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Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) met on Thursday as they look for an off-ramp from a looming fight over the debt ceiling. “We had a good discussion about several different issues that are all extant as we move toward the end of the session,” McConnell told reporters. “We agreed to kind of keep talking, working together to try to get somewhere,” McConnell added.

The S&P 500 rose 1.4% as of 1:13 p.m. Eastern. Roughly 90% of stocks within the benchmark index gained ground. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 496 points, or 1.4%, to 34,913 and the Nasdaq rose 1.6%. Markets in Europe and Asia were also broadly higher. The market was already in the midst of a days-long bout of volatility when Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell made an offer Wednesday that would allow an emergency extension of the debt ceiling. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday an agreement has been reached with Republicans to extend the government’s borrowing authority into...

President Biden on Wednesday ​resorted to histrionics, saying that a “meteor” could crash into the US economy if Congress doesn’t raise the government’s debt ceiling — ​even as Republicans ​noted that Democrats can simply lift the spending cap on their own.​ Biden insisted Republicans could cause the US to default on its debt after an Oct. 18 deadline as he attempted to undercut conservative pressure on Democrats to own the vote as they push for trillions in new spending. “The United States is the financial rock the world looks to and trusts. Now in one cynical destructive partisan ploy —...

Over 100 Republicans in the House are vowing in a new letter that they will not vote to increase the debt ceiling — calling the issue a “problem created by Democrat spending.” Citing trillions of dollars of government spending proposed by Democrats, the 103 House Republicans promised not to increase the debt ceiling under any circumstance, according to the letter obtained by Fox News. “Democrats have embarked on a massive and unprecedented deficit spending spree. Without a single Republican vote, they passed a $1.9 trillion ‘Covid relief’ bill in March even though $1 trillion was still unspent from previous bipartisan...

Unless Congress raises or suspends the debt ceiling, the federal government will most likely run out of money in October or November, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. Congress suspended the debt ceiling, which limits the amount of outstanding federal borrowing to $22 trillion, in 2019. But that suspension runs out on August 1st of this year.

A polymer that self-destructs? While once a fictional idea, new polymers now exist that are rugged enough to ferry packages or sensors into hostile territory and vaporize immediately upon a military mission's completion. The material has been made into a rigid-winged glider and a nylon-like parachute fabric for airborne delivery across distances of a hundred miles or more. It could also be used someday in building materials or environmental sensors. The researchers will present their results today at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2019 National Meeting & Exposition. "This is not the kind of thing that slowly degrades over...

<p>The bodies of 11 babies were discovered Friday in a Detroit funeral home that was shut down six months ago. Police made the gruesome discovery at the Cantrell Funeral Home after they received an anonymous tip.</p> <p>Police said eight or nine bodies were found in a cardboard box and the others in one or more caskets, all hidden in a ceiling. Police ordered a search of the building to ensure there are no additional bodies inside.</p>

Former Reagan Budget Director David Stockman on the need to rein in America's mounting debt. "We'll hit the next recession with nothing to break the fall." On the GDP, "The growth in the baseline is totally unrealistic." Stockman also discusses a new Federal Reserve Chief, "Get the Keynesian money-printers out".

The other Republican candidates’ chances of stopping Donald Trump look marginally better today than they did on Friday. Trump won just two of five contests over the weekend and only 30 percent of delegates. Trump remains the front-runner, however, having won 43 percent of the delegates overall among the 20 states and territories to have voted so far. Although that’s short of a majority, Trump will have a chance to improve on his pace as the calendar turns toward states that have more aggressive delegate allocation methods — especially winner-take-all Florida and Ohio, which vote March 15. If Trump wins...

STOCKHOLM (AP) - The U.N.'s environmental authority has quietly raised its assessment of the level at which global greenhouse gas emissions must peak to avoid dangerous climate change, as governments seek a new accord to fight global warming. In its first four annual emissions reports in 2010-2013, the United Nations Environment Program said emissions must not exceed 44 billion tons in 2020 for the world to limit global warming to 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F).

CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported on further allegations made by a nurses union that Dallas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was not put into isolation, allowed his blood to circulate through the hospital’s tube system, and that waste “piled up nearly to the ceiling” inside patient’s rooms on Tuesday’s “CNN Tonight.” Gupta said that the National Nurses United stated that they were informed by nurses that “Mr. Duncan was not in isolation. He was not in isolation for several hours, despite the fact that a nursing supervisor asked that he go into isolation, and that he may...

