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Parents pay at least one monthly bill for 40 percent of millennials

In a new survey, two-fifths of millennials say their parents still pick up one or more of their monthly bills. 

And the most common parental subsidy is the largest: housing. Twenty-four percent of millennials say Mom or Dad pay their rent, and 17 percent say parents cover a mortgage.  

Smaller shares of the 26-to-41 demographic reported parental help with groceries (22 percent), utility bills (19 percent), auto insurance (18 percent), car payments (16 percent) or streaming services (12 percent). 

“It’s just really expensive to be a young person now,” said Kimberly Palmer, a personal finance expert at NerdWallet. “The cost of housing, of food: across the board, everything is expensive, especially in big cities. It can be a huge asset to be able to turn to your parents.” 

The findings come from a survey of 2,000 Americans conducted by market researcher OnePoll for Chartway Federal Credit Union in Virginia.  

For young adults, the 2020s have posed one economic challenge after another: Spiraling inflation. Rising rents. Lagging wages. Soaring home prices. 

Amid those challenges, young Americans have blurred the line between childhood and adulthood. Young adults are staying in school longer and graduating with ever-larger loads of student-loan debt. They’re postponing marriage and a first home purchase as they labor to dig themselves out. 

In 2022, 19 percent of men and 12 percent of women in the 25-34 age group cohabited with their parents. The COVID-19 pandemic drove adult children from cramped apartments and crowded downtowns into the more spacious confines of childhood homes.  

“There’s a new timeline for the transition to adulthood,” said Christine Percheski, a sociologist at Northwestern University. “And that’s partly because of the increased timeline for schooling that people need to get a good job. And parents see this, and they are trying to support their children as they’re getting more education and getting their lives together.”  

The new survey joins a growing data file on the evolving financial relationship between adult children and their parents. 

A December survey by Credit Karma, the personal finance company, found that 31 percent of parents support adult children financially, either by allowing them to live in the parental home or by paying some or all of their bills. A significant share of parents said they still pay their adult children a monthly allowance. 

Another survey, by the consumer website Savings.com, found that fully half of parents with adult children provide them at least some financial support. Of that group, the average parent reported spending $1,000 a month on adult children, covering everything from rent to food to tuition to travel. 

Most of today’s young adults seem to accept parental support not out of desperation, but simply because it is available, and because they believe the parents can afford it. 

When the OnePoll survey asked millennials why parents covered some of their expenses, the largest group, 30 percent, chose the response, “They haven’t told me to pay them myself.” Another 26 percent said it was “cheaper” to stay on their parent’s tab. A smaller group said, “Because they are financially comfortable.” Only 12 percent said they could not afford to pay the bills themselves. 

Streaming services may not be fond of allowing adult children to share a subscription with their parents. But the broader notion of leaning on one’s parents for financial support seems to have widespread acceptance in 2020s society. 

“Because it’s so common, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about, and it’s nothing that you should feel like you need to hide,” Palmer said. 

Even so, most millennials seem to desire financial independence. A large majority told the OnePoll survey they plan to be covering all of their own bills within a year or two. 

For most parents, supporting an adult child is the very essence of parenting. But parental largesse can be costly. One NerdWallet analysis estimates that parents who choose to cover a child’s expenses into adulthood sacrifice as much as $227,000 in lost retirement savings.  

Clearly, the potential cost of supporting a child into perpetuity has some parents spooked. “Footing the Bill for Adult Children?” one recent AARP article asks. “How to Stop – for Your Good and Theirs.” 

A Pew Research study found that a majority of American adults believe parents do too much for their adult children. Pew also found that two-thirds of American adults think children should be financially independent by 22. Yet, only one-quarter of adults actually achieve independence by that age.  

In the recent Credit Karma survey, two-thirds of the parents who support their children said the effort causes them financial stress. Many aging parents face debt and inflationary pressures of their own. 

Financial planners say parents should budget their own expenses before they offer support to an adult child.  

“The parents should be taking care of themselves first,” said James Lee, president of the Financial Planning Association, a trade group. 

“What I would recommend is that the parents make sure they’re taking care of their own finances, and are saving for their own retirement, so that they won’t run out of money in their own lifetime,” Lee added. 

If the numbers don’t add up, experts say, it may be time for parent and child to have a difficult conversation. 

“Set an expiration date,” or a deadline for the adult child to take over the bills, said Courtney Alev, consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma. “Set that date, and then be willing to engage with your child.” 

