Tracy Davidson

President Obama’s proposed fiscal 2012 budget is potentially a massive job-creation engine, with plans to generate millions of them by repairing and expanding highways, bridges and railways. But the spending plan also heralds an outsize political battle as it reignites the type of Republican skepticism over the effectiveness of such outlays that characterized the 2009 [...]

The U.S. Senate approved President Barack Obama’s healthcare overhaul on Thursday, backing sweeping changes in the medical insurance market and new coverage for tens of millions of uninsured Americans. Healthcare coverage and the hastle of forms On a party-line 60-39 vote, Senate Democrats supported the most dramatic shifts in health policy in four decades. The [...]

In the midst of major decisions on Afghanistan, health care and climate change, the president today turns his attention back to a problem he tried to solve already — and one that’s sure to dominate next year’s elections, when his Democratic majorities in Congress will be at stake. Obama convenes a summit here on jobs, [...]

The Obama administration on Monday plans to announce a campaign to pressure mortgage companies to reduce payments for many more troubled homeowners, as evidence mounts that a $75 billion taxpayer-financed effort aimed at stemming foreclosures is foundering. In February, President Obama announced the program to help keep people in their homes. “The banks are not [...]

Lawmakers voted, 87-13, yesterday to advance a $2.4 billion measure that would extend benefits 14 weeks in all states, and an additional six weeks in states with the highest unemployment rates (including Pennsylvania and New Jersey). The legislation has been stalled for weeks by a dispute over which proposed amendments to the plan would get [...]

A key House panel approved a bill Thursday to set up a new agency to regulate consumer credit: Everything from payday loans to debit cards. But after intense lobbying from large banks, small banks and nearly every potential creditor in between, the proposal has taken a few hits since landing on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers worked [...]