Debt Ceiling I hear reference to the number of debt ceiling increases as the main factor when comparing presidents. I usually hear that Reagan raised the debt 18 timed. A little research at the Office of Management and Budget web site reveals this is true. The debt ceiling spreadsheet data is from 1940 to the present. I did infer the following from Table 7.3, Statutory Limits on Federal Debt 1940-Current. President Reaganapproved of increasing the debt ceiling 18 times for a total increase of $684.4 Billion, $684,400,000, $684.4 thousand million. President George H.W. Bush approved of increasing the debt ceiling...

RANCHO MIRAGE, California (Reuters) - President Barack Obama signed legislation on Saturday that raises the U.S. debt limit through March 2015, taking the politically volatile issue off the table with congressional elections coming up this November. Without an increase in the statutory debt limit, the U.S. government would have soon defaulted on some of its obligations and would have had to shut down some programs, an historic event that would have caused severe market turmoil. On a long holiday weekend in a desert resort area in southern California, Obama put his signature on the legislation without fanfare, while behind closed...

When Treasury Secretary Jack Lew recently gave notice that the federal government would once again hit the debt ceiling in February, the response from congressional Republicans—who twice took the nation to the brink of default—was decidedly muted. The official line? “We believe that defaulting on our debt is the wrong thing,” says House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “We don’t want to do that.” On Tuesday, the House duly voted to raise the debt limit without conditions, sending the action over to the Senate. This move represents a 180-degree turn from the previous strategy of trying to extract concessions from Democrats...

This is a developing news story. An earlier version of the article follows: House GOP leaders announced Tuesday they will advance this week an increase in the government's borrowing cap that's free of any add-ons. A vote is scheduled for Tuesday night because of the threat of a winter storm. House Speaker John Boehner announced the plan after a poll of the Republican rank and file failed to show enough support for a plan to tie the hike in the debt limit to a plan to reverse a recently passed cut to military pensions. The Ohio Republican said he expected...

The U.S. government is getting a new borrowing cap Friday, almost four months after Washington defused October's government shutdown and debt crisis. The new cap on borrowing is expected to be about $17.2 trillion. It means Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will have to employ bookkeeping maneuvers to keep the government functioning until Congress further raises the borrowing limit. Lew warns he has less maneuvering room now than he had last year, when such "extraordinary measures" bought five months of time for the government to keep borrowing while at the previous $16.7 trillion debt ceiling. Lawmakers temporarily suspended the borrowing limit...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. budget deficit is set to fall to $514 billion this year, down substantially from last year and the lowest level by far since President Barack Obama took office five years ago, a congressional report said Tuesday. The Congressional Budget Office credits higher tax revenues from the rebounding economy and sharp curbs on agency spending as the chief reason for the deficit's short-term decline. But the budget experts see the long-term deficit picture worsening by about $100 billion a year through the end of the decade because of slower growth in the economy than they had...

More Americans would blame Republicans in Congress than President Barack Obama if the nation's debt ceiling is not raised, according to a new national poll. The release of the CNN/ORC International survey on Monday came as Treasury Secretary Jack Lew issued yet another public warning to Congress to act quickly to extend the nation's borrowing authority. Fifty-four percent of those questioned say they would blame the GOP in Congress if the debt ceiling isn't raised, with 29% saying they'd hold the President more responsible. Twelve percent say they'd point fingers at both sides. The numbers are little changed from last...

Twelve weeks from today, the US government will hit its borrowing limit. When Congress lifted the debt ceiling last month, for the first time ever, it pegged the increase to a specific date, rather than a dollar amount. The current borrowing authority expires in just 84 days, on February 7th.

There’s no actual debt ceiling right now. The fiscal deal passed by Congress on Wednesday evening to re-open the government and get around the $16.4 trillion limit on borrowing doesn’t actually increase the debt limit. It just temporarily suspends enforcement of it. That means Americans have no idea how much debt their government is going to rack up between now and Feb. 7, when the limits are supposed to go back into place and will have to be raised. There is no dollar amount set for how much debt the government can accumulate between now and then. The suspension strategy...