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Thursday, April 3, 2025

US Senate Republicans vote to advance Trump's sweeping tax cut plan

U.S. Senate Republicans took a procedural step forward on President Donald Trump's sweeping tax cut agenda on Thursday, overcoming concerns among some Republican lawmakers that the plan does not include sufficient spending cuts.

The Senate voted 52-48 to move forward with the framework to address Trump's proposals for tax cuts, border enforcement and increased military spending, which nonpartisan analysts warn could add $5.8 trillion to the federal government's debt over the next decade.

Lawmakers hope to pass the resolution after up to 50 hours of floor debate, and send it on to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.

Both chambers must approve the same budget resolution to unlock a key parliamentary tool that would allow Republicans to circumvent Senate Democrats and enact the Trump agenda later this year. That could take several months.

Thursday's vote came a day after the White House assured congressional Republicans that Trump supported their desire to include deep spending cuts in the bill.

The Senate Budget Committee plan estimates the cost of extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts, as well as delivering on sweeping new promises to eliminate taxes on tips, overtime and Social Security retirement payments, at $1.5 trillion over a decade. That is far below the $4.5 trillion cost estimated in a blueprint that passed the House in February.

The Senate and House cost estimates differ because Senate Republicans intend to use a controversial approach that claims extending the 2017 tax cuts will not add to the nation's debt.

Top Senate Republican John Thune, of South Dakota, huddled before the vote with fellow Republicans to address concerns about that controversial approach. Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas, who attended the closed-door meeting, said leaders assuaged worries including whether Republicans would try to overrule the Senate parliamentarian, the chamber's gatekeeper on rules, if she opposed the move later in the year when legislation to enact the Trump agenda reaches the Senate floor.

"I think the answer to that is, 'no,'" Cornyn told reporters.

The Senate measure also calls for a $5 trillion increase in the borrowing limit on the $36.6 trillion debt, which Republicans say will prevent the issue from coming up again until after the 2026 midterm elections.

The Senate blueprint contains an aspirational goal of cutting $2 trillion in spending from domestic programs that increased during the COVID pandemic, as a way of winning House support.

But House Republicans have voiced skepticism about the blueprint, citing enforceable spending-cut goals that seek only a few billion dollars in spending reductions.

Democrats have warned that lawmakers will have a hard time achieving their $2 trillion spending-cut goal without cutting deeply into the Medicaid health insurance plan for low-income Americans.

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated the Senate budget measure could add about $5.8 trillion to the U.S. debt in the next decade.

Nonpartisan budget analysts have estimated that adopting all of Trump's tax proposals could cost up to $11 trillion.

https://www.aol.com/news/us-senate-republicans-vote-trumps-222428656.html

'NYC stores urging shoppers to buy now before Trump tariff price hikes hit'

Some NYC stores are urging customers to make their purchases quick before President Trump’s new tariffs hike prices — and nervous shoppers are rushing to showrooms across the city to snatch up electronics, appliances, and even cars while prices hold.

“Honestly the company’s urged us to tell customers it’s best to buy before the 10% tariffs kick in,” said Xavier Poindexter, 27, a sales associate at a Flushing PC Richards & Son electronics and appliance store.

“I’ve been hearing a lot on this topic from customers,” he added. “Our customers are worried about the product prices going up and the corporations that sell the products taking advantage of the situation and raising the prices even further.”

The first round of Trump’s newly announced tariffs — a baseline 10% on all imports into the US — come into effect first-thing Saturday.

Heavier reciprocal tariffs — including on electronics powerhouse nations like Japan and China, which will face 24% and 34% tariffs — become effective April 9.

Some store managers and sales reps say they’ve received no directives about raising prices yet, while others have been directed not to comment on the topic — but many customers aren’t waiting around to find out what might happen.

“I just bought a Subaru Ascent and I paid $50,247, and I told them that if they couldn’t get it to me before the tariffs, forget it, the deal was off,” said MJ, a 74-year-old from Brooklyn who decided to trade in her old cars once Trump’s plans started looming.

After the full scope of the president’s tariffs were announced Wednesday MJ decided it might be time to swap out all of her home’s aging appliances, too, so she went down to PC Richards & Son Thursday to scope out the prices.

“I’m worried because I live in a house where all the appliances are about 10 years old, and that’s about how long they last nowadays. The repairman said I don’t want to be buying parts for all these old appliances after the tariffs happen, so I’m pricing them now,” she said.

At the Apple store in SoHo, several customers scooted in to upgrade their iPhones fast and pick up products they’ve had their eyes on in case prices spike within a week.

“[We planned to buy] for his birthday next week, but we decided to move it up,” said 40-year-old mom Jackie Carter, who stopped in ahead of her 12-year-old son’s big day next week to buy him a pair of Beats headphones.

