Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is pushing back against Republican criticism of the Democrats’ big coronavirus pandemic response package and making an election-year pitch that the current state of the U.S. economy “vindicates” the steps taken in 2021 to “get our economy back on track.” With falling inflation, unemployment at 3.7% and the U.S. apparently defying predictions of a recession, Yellen defended the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in remarks Wednesday at a U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington. The stimulus package, which was passed into law without a single GOP vote, is regularly cited by ... (full story)