Economy

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday proposed a three-month stopgap funding bill that excludes an immigration-related measure demanded by Donald Trump, as lawmakers look to avert a month-end partial government shutdown.Johnson laid out the plan in a letter to colleagues released just eight days before the government’s current $1.2 trillion in discretionary funding runs out on Sept. 30. The chamber will aim to vote on the measure on Wednesday, according to a source with knowledge of the plan.Failure to act by then would furlough thousands of federal workers and shut down a wide swath of government operations weeks before the Nov. 5 election.The proposal, which excludes a Trump demand to impose new requirements that people provide proof of citizenship to register to vote, is aligned with what Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had urged, a basic extension of government funding to December. It runs through Dec. 20.”As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice,” Johnson said in the letter.Democrats, including Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, expressed optimism a bipartisan deal could be reached.Jeffries welcomed the proposal unveiled on Sunday. He said in a statement that House Democrats would evaluate it after a previous proposal which Republicans had “inappropriately attempted to jam” with partisan policy.”Congress is now on a bipartisan path to avoid a government shutdown that would hurt everyday Americans,” Jeffries said.The House, which Republicans control by a narrow 220-211 margin, on Wednesday rejected Johnson’s prior proposal for a six-month funding extension including the voter-registration measure, which Democrats and democracy advocates call unnecessary as it is already illegal for non-citizens to vote in federal elections.Congress faces an even more critical deadline on Jan. 1, by which time lawmakers will have to raise the nation’s debt ceiling or risk defaulting on more than $35 trillion in federal government debt.The bill proposes $231 million in additional funding for the U.S. Secret Service after a gunman attempted to assassinate Trump in July, grazing his ear, and another gunman was discovered this month lying in wait just outside the fence of a Florida golf course where Trump was playing.The additional funds would be made available “for operations necessary to carry out protective operations including the 2024 presidential campaign,” the bill said. More

Following Labour’s election victory in July, Reeves suggested taxes were likely to rise in her first budget on Oct. 30 because of what she said was a 22 billion-pound ($29 billion) hole in the public finances. She also announced that millions of pensioners would no longer receive fuel payments in the winter, a decision the government says it didn’t want to take but one which trade unions and other traditional Labour supporters have criticised.At the Labour Party conference in the northern English city of Liverpool, Reeves will use Monday’s keynote speech to reiterate that she will make the necessary decisions to give the stability she said was “the essential precondition for business to invest with confidence and families to plan for the future”.”There will be no return to austerity. Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services – and for investment and growth too,” Reeves will say, according to extracts from her speech.”We must deal with the Tory (Conservative) legacy and that means tough decisions. But we won’t let that dim our ambition for Britain.”Amid criticism that Reeves and Prime Minister Keir Starmer have taken an overly gloomy view which, along with a furore over donations, has cast a pall over what would otherwise have been a Labour celebration of their first election win for 14 years, she will hint at a brighter future beyond the tough circumstances she inherited.”I can see the prize on offer, if we make the right choices now. And stability is the crucial foundation on which all our ambitions will be built,” she will say.Reeves will also reiterate that Labour’s manifesto commitments not to raise income tax, National Insurance social security payments, value-added tax and corporation tax. More

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Earlier this month, Musk had said that the first Starships to Mars would launch in two years “when the next Earth-Mars transfer window opens.”The CEO on Sunday said that the first crewed mission timeline will depend upon the success of the uncrewed flights. If the uncrewed missions land safely, crewed missions will be launched in four years. However, in case of challenges, crewed missions will be postponed by another two years, Musk said. Musk, known for providing changing timelines on Starship’s readiness, said earlier this year that the first uncrewed starship to land on Mars would be within five years, with the first people landing on Mars within seven years.In June, a Starship rocket survived a fiery, hypersonic return from space and achieved a breakthrough landing demonstration in the Indian Ocean, completing a full test mission around the globe on the rocket’s fourth try.Musk is counting on Starship to fulfill his goal of producing a large, multipurpose next-generation spacecraft capable of sending people and cargo to the moon later this decade, and ultimately flying to Mars.NASA earlier this year delayed Artemis 3 mission and its first crewed moon landing in half a century using SpaceX’s Starship, to September 2026. It was previously planned for late 2025, NASA said.Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa in June canceled a private mission around the moon he had paid for, which was to have used SpaceX’s Starship, citing schedule uncertainties in the rocket’s development. More

