Schumer endorses debt deal, pledges to move ‘quickly’

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday voiced his strong and unequivocal support for the deal unveiled over the weekend by President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to raise the federal debt limit through January of 2025 and cap spending over the next two years. 

Schumer urged the House to quickly approve the bill and promised he will try to move it through the Senate as quickly as possible.  

“I support the bipartisan agreement that President Biden has produced with Speaker McCarthy. Avoiding a default is an absolute imperative,” he announced on the Senate floor. “Nobody is getting everything they want. There’s give on both sides. But this agreement is the responsible, prudent and very necessary way forward.” 

Schumer warned that a default would inflict “enormous” damage on the economy, predicting it would result in a “painful recession,” lead to as many as eight million lost jobs, cause interest and mortgage rates to soar and sink workers’ 401(k) accounts.  

“I’m optimistic that the path has been paved. We must pass this as soon as we can. I hope the House moves quickly, and I’ll make sure the Senate moves quickly the moment this bipartisan bill is sent to us by the House,” he said.  

While the legislation cuts non-defense discretionary spending, Schumer argued it would protect “key investments that are essential for growing our economy, for fixing our infrastructure, for making the U.S. more competitive on the world stage.”  

He emphasized the deal will not touch Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid or cut the quality of care for military veterans. 

“This agreement is the responsible, prudent and very necessary way forward,” he said.  

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Accelerated cognitive decline seen after heart attacks: study 

A new study has found a rapid decline in global cognition, memory and executive function in those who suffer from a heart attack compared to those who do not.  

In a study published in the JAMA Neurology journal , researchers found that people who suffered from at least one or more incidents of myocardial infarction (MI), also known as a heart attack, had a “significantly faster” rate of decline in global cognition, memory and executive function over the years compared to those who did not. The research also found that having a heart attack was not associated with an immediate decrease in these functions after the event, but rather impacted long-term brain health.  

The researchers analyzed a pool of more than 30,000 peoople from six different studies based in the United States. Out of this sample, 1,033 individuals suffered from a myocardial infarction event. The median time for a follow up was 6.4 years after the heart attack.  

While the study showed that over time, all of the individuals showed an annual decline in cognition, those who had a heart attack had a “steeper” decline.  

“However, after MI, the annual rate of decline accelerated, being steeper than in the same individual before their MI and steeper than in individuals who never had an MI,” the study’s opinion reads. “Interestingly, the long-term slope of the decline changed after MI despite no immediate stepwise drop.”

Researchers also found that the rate of decline in global cognition could be dependent on someone’s race or gender. The research showed a smaller rate of change in global cognition in Black individuals compared to those who were white, and a smaller change in women than in men.  

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 805,000 people in the United States have a heart attack every year.

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