Big Decisions

Budget Battles

  • Chief Justice Roberts (front row, center) wrote the majority opinion.

    Supreme Court Hands Trump a Historic Win in Immunity Case

    By Yuval Rosenberg

    Welcome to July! It’s only the first of the month, but we’ve already got fireworks going off in the nation’s capital, where the Supreme Court handed down a landmark 6-3 ruling , decided along...

  • Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) arrives at Democratic Party caucus meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 19, 2018. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/ File Photo

    Factbox: What happens in a U.S. government shutdown?

    By Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell and Amanda Becker and Richard Cowan and Susan Cornwell and Amanda Becker, Reuters

    In shutdowns, nonessential government employees are furloughed, or placed on temporary unpaid leave. Workers deemed essential, including those dealing with public safety and national security, keep...

  • FILE PHOTO: A pharmacist holds prescription painkiller OxyContin at a local pharmacy in Provo

    Delaware Sues Opioid Manufacturers, Distributors Over Epidemic

    By Nate Raymond, Reuters

    (Reuters) - Delaware on Friday became the latest state to file a lawsuit accusing corporations of helping fuel the national opioid epidemic, suing a wide range of companies involved in making,...

  • FILE PHOTO - Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin listens as U.S. President Donald Trump hosts a tax reform industry meeting at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

    Trump Tries to Sell Tax Reform to Democrats

    By David Morgan, Reuters

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump intensified his efforts to sell Democrats on his tax reform plan on Wednesday even as Senate Republicans edged closer to passing a budget measure that...

  • FILE PHOTO: U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson (L) listens to Representative Tom Marino (R-PA) (R) before a House Judiciary committee hearing on the 'Oversight of the US Department of Homeland Security' on Capitol Hill in Washington July 14, 20

    Trump's drug czar nominee withdraws from consideration

    By Sarah N. Lynch and Makini Brice, Reuters

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. lawmaker who was President Donald Trump's pick for drug czar withdrew on Tuesday after a report he spearheaded a bill that hurt the government's ability to crack down...

  • The Wealthiest One Percent Are Doing Even Better

    By Dhara Ranasinghe, CNBC

    The combined wealth of the world's richest 1 percent could overtake that of the other 99 percent by 2016, according to a report by Oxfam published Monday, as billionaires, politicians and business...

  • Obama pushes minimum wage hike on State of Union road trip

    Here’s How the SOTU Guest List Is Shaping Up

    By Sarah N Lynch, Reuters

    The U.S. aid worker whose release from a Cuban prison helped pave the way toward restoring diplomatic ties with the communist nation will be among First Lady Michelle Obama's guests for Tuesday's...

  • What Scott Walker Brings to the Party in 2016

    By Dan Balz, The Washington Post

    Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker doesn’t light up rooms when he enters. He is unassuming in that way, a proud cheesehead who wears a battery-powered electric jacket to keep warm at Packers and Badgers...

  • GOP Prunes the 2016 Primary Debates Down to Nine

    By Eric Pianin

    With so many Republican debates during the 2012 presidential campaign, it’s hardly surprising, in retrospect, that exhausted or ill-prepared candidates made so many gaffes on or off the stage. Former...

  • Selma and Dr. King Both Lose If Fiction Obscures Fact

    By Simon Hankinson, The Fiscal Times

    When you drive up Massachusetts Avenue in Northwest Washington, D.C. past embassies and elegant houses, just before you come to the Naval Observatory you’ll pass between two statues, roughly the same...