The typical young adult “wants to be financially independent and have a path forward,” Alev said. “It’s just been so hard, especially for this demographic.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

DeSantis's record on COVID-19: Here's what he said and did

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s record on the COVID-19 pandemic is in the spotlight as speculation builds that he will mount a White House campaign. 

If he enters the race, DeSantis will pose the most serious threat to former President Trump’s quest for the GOP nomination. 

Trump has reacted angrily to the speculation around DeSantis. The former president and his supporters believe the Florida governor has become a media favorite and has not faced sufficient scrutiny. 

Team Trump argues this is particularly true of COVID, where DeSantis portrays himself as a ferocious defender of individual freedoms against government overreach. 

Over the weekend, Trump complained to reporters that DeSantis was “trying to rewrite history.” 

“There are Republican governors that did not close their states,” Trump said. “Florida was closed for a long period of time.” 

The back-and-forth raises an obvious question: What did DeSantis actually do on COVID? 

Here are some of the big moments that defined the governor’s response to the pandemic. 

March 9, 2020: Declares a state of emergency 

As the early stage of COVID-19 took hold — with infections confirmed in eight Florida counties — DeSantis declared a state of emergency.  

His order designated Florida’s Director of the Division of Emergency Management as the state’s coordinating officer. 

Notably, in light of DeSantis’s later professed concern with civil liberties, the order gave the coordinating officer the authority to “suspend the effect of any statute, rule or order that would in any way prevent, hinder, or delay any mitigation, response or recovery action necessary to cope with this emergency.” 

In the same document, DeSantis ordered the state’s adjutant general to activate the Florida National Guard “as needed.” 

DeSantis also advised caution and advocated social distancing for vulnerable Floridians in announcing the move. 

“If you’re elderly or you have a serious, underlying medical condition, don’t get on a cruise ship right now,” he said. “Don’t get on a long flight where you could be exposed to the virus. Take certain steps to do what they call social distancing.” 

April 1, 2020: Declares lockdown 

Later than most governors, DeSantis imposed a lockdown.  

“All persons in Florida shall limit their movements and personal interactions outside of their home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities,” his order said.  

An NPR report at the time noted that more than 30 other states had imposed lockdowns before Florida did so, and that those orders “affect more than 85 percent of the U.S. population.”  

Presaging some of his late rhetorical fieriness over COVID, DeSantis complained within the text of the order about “many thousands of people [who] fled the New York City region to Florida…thereby jeopardizing the health and safety of Floridians.” 

April 29, 2020: Moves to lift lockdown 

DeSantis announced on April 29 that most of the state could begin its reopening process.  

His order contended that his state had “achieved several critical benchmarks in flattening the curve.” 

The genesis of DeSantis’s later argument that his policies protected Florida from greater economic harm can be seen here, albeit in milder form.  

“The path to re-opening Florida must promote business operation and economic recovery while maintaining focus on core safety principles,” the order said. 

It permitted restaurants to reopen at 25 percent capacity indoors. Retail stores, museums and liberties were also allowed to reopen at 25 percent capacity. But DeSantis kept gyms closed, and prohibited bars and clubs from selling alcoholic drinks “for on-premises consumption.” 

Notably, given DeSantis’s later blasts at public health officials, the order was explicitly couched as based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as the Trump White House. 

September 25, 2020: Ends lockdown 

Having moved through another stage of easing restrictions in May and June, DeSantis moved to a more aggressive footing on reopening in late September. 

This time, his order stated bluntly that his state had “suffered economic harm as a result of COVID-19 related closures.”  

He also asserted that “no COVID-19 emergency ordinance may prevent an individual from owning or operating a business.” 

The tone in this order was notably different from the start of the pandemic, as he prohibited any local government from restricting restaurants to less than 50 percent capacity. Any jurisdiction that wanted to hold restaurants under 100 percent normal capacity needed to explain its reasoning, he contended. 

The order also suspended any fines or penalties on individuals related to COVID-19. 

December 8, 2020: Attends Trump White House summit on vaccines 

Trump, defeated one month before but still in office, held a high-profile event as the first COVID-19 vaccines were on the brink of winning approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

Trump called the development of the vaccines at such speed “a monumental national achievement” and gave DeSantis a shout-out — “Great job, Ron” — in passing. 

At a panel discussion with three other governors, DeSantis outlined plans to get vaccines to seniors in nursing homes and healthcare workers — and then to “the broader senior population.” 

“This was the first vaccine that’s really been politicized, unfortunately,” said DeSantis. “And that’s going to be something that people are going to have to deal with.” 

