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The following is a list of events of the year 2023 in the United States.
The dominant political story of the year has been the 270-day long speakership of Representative Kevin McCarthy, whose slim majority in the House of Representatives has enabled a far-right rebellion to exert more weight over the lower chamber. The battle between the Freedom Caucus and McCarthy has been at the heart of an averted debt-ceiling crisis and the annual budget debate nearly devolving into a government shutdown, all culminating in the removal of McCarthy on October 3. The debate over abortion has further continued, with numerous laws being passed by state legislatures and court decisions issued at all levels over the issue with last year's overturning of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey with Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Political and media attention also has focused on a series of alleged Chinese spy balloons entering US airspace, various candidates entering the race for the following year's presidential election, legal issues surrounding former president Donald Trump and to a lesser extent Representative George Santos, and the continued intensity of a culture war most notably escalated by an ongoing feud between Florida governor Ron DeSantis and the Walt Disney Company over the state's Parental Rights in Education Act.
2023 also saw the roots of a global banking crisis arise out of four American regional banks, the two largest being Silicon Valley Bank and First Republic Bank. 2021's inflation surge moderated in 2023, while the Federal Reserve continued to raise its interest rates in the first half of the year. The rise of artificial intelligence and large language models dominated not only the economy but has also been at the root of a Hollywood "double strike" conducted by Writers Guild of America and a SAG-AFTRA strike; these were part of a larger phenomenon of labor strikes across the country, in which such large diverse groups, such as teamsters and autoworkers won new contracts. Additionally, the latter half of the year saw many large mergers and acquisitions; some of the largest announcements being in oil and gas with ExxonMobil's purchase of Pioneer Natural Resources for nearly $60 billion and Chevron's acquisition of Hess Corporation for $50 billion, both in October and pending regulatory approval prior to closure. Mass shootings in 2023 have also continued in high numbers, with 528 occurring as of October 2 according to Gun Violence Archive.[1] Additionally in 2023, as of November 8, the US experienced 25 weather and climate disasters which caused at least $1 billion in damage each.[2]
- ^ "Gun Violence Archive". www.gunviolencearchive.org. Retrieved May 10, 2023.
- ^ National Centers for Environmental Information. "Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved November 12, 2023.