Another Republican President, Another Recession.

hanimmal said:

It is sad how much the right wing Republican trolls are rooting for the American economy to tank, and hilarious how desperate they get when it keeps showing strength.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats pushed their election-year economic packageto Senate passage Sunday, a hard-fought compromise less ambitious than President Joe Biden’s original domestic vision but one that still meets deep-rooted party goals of slowing global warming, moderating pharmaceutical costsand taxing immense corporations.

The estimated $740 billion package heads next to the House, where lawmakers are poised to deliver on Biden’s priorities, a stunning turnaround of what had seemed a lost and doomed effort that suddenly roared back to political life. Cheers broke out as Senate Democrats held united, 51-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote after an all-night session.

“Today, Senate Democrats sided with American families over special interests,” President Joe Biden said in a statement from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. “I ran for President promising to make government work for working families again, and that is what this bill does — period.”

Biden, who had his share of long nights during his three decades as a senator, called into the Senate cloakroom during the vote on speakerphone to personally thank the staff for their hard work.

The president urged the House to pass the bill as soon as possible. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said her chamber would “move swiftly to send this bill to the president’s desk.” House votes are expected Friday.

“It’s been a long, tough and winding road, but at last, at last we have arrived,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ahead of final votes.

“The Senate is making history. I am confident the Inflation Reduction Act will endure as one of the defining legislative feats of the 21st century,” he said.

Senators engaged in a round-the-clock marathon of voting that began Saturday and stretched late into Sunday afternoon. Democrats swatted down some three dozen Republican amendments designed to torpedo the legislation. Confronting unanimous GOP opposition, Democratic unity in the 50-50 chamber held, keeping the party on track for a morale-boosting victory three months from elections when congressional control is at stake.

The bill ran into trouble midday over objections to the new 15% corporate minimum tax that private equity firms and other industries disliked, forcing last-minute changes.

Despite the momentary setback, the “Inflation Reduction Act” gives Democrats a campaign-season showcase for action on coveted goals. It includes the largest-ever federal effort on climate change — close to $400 billion — caps out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors on Medicare to $2,000 a year and extends expiring subsidies that help 13 million people afford health insurance. By raising corporate taxes and reaping savings from the long-sought goal of allowing the government to negotiate drug prices for Medicare, the whole package is paid for, with some $300 billion extra revenue for deficit reduction.

Barely more than one-tenth the size of Biden’s initial 10-year, $3.5 trillion Build Back Better initiative, the new package abandons earlier proposals for universal preschool, paid family leave and expanded child care aid. That plan collapsed after conservative Sen. Joe. Manchin, D-W.Va., opposed it, saying it was too costly and would fuel inflation.

Nonpartisan analysts have said the 755-page “Inflation Reduction Act” would have a minor effect on surging consumer prices.

Republicans said the new measure would undermine an economy that policymakers are struggling to keep from plummeting into recession. They said the bill’s business taxes would hurt job creation and force prices skyward, making it harder for people to cope with the nation’s worst inflation since the 1980s.

“Democrats have already robbed American families once through inflation, and now their solution is to rob American families a second time,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., argued.

In an ordeal imposed on most budget bills like this one, the Senate had to endure an overnight “vote-a-rama” of rapid-fire amendments. Each tested Democrats’ ability to hold together the compromise bill negotiated by Schumer, progressives, Manchin and the inscrutable centrist Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz.

Progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., criticized the bill’s shortcomings and offered amendments to further expand the legislation’s health benefits, but those efforts were defeated. Republicans forced their own votes designed to make Democrats look soft on U.S.-Mexico border security and gasoline and energy costs, and like bullies for wanting to strengthen IRS tax law enforcement.

Before debate began, the bill’s prescription drug price curbs were diluted by the Senate’s nonpartisan parliamentarian who said a provision should fall that would impose costly penalties on drug makers whose price increases for private insurers exceed inflation.

It was the bill’s chief protection for the 180 million people with private health coverage they get through work or purchase themselves. Under special procedures that will let Democrats pass their bill by simple majority without the usual 60-vote margin, its provisions must be focused more on dollar-and-cents budget numbers than policy changes.

But the thrust of Democrats’ pharmaceutical price language remained. That included letting Medicare negotiate what it pays for drugs for its 64 million elderly recipients, penalizing manufacturers for exceeding inflation for pharmaceuticals sold to Medicare and limiting beneficiaries out-of-pocket drug costs to $2,000 annually.