April 2021: Gets vaccinated 

DeSantis, unlike some other prominent political figures, did not invite the media to see him getting vaccinated and did not immediately acknowledge he got the shot. 

Instead, NBC Miami reported on April 7, 2021 that a spokeswoman had “acknowledged the governor’s vaccination during an interview.”  

The TV station further noted that “it was later disclosed that the governor last week received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requiring only a single dose.” 

July 21, 2021: Praises vaccines, advocates vaccinations 

DeSantis expressed enthusiasm for people getting their shots during this phase of the rollout. 

On a visit to St. Petersburg on July 21, according to the local Fox station, he “spoke for nearly seven minutes about the positives in getting vaccinated and how he believes authorities should be advertising the vaccine.”  

“If you are vaccinated, fully vaccinated, the chance of you getting seriously ill or dying from COVID is effectively zero,” DeSantis said, according to Fox 31. “If you look at the people that are being admitted to hospitals, over 95 percent of them are either not fully vaccinated or not vaccinated at all. And so these vaccines are saving lives. They are reducing mortality.” 

September 21, 2021: Appoints anti-mandate surgeon general 

DeSantis, despite his initial enthusiasm for vaccinations themselves, opposed mandates. 

When it came time to appoint a new surgeon general in Florida, he chose someone who shared that belief: Dr. Joseph Lapado. 

Lapado at an introductory news conference asserted, according to an NPR report, that “Florida will completely reject fear as a way of making policies in public health. So we’re done with fear.” 

Lapado added: “Vaccines are up to the person; there’s nothing special about them compared to any other preventive measure.” 

Lapado, who still serves as surgeon general, has remained a controversial figure. Critics say he has done little or nothing to counter misinformation and conspiracy theories. 

Nov. 18, 2021: Signs ban on vaccine mandates 

In early November 2021, DeSantis said his state would join several others in a legal suit protesting the Biden administration’s order requiring businesses with 100 or more employees to have those workers either be vaccinated or submit to a regular COVID-19 testing regimen.  

Later that month, he signed a bill from the Florida legislature that banned vaccine mandates in relation to either private or state employers. 

Additionally, the law prohibited school districts from having “face mask policies.” 

In a news release accompanying the bill signing, DeSantis cast the move as an effort to protect jobs.  

“Nobody should lose their job due to heavy-handed COVID mandates and we had a responsibility to protect the livelihoods of the people of Florida. I’m thankful to the Florida Legislature for joining me in standing up for freedom,” he said. 

Jan. 21, 2022: Declines to say if he got a booster shot 

As political polarization deepened around vaccines, interest grew over whether prominent Republican politicians would take booster shots. 

Trump, asked whether he had got the booster at an event in December 2021 with conservative commentator Bill O’Reilly, was met with boos from an otherwise supportive crowd when he acknowledged his shot. 

Later, Trump took aim at those whom he deemed evasive on the same question, calling them “gutless” and saying, “the answer is ‘yes’ but they don’t want to say it.” 

At a Jan. 21, 2022 news conference, DeSantis was asked directly whether he had received a booster shot.  

“That’s something that I think people should just make their own decisions on,” he said, according to an NBC Miami/Associated Press report. “I’m not going to let that be a weapon for people to be able to use. I think it’s a private matter.” 

August 24, 2002: Attacks Fauci as ‘little elf’ 

DeSantis mounted a headline-grabbing attack against Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was then the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  

Asserting that the lockdowns had caused permanent damage to children, DeSantis told a crowd at a campaign rally, “I’m just sick of seeing him…Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.” 

Dec. 13, 2002: Calls for grand jury to investigate COVID vaccine ‘wrongdoing’ 

Fresh off a big reelection win in November — and with his reputation burnished for a possible presidential run — DeSantis announced that he wanted his state’s Supreme Court to empanel a grand jury. 

The grand jury’s purpose, he said, would be to investigate “wrongdoing” in relation to COVID vaccines. 

His argument, in essence, was that pharmaceutical companies may have exaggerated the efficacy of the vaccines and downplayed their dangers. 

But critics contend he was stoking unwarranted vaccine skepticism for political purposes, even as the virus was still killing Americans. 

Florida’s Supreme Court announced nine days later that it would accede to DeSantis’s request and set up the grand jury. 

Jan. 17, 2023: Seeks to make mandate bans permanent 

Pressing his case even further, DeSantis called on Florida lawmakers to make bans on mandates permanent. 

The laws that he wants enshrined would make state bans on so-called vaccine passports and mask requirements open-ended. They would also bar businesses from firing people based upon their vaccination status.  

