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Biden Calls Meeting with Congressional Leaders as Threat of Partial Government Shutdown Grows

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President Biden will convene the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Tuesday as lawmakers swiftly run out of time to strike a deal to avert another partial government shutdown. The president plans to discuss the urgency of legislation to keep federal funding going past midnight on Friday, as well as his requests for billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine and Israel, said Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary.

“A basic, basic priority or duty of Congress is to keep the government open,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said. “So, that’s what the president wants to see. He’ll have those conversations.”

The spending bill is being held up by demands from hard-right lawmakers in the House, including measures to restrict abortion access, that many members will not support. Ultraconservatives have brought the government to the brink of a shutdown or a partial shutdown three times in the past six months as they try to win more spending cuts and conservative policy conditions written into how federal money is spent.

The result is that Congress has relied on short-term, stopgap spending bills passed by a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers to keep the government open, putting off a longer-term agreement for weeks at a time. Each time, the Republican speaker has assured his conference that House Republicans would fight to secure more policy victories in the next round of negotiations.

With another pair of funding deadlines approaching at the end of this week and the next week, lawmakers are now laboring to try to reach an agreement to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. There is increased urgency to complete the task because the debt ceiling agreement brokered in May by Kevin McCarthy, the speaker at the time, and Mr. Biden would cut federal spending 1 percent across the board on April 30 if Congress cannot reach a governmentwide spending deal before then. Both Democratic and Republican senators are determined to avoid that scenario because the cuts would particularly affect Pentagon spending, though several anti-spending conservatives have said they would prefer that outcome.

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Tuesday’s meeting comes after Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, announced on Sunday that leaders had failed to reach a deal over the weekend because “House Republicans need more time to sort themselves out.” Speaker Mike Johnson accused Senate Democrats of “attempting at this late stage to spend on priorities that are farther left than what their chamber agreed upon.”

In addition to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Schumer, Mr. Biden will also meet with Representative Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York and the House minority leader, and Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the Senate minority leader.

Mr. Biden convened congressional leaders at the White House last month in an effort to break the gridlock over his supplemental aid package for Ukraine and Israel, which also included major immigration policy concessions. The package passed the Senate this month, but Mr. Johnson has refused to bring the $95 billion foreign aid package to a vote in the House.

The government spending package is separate from the Ukraine and Israel funding, but Mr. Biden will make the case for both on Tuesday, Ms. Jean-Pierre said. She declined to say what Mr. Biden planned to discuss with the leaders that would break through the impasse.

“We’ve done these types of meetings before and it has moved the ball,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said, referring to the Senate vote.

“What the president wants to see is we want to make sure that the national security interests of the American people gets put first and is not used as a political football,” she said. “We want to make sure that gets done.”

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The first batch of government funding will run out on Friday at midnight, while funding for some agencies including the Pentagon and the State Department will expire on March 8.

The White House has ramped up pressure on Mr. Johnson in recent weeks as Ukraine marked the second anniversary of the Russian invasion. Mr. Biden continues to stress that Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, is a global threat.

Jake Sullivan, Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, said on Sunday that he had spoken with Mr. Johnson and that the speaker had indicated that he would like to pass Ukraine funding, but was “trying to figure out a way to do it.”

“Well, this is one of those instances where one person can bend the course of history,” Mr. Sullivan said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” adding that the foreign aid package would pass overwhelmingly with bipartisan support if put up for a vote.

“Right now, it comes down to his willingness to actually step up to the plate and discharge his responsibility at this critical moment,” Mr. Sullivan said. “And history is watching.”

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Is now the right time to invest in gold as prices have cooled?

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Now may be the time to buy gold following a recent lull in its price.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

The price of gold has climbed to record highs recently and has remained strong through much of April. And, that growth continued until the precious metal traded at around $2,390 per ounce on April 19, 2024. But since, growth in the price of the precious metal has cooled, with gold’s price now hovering around $2,300 per ounce.

This lull in gold’s price may represent an investment opportunity.

In general, investing is centered around buying assets when prices are low and selling them when prices are high – generating a profit on the difference between the two. So, considering the declines in gold’s price over the past few days, now may be the time to make your investment. But is buying gold during this lull in prices really a good idea?

Compare your gold investment options among leading brokers now.

Gold prices have cooled. Should you buy in now?

With gold’s price down from recent highs, you may be wondering if now is the right time to buy in. There are several reasons the dip in gold’s price may represent an opportunity to buy. Here are some of the biggest:

Prices may rise again

If looking at a gold price chart shows anything for certain, it shows that changes in the overall growth of the medal come in fits and spurts. Periods of price growth are typically followed by periods of declines and vice versa.

But with inflation rising in recent months – and with gold’s reputation as a safe-haven asset that can hedge against inflation – it only makes sense that the price of the precious metal will eventually start to head up again in the future. While attempting to time that directional change may be tricky, buying the precious metal while the price is down gives you the opportunity to take advantage of any upward movement that may be ahead.

Add gold to your portfolio now before prices have a chance to rise.

You may be able to make a quick profit

Gold isn’t known as an asset in which you can earn a quick return, but in today’s market, that may be the case. Don’t forget that in January, gold was trading at just $2,000 per ounce. And, by mid-April, the commodity’s price had climbed to around $2,400 per ounce. That’s about 20% growth in a matter of months, much of which happened since March 1 – an impressive climb for any investment asset.

Perhaps more importantly, gold’s price growth through the beginning of 2024 shows that the commodity doesn’t have to be a buy and hold style investment that you keep in a safety deposit box or precious metal depository for years to come. There’s also the possibility that the commodity’s price could climb further ahead, making it a compelling way to potentially generate a quick profit.

There are other benefits of investing in gold

There are other benefits of investing in gold that have little to do with the price growth seen thus far in 2024 – or the lull in prices seen over the past couple of days. Those benefits include:

  • Inflation protection: Gold has long been considered an inflation hedge, and for good reason. When inflation drives the prices of consumer goods and services up – and the value of the dollar down – gold’s price tends to rise. So, it could be used to maintain the value of your portfolio during inflationary economic conditions. That’s important in today’s economic environment as stubborn inflation continues to weigh on the value of the dollar.
  • Portfolio diversification: Gold’s price doesn’t always move in the same pattern that bonds or stocks do. So, mixing a reasonable amount of gold into your portfolio (up to 10% of your portfolio assets) as a diversifier could protect you from losses should one or more of your traditional portfolio assets fall in value. “If you have less than 5% – 10% of your net worth in commodities & FX (forex), you should absolutely consider adding exposure to gold and other precious metals,” says Vijay Marolia, money manager and managing partner at the wealth management firm, Regal Point Capital.

The bottom line

Gold’s price has fallen from recent highs – which may represent an opportunity to tap into growth ahead. However, gold isn’t simply a “buy while it’s low and sell while it’s a high” kind of investment opportunity. The commodity can also protect your portfolio from the stubborn inflation we’ve seen thus far in 2024 while acting as a diversification tool that could increase your risk-adjusted portfolio returns. So, consider adding gold to your portfolio today while it has the potential to grow in value.

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