Articles & Op-Eds

Citing the possibility of "fiscal turmoil," outgoing House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Monday called for bipartisan cooperation in the next Congress to tackle budget deficits and reform the tax code.

Is American manufacturing dead? Those who think so point to manufacturing’s plummeting share of the national economy as a predictor of its eventual demise. But they likely have never been to Butler County. Here, north of Pittsburgh, in the heart of western Pennsylvania, basic manufacturing still drives the local economy. It has survived around here—indeed, thrived—suggesting that America, too, has an industrial future.

A month ahead of a heated referendum that could split an African nation, leaders of the Sudan Caucus are urging President Obama to pull out all the stops in guarding against that country's secession vote erupting into new mass killings.

An extensive Pentagon report about the armed forces' attitudes toward gays in the military gives a boost to the stalled push by President Obama to repeal the 17-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" law, undercutting arguments by Republicans and others that such a change would unduly strain the armed forces.

Billionaire Warren Buffett said that rich people should pay more in taxes and that Bush-era tax cuts for top earners should be allowed to expire at the end of December.

U.S. wholesalers loaded up their shelves in September and a gauge of small-business sentiment ticked upward, both signs that U.S. companies are gaining confidence in the economic recovery.

As we work to recover from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, both Republicans and Democrats have offered plans for our economy. Republicans' own Congressional campaign chair admitted that they intend to return America to the "exact same agenda" of the Bush years -- the agenda that got our economy into this mess. Democrats, on the other hand, believe that when more products are made in America, more families will be able to Make It In America. That's why Democrats are pursuing the Make It In America agenda, a plan to create middle-class jobs by rebuilding our manufacturing sector.

If Republicans are serious about governing responsibly, they have an odd way of showing it. And for politicians who purport to hate the deficit -- odder still. The House Republicans' "Pledge to America," unveiled with fanfare Thursday at a Sterling hardware store, mixes irresponsible tax cuts with implausible spending caps and unspecified actions to control entitlement spending. The resulting concoction is a profile in cowardice.

Meet the new faces of the GOP's definition of "small businesses" that would be affected by looming tax increases on households earning more than $250,000 under the Democrats' tax plans.

A few blocks from the restored antebellum homes that draw tourists to rural Warren County, wooden shacks sink into the sandy soil, their tin roofs bowing low, walls askew. Clothes hang on lines outside, limp under a stifling, late-summer sun.

Is there any reason for hope in this gloomy summer for the economy? A certain fatalism - that a double-dip recession is inevitable - has crept into a lot of economic analysis lately, but it may be overstating the degree to which we are in dire straits. A roaring recovery is probably not on the way, but here are five reasons that a slow-and-steady recovery is likely to continue.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — President Obama's $787 billion stimulus — has been marketed as a jobs bill, and that's how it's been judged. The White House says it has saved or created about 3 million jobs, helping avoid a depression and end a recession. Republicans mock it as a Big Government boondoggle that has failed to prevent rampant unemployment despite a massive expansion of the deficit. Liberals complain that it wasn't massive enough.