Congress

Budget Battles

  • Hands off Social Security! Reid Rallies Dems

    By Michelle Hirsch, The Fiscal Times

    Led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senators rallied on Capitol Hill on Monday to quash the possibility of Social Security cuts in any near-term deficit reduction package.

  • Time Short, Tempers Flare in Budget Showdown

    By Andrew Taylor

    WASHINGTON (AP) — With the clock ticking toward a possible government shutdown, spending-cut talks between Senate Democrats and the Republicans controlling the House have broken off in a whom-do-you-...

  • Government Agencies Operating in Limbo

    By Lisa Rein and DAVID A. FAHRENTHOLD, The Washington Post

    This is America, on the installment plan. For 177 days now, the longest period in 14 years, the U.S. government has operated without a budget. Congress is mired in a spending fight, with Democrats...

  • Odds of Gov. Shutdown Rise

    By FELICIA SONMEZ and PAUL KANE and LORI MONTGOMERY, The Washington Post

    A breakdown late last week in closed-door negotiations between congressional leaders and the White House on funding the federal government makes it increasingly possible that Congress will not agree...

  • Food Fight: Farm Policies Are Making Us Fat

    By Dan Morgan, The Fiscal Times

    The anti-obesity campaign by Michelle Obama and others, as virtuous as it is, bucks the realities of the U.S. trade imbalance, the agrarian economy and current federal farm subsidies—not to mention...