Business

“There’s just so much at stake here,” said one adviser to senior party leaders, describing how, overnight, a sense of enormity was added to the immediate calendar. Over the next few weeks, the president will have to land centerpieces of his domestic agenda aimed at boosting the nation’s global competitiveness and revamping whole swaths of its economy. Major decisions on student loans and expanding abortion rights hang in the balance. There’s also the matter of containing twin outbreaks of monkeypox and the coronavirus, the last of which Biden just spent five days personally fending off. If that weren’t enough, he’s juggling a slate of foreign affairs challenges as well — headlined by longer-term efforts to reset with Iran on a nuclear deal and negotiate the release of a basketball star and...

The average price at the pump is still $1.17 per gallon higher than it was a year ago. But Democrats are eagerly embracing the shifting economic tides — and hoping voters pay attention. “We have some really good news: Gas prices are coming down,” Biden said at a White House meeting last week. “In some cities, it’s down almost a dollar from last month. We’ve been working really hard to bring the price down.” It’s an open question, though, whether voters will give more weight to the declining fuel prices, or to the fact that they spiked so high to begin with. One GOP operative acknowledged that the drop could make a difference. “If the market continues to respond as it has and gets back to year-ago prices, that will definitely blunt the criticism” over inflation, said Chuck Coughlin, a Repub...

Here’s a breakdown of what’s in the bill expected to reach the Senate floor next week: Clean energy tax credits Democratic lawmakers have long eyed the party-line budget reconciliation as a crucial vehicle for the extension and expansion of a host of renewable energy tax incentives and for next-generation technologies, including clean hydrogen and advanced nuclear — all of which saw support in the final agreement. The package of credits is seen as the biggest driver of emissions reductions, given its role in accelerating the deployment of renewable energy and new technologies. The agreement includes 10-year extensions of existing credits for wind and solar, as well as provisions for heat pumps, rooftop solar and standalone energy storage, like batteries. The credits also are tied to prevai...

But Republicans are poised to cast aside all the economic technicalities and bash Democratic candidates up and down the midterm ballot over an economy that is already deeply unpopular with voters in both parties who are seeing prices for gas, food, travel and nearly everything else rise 9 percent, much faster than their own wages. Fresh data on inflation arrives on Friday. Many economists agree that this post-pandemic period doesn’t meet many criteria for recession, a politically charged word with no precise definition. Recessions are generally only declared — often after the decline is over — by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a private research group. The unemployment rate is near record lows. Job openings remain high and consumer spending is still fairly strong, undermining th...

Lawmakers and climate advocates — who had been hammering Manchin in recent days for rejecting the climate measures because of inflation concerns — were ecstatic at the surprise announcement. “There’s been a ton of work done over the last two weeks to make the case to Sen. Manchin that this package is not inflationary and address his concerns in a serious way,” said Jason Walsh, executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance, a coalition of labor and environmental groups. “And we’re just thrilled that we’re at this moment,” he added. People familiar with the effort to bring Manchin back to the table on climate said there had been an intensive effort to convince him of the merits of supporting the new technologies — including from company executives who came forward with new plans to build man...

The average price at the pump is still $1.17 per gallon higher than it was a year ago. But Democrats are eagerly embracing the shifting economic tides — and hoping voters pay attention. “We have some really good news: Gas prices are coming down,” Biden said at a White House meeting last week. “In some cities, it’s down almost a dollar from last month. We’ve been working really hard to bring the price down.” It’s an open question, though, whether voters will give more weight to the declining fuel prices, or to the fact that they spiked so high to begin with. One GOP operative acknowledged that the drop could make a difference. “If the market continues to respond as it has and gets back to year-ago prices, that will definitely blunt the criticism” over inflation, said Chuck Coughlin, a Repub...