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President Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have found a common cause: spending money they don't have. The tentative budget deal brokered by the San Francisco Democrat and Trump Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, passed by the House Thursday, is a monument to fiscal irresponsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I was in Bill Clinton's Cabinet when Newt Gingrich pulled the plug on the federal government in the mid-'90s. It wasn't a pretty picture. A long shutdown hurts millions of people who rely on government for services and paychecks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Why should preaching the gospel of fiscal responsibility be constrained by the failure to practice anything of the kind? So goes the thinking behind a balanced-budget mandate expected to surface on Capitol Hill courtesy of the same lawmakers who passed tax cuts worth more than $1 trillion in deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

President Trump and San Francisco Democrats are having a moment. Last week, Dianne Feinstein hoped he could become a good president. This week, Nancy Pelosi is carrying his legislative agenda and managing his social-media presence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the most dangerous White House official of them all? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Why have presidential politics failed to address one of the most critical issues facing our nation? My hypothesis is it's because of the GOP's lack of leadership. In the beginning of the Republican presidential primaries, the GOP leadership had an opportunity to repudiate Donald Trump for his sexism and racism. Instead, they chose to remain silent for the ephemeral ratings of his shock value. We are not addressing the dialogue of our nation's most important issues because the GOP leadership failed to nominate a principled Republican candidate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Apparently economic turmoil, higher borrowing costs and a lower credit rating weren't enough to persuade Congress that fighting over the debt ceiling is a bad idea. The latest deadline for Congress to raise the U.S. debt limit is Nov. 3, and there's a good chance that it won't happen. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is too bad you published an opinion piece disguised as a news article (“U.S. deficit drops, debt still growing,” Oct. 16). The article emphasized a growing debt, and argues that future shortfalls in Medicare and Social Security funding are a “huge debt” and a “time bomb,” and which could only be financed by new debt. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A handful of House Republicans, many of them freshmen, are voicing the belief that a failure to raise the country's debt ceiling would not be the global calamity that every economist, businessman and responsible politician has been insisting for years that it would be. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama proclaimed, "Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion." It's a claim that the president makes frequently along with the notion that having done all that heavy lifting, Washington now needs to find a trifling extra $1.5 trillion in spending cuts or tax increases, and the nation's debt problems will be over. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

On a personal level, most of us would go to extraordinary lengths to steer our children and grandchildren away from physical or economic peril. Yet look at the mess we're leaving them with public policies that can only be described as selfish and shortsighted: Global warming will accelerate to a catastrophic degree, scientists agree, unless we break our reliance on fossil fuels. The national deficit now exceeds $15 trillion, or more than $50,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If you thought Republican presidential hopefuls were insane to refuse to raise their hands during a 2011 primary debate when asked if they'd support a deficit-reduction deal with $10 in spending cuts to $1 in tax increases, look at Washington today. In August 2011, President Obama signed a debt-ceiling deal that promised more than $2 trillion in spending cuts over a decade and zero in new revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

You know that saying that there are no dumb questions? It's not true. I know. As a journalist, I've asked my share of stupid questions. Yet even in the context of my own shortcomings, I do not understand what the White House press corps is thinking during what passes for a news conference in the Obama White House. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The idea of a "trillion-dollar coin" came from the Internet, where a few political observers noted that the White House might be able to avoid the upcoming fight over our national debt ceiling by simply minting a platinum coin with a face value of $1 trillion. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The U.S. House of Representatives made it official Monday: Our elected leaders, mired in partisan warfare and ideological dogma, are incapable of executing their most basic responsibilities. The "fiscal cliff" that arrived at midnight was an eminently avoidable human-manufactured crisis. It merely required politicians to find common ground on something anyone who can do addition and subtraction must agree is a problem: Our government is accumulating unsustainable debt by spending hundreds of billions of dollars more than it takes in each year. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The U.S. House of Representatives made it official Monday: Our elected leaders, mired in partisan warfare and ideological dogma, are incapable of executing their most basic responsibilities. The "fiscal cliff" that arrived at midnight was an eminently avoidable human-manufactured crisis. It merely required politicians to find common ground on something anyone who can do addition and subtraction must agree is a problem: Our government is accumulating unsustainable debt by spending hundreds of billions of dollars more than it takes in each year. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi appears to command more votes in the "fiscal cliff" negotiations than the speaker of the House, Republican John Boehner of Ohio. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abandon all hope, ye who watch the "fiscal cliff" drama. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the "fiscal cliff" looms, editorial writers and Beltway commentators have turned their sights on their favorite enemy - tax-foe Grover Norquist's no-new-taxes pledge signed by a weighty majority of GOP members of Congress. If Republicans had not been scared into signing the pledge, the pack laments, D.C. pols would compromise, and all would be well with the world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This week's election results shoved a string of pent-up issues to the forefront. Think of immigration and climate change, which need Washington's attention. But coming in less than two months is the one-two punch of the "fiscal cliff," a financial suicide pact devised to force answers on taxes and the budget. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The most positive thing to come out of Tuesday's election is that it's over, which should free up lawmakers to focus on the nation's urgent problems - avoiding a year-end fiscal crisis, providing individuals and businesses with some clarity about their future taxes and coming up with a long-term plan to cut the debt and budget deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A serious rumble looks to be brewing in the corporate world. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

