New York Senator and former presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand spoke with Cheddar on Monday about why she joined fellow Democratic lawmakers in opposing the latest $2 trillion stimulus bill.
"The package that Senator [Mitch] McConnell put together did not put workers first, patients first, hospitals first. It literally put corporations first with a slush fund for [Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin] to dole out money in the billions of dollars to whatever companies he wants," she said.
The senator said the stimulus should do more for workers by offering expanded unemployment insurance, national paid leave, national sick leave, and provisions to prevent corporations that get bailed out from paying out bonuses to executives or spending profits on stock buybacks.
She wants to avoid the kind of situation that she says followed the 2008 "Great Recession," in which companies that had been bailed out did not later invest in their employees.
"We want their investments to be worker-driven because that's how you help the economy and help us recover," Gillibrand said.
The lack of funding for hospitals, however, was Gillibrand's biggest criticism of the package.
"It's not fair. These are our first-responders. These are our frontlines in the war against this virus," she emphasized.
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The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by a quarter-point Wednesday and projected it would do so twice more this year as concern grows at the central bank about the health of the nation’s labor market. The move is the Fed’s first cut since December and lowered its short-term rate to about 4.1%, down from 4.3%. Fed officials, led by Chair Jerome Powell, had kept their rate unchanged this year as they evaluated the impact of tariffs, tighter immigration enforcement, and other Trump administration policies on inflation and the economy. The only dissenter was Stephen Miran, the recent Trump-appointee.
After a late-night vote and last-minute ruling, the Federal Reserve began a key meeting on interest rate policy Tuesday with both a new Trump administration appointee and an official the White House has targeted for removal.
The Trump administration has issued its first warnings to online services that offer unofficial versions of popular drugs like the blockbuster obesity treatment Wegovy.
Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama says his new Cabinet will include an artificial intelligence “minister” in charge of fighting corruption. The AI, named Diella, will oversee public funding projects and combat corruption in public tenders. Diella was launched earlier this year as a virtual assistant on the government's public service platform. Corruption has been a persistent issue in Albania since 1990. Rama's Socialist Party won a fourth consecutive term in May. It aims to deliver EU membership for Albania in five years, but the opposition Democratic Party remains skeptical.
The Trump administration has asked an appeals court to remove Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s board of governors by Monday, before the central bank’s next vote on interest rates. Trump sought to fire Cook Aug. 25, but a federal judge ruled late Tuesday that the removal was illegal and reinstated her to the Fed’s board.