The bill also caps Medicare patients’ costs for insulin, the expensive diabetes medication, at $35 monthly. Democrats wanted to extend the $35 cap to private insurers but it ran afoul of Senate rules. Most Republicans voted to strip it from the package, though in a sign of the political potency of health costs seven GOP senators joined Democrats trying to preserve it.

The measure’s final costs were being recalculated to reflect late changes, but overall it would raise more than $700 billion over a decade. The money would come from a 15% minimum tax on a handful of corporations with yearly profits above $1 billion, a 1% tax on companies that repurchase their own stock, bolstered IRS tax collections and government savings from lower drug costs.

Sinema forced Democrats to drop a plan to prevent wealthy hedge fund managers from paying less than individual income tax rates for their earnings. She also joined with other Western senators to win $4 billion to combat the region’s drought.

Several Democratic senators joined the GOP-led effort to exclude some firms from the new corporate minimum tax.

The package keeps to Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on those earning less than $400,000 a year.

It was on the energy and environment side that compromise was most evident between progressives and Manchin, a champion of fossil fuels and his state’s coal industry.

Clean energy would be fostered with tax credits for buying electric vehicles and manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines. There would be home energy rebates, funds for constructing factories building clean energy technology and money to promote climate-friendly farm practices and reduce pollution in minority communities.

Manchin won billions to help power plants lower carbon emissions plus language requiring more government auctions for oil drilling on federal land and waters. Party leaders also promised to push separate legislation this fall to accelerate permits for energy projects, which Manchin wants to include a nearly completed natural gas pipeline in his state.

Still, environmental groups hailed the passage as a milestone. “Tremendous progress,” said Manish Bapna, president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a $280 billion bipartisan bill to boost domestic high-tech manufacturing, part of his administration’s push to boost U.S. competitiveness over China.

Flanked by scores of lawmakers, union officials, local politicians and business leaders, Biden feted the legislation, a core part of his economic agenda that will incentivize investments in the American semiconductor industry in an effort to ease U.S. reliance on overseas supply chains for critical, cutting-edge goods.

“The future of the chip industry is going to be made in America,” Biden said in a sweltering Rose Garden ceremony Tuesday, referring to the diminutive devices that power everything from smartphones to computers to automobiles. The legislation sets aside $52 billion specifically to bolster the U.S. computer chip sector.

The bill has been more than a year in the making, but finally cleared both chambers of Congress late last month with significant bipartisan margins. The Senate passed it 64-33, with 17 GOP senators supporting it, while the House quickly followed suit with a 243-187 vote that included 24 House Republicans in favor, even though party leaders began urging their ranks to vote against it after Democrats advanced a separate sweeping bill focused on climate and health care.

The White House sought Tuesday to begin selling the immediate impacts of the semiconductor measure, noting that Micron, a leading U.S. chip manufacturer, will announce a $40 billion plan to boost domestic production of memory chips, while Qualcomm and GlobalFoundries will unveil a $4.2 billion expansion of an upstate New York chip plant.

The administration has also repeatedly portrayed this legislation as a critical component in countering the influence of a rising China and ensure the U.S. can maintain a competitive edge against Beijing, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing. Administration officials have held multiple briefings for lawmakers to sketch out the national security implications of this bill, and Biden noted during his remarks Tuesday that the Chinese government had lobbied U.S. businesses against the legislation.

“The CHIPS and Science Act is going to inspire a whole new generation of Americans to answer that question: What next?” Biden said Tuesday during the signing ceremony. “Decades from now, people will look back at this week and all we passed and all we moved on, that we met the moment at this inflection point in history.”

Tuesday’s ceremony is one of several public events Biden has scheduled since recovering from COVID-19, including a visit to flood-ravaged Kentucky on Monday and another signing event on Wednesday for legislation aiding veterans who have suffered from toxic burn pits. But Biden appeared to be dealing with some residual symptoms, coughing heavily several times during his remarks and apologizing at one point for doing so.

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July inflation climbed 8.5 percent over the past year, a slightly slower pace than previous months, thanks to falling gas and energy prices, and offering fresh hope to families and businesses that inflation may start to simmer down after months of gains.

A different measure of prices showed the pace of inflation in July was flat when compared with the month before, in one of the most encouraging signs since prices took off last year. The latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics marked the lowest month-to-month inflation reading since May 2020.



“These kind of swings should be a reminder of how far our economy is right now from some semblance of normal,” said Claudia Sahm, founder of SAHM Consulting and a former Federal Reserve economist. “We should take a deep breath today but not do a victory dance.”