One of the most well-worn phrases of any election season - and this one is shaping up as no exception - is "for the children." [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As the summer of 2012 draws to a close, let's take a look at some of its greatest hits: There was "Call Me Maybe" (incessant pop song), "The Avengers" (box office winner) and the "Fiscal Cliff" (reality show in which Congress plays chicken with the economy). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

"Why is the modern Republican Party so opposed to allowing the rich to pay just a little bit more in taxes to help solve the debt and deficit problem in this country that they would prefer no deal at all?" Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., asked at the Brookings Institution on Monday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Former Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo., who is famous for his scathing humor, let it all hang out in a letter to an Oakland senior citizens group after a recent visit to Oakland that takes the group to task for failing to acknowledge that Social Security and Medicare are the primary contributors to the nation's long-term fiscal deficits. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

"Who killed the debt deal?" read the New York Times Magazine as it hyped its Sunday cover story as a "Washington whodunit." [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

President Obama is banking on his revived popularity to sell his next federal budget: a $3.8 trillion package that raises taxes on the wealthy, nicks defense spending and pushes through a handful of stimulus-style economic programs. It's a risky path that hinges on his re-election, but it's also the right direction for the country. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Americans and the British have a lot in common. Same language, more or less. Copycat TV shows ("The X Factor," "Law & Order: U.K."). High schoolers in both countries performing ever more poorly in math and science. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Economists are generally skeptical about the biggest and most bipartisan part of President Obama's $477 billion plan to help put 14 million people back to work: a large payroll tax cut for workers and businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

"Get down to Disney World," President George W. Bush told us two weeks after the biggest attack on American soil since Pearl Harbor. "Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed." [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Billionaire Warren Buffett may not seem to have much in common with angry laborers at town hall meetings or armies of California nurses protesting in the streets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Under the gun of a debt-ceiling vote, congressional leaders created a unique and powerful new "super committee" to fix U.S. debt problems. But it seems designed to fail, even as the stakes rose exponentially with last week's stock market turmoil and the threat of a double-dip recession. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Under the gun of a debt-ceiling vote, congressional leaders created a unique and powerful new "super committee" to fix U.S. debt problems. But it seems designed to fail, even as the stakes rose exponentially with last week's stock market turmoil and the threat of a double-dip recession. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

During Thursday night's GOP presidential primary debate came a moment that did not bode well for bipartisan debt reduction. Moderators asked the Republican presidential hopefuls to raise their hands if they would reject a deficit reduction package if it included $1 in tax increases for every $10 in spending cuts. All eight candidates raised their hands. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday announced the last three appointees to Congress' Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, whose task to save $1.5 trillion over the next decade was already hard and now looks to get harder. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Standard & Poor's spoke, and the Dow plummeted another 634 points Monday. That certainly got our leaders talking about debt. And it is about time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Remember the days when California was being compared to Greece - unfavorably - and a debt default was considered more a question of when, rather then if? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Remember the days when California was being compared to Greece - unfavorably - and a debt default was considered more a question of when, rather then if? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For some California Tea Party conservatives, it has become a favorite statistic: Nearly half of Americans - 46 percent - don't pay taxes. The number is used to back up their claim that if that many people don't pay taxes, why should the wealthiest individuals pay more? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Republicans running in the 2012 presidential primary have a credibility gap. Only one name candidate - former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, and he is not exactly a household name - supported the bipartisan Budget Control Act of 2011 that passed with 174 House and 28 Senate Republican votes this week. The others argued that the compromise debt-ceiling package did not meet their standards. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

National Tea Party leaders in California were thrilled about one by-product of the political bloodbath over raising the federal debt ceiling: The fight showed that after two years of rabble-rousing from outside the Capitol, the Tea Party has real power to shape the debate in Washington. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The durability of the deficit-reduction plan reached in Washington over the frantic last few days is going to face a severe test before the end of the year. The big question: Can the bipartisan committee find another $1.5 trillion in savings over the next decade? And, just as important: Will Congress go along with its recommendations? [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As weeks of partisan battles over a 10-year debt-reduction plan ended with its approval Tuesday, leading U.S. technology innovators and entrepreneurs said they are upbeat about Silicon Valley's ability to boost the nation's ailing economy by creating jobs for Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Given the financial and economic Armageddon that was supposed to occur if the debt ceiling was not raised by today, one might have expected a big relief rally Monday on Wall Street. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco provided 95 Democratic votes - half of her caucus - to approve a $2 trillion-plus, 10-year debt-reduction package Monday that helped make up for a slew of defections by Tea Party-backed Republicans. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

White House spokesman Jay Carney called the debt-ceiling deal "a victory for the American people." There are days when I feel sorry for Carney. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Disaster has been averted. Congress finally appears poised to allow this nation to keep paying its bills after Tuesday, thus avoiding the specter of default, a credit downgrade and economic chaos. The deal struck Sunday by the White House and congressional leaders of both parties was more of a cause for relief than celebration. Missing was a commitment to consider tax increases as part of the plan to trim $1 trillion from the federal deficit. Tough decisions were set aside for another day - or, more specifically, the ever-reliable fallback of a bipartisan commission. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

California gets $79 billion a year from the federal government - nearly 40 percent of what it spends. The money goes to everything from highways to universities. So when the federal government sneezes, California catches a cold. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Tea Party-backed House Republicans who drove Nancy Pelosi from the speakership last year may inadvertently be handing the San Francisco Democrat significant leverage to protect liberal priorities in the dramatic endgame over raising the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]