Happy Monday and welcome back to On The Money. I’m Sylvan Lane, and here’s your nightly guide to everything affecting your bills, bank account and bottom line.
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THE BIG DEAL—Shutdown clash looms after Democrats unveil spending bill: Legislation introduced Monday by House Democrats to keep the federal government funded through Dec. 11 quickly ran into opposition from Senate Republicans, raising the odds of a shutdown at the end of the month, just weeks before the election.
- Government funding is slated to run out on Sept. 30, leaving just nine days for both parties to avoid a damaging shutdown.
- Tensions are already spiking over that Senate GOP’s plans to quickly fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and stalled negotiations over a coronavirus relief bill.
The conflict: Democrats on Monday unveiled a stopgap measure, known as a continuing resolution (CR), that does not contain a provision requested by the White House to provide aid for farmers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
It’s not yet clear if Senate Republicans will try to amend the bill and send it back to the House in a game of legislative ping-pong with such a tight time frame. But they are already railing against it. The Hill’s Cristina Marcos has more here.
LEADING THE DAY
CBO: $900B a year needed to stabilize post-crisis debt: A fiscal plan to restore the nation’s debt to pre-coronavirus levels will require spending cuts and revenue increases amounting to $900 billion a year for a quarter century, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
CBO’s long-term budget projections, released Monday, found that if the United States takes fiscal action in 2025, immense changes to spending and taxing would be needed to stabilize the debt at its pre-crisis level of 79 percent gross domestic product (GDP).
CBO Director Phillip Swagel called the long-term fiscal challenge “daunting,” though not an immediate crisis.
“There is no set tipping point at which a fiscal crisis becomes likely or imminent, nor is there an identifiable point at which interest costs as a percentage of GDP become unsustainable,” Swagel said. “But as the debt grows, the risks become greater.”
The Hill’s Niv Elis breaks it down here.
Airline CEOs plead with Washington as layoffs loom: The race to prevent massive airline layoffs in October is heating up with CEOs and union leaders pleading with the White House and Congress to reach a deal for more industry aid.
Employers say they will have to start cutting tens of thousands of jobs in a little more than a week without congressional action. But despite bipartisan support to prevent job losses from hitting flight attendants and pilots, an agreement remains elusive amid a stalemate over a broader coronavirus relief bill.
The Hill’s Alex Gangitano tells us why here.
GOOD TO KNOW
- Stocks on Monday dropped sharply amid concerns about rapidly rising coronavirus cases across Europe and dwindling odds of another economic rescue bill reaching President Trump’s desk.
- A deal to avert a U.S. ban on TikTok appears to have been reached over the weekend, but several questions remain about the contours of the pending agreement.
- The Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Monday urged the Treasury Department and IRS to update and refine their estimate of the number of people who have not yet received their coronavirus relief payments.
- Shortages of supplies and equipment are harming the U.S.’s COVID-19 response almost six months into the pandemic, a government watchdog said in a report issued Monday.
- A leak of documents from leading financial institutions revealed a massive North Korean scheme to evade sanctions by laundering money through U.S. banks, according to NBC News.