The upbeat inflation report could help Democrats in Washington, who are on the verge of passing a major climate and health-care spending bill, called the Inflation Reduction Act. The legislative deal comes after months of President Biden struggling to score economic wins as prices surged and pushed consumer sentiment to dismal lows. The July inflation report also comes just days after an unusually stellar jobs report, suggesting jobs are readily available for workers nationwide.

“While the price of some things go up, went up last month, the price of other things went down by the same amount. The result: zero inflation last month,” Biden said during a White House event Wednesday. “When you couple that with last week’s booming jobs report of 528,000 jobs created last month, and 3.5 percent unemployment, it underscores the kind of economy we’ve been building.”

Investors cheered the news with a financial market rally. The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed up 2.9 percent, pulling into what’s considered bull market territory, rising 20 percent off its most recent low point. The Dow Jones industrial average also closed 1.6 percent higher, as the inflation data gave investors new hope that the Federal Reserve might ease up on interest rate hikes.

June’s inflation report was bleak, notching a new pandemic peak of 9.1 percent over the year before, as prices at the pump averaged above $5 per gallon. But by July, families felt more relief in their gas and energy bills. The gasoline index fell 7.7 percent in July, and the energy index fell 4.6 percent over the month.



Grocery and housing costs continue to strain peoples’ budgets — and will also need to see months of steady declines for overall inflation tonear more normal levels. The food index continued to creep up, rising 1.1 percent over the month. Bread was up 2.8 percent over the month, and chicken 1.4 percent. Canned vegetables were up 1.5 percent.

Rent was also up 0.7 percent over the month, as increased housing costs are brewing into a bigger financial challenge for tenants nationwide. All told, the shelter index rose 5.7 percent over the last year, accounting for about 40 percent of the total increase in all items, discounting food and energy.

Still, there were bright spots in the report, many of which were tied to the fall in energy prices. Natural gas fell 3.6 percent. Airfares also fell at a sharp 7.8 percent, and prices for used cars dipped slightly. The apparel index also fell 0.1 percent after rising for the previous two months.

While some economists and policymakers hold back from drawing too much from one month of data, Jared Bernstein, a member of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, said American families got a bit of a respite in July, despite ongoing uncertainty. Last month, real average hourly earnings increased 0.5 percent from June.

“It’s no ‘mission accomplished,’ but some much-needed breathing room,” Bernstein told The Washington Post. “When it comes to energy, the president’s release of barrels from the Strategic Reserve are one of the factors playing a role in that now-persistent decline.”

The latest inflation data underscores the challenge for policymakers racing to control inflation. The Federal Reserve is moving swiftly to slow the economy through an aggressive series of interest rate hikes, which make a whole host of lending — from mortgage rates to auto loans and borrowing for businesses — more expensive, curbing demand. But if the Fed moves too aggressively, it risks jerking the economy into a recession or causing widespread job losses.

There is also the fraught reality that getting a real-time read on the economy has been a huge challenge. Gas and energy prices are already considered some of the more unpredictable commodities. The pandemic also makes it difficult to compare a peak travel season — with soaring airfares and hotel costs that accompany pent-up demand — to previous years.

“There’s positive news here, but not of a kind that should fundamentally alter anyone’s view,” said Larry Summers, the former Democratic treasury secretary who has long warned about the risks of high inflation. “Any surprising, good news here is largely from volatile, hard to measure and hard to seasonally adjust components, like hotels and airlines.”

So far, the Fed’s moves to cool demand are showing up in the housing market. A run-up in mortgage rates has pushed more buyers out of the market, leading to slowing home sales and easing price surges in some parts of the country. The tech sector also reported fresh waves of layoffs and hiring freezes, raising questions about whether the job market as a whole was teetering and if a recession was barreling closer.

But those fears were quelled last week, when the unemployment rate ticked down to its pre-pandemic low of 3.5 percent. For many businesses, economists and policymakers, the takeaway was that the labor market can stay strong, and even keep growing, as the Fed continues its rate hikes.

Mike Ryan is newly looking for a job after several years of being a stay-at-home dad. He and his husband, Joe Ryan, need the extra income: They go through gas quickly shuttling kids around rural Charles County, Md. Their costs for propane — which they use for cooking, heat and hot water — were $1,500 more expensive than they budgeted. The family watches YouTube videos to make fixes around the house, and they’ve put off the repairs they can’t do themselves, such as removing trees vulnerable to storms, until they can afford it.

Joe Ryan said the couple is already struggling to keep up with the cost of living. Now their biggest fear is falling into debt.

“Whatever debt we take on, we’re stuck with it. We have to stay within our means,” he said. “That’s a big concern. You just feel trapped, like there’s nowhere to go from here.”