The proposals would also make it more difficult for professional medical organizations to rebuke or penalize doctors accused of spreading misinformation. For DeSantis and his supporters, that measure amounts to a protection of the right to dissent. 

DeSantis, in a statement, insisted that his state was “a refuge of sanity” when “the world lost its mind.” 

Echoing a theme from his campaign, he called the state “freedom’s linchpin.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

McCarthy sets Thursday vote on removing Omar from panel as second holdout backs her ouster

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the House will vote on a resolution to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday, one day after a second Republican holdout — Rep. Ken Buck (Colo.) — revealed that he would back the congresswoman’s ouster.

McCarthy’s announcement of a Thursday vote came shortly after the House approved, by unanimous consent, Democratic assignments for the Foreign Affairs Committee — officially installing Omar on the panel and setting up a floor battle with McCarthy and House GOP leadership. Republicans have sought to remove her from the panel as punishment for comments she made in the past that were labeled antisemitic.

“Oh, so now we can vote her off,” McCarthy told reporters after learning that the House approved the assignments. Thursday’s schedule released by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) confirmed that the vote will take place.

“We’ll have enough votes even though there’s some members who are out, unfortunately, because of family,” McCarthy added.

The Speaker also made his announcement after Buck, who staked his opposition to the resolution last week, revealed that he would support the resolution when it comes to the floor. He told reporters that he flipped to the “yes” column after a Wednesday morning phone call with McCarthy, who suggested he was willing to reform the process for kicking members off committees.

Buck is the second Republican to flip from an opponent of the resolution to a supporter in the past two days, joining Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.), who announced on Tuesday that she would vote for the measure days after initially issuing a blistering statement against it. Spartz said her stance pivoted after McCarthy agreed to “add due process language” to the resolution.

The measure says “any Member reserves the right to bring a case before the Committee on Ethics as grounds for an appeal to the Speaker of the House for reconsideration of any committee removal decision.” Democrats, however, have said the terms do not formally create such a process because the language is under the “whereas” section and not the “resolved” section.

McCarthy on Wednesday offered details about his conversations with both Buck and Spartz.

“What I told him, and I had this conversation with Victoria too, we want due process. That we would work on process. I don’t know exactly what it’s like. … Just don’t want to pull something out of thin, out of my head. I actually want to work with the Democrats on it too because I think it’s healthy for the institution,” he said.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), however, remains opposed to the resolution. The congresswoman has said she does not support “cancel culture” or silencing opinions she does not agree with.

If Democrats are united in opposing the resolution, Republicans can afford to lose only four votes and still clear the measure. McCarthy on Wednesday would not say that Republicans will be united in support of the measure.

“I”m not gonna say 100 percent, but it could be,” he said when asked if all Republicans will vote to boot Omar from the Foreign Affairs panel.

House Republicans advanced the Omar resolution in a party-line 218-209 vote on Wednesday, sending the measure to the floor for debate and a final vote.

Thursday’s vote will mark the culmination of a two-plus-year effort by McCarthy, who vowed in 2021 to remove Omar from the Foreign Affairs panel should Republicans take control of the House. He doubled down on that pledge after winning the Speaker’s gavel last month.

Omar, a Somali refugee, has made comments critical of the Israeli government and its supporters in the past, some of which have been accused of being antisemitic. She has especially spoken out on matters involving Palestinian rights.

Some Democrats, however, see the effort to oust Omar as political revenge for when the Democratic-controlled House voted in 2021 to strip Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) of their committee assignments after they promoted violence against Democrats online.

McCarthy also vowed to block Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) from the House Intelligence Committee, a pledge he followed through with last week. As Speaker, McCarthy had the unilateral ability to block the appointments of Schiff and Swalwell to the Intelligence Committee.

But to kick Omar off of the Foreign Affairs panel, a majority of the House must agree.

Source: TEST FEED1

White House bids farewell to Klain, as Zients officially slips into chief role

President Biden on Wednesday hosted an official transition event to kick off Jeff Zients’s role as chief of staff and to thank former chief of staff Ron Klain for his service since the beginning of the Biden administration. 

Klain, at the event, gave a going away nod to Biden’s reelection campaign, which has not formally been announced. 

“I look forward to being on your side when you run for president in 2024,” he said to applause from the dozens of White House aides at the event. 

Klain rattled off work out of the White House over the last two years. Not bad, he said, for a 2020 presidential candidate who was “written off for dead.” 

“It is never a good bet to bet against Joe Biden and this team,” he said, getting emotional. 

“This is the best job I’ve ever had,” Klain said. “I take solace in knowing I’m leaving you in best of hands.”

