Shoppers are paying close attention to how retailers handle the import crisis, with most saying they would reward brands that absorb higher costs. Three out of four consumers would be inclined to abandon their favorite retail brands over claims of price increases necessitated by new tariffs. That’s one of the top-line findings in a new survey by First Insight, suggesting that inflation-weary shoppers are annoyed and growing suspicious of major retailers’ announcements about rising import costs. Among U.S. shoppers, only one in four said they are convinced that tariffs alone are responsible. Inversely, 80% of the 1,120 American shoppers surveyed…

Deregulation has been a cornerstone of the Republican brand for decades. And the Trump Administration vows to cut government red tape wherever it finds it. Yet, House Republicans would use their just-passed budget bill to create reams of paperwork explicitly intended to block low- and moderate income households or immigrants from government assistance to which they are legally entitled. Just as progressives have used environmental regulation to halt development they don’t like, President Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill are creating new bureaucratic hurdles to prevent families from tapping government benefits. And they are doing it just when Democrats…