Controlling inflation is the Fed’s job. But rising prices have been an enormous economic and political challenge for the Biden administration and congressional Democrats. Democrats secured a major legislative win this week, with the Senate passing the Inflation Reduction Act to combat climate change, lower health-care costs, raise taxes on some billion-dollar corporations and reduce the federal deficit.

Still, inflation is the main economic issue for both parties going into the midterms this year. The GOP has hammered Democrats for their sprawling stimulus efforts that juiced demand for goods and services, keeping consumer spending flowing throughout the economy.

Gas and fuel prices became a particularly fraught issue earlier this summer, especially since they can be one of the more tangible ways people feel inflation. At Cleveland Express Trucking, the falling price of diesel in July was a welcome change.

Company president John Lamb said diesel peaked at $5.79 per gallon June 17 but has since fallen to about $3.90. He’s been able to lower the fuel surcharge passed on to customers. And he hopes that if energy prices keep falling, every rung of the transportation and trucking industry will get a little more breathing room.

“It takes a while for things to work through the system, but the trend is moving in the right direction,” Lamb said. “Barring any unforeseen geopolitical risks, I think it’s going to stay low and maybe go even lower.”

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Republicans are attempting to distract voters with false allegations that new money in the Inflation Reduction Act for the Internal Revenue Service means that ordinary taxpayers would be subjected more audits and equally bogus claimsthat the bill would raise taxes on middle-income Americans. But try as they might, Republicans won’t be able to obscure the fact that the package’s health-care provisions will save Americans a lot of money.

The health-care aspects of the bill are nearly as historic as its climate change provisions. The New York Times reports, “The Senate bill, which the House is expected to pass on Friday, then send to President Biden’s desk, could save many Medicare beneficiaries hundreds, if not thousands of dollars a year. Its best-known provision would empower Medicare to negotiate prices with drug makers with the goal of driving down costs — a move the pharmaceutical industry has fought for years, and one that experts said would help lower costs for beneficiaries.” Medicare recipients would also get an annual cap of $2000 for out-of-pocket prescription drug costs and a $35 monthly limit on insulin.

The benefit is not just monetary, the Times points out. “To hear the voices of older Americans who confront high drug costs month in and month out is to hear fear and worry, anger and stress. Many say they are figuring out how to get by, skipping vacations and other niceties for which they saved.” To paraphrase President Biden, the bill would give Medicare patients a little peace of mind.

The health-care provisions are not limited to Medicare. A report from the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way finds, “A typical family with health coverage at work will save about $1,000 a year, and a family with coverage through an exchange will save about $1,500 a year” between 2022 and 2025. Those savings would come primarily from three provisions. First is the bill’s extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies. The second is its fixes for the ACA’s “family glitch,” which ensures a person can get premium assistance if their employer-sponsored coverage is not “affordable,” but doesn’t extend that to their family. And third is the bill’s provisions allowing the Health and Human Services secretary to negotiate drug prices and to restrict the rate of increases for prescription drugs.

In short, there is big savings to be had for a lot of Americans. Third Way’s deputy director of economic communications and health policy Ladan Ahmadi tells me this is the most significant savings for Americans since the ACA was passed because “the IRA has supercharged the savings in the family glitch fix.”

What is even more remarkable is that every single Republican senator voted against the package. House Republicans will likely follow suit. That could be a risky position as they head out on the campaign trail and meet voters who have struggled to make ends meet. That might explain why they are throwing out distracting and untrue claims.

Inflation remains a major issue for most Americans. Despite the good news that inflation rates in July fell compared with the month before it, the fact remains that prices are still 8.5 percent higher than a year before. While wages have also grown, they have increased less than inflation, pinching household finances. The health-care provisions might not be “inflation reduction” per se, but any family that is able to save $1,000 or more will see it as cost reduction.

Certainly, the Federal Reserve is primarily responsible for inflation. The pandemic, supply chain snarls and Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine are the primary drivers of rising prices, so there is not much the White House or lawmakers can do about the top-line inflation number. But Democrats did the next best thing: They saved families hundreds of dollars and helped them balance their budgets. And every Republican voted against it. Remarkable.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time in a decade, Americans will pay less next year on monthly premiums for Medicare’s Part B plan, which covers routine doctors’ visits and other outpatient care.

The rare 3% decrease in monthly premiums is likely to be coupled with a historically high cost-of-living increase in Social Security benefits — perhaps 9% or 10% — putting hundreds of dollars directly into the pockets of millions of people.

