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The Trump administration is considering bypassing Congress to grant a $100 billion tax cut mainly to the wealthy, a legally tenuous maneuver that would cut capital gains taxation and fulfill a long-held ambition of many investors and conservatives. Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, said in an interview on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit meeting in Argentina this month that his department was studying whether it could use its regulatory powers to allow Americans to account for inflation in determining capital gains tax liabilities. The Treasury Department could change the definition of “cost” for calculating capital gains, allowing...

WASHINGTON — U.S. workers saw their annual wages and benefits rise in the second quarter at the fastest pace in nearly a decade, a sign that the low unemployment rate is forcing employers to raise pay to attract and keep workers. The unemployment rate is near an 18-year low of 4 percent, leaving employers scrambling to find the workers they need. There are more open jobs than there are unemployed workers, according to government data, for the first time since records began in 2000. A separate measure of wages and salaries for private sector workers rose 2.9 percent in the...

Mark Penn, chairman of the Harris Poll and former pollster to President Clinton from 1995 to 2000, provides a description of the polling business that few pollsters or media types will find flattering. he indicted the “pundit-polling-news establishment” for studiously ignoring the blindingly obvious lessons of 2016. In his estimation, the major polling firms and news organizations to whom they purport to provide objective data have made no meaningful changes in the methodology that led them to miss the seismic shift in voter attitudes that led to President Trump’s 2016 victory: So, if the forecasters are unreliable and the pollsters...

Billionaire plutocrat and GOP mega-donor Charles Koch says President Donald Trump’s tariffs on aluminum, steel, and thousands of Chinese-made imports are “ridiculous” and “unfair” to foreigners. Koch, who funds a network of organizations with his brother, David Koch, told the media during a conference with donors over the weekend that Trump’s ten percent tariff on imported aluminum and 25 percent tariff on imported steel was not fair to foreign countries and foreign workers. The Trump administration has said the tariffs on imported goods are necessary to protect American jobs and industries from foreign competition where foreign-made products are sold much...

The lovely Andrea Mitchell: It's another base-pleasing moment and the fact checkers will be up all night, because on clean coal here we have a president in 2018 advertising the coal industry and not talking about the future. How that is appealing to anybody -- and also false claims on the auto industry, false claims on job creation, exaggerating that, one thing after another, and of course the grandiose claims about the tax bill, the individual is tax cuts are going to expire, the corporate ones stay forever.

The media and other Trump haters can't seem to let themselves admit it, but President Donald Trump scored a big victory for the American economy on trade last week. Trump and the European Union reached a handshake deal that is designed to lower tariffs on both sides of the Atlantic. They agreed to shoot for zero tariffs. Sounds like freer and fairer trade to me. The exact details are still a bit murky, but what we do know is that the EU has pledged to lower its tariffs and other trade barriers on American soybeans, oil and gas, pharmaceutical...

Donald Trump was asked this week, "Do you believe in raising taxes on the wealthy?" He replied, "I do. I do - including myself. I do." Yet Trump's own tax plan would cut the highest marginal federal income-tax rate from 39.6 percent to 25 percent. How does this tax plan square with Trump's newly professed support for "raising taxes on the wealthy"? This is similar to Trump's rampant inconsistency on Obamacare. Trump says he's for repealing Obamacare, but he's not for cutting Medicaid which, thanks to the efforts of those like John Kasich, accounts for most of Obamacare's coverage increases....

Mike Gallagher, managing director at financial consultancy Continuum Economics, played down stellar predictions of growth by Donald Trump, adding that recent polices implemented by the U.S. president would only provide short-term benefits for the economy. Trump told talk show host Sean Hannity on Friday that the U.S. could reach historic growth rates if the trade deficit is cut in half. His remarks followed a data release showing that the U.S. grew at 4.1 percent in the second quarter of the year. He claimed that the country could reach GDP growth of 8 or 9 percent, which is far higher than...

If Ronald Reagan was the “Teflon president,” Donald Trump must be the Incredible Hulk president. The more the left and the media attack him, the stronger he gets. This past week was a great example. It began with CNN worrying that fears of Russian collusion had seeped into the “bloodstream” of American politics after President Trump’s Helsinki press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin. CNN’s Reliable Sources newsletter described the situation ominously: “When historians look back on the Trump presidency, they'll say that last week was the moment something changed – when uncomfortable Q's about Russia moved into the mainstream...

A sneak peek at the Times’s news analysis from Nov. 4, 2020. Nov. 4, 2020 In the end, a bitterly fought election came down to the old political aphorism, popularized during Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 run against George H.W. Bush: “It’s the economy, stupid.” This time, however, it was the Republican incumbent, not his Democratic challenger, who benefited from that truism. Donald J. Trump has been decisively re-elected as president of the United States, winning every state he carried in 2016 and adding Nevada, even as he once again failed, albeit narrowly, to gain a majority of the popular vote....

