US Politics on Media Forum

Canada's Record $11.2 Billion Trade Surplus With the US in August Was Buyers Racing the Tariffs

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On paper, August was the best month for Canadian exporters in a long time. Statistics Canada reported on October 6 that exports to the United States rose 8.1 percent in the month, imports from the US fell 2.5 percent, and Canada’s surplus with its neighbour widened from C$6.1 billion to C$11.2 billion. The agency called it the largest monthly swing in that balance it has ever recorded.

It happened in the month Washington put 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods. The timing explains it.

CrossGov.com Follows Washington as Buyer and Shareholder: Intel and Rare Earth Stakes, $1 AI Deals and 538 Certified Cloud Services

Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The federal government is the biggest customer in the American economy. Lately it’s also become a shareholder, a price-setter and, in a few industries, something close to a business partner. Most business coverage still treats Washington as the referee. CrossGov.com treats it as a player, which is the more accurate picture in 2026.

CrossGov covers US government at every level, federal first, and a good chunk of its archive sits right where policy turns into contracts, equity and market share. If you write about business, tech or media, that’s the part worth reading.

Congress Is Drafting Bills With AI, and AI Is Bad at the Part That Matters

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Lawmakers and lobbyists have started using generative tools to draft legislation. Reporting on the practice found that the tools are currently poor at the technical mechanics of federal law and regulation, which is an awkward finding, because the technical mechanics are most of what a bill is.

A statute is not an argument. It is a set of instructions for amending other statutes. The operative text of a typical bill consists of directions to strike a phrase in a specific subsection of an existing code title and insert different words in its place, plus definitions, effective dates, severability, and appropriations language. Getting it right requires knowing what the current code says, what pending bills would change about it, how courts have construed the terms of art, and which committee has jurisdiction over the resulting text.

Washington Puts 50% Tariffs on $20 Billion of Canadian Goods, Including Hockey Sticks

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The duties took effect at one minute past midnight on Saturday, after three days of talks in Washington ended without a deal. Fifty percent, on roughly twenty billion dollars of Canadian goods, with no expiry date attached and no exemption for products that comply with the continental trade agreement the two countries signed and ratified.

Twenty billion sounds enormous until you put it against the denominator. Canada sent the United States something like three hundred and seventy billion dollars in goods last year. The tariffed slice is a bit over five percent of that. Nobody’s economy turns on it.