“That’s something we may never see again in the rest of our lives,” said Mary Johnson, the Social Security and Medicare policy analyst for The Senior Citizens League. “That can really be used to pay off credit cards, to restock pantries that have gotten low because people can’t afford to buy as much today as they did a year ago and do some long-postponed repairs to homes and cars.”

The 2023 decrease in monthly Medicare premiums comes after millions of beneficiaries endured a tough year of high inflation and a dramatic increase to premiums this year. Most people on Medicare will pay $164.90 a month for Part B coverage starting next year, a savings of $5.20.

The decrease helps to offset last year’s $21.60 spike, which was driven in large part by a new Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm, administered intravenously in doctors’ offices and introduced to the market last year with a $56,000 price tag. Medicare set strict limitations on the drug’s use earlier this year and the drugmaker has since cut the medication’s cost in half.

Medicare paid less for that drug than it expected this year, helping shore up reserves that allowed the agency to set the Part B premiums lower for 2023, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare said in a statement Tuesday. Spending on other Medicare services and items was lower than expected, too. The annual deductible for the Part B program will also decrease $7 to $226.

President Joe Biden lauded the lower Medicare premiums during a Rose Garden speech Tuesday.

As the midterm elections near and Biden’s administration struggles to contain the painful side effects of inflation, the White House has increasingly trumpeted its work around curtailing health care costs.

“(To) millions of seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare, that means more money in their pockets while still getting the care they need,” Biden said.

Biden pointed to more cost savings on the way for some Medicare recipients starting next year thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act, which will require Medicare to cover the cost of recommended vaccines for older Americans and will cap monthly insulin copayments at $35 per month. Other provisions in the legislation, including a rule that allows Medicare to negotiate directly with drug companies on the price of some medications, will take a few years to kick in.

The bill received no support from congressional Republicans, a talking point the White House has frequently pushed in speeches and across its social media accounts in recent weeks.

Republicans have a different slant on the subject.

“Desperation is setting in at the White House,” the Republican National Committee said in response to Biden’s speech Tuesday. “Voters have a clear choice in the midterms as they know Biden and the Democrats sent costs for groceries soaring, created a recession and increased taxes.”

The lower Medicare premiums were announced as 66 million Americans await the announcement of next year’s Social Security cost-of-living increase for 2023. Analysts estimate that it could be historic, roughly between 9% and 10%. The exact amount will be announced next month.

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Years before people in Jackson were recently left without running water for several days, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves claimed to have helped block money to fund water system repairs in the capital city.

Reeves, a Republican, blames Jackson’s water crisis on mismanagement at the city level. The city’s latest water troubles are far from its first, and they have stemmed from decaying infrastructure beyond one water treatment plant. The EPA said 300 boil water notices have been issued over the past two years in the city.

As Reeves climbed Mississippi’s political ladder, he cited his opposition to financially helping the capital as evidence of his fiscal conservatism. Jackson-area lawmakers say the troubled water system is one example of Jackson’s status as a political punching bag for Republican officials, who control the Legislature and the state Bond Commission.

“We operate under the golden rule here,” said Democratic Sen. John Horhn of Jackson. “And the golden rule is: He who has the gold makes the rules.”

In Jackson, 80% of residents are Black, and 25% live in poverty. Repeated breakdowns made it unsafe for people to drink from their tap, brush their teeth and wash their dishes without boiling the water first. At a September news conference, Reeves said water service was restored to most of the city only after the state “stepped in” to provide emergency repairs. He also said that he didn’t anticipate a need for the Legislature to approve more debt for Jackson’s water system.

The specter of another weather-induced water stoppage looms large for some Jackson residents. “Winter is coming,” said Brooke Floyd, a local activist. “He’s saying it’s fixed. But it’s not fixed.”

Water service was also cut off in parts of the city due to a winter storm in 2010. By June 2011, Reeves was locked in a Republican primary campaign for lieutenant governor. As the tea party movement thrust government spending to the center of political debate, his opponent lambasted him for signing off on bond debt increases.

With election day just weeks away, Reeves — who was the state treasurer — appeared on a conservative talk radio show to push his track record as a tightfisted “watchdog” over state legislators eager to borrow. The host, Paul Gallo, wanted to know why Reeves had voted to approve most bond projects as a member of the state Bond Commission. His voting record didn’t tell the whole story, Reeves said. For instance, take the millions in bonds the city had requested to repair its crumbling water and sewer infrastructure.

“I’ve never voted against that because it’s never gotten to the Bond Commission. We are talking to the city of Jackson,” Reeves said. “If we are not comfortable, we never bring it up for a vote.”

