Plus - Unemployment rate drops sharply
â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â [The Fisc]( Â Â By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey Friday at last! Congress made a deal to avoid a shutdown and the unemployment rate dropped sharply, so all in all not such a bad week. Hereâs what you need to know. --------------------------------------------------------------- Biden Signs Bill to Avert Shutdown â but More Showdowns Lay Ahead
President Biden on Friday signed a stopgap bill to fund the government through February 18, averting a government shutdown and pushing congressional budget fights into next year.
The short-term funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, cleared the House in a largely party-line vote on Thursday afternoon. âOnly one Republican, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), voted Thursday to keep the government open even though the stopgap funding resolution kept in place the funding levels enacted under President Donald Trump,â The Washington Postâs Mike DeBonis [pointed out](.
The bill passed the Senate hours later, after some conservatives â most notably Roger Marshall of Kansas, Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah â had threatened to delay the legislation and allow a short shutdown over objections to Bidenâs vaccine and testing mandate for large private employers. That mandate is currently held up in court. âI donât want to shut down the government,â Lee said. âThe only thing I want to shut down is Congress funding enforcement of an immoral, unconstitutional vaccine mandate.â
The Senate standoff was resolved when Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) agreed to conservativesâ demands to allow a simple majority vote on an amendment defunding Bidenâs vaccine mandate. That vote failed, 48-50, clearing the path for the Senate to pass the continuing resolution by a 69-28 margin.
What the stopgap bill does: The legislation will keep the lights on at federal departments and agencies for another 11 weeks and provides an additional $7 billion to help Afghan refugees. It also authorizes $1.6 billion to fund care for unaccompanied child migrants. âThe bill, however, doesnât address an array of unresolved policy issues and program funding that lawmakers had hoped to tackle before the end of the year, including impending cuts to Medicare and farm subsidies,â The Washington Postâs Mariana Alfaro and Tyler Pager [noted](.
Whatâs next: âFunding the government isnât a great achievement. Itâs a bare minimum of what we need to get done,â Biden told reporters Friday morning. The president thanked lawmakers for passing the bill in bipartisan fashion and urged them to use the time the legislation provides to finish the long-stalled funding for the full fiscal year, which started in October.
Republicans and Democrats have made little progress on setting full-year funding levels, as GOP lawmakers see little incentive to approve money to further Bidenâs agenda. A full-year continuing resolution, on the other hand, would extend federal funding at levels set under former President Trump. âBoth parties say the skirmish over the short-term funding fix was far simpler than the brutal fight they predict over Congressâ full-year spending,â Politico [reports](. If the two sides canât complete the contentious annual appropriations bills, they would need to pass another short-term funding patch to avoid a shutdown.
Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that it was time to âget seriousâ about completing the annual funding bills. âI have said many times that work can only begin if we agree to start FY22 where we finished FY21,â he said. âThat means maintaining legacy riders, eliminating poison pills, and getting serious about the funding we are going to provide for our nationâs defense. If that doesnât happen, weâll be having this same conversation in February.â
Why it matters: âFor many lawmakers, the entire saga only served to highlight the extent of the political acrimony on Capitol Hill, where even the most basic responsibilities of governance quickly devolve into partisan showdowns,â the Postâs Tony Romm and Mike DeBonis [write](. âAnd it underscored the extent to which conservatives in Congress see the presidentâs stance on vaccines as a vector to mount prominent political attacks, a campaign that Republicans have pledged to continue in the days ahead.â The flirtation with shutdowns may continue as well. The latest gambit by conservatives âshowed just how single-minded Republicans are about appealing to their base right now â and portends even more hazardous shutdown fights in the near future,â [writes]( the Postâs Aaron Blake. âThe continued use of such tactics in the absence of success or even political gain also suggests weâll only see more of this.â
The bottom line: The budget and appropriations battles will continue into February, and perhaps beyond. In the meantime, though, Congress also has to prevent a debt default and approve an annual defense bill while Democrats also look to pass their $1.75 trillion Build Back Better Act. Quote of the Day: Another Warning on the Debt Ceiling
âThose who believe the debt limit can safely be pushed to the back of the December legislative pileup are misinformed. Congress would be flirting with financial disaster if it leaves for the holiday recess without addressing the debt limit.â
