Last week the U.S. House of Representatives passed an economic stimulus bill that would cost the American taxpayer $819 billion - enough to give every man, woman, and child almost $2,700. This would be the most expensive spending bill in history, costing more than the equivalent cost of the New Deal, the Marshall Plan and the Louisiana Purchase combined. ...more

February 11, 2009

The Senate on Monday confirmed New York Federal Reserve Bank chief Timothy Geithner as President Barack Obama's treasury secretary despite tax problems that might have sunk his nomination in less desperate times. ...more

January 26, 2009

Updates By Cell Phone; A Pitch For Ideas Barack Obama's high-tech bandwagon is rolling on, combining information on inauguration events with a pitch for cash to pay for them. The president-elect's aides told supporters this week that they could learn by e-mail about community service projects across the country tied to his swearing-in Tuesday; that they could receive updates by cell phone on traffic and events in the nation's capital; that the best of their ideas on how to govern, submitted on his Web site, would get his attention; and that they could contribute money. ...more

January 17, 2009

Congressional Democrats said Sunday that President-elect Barack Obama probably will have to wait until next month before getting the chance to sign an economic aid bill his team once hoped would be on his desk by his swearing-in Jan. 20. ...more

January 5, 2009

Lifting the country out of its economic woes won't be easy or quick, but it can be done with bipartisan cooperation in Washington, Congressman-elect Tom Rooney said as he visited the Highlands County commissioners meeting Tuesday morning. ...more

December 17, 2008

Congress, facing the prospect of an election-year recession, passed an emergency plan Thursday that rushes rebates of $600 to $1,200 to most taxpayers and $300 checks to disabled veterans, the elderly and other low-income people. President Bush indicated he would sign the measure. ...more

February 8, 2008

Democrats in the midst of their own roiling presidential nomination fight followed President Bush's State of the Union address not so much with a response as with their own theme of bipartisan cooperation. ...more

January 29, 2008

In a finding sure to affect the presidential campaign, Republican voters are now skeptical of the value of free trade, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. ...more

October 7, 2007