The Bond Commission decided not to consider issuing bonds for Jackson water projects that had been authorized by the Legislature, Reeves said.

“Let’s just say there is an economic development in a town that doesn’t have a lot of political power,” Gallo responded. “The Bond Commission can just refuse to take it up? ... Isn’t that the same thing as a negative vote?”

“It is the same thing as a negative vote,” Reeves said.

Most years, the Legislature authorizes projects in one king-sized measure, known in legislators’ parlance as “the big bond bill.” Then, the Bond Commission — made up of the governor, attorney general and state treasurer — votes on whether to issue the bonds.

The commission issues most bonds that come up for a vote. In 2011, Reeves’ primary opponent said Reeves voted during his two terms as state treasurer to approve too much debt. But some bonds aren’t brought to a vote or are delayed, such as those proposed for Jackson water and sewer improvements.

In response to questions at a September news conference, Reeves said his recollection of what happened in 2010 is that the city never prepared the necessary paperwork to receive water bonds authorized by the Legislature. A document obtained by The Associated Press shows city leaders prepared a proposal in 2010 asking the state for $13.5 million in bonds for water system upgrades downtown. The Legislature later approved a dwarfed bond proposal for $6 million.

But after the Legislature’s approval, Reeves and Republican Gov. Haley Barbour initially failed to include the city’s water project in the state bonds to be issued in the fall of 2010.

The Legislature added an application requirement for the bond, which former Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration spokeswoman Kym Wiggins told the Jackson Free Press was “exclusive” to Jackson at the time. In order to have its application approved, Reeves said the city would need to answer a number of questions about how the money would be spent.

Barbour and Reeves later relented and voted to approve the bond after city officials made commitments that included funding projects through low-interest loans, rather than the interest-free loans outlined in the legislation.

The governor’s office told the AP that as state treasurer, Reeves ultimately voted to approve the bonds. But in the June 2011 interview with Gallo, he said the Bond Commission had refused to put Jackson water bonds on its agenda.

“We make the decision prior to it being on the agenda such that there is not an actual vote,” Reeves said.

Before the Bond Commission gets involved, bond bills proposed by Jackson-area lawmakers frequently fail to make it out of the Legislature.

In the 2022 legislative session, a bill that would have authorized $4 million in bonds for Jackson water and sewer improvements died in committee. Anotherwould have appropriated money to construct a separate water system for Jackson State University, which had to bring in temporary restrooms and portable showers in August as discolored water flowed through dorm faucets.

At another September news conference, Reeves said the state gave Jackson $200 million over the last several years to address its water problems. But the numbers Reeves’ office gave Jackson television station WLBT-TV include revenue generated from measures like a 1% sales tax paid only by people who shop in Jackson.

“That is not money that comes from the state of Mississippi,” said Democratic state Rep. Earle Banks of Jackson. “That is money that comes from the citizens of Jackson and people who do business in the city of Jackson.”

With population decline eroding Jackson’s tax base, voters in 2014 overwhelmingly approved a 1% local sales tax for infrastructure repairs. The Jackson city council asked for legislative approval for another election to double that local tax to 2 cents on the dollar. A bill to increase the sales tax died in the 2021 legislative session.

Reeves said Jackson needed to fix its problems with its billing system before “asking everyone else to pony up more money.”

Efforts to attract private investment by keeping taxes low have long been central to Reeves’ economic thinking.

The government does not create jobs; it simply “creates an environment which encourages the private sector to invest capital,” Reeves said in the 2011 interview with Gallo. “And the infrastructure around that is a function of government.”

Reeves said government has a role to play in building infrastructure to hasten development. Those economic principles have not been applied to Jackson, some officials said.

“Look, we can we can bury our heads in the sand and say, ‘Jackson’s problem is not our problem,’” Horhn said. “But when you hear there ain’t no water, and you can’t brush your teeth or take a crap, you strike Mississippi from the list.”

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hanimmal said:

https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-mississippi-tate-reeves-jackson-ae2460ffcbbd96a3cff1ab3ab5c44e4fView attachment 5204998

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cannabineer said:

This does not surprise me. In fact (though many will miss the point) it is an endorsement for Fetterman.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorses Republican Mehmet Oz in Senate race

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday endorsed Republican celebrity physician Mehmet Oz in a high-stakes race for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania, lauding what it called his "commitment to free enterprise and pro-growth policies."

www.reuters.com

United States Chamber of Commerce - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Top regulators on Monday recommended a series of new safeguards to ensure that a growing and unregulated cryptocurrency market doesn’t imperil U.S. financial stability.