“I think it’s horrible, and it’s inhumane,” she said, issuing a gloomy take on Trump’s grand gamble to boost America’s economic standing.

Another customer who came in for a new iPhone ahead of the tariffs was also disgusted by them.

“If you’re asking me very simply what I think about the whole thing, it’s a very, very bad idea,” said the man, asking not to be named. “It breaks all of the alliances and promises, all of the work that our entire government and our civil service has been preparing for, including a lot of my friends, since 1945.”

President Trump framed the tariffs as a measure to reinvigorate local manufacturing and bring money back into American pockets — calling the move a “declaration of economic independence.”

“Factories will come roaring back into our country — and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base. We will pry open foreign markets and break down foreign trade barriers,” he said during his announcement Wednesday, which was branded “Liberation Day.”

But not everybody is so optimistic — with some analysts predicting the tariffs could cost Americans upwards of $3,800 per year.

And in the Big Apple, business owners and workers are scared.

“Business down, very down. A lot of tax now,” said Abdul Kadir, cashier at New York Gifts and Luggage in Times Square.

“A lot of product come from Bangladesh and now 37 percent tax. Mexican product. In another week the whole market blow up. When they raise price, we raise price too, how are we to pay the rent? My boss also mad, all cashiers scared.”

Still, some shoppers supported the move.

“He’s lining up the deal to make it fair for us and get companies making stuff here,” MJ said. “I’m willing to go through whatever we have to go through to get back to the country we had when I was a kid. I truly believe he’s on the right track.”

https://nypost.com/2025/04/03/us-news/nyc-stores-urging-shoppers-to-buy-now-before-trump-tariff-price-hikes-hit-i-just-bought-a-subaru/

Study exposes huge levels of untargeted antibiotic prescribing

Doctors are prescribing antibiotics for tens of thousands of patients with infections, with little or no consideration of prognosis and the risk of the infection worsening, according to a new study led by University of Manchester epidemiologists.

The study of 15.7 million patient records, published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine today (April 4), implies there could be scope to prescribe far fewer antibiotics.

The researchers found the probability of being prescribed antibiotics for a lower respiratory tract or urinary tract infection was unrelated to hospital admission risk.

And the probability of being prescribed an antibiotic for an upper respiratory tract infection was only weakly related to hospital admission risk.

The study also showed that patient characteristics such as age and the presence of other health problems were only weakly associated with the probability of being prescribed an antibiotic for treatment of a common infection.

The most elderly patients in the sample were 31% less likely than the youngest patients to receive an antibiotic for upper respiratory infections.

That inevitably means, say the researchers, that many younger people are being prescribed antibiotics, even though they are often fit enough to recover without them, potentially leading to resistance.

Conversely, many older people—who may not be able to deal with infections without antibiotics—are not receiving them, with the potential of complications and hospital admissions.

Patients with combinations of diseases were 7% less likely than people without major health problems to receive an antibiotic for upper respiratory infections.

Lead authors are Professor Tjeerd van Staa and Dr. Ali Fahmi, from University of Manchester.

Professor van Staa said, "Antibiotics are effective in treating bacterial infections, but they carry the risks of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and loss of effectiveness when used inappropriately.

"That is why AMR to antibiotics has been recognized as one of the biggest threats to global public health.

"Given the threat of resistance, there is a need to better target antibiotics in primary care to patients with higher risks of infection-related complications such as sepsis.

"But this study finds that antibiotics for common infections are commonly not prescribed according to complication risk and that suggests there is plenty of scope to do more to reduce antibiotic prescribing."

The study also showed that the probability of being prescribed an antibiotic for lower respiratory infections was even more unrelated to complication risk during the pandemic; however, they were only minor changes for urinary tract infections.

The research team accessed anonymized patient-level electronic health records of primary care data from Phoenix Partnership (TPP) through OpenSAFELY, a secure platform for electronic health records in the NHS.

They included adults registered at general practices in England from January 2019 to March 2023 diagnosed with upper respiratory, lower respiratory and urinary tract infections.

Patient-specific risks of infection-related hospital admission were estimated for each infection using risk prediction scores for patients who were not prescribed an antibiotic.

Dr. Ali Fahmi added, "Rather than imposing targets for reducing inappropriate prescribing, we argue that it is far more viable for clinicians to focus on improving risk-based antibiotic prescribing for infections that are less severe and typically self-limiting.

"Prognosis and harm should explicitly be considered in treatment guidelines, alongside better personalized information for clinicians and patients to support shared decision making."

"A Knowledge Support System (KSS) led by Professor Tjeerd van Staa, which provides personalized information to clinicians is now being tested in North-West England.

"We hope it could provide a workable solution to the problem of untargeted antibiotic prescribing."

