Government & Policy
Legislation, executive orders, regulatory changes, and government actions that directly impact personal finances, taxes, benefits, or the economy.
Latest in Government & Policy
The VA’s Survivors Pension pays a low-income surviving spouse of a wartime veteran
A low-income widow or widower of a wartime veteran can draw a monthly VA Survivors Pension worth up to $974 a month, a figure set...
Many states waive property taxes entirely for veterans with a service-connected disability
For a veteran with a top disability rating, a state property-tax exemption can erase one of retirement’s largest fixed bills, wiping out several thousand dollars...
A VA Aid and Attendance benefit adds monthly money for veterans who need help with daily care
A wartime veteran who needs help with everyday tasks can lift the ceiling on a VA pension to as much as $29,093 a year through...
Tariff refunds have grown so large that the duties turned into a net cost, yet little is reaching shoppers
The tariffs that added roughly $30 billion a month to federal coffers for a year have flipped into a drain on the Treasury, as refunds...
The U.S. is readying a new 7.5% tariff on Chinese goods before a Trump-Xi summit, a cost that can reach store shelves
The next tariff aimed at China is being measured in single digits, not the triple-digit figures that defined earlier trade fights. The administration is preparing...
Medicaid’s new 80-hour work rule reaches 44 states on January 1, and millions must prove the hours or lose coverage
Starting January 1, Medicaid stops being an automatic benefit for millions of adults in 44 states and becomes a benefit that must be earned in...
New 50% U.S. tariffs on about $20 billion of Canadian goods just took effect, raising costs on liquor, clothing and building materials
A 50% tariff wall went up on roughly $20 billion of Canadian imports at midnight, and the goods behind it read like a shopping list:...
Nine states levy no income tax, stretching a fixed retirement income further
Where a retiree settles down can be worth thousands of dollars a year at tax time. Nine states impose no broad tax on personal income,...
The VA fills many prescriptions for a few dollars and mails them to the door for free
For a veteran enrolled in VA health care, the pharmacy counter looks nothing like the one at a retail drugstore. Many prescriptions are filled for...
Disabled veterans can buy a home with no down payment and skip the VA funding fee
A VA-backed home loan lets a qualified veteran buy a house with no down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance, two features that already separate...
CHAMPVA can cover health care for the spouse and children of a permanently disabled veteran
A veteran’s permanent and total disability rating does more than set a monthly compensation check. It can also open a health program that covers the...
About $100 billion in struck-down tariffs is being refunded to businesses, but little is reaching shoppers
After the Supreme Court struck down many of the tariffs imposed over the past year, roughly $100 billion of the money collected is now flowing...
More than 4 million people have already lost some or all of their food stamps under the new law
More than 4 million people have already lost some or all of their food stamps since last July, as new rules from the One Big...
Federal student-loan collections have restarted, and defaults now top 9 million, putting paychecks and benefits at risk
Federal student-loan collections have restarted, and the number of borrowers in default now tops 9 million — roughly 9.5 to 9.6 million as of March...
Prescription drug prices have fallen every month of 2026, the sharpest drop the White House claims since the 1960s
The White House says prescription drug prices have fallen about 3.9% since President Trump took office and have declined in every month of 2026, a...
Eighteen states now limit what SNAP benefits can buy, from soda to candy
The card that pays for groceries in millions of households is about to work differently at the checkout line. By the end of 2026, roughly...
SNAP work-rule waivers now require 10% unemployment, putting food aid at risk for millions
A change written into last year’s sweeping tax-and-spending law is now reshaping who can keep food assistance, and the pivot point is a single number:...
Trump says a new deal is bringing weight-loss and other drug prices down sharply, with some shots near $149
The Trump administration announced in August that it had reached pricing agreements with 17 drugmakers responsible for roughly 86 percent of the branded prescription market,...
The VA’s needs-based pension is a separate benefit from disability pay, for low-income wartime veterans
Many veterans assume that if they never had a service-connected injury, the VA has no monthly check for them. That is wrong. The VA runs...
A housebound allowance raises a veteran’s monthly VA payment
Veterans who are largely confined to their homes because of a service-connected condition can receive more money each month than their disability rating alone would...