Among seven major recommendations, regulators called on Congress to pass legislation that would address the systemic risks caused by the growth of stablecoins, which are a form of cryptocurrency pegged to the price of another financial asset, like the U.S. dollar or gold.

Recent volatility in the cryptocurrency market, especially in stablecoins, has made regulators particularly wary about the need for regulation as usage of the digital asset continues to grow.

Members of the Financial Stability Oversight Council met Monday to approve the recommendations of a 125-page report created in response to President Joe Biden’s March executive order on digital assets. The report also calls for giving agencies greater regulatory power over cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

The oversight council is an interagency group headed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and includes Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. Created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the role of the council is to identify risks and emerging threats to U.S. financial stability.

Powell, who has recently said stablecoins will need greater regulation as they become more widely used by consumers, said Monday that “acting now will allow us to support responsible financial innovation while preserving financial stability.”

Yellen said, “As we’ve painfully learned from history, innovation without adequate regulation can result in significant disruptions and harm to the financial system.”

At the start of the year, the council stated it would focus its efforts on researching and developing recommendations on digital asset issues, as more Americans invest in cryptocurrencies.

Roughly 16% of adult Americans, or 40 million people, have invested in cryptocurrencies, according to a September 2021 Pew Research Center poll. And 43% of men age 18-29 have put money into cryptocurrency.

Last month, the Treasury Department issued a report that recommended the U.S. work on developing a digital dollar.

Yellen said Treasury recommends that the U.S. “advance policy and technical work on a potential central bank digital currency, or CBDC, so that the United States is prepared if CBDC is determined to be in the national interest.”

More than 100 central banks around the world are considering a digital currency, but just a few have actually issued one.

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On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Biden administration is offering strongman Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro relief from sanctions to allow Chevron to resume extracting oil — on the condition that he allow real elections to take place in the repressive leftist dictatorship.

"In exchange for the significant sanctions relief, the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro would resume long-suspended talks with the country’s opposition to discuss conditions needed to hold free and fair presidential elections in 2024, the people said," reported Patricia Garip, Vivian Salama, and Kejal Vyas. "The U.S., Venezuela’s government and some Venezuelan opposition figures have also worked out a deal that would free up hundreds of millions of dollars in Venezuelan state funds frozen in American banks to pay for imports of food, medicine and equipment for the country’s battered electricity grid and municipal water systems."

The report comes as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is announcing a cut to overall oil production, a move that sparked outrage among U.S. officials given America's longstanding military support for many of these nations as part of an implicit way to ensure global energy stability.

"If the deal goes through and Chevron, along with U.S. oil service companies, are allowed to work in Venezuela again, it would put only a limited amount of new oil on the world market in the short term," said the report. "Venezuela was once a major oil producer, pumping more than 3.2 million barrels a day in the 1990s, but the state-run industry has collapsed over the last decade because of underinvestment, corruption and mismanagement. Sanctions leveled by the Trump administration further dented production and forced Western companies out of the country."

Nevertheless, the report noted, "Any shift in U.S. policy that brings back Western oil companies would send a psychological signal to the market that more supply is on the way, the people said."

U.S. fuel prices, which soared over the summer due to a number of factors including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, declined significantly in recent months, although some refinery issues have caused small regional increases again in parts of the Midwest and West Coast.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers slowed their hiring in September but still added 263,000 jobs, a solid figure that will likely keep the Federal Reserve on pace to keep raising interest rates aggressively to fight persistently high inflation.

Friday’s government report showed that hiring fell from 315,000 in August to the weakest monthly gain since April 2021. The unemployment rate dropped from 3.7% to 3.5%, matching a half-century low.

The Fed is hoping that a slower pace of hiring would eventually mean less pressure on employers to raise pay and pass those costs on to their customers through price increases — a recipe for high inflation. But September’s job growth was likely too robust to satisfy the central bank’s inflation fighters.



Last month, hourly wages rose 5% from a year earlier, the slowest year-over-year pace since December but still hotter than the Fed would want. The proportion of Americans who either have a job or are looking for one slipped slightly, a disappointment for those hoping that more people would enter the labor force and help ease worker shortages and upward pressure on wages.

The jobs report “was still likely too strong to allow (Fed) policymakers much breathing room,” said Matt Peron, director of research at Janus Henderson Investors.

Likewise, Rubeela Farooqi, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics, said she didn’t think September’s softer jobs and wage numbers would stop the Fed from raising its benchmark short-term rate in November by an unusually large three-quarters of a point for a fourth consecutive time — and by an additional half-point in December.

