 

Anti-abortion advocates are pushing hard for a national abortion ban, putting pressure on Republican lawmakers to embrace even stricter limits on when and how women can access the procedure. 

In his remarks at the march, Scalise highlighted two bills the new GOP House majority passed in its first week — neither of which was a national ban.

Putting an early marker down on the 2024 GOP presidential primary, SBA said any candidate who does not support federal restrictions should be “disqualified” from winning the nomination.

But after a public backlash resulted in the GOP winning far fewer seats in the midterm election than expected, the party is divided on the best path forward. Some Republicans are unveiling plans for national 15-week abortion bans, while others want to avoid the issue completely and leave it up to the states.  

On the other side of the issue, abortion rights activists are making their own plans, and acknowledging the long road ahead.

“We’re at a time where we can’t keep doing the same things in the same way as a movement and expecting different results. This is a time and a moment for us to drastically rethink how we want to show up in this movement,” Oriaku Njoku, executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds, said during a press briefing.

NARAL Pro-Choice America is using the anniversary to launch a program to train state and local activists who want to organize their communities, highlighting efforts in Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada.

Vice President Harris will mark the anniversary of Roe with a speech in Florida, the third most populous state in the country and one that is central to the fight over reproductive rights.

In her speech Sunday, Harris will “make the case for national legislation to protect reproductive rights, and she will draw a contrast between the Republicans’ extreme approach to reproductive health and that of the Biden-Harris administration.”

Harris has emerged as the White House’s foremost public advocate for reproductive rights, meeting with hundreds of activists, medical workers, state and local lawmakers and advocates over the past year and traveling around the country to push back on abortion bans.

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last year signed into law a ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, though abortion rights advocates are concerned he will back a more restrictive law this year as he eyes a 2024 presidential bid. 

Harris and advocates are hoping to use the enthusiasm and outrage among those who support abortion in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision to put pressure on state lawmakers and governors weighing more restrictive policies.

“Florida right now is really the epicenter of access for many patients in the south who are facing full out abortion bans,” said Laura Goodhue, executive director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates. “The [midterm] elections are over, but it’s our state legislatures and governors that will be deciding what priorities to focus on for their constituents.”

Source: TEST FEED1