#Congress

President Obama began his direct involvement in budget negotiations Monday by meeting separately with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The White House called for a “balanced” approach that would include some additional revenue from…

Lawmakers received a stark warning last week from a host of prominent economic and federal policy experts: The mere prospect of a U.S. default could raise interest rates, forcing taxpayers to pay many billions of dollars more on the government’s…

Vice President Joe Biden says the budget talks he chairs are “getting down to the hard stuff” and aiming to curb deficits by $4 trillion over the next decade or so. That's ambitious goal which would be hard to achieve…

In an encouraging vote last week, a bipartisan Senate majority approved a repeal of the ethanol tax credit. Although the repeal is not expected to become law, the 73-27 vote raised the possibility of further bipartisan agreement on the elimination…

Much of the political debate over health care costs continues to focus on who should pay them rather than how to curb their growth. Republicans want private insurers and individuals to pay while Democrats want the government to be the…

Congress and the White House are accelerating their budget and debt limit negotiations amid growing concerns about the economic recovery and the possibility that a political stalemate could trigger turmoil in the financial markets.After only one meeting so far this…

Last week, the House continued to make progress on appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2012. The House passed the Homeland Security bill by a vote of 231-188 -- the first of the 2012 bills to clear the House. The House…

Transportation spending will likely return to the agenda on Capitol Hill in the months ahead. The highway authorization bill expired in 2009 and an extension expires at the end of September. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the U.S. spends…