On Wall Street, stocks tumbled Friday morning — a sign that investors foresee more aggressive Fed rate hikes ahead. The S&P 500 index sank 1.9% in early trading. And the yield on the 2-year Treasury note, which tends to track expectations for Fed actions, rose to 4.31% from 4.26% late Thursday.



The public anxiety that has arisen over high prices and the prospect of a recession is also carrying political consequences as President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party struggles to maintain control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.

In its epic battle to rein in inflation, the Fed has raised its benchmark interest rate five times this year. It is aiming to slow economic growth enough to reduce annual price increases back toward its 2% target.

It has a long way to go. In August, one key measure of year-over-year inflation, the consumer price index, amounted to 8.3%. And for now, consumer spending — the primary driver of the U.S. economy — is showing resilience. In August, consumers spent a bit more than in July, a sign that the economy was holding up despite rising borrowing rates, violent swings in the stock market and inflated prices for food, rent and other essentials.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell has warned bluntly that the inflation fight will “bring some pain,” notably in the form of layoffs and higher unemployment. Some economists remain hopeful that despite the persistent inflation pressures, the Fed will still manage to achieve a so-called soft landing: Slowing growth enough to tame inflation, without going so far as to tip the economy into recession.

It’s a notoriously difficult task. And the Fed is trying to accomplish it at a perilous time. The global economy, weakened by food shortages and surging energy prices resulting from Russia’s war against Ukraine, may be on the brink of recession. Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, warned Thursday that the IMF is downgrading its estimates for world economic growth by $4 trillion through 2026 and that “things are more likely to get worse before it gets better.”

Powell and his colleagues on the Fed’s policymaking committee want to see signs that the abundance of available jobs — there’s currently an average of 1.7 openings for every unemployed American — will steadily decline. Some encouraging news came this week, when the Labor Department reported that job openings fell by 1.1 million in August to 10.1 million, the fewest since June 2021.

On the other hand, by any standard of history, openings remain extraordinarily high: In records dating to 2000, they had never topped 10 million in a month until last year.

Last month’s decline in unemployment was widely shared across demographic groups. The jobless rate for Hispanics tumbled to 3.8%, the lowest level in government records dating to 1973. Unemployment for Black Americans also fell, from 6% in August to 5.8% in September, still above its record low of 5.1% in November 2019.

In September, restaurants and bars added 60,000 jobs, as did healthcare companies. State and local governments cut 27,000 jobs. Retailers, transportation and warehouse companies reduced employment modestly.

Many Americans appear to have decided that there are still plenty of jobs available and that they can take their time accepting one. Among them is Jenny Savitscus of Columbus, Ohio, who recently earned a technology certificate at a program run by Goodwill. Savitscus, 45, who’d like a job in high technology, said she’s willing to hold out for an employer that will offer flexible hours and work-at-home options.

“There are opportunities out there,” she said. “Employers and job seekers are trying to find the right balance’’ between work and home life. She said she can afford to wait for just the right position because she has two part-time teaching jobs.

Friday’s government report underscored how resilient the job market remains even if it may be slowing.

“The U.S. labor market continues to decelerate, but there are no signs that it’s stalling out,” said Nick Bunker, head of economic research at the Indeed Hiring Lab. “Payroll growth is no longer at the jet speed we saw last year, but employment is still growing quickly.”

Radial, a company that powers the online businesses for Lucky Brands, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, is one employer that is hiring more cautiously. The company plans to hire 15,000 seasonal workers at its 25 warehouses — 7,000 fewer than a year ago — and 2,000 at its customer-service centers, said Sabrina Wnorowski, chief human resource officer for Radial, based in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

Wnorowski said the company’s more moderate approach to hiring reflects a renewed focus on adding workers closer to the peak of the holiday season to make them more productive. She noted that online sales growth is slowing and that the tight job market appears to be weakening a bit. Peloton, for example, the maker of high-end exercise equipment, announced Thursday that it is cutting 500 jobs — 12% of its workforce.

Yet some companies continue to plow ahead with hiring. Walt Rowen, president of Susquehanna Glass Co. in Columbia, Pennsylvania, said the company, which makes decorative glass products, needs around 15 seasonally workers along with a full-time staff of 40 to 45. Rowen has raised entry-level pay from around $9 an hour before the pandemic to $14 an hour and yet still struggles to fill vacancies.

“It’s getting harder and harder,” he said. “You used to be able to interview 10, bring in five and keep three. Now we’re interviewing 20, getting five and keeping one.’’

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