First Run News

WASHINGTON — In 2009, almost every Republican in Congress opposed a $787 billion stimulus plan in the midst of an economic crisis because they said it would cause a dangerous increase in the federal debt. “Yesterday the Senate cast one of the most expensive votes in history,” Senator Mitch McConnell, the minority leader, said at the time.

Right Now: The Senate voted 51-49 to approve the Republican tax bill. • Republicans passed the nearly $1.5 trillion tax rewrite along party lines.

CANTON, Ohio — The tax bill convulsing a bitterly divided Congress may seem like the ultimate high stakes political showdown in Washington. But on a rainy afternoon in a county that voted for Donald J. Trump, it feels like distant noise, an opaque battle in a faraway land whose meaning for everyday life is unknown. “I heard a few things on the news, but you have trouble understanding it all,” said Pat Turk, an instructor at the National Beauty College on Cleveland Avenue. “I don’t think it will change things that much for us,” she said. “Taxes go up.

The Republican tax plan would have far-reaching effects on virtually every American, but it’s fair to say tax policy is not the easiest subject to follow. If you haven’t kept up with the story as much as you feel you should have, or if you’re wondering where to focus your attention, we hope this collection of our explanatory reporting will help. No economics degree is necessary. This is a good starting point if you’re coming in fresh, giving you a big-picture look at the goals and challenges of the tax plan. The plan would affect not just how much money is in your tax return.

WASHINGTON — By midafternoon on Friday, Republicans had the votes to pass their tax bill in the Senate. What they did not have was a bill. The legislation, covering nearly 500 pages, finally surfaced well after the sun had set. It appeared first in the lobbying shops of K Street, which sent back copies to some Democrats in the Senate, who took to social media to protest being asked to vote in a matter of hours on a bill that had yet to be shared with them directly. The drafts that leaked to journalists included changes scrawled in looping handwriting in the margins.

WASHINGTON — The Senate passed the most sweeping tax rewrite in decades early Saturday, with Republicans lining up to approve an overhaul that will touch almost every corner of the United States economy, affecting families, small business owners and multinational corporations, with the biggest benefits flowing to the highest-earning Americans. Senators voted 51-49, as Republicans approved the nearly 500-page bill in the early morning hours after lawmakers received a rewritten version, which contained significant cha

Former Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. In his first post on A post shared by James Comey (@a_higher_loyalty) on Dec 1, 2017 at 9:01am PST Comey also uploaded the Instagram post to his official Twitter page. President Donald Trump fired Comey suddenly in May after the president reportedly attempted to persuade the FBI to drop its

More smoke but no smoking gun. Michael Flynn's guilty plea Friday added a new layer of lies to the far-reaching investigation into ties between President Donald Trump and Russia, and put heightened scrutiny on the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has joined the chairman of the House Democrats' campaign committee in calling on a first-term Democratic Nevada congressman to resign, following a report that he sexually harassed an aide during his 2016 congressional campaign. In an article published by BuzzFeed Friday afternoon, Rep.

The Senate is entering the final stretch of a massive tax overhaul push that will impact millions of Americans in different ways. By-and-large, the most costly provision continues to be reducing the corporate tax rate to 20 percent. The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) gives that a $1.4 trillion price tag. Republican claims the measure would pay for itself were also debunked this week by the JCT.