The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research was conducted after Democrats' recent victories in off-year elections but before Congress took major steps to try to end the longest shutdown in U.S. history. It shows that only 33% of U.S. adults approve of the way the Republican president is managing the government, down from 43% in an AP-NORC poll from March.
It seems like Arthur Miller's The Crucible always finds its way back into my life somehow. From first reading the play in high school to performing in it a decade ago to rolling my eyes at Aaron Sorkin's sexist misinterpretation of it, the quintessential "political play" finds new and interesting ways to once again grab my attention, faults and all. I thought of it again after the past week's exciting political developments.
The S&P 500 rose 0.2% early Wednesday and neared the all-time high it set a couple weeks ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 127 points after setting its own record the day before, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3%. Technology stocks swung back upward. Advanced Micro Devices rallied after its CEO said the chip company is expecting better than 35% annual compounded growth in revenue over the next three to five years. Nvidia, the dominant player in chips used for artificial-intelligence technology, also rose.
And as we come on the air tonight, things are actually happening, here on Capitol Hill, which after 42 42 days of this government shutdown, is actually worth a breaking-news banner of its own, because lawmakers are now working late into the evening, tonight, to seal the deal, and end the longest government shutdown on record. That hasn't stopped the White House's efforts and the President's efforts to stop full food assistance benefits from going out.
For all the wailing and gnashing of teeth by Democrats unhappy with the deal to reopen the federal government, and for all the talk about a Democratic "civil war," pretty much everyone in the party agrees the longest government shutdown in history didn't work out that well for them. The lawmakers who "caved" and voted to end the stalemate thought there was no real chance to secure any of the big concessions they had originally demanded - particularly an Obamacare-subsidy extension.
The calculation incorporates the bank's job-growth tracker, which slowed to 50,000 new jobs in October from 85,000 in September, and the government's deferred-resignation program, which will likely cut payrolls by about 100,000 positions. Our job openings and labor market tightness trackers continued to decline, and our newly constructed layoff tracker also revealed an increase in layoffs over the past few months, the bank added, marking the largest employment decline since late 2020.
It's no longer about them. Can I be honest, Jim? It's not about them? They have shown us time and time again this year that given the chance, they will cower. Given the chance they will capitulate. If they can find plausible deniability, they will give in the regime. At some point, we've got to ask ourselves, do we have self-respect? Are we willing to take no for an answer that they are unwilling to be the leaders that we need them to be?
Leader Schumer did not bless this agreement. He voted against it. And of course, Senate Democrats who voted no have made that clear. And what we've seen from Senate Democrats over the last seven weeks has been part of a valiant fight that we have waged together to stand up in defense of the health, the safety, and the economic well-being of the American people.
Democrats' latest fault lines do not track perfectly along the familiar split between progressives and centrists. Instead, there's renewed rancor over how aggressively to fight President Donald Trump and his compliant GOP majorities on Capitol Hill, with some progressives renewing their calls for Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer to step aside, even as he publicly opposes the latest deal.
