US Debt Limit Nail-Biter Looms as Senate Ponders Trump Tax Bill
Chances of a close brush with a US payment default are growing as the Senate plans for time-consuming revisions to President Donald Trump's sprawling, multi-trillion-dollar tax and spending package.
Republican congressional leaders attached an increase in the US legal debt limit to the president's signature economic legislation. That gambit adds urgency to the enactment of a top-priority bill, but could put averting a default at the mercy of the complex legislative obstacle course that lies ahead.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
12 minutes ago
- Washington Post
04_MONUMENT
RFK Jr. has big plans for your food. Here are the facts. May 2, 2025
Associated Press
14 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Former Alabama veterans commissioner sues Ivey for defamation and wrongful termination
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The former head of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday accusing Gov. Kay Ivey of wrongful termination and defamation. W. Kent Davis, a retired U.S. Navy rear admiral, filed the lawsuit that accuses the governor of illegally firing him last year. The lawsuit contends the dismissal was retaliation for statements and actions that the governor did not like. Ivey last year said she was using her 'supreme executive power of this state' to fire Davis. Ivey's office hand-delivered the letter to Davis' lawyer about 45 minutes after the State Board of Veterans Affairs, in a 3-2 vote, rejected Ivey's request to remove Davis. A lawyer for Davis said only the board, which hired Davis, had the ability to fire him. 'We think it's pretty clear that she did not have the authority to fire him. He did not work at the pleasure of the governor,' Kenny Mendelsohn, a lawyer representing Davis, said. A spokesperson for Ivey indicated the governor stood by the decision. 'We are very confident Governor Ivey's necessary actions will stand any court test there may be,' spokesperson Gina Maiola wrote in an email. Davis and Ivey's office had a public falling out last year that centered on an American Rescue Plan grant. During the dispute, Davis had filed an ethics complaint against the state mental health commissioner, after the Department of Mental Health cancelled a related agreement to administer the grants. The Alabama Ethics Commission dismissed the complaint. 'I don't think anybody in this room doubts what the real reason here is. This is retaliation for that ethics complaint,' Davis said. The governor had accused Davis of failing cooperate with her office and other agency heads and of mishandling an American Rescue Plan grant program. Ivey in an Oct. 18 letter to Davis said the ethics complaint was frivolous and a weaponization of the dispute process. Davis said his office acted properly and the governor's actions and statements have interfered with his ability to find other employment.
CBS News
14 minutes ago
- CBS News
Family of Gen. Richard Cavazos, Army's first Hispanic four-star general, saddened by President Trump's plan to rename Fort Cavazos
The family of Gen. Richard Cavazos, the U.S. Army's first Hispanic four-star general, expressed sadness Wednesday over President Donald Trump's plan to restore the original names of several military installations, including renaming Fort Cavazos in Killeen back to Fort Hood. Base renamed in 2023 to remove Confederate ties Trump's announcement comes just two years after the Central Texas base was renamed during the Biden administration as part of a broader initiative to remove Confederate references from U.S. military sites. The base had previously been named after Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood. Gen. Richard E. Cavazos Military Hall of Honor, LLC In a statement, the Cavazos family said an Army representative confirmed the change during a phone call with them on Wednesday. Family told renaming honors different Hood The Cavazos family said they were told the renaming may honor a different Hood, whom they described as the "courageous Colonel Hood of World War I" rather than, in their words, the "infamous Gen. John Bell Hood." "We do not and cannot share the same understanding as the president as to his reasoning for doing so," the family said in the statement. Cavazos praised as Hispanic trailblazer They noted that when Fort Hood was renamed Fort Cavazos, Gen. Colin Powell and others in the military remarked on Gen. Cavazos's impact on "Hispanic persons in the military." They quoted Maj. Gen. Alfred Valenzuela, as saying, "I told him what he meant to us poor Hispanic kids [...] his impact as a mentor is probably the greatest impact our Army had … we all looked up to him as an American soldier, a Hispanic soldier." Focus remains on service members Meanwhile, the family said its "greatest focus is and should always be on the everyday men and women who serve this country in the armed forces." "While the name of the base may change, the everlasting legacy of the incredible men and women who continue to serve there cannot," the statement said. Cavazos was decorated war veteran In addition to being the Army's first Hispanic four-star general, Gen. Cavazos, a Texas native, was a decorated veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars. He also served as the commanding general of III Corps at Fort Hood from 1980 to 1982.
