The Fiscal Times

President Trump slapped tariffs of 50% on some Canadian goods Monday, just days after threatening to punish the country for allowing heavy wildfire smoke to drift into the United States. “Our air has been poisoned,” Trump said Sunday, referring to the Canadian wildfire smoke.

By Yuval Rosenberg House Republican leaders kicked off a government funding fight on Friday — or at least dared Democrats to start one. The GOP leaders released the text of a bill that would extend federal funding until December 4 and avert the threat of an election-season government shutdown when current funding expires at the end of September. Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that he plans a floor vote on the stopgap funding measure next week.

By Michael Rainey Buoyed by lower gas prices, U.S. consumer sentiment rose to a five-month high in early July, according to a popular survey from the University of Michigan. The preliminary reading of the Index of Consumer Sentiment rose nearly 10% to 54.4, up from 49.5 in June. “This month’s rise in sentiment was pervasive across the population, seen across groups by age, income, wealth, and political party,” survey director Joanne Hsu said.

By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey Happy Friday! With much of the northern United States suffering from hazardous air quality because of Canadian wildfires, President Trump today threatened to impose additional tariffs to make Canada pay for what he described as poor forest maintenance. "The cost is incalculable!" Trump wrote in a social media post.

Republicans took a key step Thursday in their push to enact a $95 billion budget reconciliation package, advancing the plan out of the House Budget Committee in a 20-14 vote along party lines. The measure would allow up to $73 billion in military and intelligence funding, $12 billion in farm aid and $10 billion for election-related efforts that President Trump has prioritized.

A sweeping veterans’ benefits bill was pulled from the House floor on Thursday before it could be brought to a vote. The Take Care of America’s Veterans Act includes more than 60 individual measures, most of which have received broad support from veterans’ groups. But the bill would cut some existing benefits to pay for the expansion of other benefits, and those cuts have sparked fierce debate.

House Republicans on Wednesday released their blueprint for a $95 billion party-line package they hope to pass this summer to fund the military and farm aid. The 47-page plan, a first step in unlocking a third GOP budget reconciliation bill this Congress, allows up to $60 billion in defense funding, including money to avoid a shortfall in servicemember pay; $13 billion for intelligence efforts; and $12 billion in farm aid.

By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey Happy Wednesday! The Senate held a series of high-profile - and at times combative - confirmation hearings today. Lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee grilled Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general seeking to get the nation's top law enforcement job on a permanent basis, while the Intelligence Committee took up the nomination of Jay Clayton to be director of national intelligence.

By Yuval Rosenberg In an extraordinary vote Tuesday, Senate Democrats blocked a $1.15 trillion annual defense policy bill, opposing the measure as part of an ongoing partisan showdown over defense spending levels and in protest against President Trump’s handling of the war with Iran.

Jules “Jay” Hurst III, President Trump’s nominee to serve as the Pentagon’s comptroller, frustrated Democratic lawmakers Tuesday when he told a Senate panel that he does not have an updated estimate of the cost of the Iran war. As acting Pentagon comptroller, Hurst told lawmakers in May that the war had cost $29 billion up to that point, but that estimate did not include the significant potential costs of repairing damage from Iranian attacks on U.S. bases in the Persian Gulf region.