debt ceiling

About one in four Americans get their healthcare through Medicaid, which was created to help people who are poor or who have disabilities. And some 42 million of us — almost 13 percent of the population — draw stipends to pay for food through SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which used to be called food stamps.

Senator Peter Welch held a discussion with Vermonters Wednesday about how they would be impacted if the U.S. defaults on its debt.

The 14th Amendment to the US Constitution is one of the most consequential amendments. In addition to granting citizenship to anyone born in the United States (including the children of so-called “illegal immigrants”), it also says that no state may take any actions that deprive their citizens of the equal protection of the law. It was the opening gun in an effort to make ex-slaves full citizens and give them political rights.

Overruling prior legislation usually takes a majority of both Houses of Congress. Either House can refuse to pass new legislation. But neither House has the power to repeal existing legislation by itself – that requires a new law, passed by both Houses and usually signed by the president. That was important in the original constitutional system, to stop the House, which they expected to be southern dominated, or the Senate, which they expected to be northern dominated, from making unilateral decisions to satisfy either region.

Economist Hugh Johnson discusses the impacts of the debt ceiling debate, how the Federal Reserve might react to the latest inflation numbers, and the state of the banking system.

President Biden returned to New York Wednesday to accuse House Republicans of attempting to hold the U.S. economy hostage as talks over raising the debt ceiling have stalled.

Reaction from congressional representatives in Vermont and northern New York to the agreement ending the government shutdown and avoiding default came…

Sean Eldridge, a Democratic candidate for Congress who is challenging Republican Chris Gibson in the 2014 race for the 19th District seat, tells WAMC that…

Vermont Congressman Peter Welch joined with 186 of his Democratic colleagues in the House this week to send a letter he authored to the president urging…

WAMC’s Alan Chartock, the Hunger Action Network’s Mark Dunlea and Investigative Reporter, Rosemary Armao.Topics include:SyriaKerry on SyriaDebt…