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December 27, 2012 President Obama has returned to Washington. The Senate is back in session. House Republicans have said they're willing to talk. But with just a few days to go, both sides are saying the other will be at fault if automatic tax hikes and spending cuts aren't averted.

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December 1, 2012 Every student of Washington knows the Senate has become the definition of a legislative graveyard, in part because of the frequency with which the minority party invokes its right to filibuster legislation and nominations. The Senate majority leader may push to change that — which could make matters worse.

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November 7, 2012 Senate Democrats did better than just keep their slim majority. Wednesday brought news that they expanded it by managing to retain control of two of their most threatened seats, in Montana and North Dakota.

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November 7, 2012 With the election behind them, Congressional leaders are now facing automatic spending cuts and tax hikes that economists fear could plunge the economy back into recession. Can they work together to avert disaster?

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July 16, 2012 Sen. Harry Reid doesn't believe in playing it safe when it comes to his public utterances. On Monday he said the failure to pass new campaign-finance disclosure legislation could lead to "17 angry old white men" owning the country.

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June 19, 2012 On Capitol Hill Tuesday, Sen. Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican and the Senate minority leader, told reporters he would let the all-but-official Republican presidential nominee first announce a position on Obama's decision before offering his own position publicly.

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May 16, 2012 The descriptions of the White House lunch meeting from those on the opposing red and blue teams made it sound like yet another meeting featuring the nation's top policymakers that you could have accurately scripted beforehand.

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October 5, 2011 From the Democratic perspective, the beauty of such a surtax comes from how voters across the ideological spectrum have expressed approval for higher taxes on the wealthy to reduce federal deficits and for job creation. Not surprisingly, Democratic voters show the strongest support but there's significant support among Republicans, too.

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September 26, 2011 Lawmakers in Washington are still at odds over how to put some more money into the coffers of the stretched-thin Federal Emergency Management Agency. If the dispute isn't settled by the end of the week, part of the government might have to shut down.

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August 9, 2011 Sen. Harry Reid has made his picks for the deficit super committee whose task it is to recommend with $1.5 trillion in federal spending cuts over 10 years — Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts, Patty Murray of Washington State and Max Baucus of Montana.

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August 4, 2011 Whatever the cause it, the news that the FAA's partial shutdown would end at least temporarily meant laid off workers, 4,000 at the FAA and 70,000 at contractors could go back to work for now.

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August 2, 2011 Democrats may have yielded on their demand for tax increases to achieve the debt-ceiling deal President Obama signed into law Tuesday. But in an interview on All Things Considered, Sen. Harry Reid had a warning for congressional Republicans: Later this year when Congress has to decide on additional ways to cut federal deficits, Democrats intend to stand firm on the need for more tax revenues.

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• Reid Blames House, Delta For FAA Shutdown

July 27, 2011 The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that Sen. Harry Reid's debt ceiling plan falls short of the kind of deficit reduction the proposal envisions, sending the Senate minority leader back to his numbers crunchers to try and find more savings. Still, it was good news for Reid since his plan was estimated to have $1.3 trillion more in savings than Speaker John Boehner's plan.

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July 25, 2011 The deadline is eight days away now, and there's real concern there may not be enough time for either proposal — or a compromise version of the two — to get enacted by Congress.

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July 25, 2011 Setting aside all the details, important as they are, about raising revenues and cutting spending, the crux of the fight is now clearly more about when to have the next debt-ceiling battle after the one now playing out before our eyes than anything else.

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