Shoppers lift economy but will they keep spending?

Bears fan Obama hosts Packers at White House

Welcoming the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers to the White House was no easy task for President Barack Obama.

White House criticizes court's health care ruling

The White House is expressing confidence that it's constitutional to require people to have health insurance and believes that President Barack Obama's health care law will be survive all legal challenges in the end.

Palin visits Iowa fair, stokes 2012 speculation

Sarah Palin stoked speculation anew Friday of a future presidential run, inserting herself into the 2012 conversation by visiting in Iowa during an important week in the GOP race — and just as Texas Gov. Rick Perry becomes a candidate.

APNewsBreak: Some unions to skip 2012 convention

About a dozen trade unions plan to sit out the 2012 Democratic convention because they're angry that it's being held in a right-to-work state and frustrated that Democrats haven't done enough to create jobs.

Obama meeting with CEOs at the White House

President Barack Obama is meeting with business leaders at the White House to discuss the economy.

GOP candidates begin eyeing Conn. US Senate race

Republican candidates have begun to surface in the state's 2012 U.S. Senate race, with two well-known possible contenders expressing serious interest about seeking the seat now held by the retiring Joe Lieberman.

Obama expects to get earful on Midwest bus tour

President Barack Obama is expecting an earful from regular folks, including supporters, over their frustrations with Congress and some of Obama's decisions when he sets out on a three-day, campaign-style bus tour of Midwestern states next week.

White House rebukes GOP for inflexibility on taxes

The White House is sharply rebuking Republican presidential candidates for saying they would refuse to support a budget deal with even a 10-to-1 ratio of spending cuts to tax increases.

FBI: Mortgage fraud still prevalent, hard to catch

Mortgage fraud remains widespread in the depressed housing market, with perpetrators motivated by high profits and little risk of getting caught, the FBI said Friday.

Bachmann wants Congress back to restore credit

Rep. Michelle Bachmann says if she were president, she would immediately call Congress back to Washington with the aim of "getting this AAA credit rating back."

Obama adviser questions Perry's economic successes

President Barack Obama's political team is taking an early swipe at Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who's set to officially dive into the presidential race on Saturday.

Myanmar government urges Suu Kyi to register party

Myanmar's government urged pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday to officially register her National League for Democracy as a party, a step that would imply its acceptance of the government's legitimacy and also allow it to legally take part in politics.

Analysis: Perry may pose biggest threat to Romney

The biggest rumblings in the Republican presidential campaign are coming from Austin, Texas — 1,000 miles from the leadoff caucus state where front-runner Mitt Romney and seven opponents squared off ahead of an important test vote this weekend.

FACT CHECK: Republican debate strains some facts

Michele Bachmann cast her opinion as a settled fact when she told the Republican presidential debate Thursday that a key element of President Barack Obama's health care law is unconstitutional. And Mitt Romney danced around an attempt to learn why he stayed largely mum on the epic debt limit standoff between Obama and Congress.

GOP debate opens with economic questions

Republican front-runner Mitt Romney says he would have supported a plan by congressional Republicans to cut spending and force a vote on a federal balanced budget amendment to address the nation's debt crisis.

This time, US fears a financial crisis from abroad

Three years ago, a financial crisis triggered by bad mortgage investments spread from U.S. banks to Europe. Panicky financial markets tanked.

Warren makes first steps on potential Senate bid

Consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren is taking the first steps toward launching a possible challenge against Republican Scott Brown, the U.S. senator from Massachusetts and a top Democratic target in 2012.

Entitlement Reform needs Thought Reform

 Why is it that , and  let's be real, why is it entitlements are the first and really only thing to be cut. Did you know since the 1996 when entitlements for the poor where drastically altered, cut and reshaped, the right already got there way over a decade ago.

Open Letter #2 to President Obama, Senators Feinstein & Boxer & Congresswoman Sanchez

Dear Senators Feinstein and Boxer, Congresswoman Sanchez and President Obama, I just learned today that more waste within our government is happening and no real apparent reason for it or justification! The Senate Indian Affairs Committee is flying at TAXPAYER expense their enti …

At the district court level, rulings on the Affordable Care Act were regrettably partisan: two judges nominated by Republican presidents ruled against the law; three judges nominated by Democratic presidents did the opposite. At the appellate level, this dynamic is not holding up.

The S & P downgrade of the U.S. government's credit rating is blamed largely on politics in this article.

"I think we just heard from Standard & Poor's," Bachmann said. "When they dropped our credit rating, what they said is, we don't have an ability to repay our debt. That's what the final word was from them. I was proved right in my position.

Like anything, there is always a more complex and involved story behind the headline that he created a lot of jobs for Texas. Ultimately, to get the jobs, it took a lot more than what he could do alone.

Republican presidential candidates squared off in Ames, Iowa, on Aug. 11, offering claims, criticism and arguments

On the eve of the Ames Straw Poll, the Republican candidates made a last push for votes at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines – a huge spectacle in which cattle, pigs and horses are on display as well as politicians and Iowans queue to for fairground rides and some o …

The general election will, quite literally, decide the fate of a nation. Every time Team Obama criticizes the Texas economy for its minimum wage job boom, the president will be accused of attacking the working men and women of America.

Please tell me what is so bad about the law? Please tell me. From what I seen so far is people not being denied health insurance, people not being dropped from their policies because they got sick and children can stay on their parents policy until they are 26. What am i missing? …

The most noteworthy and damning moment of the GOP debate in Iowa Thursday was when the moderators asked the candidates to raise their hands if they would walk away from a deal that cut ten dollars from the deficit for every one dollar in tax increases.

During the Republican presidential debate in Ames, Iowa, on Aug. 11, 2011, former Massachusetts Gov.

It's Time To Play Hard Ball

It's time for the President to start playing hard ball, because as the American People see it Congress is playing a game that is leading this Country to a total ruins, The Tea Party has considered the Republican Party as their whippng boy's because they react to any far right ide …

No, Congress can't just decree that individuals must buy a private product, even if the market has unique properties. To do so would be more than unprecedented; it would be an unconstitutional overreach.

Someone in Republican land isn't happy with Rep. Bachmann.

Rumsfeld must face trial for torture, Court of Appeal rulesBush official does not have personal immunity for torture   The court ruled on Tuesday that two U.S.