Klain joked that Zients pledged to buy everyone in the White House a bagel every day, “so I will soon be forgotten.” (Zients was the original investor in the popular Call Your Mother bagel chain in Washington, D.C.)

Klain added that he learned everything about being a father from Biden, and that Biden has also taught him a thing or two about politics and policy.

Biden, in turn, praised Klain, his longtime confidant — 36 years — who is known as a tireless political junkie often seen by the public on Twitter and cable television. The president described him as the guy willing to jump in front of a bus for you.

“When you’re president of the United States and you’ve got to make some pretty tough calls… I’m extremely lucky and grateful to have such a team lead by Ron,” Biden said, adding that he’s confident Zients can fill the role.

Biden said Klain is a once-in-a-generation talent. He joked Klain has “a heart as big as his head” and is beloved by White House staff, known as Klain-iacs.

“Most of all, he has enormous, enormous integrity,” Biden said. “With Ron’s leadership, look at what we got here over the years, over the last two years alone.”

Zients, the former COVID-19 czar to the Biden administration, starts his new role as the White House will be juggling a host of GOP-led congressional investigations, critical negotiations over the debt ceiling and the start of Biden’s likely 2024 reelection bid.

He is widely praised as a manager who can oversee complex operations with exceptional leadership skills. 

After leaving his role advising the pandemic response effort in April, he returned this fall ahead of the midterm elections to assist Klain with preparations for staff turnover as well as other projects.

Progressives have been skeptical of Zients as chief of staff after Klain worked to ease the Democratic Party’s divide and was a connection between progressives and establishment figures.

Zients previously was chief executive officer of an investment firm, Cranemere, and was on the board of directors of Facebook. Some see that work with the social media company as an issue.

Before those private sector roles, Zients was director of the National Economic Council under former President Obama. He was also acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, experience that could help him when dealing with the debt ceiling. 

Source: TEST FEED1

McConnell pulls rival Rick Scott off powerful Commerce Committee 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has pulled Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who tried to oust him as the Senate’s top Republican in a bruising leadership race, off the powerful Commerce Committee.  

McConnell also removed Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who supported Scott’s bid to replace McConnell as leader, from the Commerce panel, which has broad jurisdiction over a swath of federal agencies.  

The GOP leader insisted last year that he didn’t take the attempt to end his leadership reign personally, but the latest move sends a clear message to conservatives that challenging McConnell’s leadership carries a cost.

“McConnell got to pick. He kicked me off; he kicked Lee off,” Scott confirmed in an interview.  

Scott acknowledged that running against McConnell was the likely reason he was booted from the panel despite his relative seniority on the committee and experience running a major company. 

“I probably ran the biggest company almost any senator in the history of the country has ever run. I was governor of the third-biggest economy in the United States, Florida. I’ve got a business background,” Scott said, ticking off his credentials.  

But Scott and Lee have teamed up to challenge McConnell’s leadership of the GOP conference on fiscal and spending decisions, and Lee gave one of the nominating speeches for Scott’s bid to take over as GOP leader.

Scott said he learned of the decision in a text message.  

One personal familiar with the episode described the Florida senator as “furious.” 

Other conservatives agree the leadership fight was a major factor in the decision to remove Scott and Lee from Commerce.  

McConnell insisted in November that he didn’t have any hard feelings left over after Scott challenged him in an acrimonious race, which McConnell eventually won by a vote of 37 to 10, with one senator voting present.  

“I’m not in any way offended by having an opponent or having a few votes in opposition,” he said after he was reelected following hours of tense discussions within the GOP conference. “I’m pretty proud of 37 to 10.”   

Scott had more seniority on the Commerce panel than Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), who already serves on two other “A-list” committees — the Banking and Environment and Public Works Committees — and Lee had more seniority than Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who also sits on the Appropriations Committee and serves as the top Republican on the Environment and Public Works Committee.   

One Republican senator said Scott took a risk when he openly questioned McConnell’s leadership of the conference after the disappointing election.  

“What did he expect?” the lawmaker said.  

McConnell replaced Scott, Lee and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a conservative who left the panel to take a coveted seat on the Finance Committee, with three first-term GOP senators: Sens. Ted Budd (N.C.), Eric Schmitt (Mo.) and J.D. Vance (Ohio).  

The GOP leader had sole discretion to decide whether Scott and Lee could stay on the Commerce Committee because it was the third “A-list” committee seat held by both senators. 

Scott asked at a Senate Republican conference lunch meeting who made the decision to remove him from the Commerce Committee and was informed that McConnell alone made the decision. 

