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The Congressional Budget Office last week made a bit of news when it released cost estimates on two different health reform packages being considered by House

“The longer you remain unemployed, the tougher it is to get a job,” one expert said. “Your skills atrophy. Employers -- rightly or wrongly -- take that as a signal that you’re damaged goods.”

And now we know why the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission decided to subpoena Goldman Sachs -- not for a lack of information, but for a surfeit of it. CNBC’s

While everyone’s railing about the incredibly nasty speech by former Vice President Dick Cheney this morning -- who takes credit for preventing terrorist

There wasn’t a great deal of fanfare last week when U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley released a three-year-long committee staff review of the financial activities of several media-based ministries and churches, but that is likely because the paper offers no concrete steps forward.

A picture is emerging of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, the Jordanian double agent who murdered seven CIA agents and Blackwater contractors in Khost Province

A majority of Americans — and almost a third of Republicans — agree with the aims of the Occupy Wall St. movement, according to polls taken over the last ten days. Alex Altman of TIME’s Swampland blog writes: Among those surveyed by TIME who were familiar with Occupy Wall Street, sweeping majorities agreed with the movement’s grievance that the gap between rich and poor has grown too large, including 85% of households making under $50,000 per year and 65% of those making more than $100,000 annually

Early indications show Attorney General Eric Holder may appoint a special prosecutor only to investigate interrogators, rather than Bush-era policy makers.

Unemployment insurance is widely popular, and economists say it’s an effective stimulus. But there’s one obstacle it can’t overcome: the U.S. Senate.

Just how fast are those prospective Karzai-Taliban peace talks advancing? According to this Voice of America report, a mini-jirga meeting of Afghan and

Over a complete Republican boycott, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed its climate bill last week by a vote of 11-1. The lone dissenter

Over at Human Events, Rowan Scarborough attempts to advance the story, first floated by House Republicans, of David Axelrod’s long-disclosed financial gains

Photo: John Steven Fernandez, Flickr Some teachers at Anoka-Hennepin School District have failed a teachers test because they refused to affirm that the district’s policy limiting discussions of LGBT issues in the district’s schools is intended to make “students feel safe.” The district’s policy is at the heart of a culture war in the district and is the subject of a lawsuit by six students and their parents who say the district has not taken appropriate steps to prevent bullying against students who are, or are perceived to be, LGBT.

I’m set to write a piece on Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s just-wrapped speech in, oh, an hour, but a few policy highlights: The biggest U.S.

On ABC’s This Week on Sunday, both Paul Krugman and Robert Reich offered far more pessimistic views of the economy than the rosier outlook put forth by

Twenty-seven days, four votes and a long lesson in tedium later, the upper chamber has passed legislation extending unemployment benefits by at least 14 weeks

A great piece in The Washington Times today reveals a remarkable degree of hypocrisy from some GOP critics of last year’s $787 billion economic stimulus

Forget auditing the Fed or breaking up the banks. Before senators address those proposed amendments to Sen. Chris Dodd’s (D-Conn.) financial regulatory reform

After State Department spokesperson Ian Kelly told reporters yesterday that an interagency process led by the National Counterterrorism Center was responsible

Echoing sentiments expressed to the Colorado Independent by U.S. House Leader Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., more than 49 percent of the shareholders of an oil and gas company in the Permian Basin of West Texas recently asked for more transparency in hydraulic fracturing operations. Nancy Pelosi Pelosi last week told the Independent that oil and gas operators should want to publicly disclose all the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” as protection against future litigation.

As to my can-there-be-a-decent-right question about torture, Philip Zelikow, the counselor to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the executive

The office of Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) sends over the news that he’ll be the ranking member on the Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee.

The Associated Press releases a brutal report on Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) and his use of state resources. The most damaging items: $1,265 for a flight from