The growing case for rate cuts, federal cuts wont gut health care and other commentary

“President Trump’s tariffs present the Federal Reserve with two conflicting challenges,” observes The Wall Street Journal’s Greg Ip.Tariffs “raise prices, which weakens the case for cutting interest rates” but also “sap confidence and demand, which strengthens the case.”So far, “the Fed has focused on the first risk, keeping its interest rate target between 4.25% and 4.5% since December.It might soon have to pivot to the second”: “Evidence is accumulating that inflation, despite tariffs, has been milder than feared, while the labor market might be deteriorating.”Unemployment “has risen every month since January, by a quarter percentage point in all.”A “restrictive stance” on interest rates “make sense so long as inflation is all the Fed has to worry about.

It no longer is.”“New York’s health-care industry stands to lose billions of dollars in federal funding” under the GOP federal budget bill, notes the Empire Center’s Bill Hammond, yet that wouldn’t “be enough to “decimate” or “gut” New York’s health care system,” as Gov.Hochul has claimed.“The House budget would reduce federal health-care aid by $10.1 billion while obliging the state to spend an additional $3.3 billion,” a state Health Department analysis finds — yet federal aid “would still be higher than it was in 2023.”Cut the state’s Medicaid enrollment by 1.2 million, and New York “would still be providing free coverage to about 36 percent of its population” — still “12 points higher than the national average.” Subscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter! Please provide a valid email address.

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The Patent Trial and Appeal Board is “effectively allowing a Chinese firm to keep stealing an American semiconductor technology,” warns Rep.Nathaniel Moran at The Hill.The judges on the board...