Scott also sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, while Lee is a member of the prestigious Judiciary Committee and the Energy and Natural Resources panel.  

A Republican aide familiar with the behind-the-scenes jockeying over committee assignments noted that Scott and Lee already sit on prime committees and the group of incoming senators wanted seats on Commerce.  

The source noted that losing committee seats is an unfortunate consequence of losing a Republican Senate seat in the 2022 midterm election.  

Source: TEST FEED1

McCarthy leaves Biden meeting optimistic about debt talks

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Wednesday left a meeting with President Biden signaling optimism about the chances of an agreement between the White House and Congress to avoid a government default, though neither side made any commitments.

“I don’t want to put any words in his mouth. We had an hour of conversation about this that I thought was a very good discussion, and we walked out saying we would continue the discussion,” McCarthy told reporters at the White House. “And I think there is an opportunity here to come to an agreement on both sides.”

McCarthy acknowledged that he and Biden had differing perspectives on the debt ceiling, though he did not get into specifics, saying he would not negotiate through the press. Biden and White House officials have said Congress should raise the debt limit without conditions, while some Republicans have argued any vote to raise the debt ceiling should include cuts to government spending.

The Speaker did appear to rule out one compromise idea that has been floated, in which Congress would vote to raise the debt limit in exchange for the creation of a commission studying ways to curb spending.

“I don’t need a commission to tell me where there’s waste, fraud and abuse. … Nobody needs a commission in the American public to tell us that we have spent too much,” McCarthy said.

The White House said in a readout of the meeting that Biden and McCarthy “had a frank and straightforward dialogue.” During the meeting, Biden indicated he would welcome a “separate discussion” with Congress about ways to reduce the deficit.

“President Biden made clear that, as every other leader in both parties in Congress has affirmed, it is their shared duty not to allow an unprecedented and economically catastrophic default,” the White House said. “The United States Constitution is explicit about this obligation, and the American people expect Congress to meet it in the same way all of his predecessors have. It is not negotiable or conditional.”

The meeting marked the first in a long process that’s expected to culminate in early summer. The government is on track to default as early as June if Congress does not raise the debt limit, which could send the U.S. and global economies spiraling. The debt ceiling allows the government to pay for spending commitments it has already made, not future spending. 

McCarthy would not make any explicit commitments that the U.S. would not default, which the White House said Biden would ask him to do ahead of the meeting. But he repeatedly spoke positively about the meeting with the president, which came after days of grandstanding between McCarthy, Biden and White House officials.

“There is nothing in there with me walking away that does not believe that at the end of the day we can come to an agreement,” McCarthy said.

Wednesday’s meeting lasted roughly an hour. The meeting focused mostly on the debt ceiling, McCarthy said. The Speaker said he did not talk to the president about the classified documents that were found at his residence and old office, a subject of House GOP investigations.

It marked the first time Biden and McCarthy had sat down in person since McCarthy took the gavel as Speaker last month, when Republicans control of the House.

Prior to the meeting, the White House circulated a memo from National Economic Council Director Brian Deese and Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young stating that Biden would press McCarthy to commit that the U.S. would not default and to release a budget proposal on behalf of House Republicans.

The White House has been critical of McCarthy in recent days for claiming that the GOP wants to strengthen Medicare and Social Security, even as some in his party argue those programs should be reformed in order to balance the government’s budget.

“After months of advocating for slashing Medicare and Social Security benefits, Congressional Republicans owe the American people an answer: will you match President Biden and commit to release your plan for the economy? Yes or no?” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said in a statement earlier Wednesday ahead of the meeting.

Biden has also sought to undercut GOP arguments about wanting to balance the budget by noting that former President Trump added trillions of dollars to the federal deficit during his time in office, while Biden has lowered the deficit by roughly $1 trillion.

McCarthy dismissed the idea that conservatives lack credibility on the issue, arguing that discretionary spending has increased while Democrats were in the majority in the House the past four years.

“I’m not in a place where I’m going to point fingers, I’m in a place of being Speaker of the House,” McCarthy told reporters. “My role right now is to make sure we have a sensible, responsible ability to raise the debt ceiling, but not continue this runaway spending.”

Updated at 5:42 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1

House GOP advances resolution to remove Omar from Foreign Affairs panel

House Republicans advanced a resolution on Wednesday to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) from the Foreign Affairs Committee, sending the measure to the floor for debate and bringing Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) one step closer to fulfilling a longtime pledge.

The House approved the rule, which allows the chamber to kick off debate on the measure, in a party-line 218-209 vote. The rule also pertained to a GOP-led resolution condemning socialism.

