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August 17, 2011 Obama is preparing the ground to run a do-nothing Congress. He will propose, congressional Republicans will dispose, as in discard, and he will be able to accuse them of thwarting policies that could change the lives of millions of Americans for the better.

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July 28, 2011 ANALYSIS: It should go without saying, this is a signal setback for the speaker, who in recent days had pleaded, cajoled and demanded that his conference get behind him if, for no other reason, to show solidarity as he confronts the Democrats who control the Senate and the White House.

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• Boehner's Bill In Limbo As GOP Tries To Regroup
• Political Negotiations Also Shaped By Psychology

July 28, 2011 With the debt-ceiling hanging Damoclean over Capitol Hill, politicians may not be speaking to each other very much, but they are using the latest technogadgetry to talk with – or, at least, to —their constituents.

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July 27, 2011 House Republicans on Wednesday focused their ire onto a GOP staffer after learning that he emailed outside conservative groups urging them to pressure lawmakers to oppose Speaker John Boehner's debt-ceiling plan.

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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 26, 2011 The threats to Boehner's legislation, which would raise the debt ceiling in two steps (the Boehner Two-Step, anyone) are coming from within his GOP conference as well as Democrats on the outside.

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July 25, 2011 As political rhetoric, the speeches likely connected with the audiences they were intended for. But they likely did very little to change matters at the negotiating table for the better.

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• In Gold They Trust: Some Lawmakers Hold On To Precious Metal

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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July 23, 2011 Now that the one-on-one debt ceiling talks between President Obama and Speaker John Boehner have broken down, there are obviously more questions than answers about what exactly happened and where matters go from here.

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• Both Sides Point Finger As Debt Talks Falter

July 22, 2011 While the sides were fighting in public, it was understood that Obama and Boehner were still meeting privately as they tried to reach an agreement to raise the debt ceiling and achieve significant spending cuts and deficit reductions, a pact that could get enough support from lawmakers in both parties to get past the objections of their hardest hard liners.

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July 22, 2011 The angry reaction of congressional Democrats to reports that President Obama and Speaker Boehner showed it's not just House Republicans who must be appeased. It's going to take enough congressional Democrats signing on to a final deal for a default by the U.S. to be averted.

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• Senate Kills 'Cut, Cap, Balance'
• NPR's Interview With Obama In Full