Long-term unemployed workers will lose federal benefits shortly after Christmas. What’s happened in North Carolina since July is an indication of what will happen nationwide, and it's not pretty.

The trouble with making “functional” government the great aspiration of America is that a smoothly operating Congress is not necessarily moral, humane or even economically smart.

The desire to reprise the GOP's disastrous shutdown seems irrational -- unless you live inside the right-wing media bubble.

This was the latest in a string of battles in which the American economy was ultimately the loser. Now Democrats have the upper hand -- if they don't mess it up.

National Priorities' Mattea Kramer provides an update – in handy cheat-sheet format – of what's happening with the federal budget when Congress reconvenes in September.

Congressman Jim McDermott described Ryan's hearing on poverty perfectly when he said: “This hearing is surreal… You are not living in the real world.”

In a new animated cartoon, Mark Fiore proposes a way for other groups of Americans affected by the sequester to get Congress' attention.

According to recent polls, a strong majority of Americans have a coherent to-do list for Washington. The surprise is it's actually a smart set of solutions.

Why haven't low-income Americans been given an opportunity to meet with the president to tell their own stories?

Want to know more about the 11th hour deal Congress and the White House reached? Here's a collection of articles explaining what's in the deal and differing viewpoints on the consequences.