It remains unclear when House Republicans will bring the Omar resolution to the floor for debate and a final vote. Democrats still need to formally submit a separate resolution with their roster for the Foreign Affairs Committee, which will officially place Omar on the panel.

McCarthy had faced some trouble in locking down support, but House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters on Tuesday that Republican leadership has the votes to boot Omar from the panel.

House Republicans are moving to oust Omar from her committee assignment as a rebuke for comments she has made that have been labeled antisemitic. The congresswoman — a Somali refugee — has been critical of the Israeli government and its supporters in the past, especially when it comes to matters related to Palestinian rights, which led to the allegations of antisemitism.

The resolution, introduced on Tuesday, includes a number of such comments.

Rep. Guy Reschelthaler (R-Pa.) listed several during debate on the rule Wednesday.

“Rep. Omar has a repeated history of making deplorable and despicable antisemitic remarks and does not deserve to sit on the committee directly overseeing U.S. international policy, partnerships and national security,” he said on the floor.

But the move is also seen by some as political revenge, after the House Democratic majority voted to strip Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) of their committee assignments in 2021 after they promoted violence against Democrats on social media.

“When it comes to Congresswoman Omar — a good congresswoman who fights hard for her district and for her values — this isn’t about punishing her for anything she said. It’s about scoring political points,” Rep. Jim McGovern (Mass.), the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, said on the House floor.

McCarthy vowed in 2021 that House Republicans would remove Omar from the Foreign Affairs Committee should the GOP win control of the chamber. After winning the Speakership last month, he reiterated that pledge.

He also said he would block California Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from the Intelligence Committee, which he did unilaterally last week. Unlike the Foreign Affairs Committee, which requires a full vote by the chamber to remove a member, McCarthy as Speaker can reject appointments to the Intelligence panel.

Source: TEST FEED1

Fed raises interest rates by 25 basis points in smallest hike since March

The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 0.25 percentage points on Wednesday at its first meeting of the year, its eighth straight rate hike since it began a program of tightening borrowing costs last year in an effort to bring down inflation.

It’s the smallest rate hike since last March, coming off a 50 basis point hike in December that followed four 75 basis point hikes starting last June. It will lift the federal funds rate to a range of 4.5 to 4.75 percent as the Fed pushes toward a projected target rate of 5.1 percent, which was last updated in December.

The more modest increase comes as inflation has been falling throughout the economy. The consumer price index (CPI) has dropped every month since June, landing at 6.5 percent annually in December. The personal consumption expenditures price index (PCE), which is the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation, has fallen to 5 percent annually, off a June high of 6.8 percent.

With inflation coming down and unemployment levels remaining at a 50-year low, the Fed is aiming for what it calls a “soft landing,” meaning it wants to bring inflation back down to an annual rate of 2 percent without triggering a serious recession.

“There has been a significant deceleration in inflation in the second half of 2022, and simultaneously, productivity rebounded. That opens the door for the FOMC [Federal Open Markets Committee] to scale back its rate increases to increments of 25 basis points. In view of this, there is a strong chance the FOMC could engineer a soft landing,” Boston College economist Brian Bethune wrote in an analysis of the Fed’s current thinking.

But slowing down rate hikes too quickly could risk entrenching inflation above the Fed’s target — something banks and investors in the private sector are wary of.

“The pace of increase in employment costs remains high and is not consistent with a 2 percent inflation rate that the Fed targets, which means Fed officials have more work to do,” Kathy Bostjancic, an analyst for insurance company Nationwide, wrote in a statement on Tuesday.

At a press conference later on Wednesday, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell will likely signal whether the central bank intends to continue raising interest rates after its March meeting, at which another 0.25-point rate hike is expected, or if the March hike will be the last.

Further hikes could mean that the Fed’s terminal interest rate may end up above the 5.1 percent rate that’s currently projected.

It could also mean that the Fed’s projected unemployment rate for 2023, which stands at 4.6 percent, could also climb higher. The current unemployment rate is 3.5 percent, more than a full percentage point below the estimate for this year.

Developing

Source: TEST FEED1

College Board slammed over changes to African American studies course

The College Board is facing heated criticism for its revisions to an Advanced Placement (AP) African American studies program after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said the course “lacked educational value” and would not go forward in his state’s schools.

The original interdisciplinary course, which is being piloted in 60 schools around the nation this school year, included lessons on Black queer studies, the Black Lives Matter movement, Black feminist literary thought, the reparations movement and the Black struggle in the 21st century. 