More information: Ali Fahmi et al, Antibiotics for Common Infections in Primary Care Before, During and after the COVID-19 Pandemic and Extent of Risk-Based Prescribing: Need for Personalised Guidelines, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (2025).

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-exposes-huge-untargeted-antibiotic.html

Nissan will pause US orders of Mexican-built Infiniti SUVs after Trump tariffs

Infiniti has paused production of two Mexico-built crossovers in response to the newly imposed tariffs on vehicles imported to the U.S.

https://www.autonews.com/nissan/an-infiniti-halts-mexico-production-0403/

Tucker Carlson Horrified As Dr. Mary Talley Bowden Drops Chilling COVID Statistic

Via VigiliantFox.com,

Dr. Mary Talley Bowden left Tucker Carlson visibly shaken after dropping a chilling COVID vaccine statistic that’s impacting millions of children right now.

Before her appearance on Carlson’s show, Dr. Bowden, a Texas-based ENT specialist, rose to prominence in the medical freedom movement by speaking out against vaccine mandates and advocating for early treatment options like ivermectin.

She gained national attention after she was suspended by Houston Methodist Hospital for challenging the prevailing COVID narrative.

Despite the backlash, Bowden has remained committed to the Hippocratic Oath, successfully treating an impressive total of over 6,000 COVID patients without a single death.

Before Tucker became visibly disturbed, Dr. Bowden pointed to data from the CDC’s VAERS system, explaining that over 38,000 deaths have been reported following the rollout of the so-called COVID-19 vaccines.

She said that under normal circumstances, such numbers would’ve prompted the FDA to pull the shots.

Instead, they pushed forward, adding the COVID vaccine to the routine childhood schedule, with the expectation that babies receive three doses by just nine months of age.

She added that the shots are still under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for children under 12—not fully FDA approved—and yet they remain on the official vaccine schedule.

Tucker was horrified when Dr. Bowden mentioned a disturbing fact: “According to the CDC, 9 million American children have gotten the latest version of these COVID shots,” she said.

Clearly caught off guard, Carlson asked, “Actually?”

“Yes,” Bowden confirmed.

“Still?” he pressed.

“Yes. Yes. 9 million [kids]—12% [of US children have been injected].”

Tucker, in disbelief, asked, “Wait, this is going on right now?”

“Yes,” Bowden replied.

“I think we voted against this,” Tucker said.

“Yeah,” Bowden confirmed.

“Correct?” Tucker stressed.

“I don’t know,” Dr. Bowden answered.

“You’re very diplomatic, but I’m just stunned to learn that that’s happening right now,” Tucker exclaimed.

“Could this be shut down?” he asked.

“It should have been shut down a long time ago,” Dr. Bowden answered. “And you know, what’s the—”

Tucker interrupted: “9 million babies have had COVID shots?”

“Yeah. Well, children. Minors,” Dr. Bowden clarified.

Tucker’s reaction at the end says it all:

The conversation took another dark turn when Carlson asked about the potential long-term consequences of these shots, to which Dr. Bowden pointed to a disturbing trend.

“I don’t see a ton of cancer in my practice,” she said, “but I do have friends at MD Anderson, and they said they’ve never seen anything like it. The young people coming in with very advanced tumors, I think that’s what we have to be worried about now.”

She explained that getting updated cancer data is difficult, but the anecdotal reports are piling up. “It’s hard to get up-to-date cancer numbers, but I’m hearing all sorts of things. There are probably people who have access to that data, but publicly, it’s hard [to get access].”

This raises a profound question we must now consider as a society: What have we done?

In our rush to vaccinate every man, woman, and child, have we compromised the long-term health of a population that never needed these shots in the first place?

What data was ignored? If so, who made decisions to ignore that data, and will they ever answer for the consequences? It’s time for a serious conversation about accountability.

You can watch the full, eye-opening conversation below:

* * *

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/tucker-carlson-horrified-dr-mary-talley-bowden-drops-chilling-covid-statistic

Sangamo Therapeutics Announces Capsid License Agreement With Lilly

Sangamo Therapeutics (SGMO) has entered into a license agreement with Eli Lilly for its proprietary neurotropic AAV capsid, STAC-BBB, which demonstrates strong blood-brain barrier penetration capabilities. The agreement includes:

- An $18 million upfront license fee
- Potential earnings of up to $1.4 billion in additional fees and milestone payments across five possible disease targets
- Tiered royalties on potential net sales

Lilly receives worldwide exclusive rights to use STAC-BBB for one initial target, with the option to add four additional targets for treating central nervous system diseases. This marks Sangamo's third agreement since announcing STAC-BBB in March 2024. Sangamo will handle the technology transfer, while Lilly will be responsible for research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of resulting gene therapy products.

https://www.stocktitan.net/news/SGMO/sangamo-therapeutics-announces-capsid-license-agreement-with-lilly-v5m6vgrp5lx6.html

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