3 urgent tasks awaiting Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary
CNN
Ensuring the US doesn’t default on its obligations. Extending trillions of dollars in tax cuts before they expire. Quarterbacking President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for the economy.
Ensuring the US doesn’t default on its obligations. Extending trillions of dollars in tax cuts before they expire. Quarterbacking President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for the economy. The incoming Treasury secretary, whomever Trump ultimately picks, will face a confluence of deadlines and campaign promises that will make the early days on the job even more challenging than usual. By the time the Trump takes office, it’s likely that the US will have hit the debt ceiling, forcing the Treasury Department to use so-called extraordinary measures to allow it to continue paying the nation’s bills on time and in full. And congressional Republicans will be rushing to extend Trump’s landmark 2017 tax cuts act before a multitude of pricey provisions lapse at the end of next year. All the while, the secretary-to-be will have to help execute Trump’s economic gameplan, which was voters’ top concern in the election. “We have twin fiscal cliffs that start off next year. The debt limit begins the year, the tax cuts end the year,” said Ed Mills, Washington policy analyst at Raymond James. “The Treasury secretary is going to be at the center of those fights and is going to be monitoring the economic impact.” The Treasury Department will likely have to deal with the debt limit at the start of the new year. Congress suspended the cap as part of the 2023 debt ceiling agreement, but it will return effective January 2.
For Josh Shapiro, it’s all about being able to win in Pennsylvania.
Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer is expected to announce Thursday that he is retiring after serving more than four decades in Congress.
A top staffer for longtime DC Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton announced Wednesday he plans to run for her non-voting seat in Congress.
Trump administration officials on Wednesday began outlining a makeshift strategy for taking indefinite control of Venezuela’s oil sales, as they race to maintain stability within the nation after overthrowing its leader.
In the wee hours of Saturday, shortly after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured, blindfolded and taken to the United States, video emerged of Diosdado Cabello, Venezuela’s interior minister and one of its most popular talk show hosts, surrounded by a group of armed men in Caracas.
President Donald Trump issued a stark threat to defense contracting companies on Wednesday, saying he would seek to limit stock buybacks and executive salaries unless they improve their delivery of weapons systems to the US military hours before saying he’d decided to substantially increase the defense budget.
Temir Porras, who was ousted President Nicolás Maduro’s chief of staff from 2007-2013, tells CNN’s Isa Soares that he cares about the stability of his country and that the leadership in Venezuela is showing “maturity and balance in the movement they’re making.”
GOP Sen. Thom Tillis strongly criticized White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller’s recent comments suggesting the US should take control of Greenland, calling the remarks “amateurish” and “absurd,” and urging President Donald Trump to fire people who give that kind of advice.
It was as telling a moment as any when it comes to the Republican Party’s relationship with President Donald Trump.
While the Trump administration insists the US will run Venezuela, it’s not that simple. Many of President Nicolás Maduro’s loyalists are still in positions of power. CNN’s Rafael Romo reports.
Four days since US President Donald Trump’s most strident military move yet, the gulf grows between his claim that the United States will “run” Venezuela and the reality of a continued dictatorship on the ground.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday he plans to call a special session in April for the Republican-dominated legislature to draw new congressional districts, joining the redistricting arms race.
As part of its claims of widespread fraud in the federal safety net, the Trump administration is halting $10 billion in funding for several programs in five Democrat-led states.