But a new framework released Wednesday noticeably removed Black queer studies from its coursework, along with Black writers and scholars associated with critical race theory. The topic of Black Lives Matter is now optional, and “Black conservatism” has been introduced as a potential research subject.

“To wake up on the first day of Black History Month to news of white men in positions of privilege horse trading essential and inextricably linked parts of Black History, which is American history, is infuriating,” David J. Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, said in a statement.

Johns said the College Board had “capitulated” to DeSantis’s “extremist anti-Black censorship” and that the new course is an “insult to the lived experiences of millions of Black Americans” across the nation, including their ancestors and their legacy. 

“The assault on my existence feels like gaslighting,” he said. “The distortions of fact-based truths and suppression of how beautifully diverse Black people have built this country for free should infuriate everyone who purports to care about democracy.”

“The lives, contributions, and stories of Black trans, queer, and non-binary/non-conforming people matter and should not be diminished or erased,” he added. “Black history has always been queer. You cannot teach Black history while erasing members of our community and the contributions made to our community and this country.”

Prominent LGBTQ+ Black figures include Bayard Rustin, who, as a key adviser to Martin Luther King Jr., helped organize the March on Washington; renowned author and essayist James Baldwin, known for novels including “Another Country” and “Giovanni’s Room”; and Marsha P. Johnson, a trailblazing transgender activist.  

Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones (D), the state’s first openly gay senator, said these course changes are the result of DeSantis, who is weighing a 2024 presidential run, “ginning up culture war after culture war.”

“This is part of a larger war on our very ability to think, question, and engage in our democracy,” Jones said in a statement to The Hill. “It is a national attempt to redirect how students learn.” 

“The techniques of distortion, denial, and distraction are all part of the right’s dangerous efforts to shape public perceptions and undermine trust in the truth,” he added. “The people deserve better.”

Last week, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) had warned the College Board that his state would reject a revised AP African American studies course “designed to appease extremists like the Florida Governor and his allies.”

“Illinois expects any AP course offered on African American Studies to include a factual accounting of history, including the role played by black queer Americans,” Pritzker said in a letter to David Coleman, CEO of the College Board. 

Florida’s Department of Education is reviewing the revisions to ensure they follow state law, which restricts how topics such as racism can be taught in schools and prohibits any instruction that could make someone feel “personal responsibility” for historic wrongdoings because of their race, sex or national origin.

In a New York Times op-ed, NAACP Legal Defense Fund director-counsel Janai Nelson said censoring AP African American studies may “sow the racial divisions that enable white supremacy.”

“The losses to our nation, if this broad attack on our shared history is allowed to continue, are incalculable,” Nelson wrote. “Not only will it breed a generation of Americans indoctrinated by ignorance; it will deny them the analytical skills to understand the complex history of this experimental democracy, as well as the historical grounding to sustain it.”

Source: TEST FEED1

FBI finds no classified documents at Biden's Rehoboth Beach home

Federal investigators on Wednesday found no documents with classified markings during a search of President Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Del., home, his attorney said in a statement.

The FBI conducted a search of the residence from 8:30 a.m. until noon on Wednesday in cooperation with Biden’s attorneys, Bob Bauer said in a statement.

“No documents with classified markings were found,” Bauer said. “Consistent with the process in Wilmington, the DOJ took for further review some materials and handwritten notes that appear to relate to his time as Vice President.”

The search was conducted as part of a Justice Department investigation into how classified materials from Biden’s time as vice president ended up at his Wilmington-area home and an office he used at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington.

No classified materials had previously been found at Biden’s Rehoboth property.

Justice Department officials last month searched Biden’s Wilmington-area home multiple times with consent from the president’s team after lawyers found roughly a dozen documents with classified markings in his garage and an adjacent room.

As part of that search, agents collected notes and other materials from Biden’s time as vice president and a senator.

Multiple outlets reported Tuesday that the FBI had also searched Biden’s old Washington, D.C., office he used from 2017-2019 after a small number of classified documents were found there in November.

The White House and Biden’s personal lawyers have emphasized their cooperation with the Justice Department throughout the process but the administration has faced criticism for not revealing to the public the documents found last year.

They have noted that Biden’s team alerted the Justice Department and National Archives upon finding classified materials, drawing a contrast with former President Trump’s refusal to cooperate in turning over highly sensitive documents he took with him upon leaving the White House in 2021.

Lawyers for Biden have also highlighted that the FBI searches of Biden’s homes and office have been done with the consent and knowledge of the president’s team.

Updated 1 p.m.

Source: TEST FEED1