â Shai Akabas, director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center, which this week updated its estimate for arrival of the âX Dateâ â the day on which the U.S Treasury will be unable to meet all of its financial obligations. BPC now says that the X Date will most likely occur between December 21, 2021, and January 28, 2022, with a greater likelihood in the earlier part of the range due to uncertainty over tax revenue flows amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. The update underlines the analysis delivered by the Congressional Budget Office earlier this week that supported Treasury Secretary Janey Yellenâs conclusion that the debt ceiling needs to be raised by December 15 in order to avoid a potential default. âI cannot overstate how critical it is that Congress address this issue,â Yellen told lawmakers this week. âAmerica must pay its bills on time and in full. If we do not, we will eviscerate our current recovery.â Reflecting on the difficulty Congress is having raising the debt limit in a timely manner and the rapidly rising risk of default, Akabas said, âIt never ceases to amaze that the largest economy in the world routinely comes within days of potentially missing payments to its citizens, businesses, and creditors.â Mixed Signals as Unemployment Rate Drops
U.S. employers added a disappointing 210,000 jobs in November, the Labor Department announced Friday, falling well short of expectations for 500,000 or more new hires. At the same time, the unemployment rate fell to a 21-month low of 4.2%, even as more workers returned to the labor market, a positive sign for the strength of the jobs recovery. Economists emphasized that the hiring numbers and the unemployment rate come from two different surveys, the first focused on businesses and the second on households. The large divergence between the two last month suggests that one of them is missing out on some key data, which should be corrected in future revisions â quite likely to the upside for the job numbers. âThe odds are good that the November total is being underreported â as happened nearly every other month this year,â [says The Washington Postâs Phillip Bump]( who notes that 2021 has seen an unusual number of large upward revisions, with the economy adding nearly 1 million more jobs this year than initially reported. Biden talks up report: Not surprisingly, the White House is emphasizing the good news in the unemployment rate, which fell four-tenths of a percentage point from the month before, and skipped over the raw job numbers. âToday we got the incredible news that our unemployment rate has fallen to 4.2%,â President Joe Biden said Friday. âAt this point in the year, weâre looking at the sharpest one-year decline in unemployment ever. Simply put, American is back to work and our jobs recovery is going very strong.â Many analysts agree with the upbeat assessment, saying that the payroll numbers tend to be noisy. âDon't be fooled by the measly payroll jobs gain this month because the economy's engines are actually in overdrive as shown by the plunge in joblessness," Christopher Rupkey, chief economist at FWDBONDS, told Reuters. Still, the labor market has a long way to go until it recovers all of its pandemic losses, and that could be a problem for Biden and for Democrats as they head into an election year. According to economists Jason Furman and Wilson Powell III, the U.S. economy is still 5 million jobs shy of the pre-pandemic trend â and the Omicron variant of Covid-19 could make it even harder to close that gap. --------------------------------------------------------------- Please tell your friends they can [sign up here]( for their own copy of this newsletter.
--------------------------------------------------------------- News - [Biden Signs Bill Averting Government Shutdown]( â The Hill
- [Time Is No Ally as Dems Strain to Finish Bidenâs $2 Trillion Bill]( â Associated Press
- [Defense Billâs New Path Forward Would Cost Votes on GOP Priorities]( â Roll Call Â
- [Bipartisan Duo Offers Way Out of Debt Limit Stalemate]( â Roll Call
- [Dems' Paid Leave Push Faces Last Stand]( â Politico
- [Billions for Climate Protection Fuel New Debate: Who Deserves It Most]( â New York Times
- [GOP Tactics Herald a Grim New Era of Governing for Biden and Democrats]( â Washington Post
- [More Cases of Omicron Certain Amid Community Spread, Fauci Says]( â Bloomberg
- [As World Focuses on Omicron, Delta Variant Overwhelms Parts of US]( â Washington Post
- [Biden Takes the Fight to Omicron. But the Toolkit Is Growing Bare]( â Politico
- [How Trumpâs âAmerica Firstâ Edict Delayed the Global Covid Fight]( â Politico Views and Analysis - [The November Jobs Report Shows Covid Is Still the Boss of the Economy]( â Catherine Rampell, Washington Post
- [An Odd Jobs Report Keeps Fed on Tapering Fast Track]( â Brian Chappatta, Bloomberg
- [Why the Fed Chair Wonât Call Inflation âTransitoryâ Anymore]( â Peter Coy, New York Times
- [The GOPâs Vaccine Shutdown Gambit, and What It Says About Whoâs in Charge]( â Aaron Blake, Washington Post
- [McConnell Signals GOP Will Run on Pure Obstruction in the Midterms]( â Ed Kilgore, New York
- [Every Time I Think the Inflation Discourse Canât Get Dumber, Iâm Proven Wrong]( â Catherine Rampell, Washington Post
- [Want That Free Coronavirus Test Biden Is Promising? You Gotta Buy It First]( â Rachel Roubein, Washington Post
- [How to Rein In Skyrocketing Drug Prices]( â Bloomberg Editorial Board
- [Behind Low Vaccination Rates Lurks a More Profound Social Weakness]( â Anita Sreedhar and Anand Gopal, New York Times
- [The World Deserves a Thorough Review of the Pandemic. Congress Must Set Up a Covid-19 Commission]( â Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Joni Ernst (R-IA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Washington Post
- [The Great Resignation Wonât Last Forever]( â Justin Wolfers, New York Times
- [Where Will Democratic Infighting Lead? Historyâs Answer Is Clear]( â Colbert I. King, Washington Post Copyright © 2020 The Fiscal Times, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed at our website, [thefiscaltimes.com]( or through Facebook.
The Fiscal Times, 399 Park Avenue, 14th Floor, New York, NY 10022, United States
Want to change how you receive these emails? [Update your preferences]( or [unsubscribe](