Congress clears temporary spending bill to avert shutdown

The Republican-led Congress narrowly passed a temporary spending bill Thursday to avert a government shutdown, doing the bare minimum in a sprint toward the holidays and punting disputes on immigration, health care and the budget to next year. The measure passed the House on a 231-188 vote over Democratic opposition and then cleared the Senate, 66-32, with Democrats from Republican-leaning states providing many of the key votes.

Congress passes temporary spending bill to avoid government shutdown

The Republican-led Congress narrowly passed a temporary spending bill to avert a government shutdown Thursday, doing the bare minimum in a sprint toward the holidays and punting disputes on immigration, health care and the budget to next year. The measure passed the House on a 231-188 vote over Democratic opposition and then cleared the Senate, 66-32, with Democrats from Republican-leaning states providing just enough votes.

Forbes: Trump ‘Isn’t Shy’ on Making ‘Mark on History’ With Flat Tax

Investment guru Steve Forbes predicts to Newsmax TV that President Donald Trump just might be able to actually persuade Congress to eventually enact a flat tax throughout the land. "The only way you're going to get a flat tax - and 40 countries and jurisdictions around the would in recent years have put it in and it's worked very well everywhere it's been tried - is if it's pushed by the president," the chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media told Sunday's "The Income Generation Show."

4 questions for Democrats as Republicans celebrate their tax plan

Democrats suffered their first major legislative defeat of the Trump era on Wednesday, when congressional Republicans, snake-bitten by internal rifts for the first 11 months of Donald Trump's presidency, delivered a massive tax overhaul to his desk. In news conferences, op-eds and social media, Democratic lawmakers railed against the bill, which has more breaks for corporations than individuals and over time skews sharply in favor of the rich and big business, but they ultimately lacked any meaningful power and could not stop its progress.

Sanchez: America’s Party of God doubles down on Trump

After stating his pride in his Presbyterian beliefs, Donald Trump appeals to evangelical and religious voters by again calling to repeal the Johnson Amendment, stating the tax rule infringes on religious groups' free speech. Aug. 27, 2016.

Top Democrat says Trump firing of Mueller could provoke a constitutional crisisa

The top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, responding to escalating Republican attacks on Special Counsel Robert Mueller, said on Wednesday that if US President Donald Trump fires Mueller, it "has the potential to provoke a constitutional crisis." Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Mark Warner denounced attacks on Mueller's impartiality and said the special counsel's investigation of ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia must be "able to go on unimpeded."

A growing chorus of intel officials is sounding the alarm over Trump’s allies’ attacks on the FBI

Former CIA and National Security Agency director Michael Hayden sounded the alarm this week after Donald Trump Jr. unloaded on the Department of Justice and the FBI. Hayden said Trump Jr.'s suggestion that the nation's top law-enforcement agency was tainted with bias against President Donald Trump was "an appeal to the heart of autocracy."

US allowing export of arms to Ukraine

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the department notified Congress on December 13 that it had approved an export license, which allows Ukraine to buy certain light weapons and small arms from US manufacturers. Nauert's confirmation of the decision included a statement that President Donald Trump's predecessors had approved exports to Ukraine.

Opinion: After taxes, Trump is suddenly expendable

President Donald Trump on Wednesday reveled in Congress' passage of a massive $1.5 trillion tax reform bill, claiming that, once he signed it into law, it would propel economic growth. WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 20: U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by Republican lawmakers, celebrates Congress passing the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act with Republican members of the House and Senate on the South Lawn of the White House on December 20, 2017 in Washington, DC.

Trump commutes fraud sentence of kosher meatpacker

President Donald Trump, in a first exercise of his power to commute criminal sentences, cut short the 27-year prison term of a kosher meatpacking executive who was convicted eight years ago of bank fraud, the White House said on Wednesday. The commutation granted to Sholom Rubashkin, 57, marked only the second time that Trump has invoked his clemency authority as president, following the blanket pardon he granted earlier this year to Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona.

US allowing Ukraine to buy arms from US companies

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the department notified Congress on December 13 that it had approved an export license, which allows Ukraine to buy certain light weapons and small arms from US manufacturers. The Washington Post was first to report on the administration's decision to allow the export of weapons to Ukraine, which has been under consideration and breaks with both the stated practice of the Obama administration and the spirit of President Donald Trump's call for the US to foster warmer relations with Russia.

Democrats troubled as GOP senators show little urgency to…

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, looks over his papers as he walks to the Senate Chamber to deliver a speech about the future of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, looks over his papers as he walks to the Senate Chamber to deliver a speech about the future of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Judge: Ending program to protect immigrants creates hardship

A federal judge grilled an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday over the Trump administration's justification for ending a program protecting some young immigrants from deportation, saying many people had come to rely on it and faced a "real" and "palpable" hardship from its loss. U.S. District Judge William Alsup said former President Barack Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy gave people the chance to work and made them "contributing, taxpaying members of the economy."

President Trump Commutes Sentence of Kosher Meatpacking Exec

President Donald Trump on Wednesday commuted the sentence of an Iowa kosher meatpacking executive who had been sentenced to 27 years in prison for money laundering, marking the first time he's used the presidential power. The decision to intervene on behalf of Sholom Rubashkin, who ran the Iowa headquarters of a family business that was the country's largest kosher meat-processing company, came at the urging of numerous members of Congress and a long list of high-ranking law enforcement officials, who argued the sentence was far too harsh for a first-time, non-violent offender.

‘Exquisite leadership’: Republicans celebrate tax bill and heap praise on Trump

Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer View text version of this page Help using this website - Accessibility statement Join today and you can easily save your favourite articles, join in the conversation and comment, plus select which news your want direct to your inbox. Washington: As he stood outside the White House on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump basked in the praise of Republican lawmakers assembled around him.

U.S. passes landmark tax bill: What it means and what it does to Canada

In the dying hours of debate, with the United States poised to pass its most sweeping tax reform in decades - including far-reaching provisions touching health care, the economy and the national debt - a senator mentioned how it would also reach the northern neighbour, Canada. "We're not gonna have any more pharmaceutical companies buying donut-makers in Canada and move their headquarters to get a lower tax rate," said Sen. Johnny Isakson, in a slightly bungled reference to Burger King buying Tim Hortons and relocating north.