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PARIS (Reuters) -Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Sunday opened the door to raising taxes on France’s wealthiest individuals and some big corporations to help close a gaping hole in the public finances, but said he would protect the lower and middle classes. President Emmanuel Macron’s office this weekend unveiled a right-leaning which he hopes will break the political deadlock that followed a summer snap election. Its most immediate and daunting task will be to put together a budget for 2025 at a time France is struggling to contain a spiralling budget deficit.”I’m not going to further increase taxes on all French people, neither on the most modest, nor on people who work, nor on the middle classes. But I cannot exclude the wealthiest from the national effort to rectify the situation,” Barnier told France 2 television.France’s total debt stands at 110% of GDP, or close to 3.2 million euros. Weaker-than-expected tax revenues and higher spending by local governments has left its public sector budget deficit spiralling towards 6.2% of economic output next year if nothing is done to rein it in.It is in breach of European Union deficit rules and credit rating agencies are scrutinising French decision-making carefully.”A large part of our debt has been placed on international and foreign markets. We have to maintain France’s credibility,” Barnier said. Barnier, who was the EU’s lead negotiator during Britain’s Brexit negotiations, also said he was also open to changes to Macron’s pension reform but that any changes should not undermine the pension system’s precarious finances. He said by way of example that he wanted to better take into account the hardships faced by working mothers over the course of long careers and that he was open to the input of employers and unions. Macron’s political opponents on the left and far right have already threatened votes of no confidence against Barnier’s government. They say the government is not a reflection of how the French voted in the July poll.”This is more Macron. It’s a government that has no future,” Jordan Bardella, chairman of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party, earlier said.Barnier’s government lacks a majority and will need to keep the far-right on side and deter it from voting to bring the government down if it is to survive. Perhaps with that in mind, Barnier said he would get tough on immigration.”We need a European response. We need to take action at home too,” Barnier said. “We need to deal with the immigration issue much more rigorously.” More

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PARIS (Reuters) – French Prime Minister Michel Barnier has handed a little known duo the task of plugging a huge hole in the budget, putting loyalty before political clout in the job description for his finance and budget ministers.Ending weeks of suspense, Barnier unveiled his ministerial line-up late on Saturday, tapping 33-year-old junior lawmaker Antoine Armand for the prestigious economy and finance ministry.Barnier also named Laurent Saint Martin, 39, head of the government office that promotes foreign investment in France, as budget minister, putting him directly under his purview rather than the finance ministry in a break with tradition.Unknown outside of Parisian political circles, the two face huge pressure to figure out how to rein in France’s budget deficit as it spirals towards 6% of GDP due to a tax shortfall and higher than planned spending.Although they lack political weight, economists say they run little risk of putting President Emmanuel Macron’s legacy of tax cuts and pro-business reforms at risk – if they can get the 2025 budget passed.”It’s a way of keeping policy continuity, they’re faithful and will follow Emmanuel Macron’s political line,” economist Mathieu Plane with the OFCE economics think tank said.   Armand, 33, is a relative political novice, serving as a lawmaker in Macron’s party since 2022 while Saint Martin only served one term, failing to win a second term in 2022. It is still unclear which one will take the lead steering the 2025 budget bill through France’s deeply divided parliament, where they can expect a rough ride from opposition parties which could team up and vote through a vote of no confidence, potentially bringing down Barnier’s government.Usually France’s finance and economy minister drafts and steers budget legislation through parliament with the budget minister in a junior role to iron out wrinkles.In any case it will fall on Armand to defend the government’s budget choices in Brussels, where France’s European Union partners are unlikely to have much sympathy for Paris once again requesting more time to cut its budget deficit.He will also have to represent France at international forums like the G7 and G20, where he will share the stage with far more experienced policymakers like U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.HIGH STAKES BUDGETArmand and Saint Martin will have to work around the clock to finalise the 2025 budget bill, which usually takes months of preparation and is due to be handed over to lawmakers by Oct. 1, although some limited leeway is possible.While finance ministry officials have already done much of the grunt work, they will have to figure out how to balance tax hikes and spending cuts in a way that does not prompt a political backlash.Though set against rolling back broader tax cuts under Macron, the outgoing government has left behind proposals for an increase in taxes on energy companies and a tax on big corporate share buybacks.Broader tax hikes are likely to fall foul of the extreme right National Rally and Barnier’s own conservative Republicains party.That means the brunt of the effort to narrow the budget shortfall will have to come from unpopular spending cuts, which will likely have to be about 20 billion to 30 billion euros ($22-$34 billion) depending on how fast the government decides to cut the deficit, according to calculations by the treasury. As Armand and Saint Martin weigh tax hikes and spending cuts, Barnier and Macron will be looking closely over their shoulders, OFCE’s Plane said.”It’s a guarantee that what has been done so far is not unpicked,” he added.($1 = 0.8959 euros) More