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush offered a rhetorical hat tip to one-time rival President Trump on Friday for the nation’s surging economy. The man deemed “low-energy Jeb” on the 2016 campaign trail by Mr. Trump took to Twitter to marvel at America’s high-octane economic growth — 4.1 percent in the second quarter. “Today’s news confirms that 4% growth isn’t just aspirational, it’s achievable through policies that unleash the power of the market,” Mr. Bush wrote. “Credit to @POTUS’s economic policies. To sustain this growth, we must pursue a free trade agenda and move to a merit-based immigration system.” Mr. Bush...

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is having a bad week – and it’s about to get worse. On Friday we’re expected to learn from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis that the U.S. economy grew at a blistering pace in the second quarter of this year, further affirming the success of President Trump’s tax cuts and deregulatory efforts. President Trump hinted at the good economic news in a tweet Tuesday, writing: “Our Country is doing GREAT. Best financial numbers on the Planet. Great to have USA WINNING AGAIN!” Economists expect the Bureau of Economic Analysis report Friday will show...

John Harwood conducted an interview with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) this week which may not have produced much of substance, but definitely provided some interesting moments of comic relief. Warren is still seen as a likely entrant in the Democrats’ 2020 presidential primary and has buttered her bread with the fights she’s started with Wall Street and the investment banking industry. Harwood asked her about that, specifically wondering if she didn’t harbor some “malice” for capitalists. Warren’s response is a bit much to swallow but it’s worth a quick look at the video. (Free Beacon) “It sounds as if you...

Elizabeth Warren told CNBC Democrats will end the Trump tax cuts if they take power in November. Warren also promoted a 50% tax hike on American earners.

Who would have thought a few years ago that the biggest problem facing the labor market today would be a lack of workers — not a lack of jobs? As recently as 2012, the unemployment rate was above 8 percent, more than twice its current rate. Since President Trump's election, nearly 4 million new net jobs have been created. The unemployment rate has tied lows unseen since the Vietnam War, when men were being drafted to fight. Black and Latino unemployment rates are at record lows. And for the first time in recorded history, there are more jobs available than...

President Donald Trump is making his first visit to Illinois since becoming president, making a stop in Granite City on Thursday where he is expected to tout the reopening of a U.S. Steel Corp. mill. The White House announced Sunday night Trump will swing through Granite City, in southern Illinois near St. Louis and Dubuque, Iowa, on Thursday. The Trump administration has been highlighting U.S. Steel’s Granite City mill as a trade war success story even as the tariffs have sparked concerns in other sectors, with alarms sounded by Illinois farmers whose main crop is soybeans. The visit will have...

Two new tenants at the Port of Lewiston’s Incubator Building recently tripled the facility’s occupancy — from one business to three. Aluminum firearms parts, such as scope bases and rings, are manufactured on computer numerically controlled machines at Pure-Precision, a company owned by Charlie Bell. Pure-Precision joins Hells Canyon Armory, which specializes in gun barrels, at the incubator at 1708 Sixth Ave N. in Lewiston. Bell’s business employs his wife and another staff member, subcontracting with other companies that do similar work for smaller runs on parts for agricultural, automotive and aerospace businesses. “I make pretty much what anybody wants...

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A hiring event is around the corner and more than 100 jobs are available. AT&T is hiring about 120 positions at the call center in Huntington. The positions are for customer service representatives. A hiring event will take place at the call center on July 19 from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. AT&T recommends people apply online and complete the mandatory assessment prior to coming to the hiring event to speed up the process. If you can't make it to the hiring event, you can also apply online to be considered for an interview. The call...

Florida Congressman Carlos Curbelo is getting ready to introduce a bill repealing the gas tax in exchange for a carbon tax. It seems rather odd the Miami Republican wants to chart this path, especially after the House GOP overwhelmingly denounced the notion of a carbon tax last week, but Curbelo isn’t backing down from his proposal. He told Miami Herald his proposal is just a “first step” in the discussion. When you ask this question in a vacuum, is any tax detrimental to economic growth? It’s usually going to be yes…But when you put it in context and you...

As the editors of The Weekly Standard suggested last week, Congress could pass a resolution of censure for the president’s conduct and his subsequent comments. Congress can also take steps with concrete consequences: • Pass legislation imposing new sanctions on Russia in the event of any future attacks on our democratic process. Dare President Trump to veto it. Override him if he does. • Hold hearings that would include in-depth testimony from the national security team on the Russian attacks, putting the case on the record (again), while putting pressure on members of the administration to correct the president’s comments....