Social Security will pay more in benefits this year than it will take in because of payroll taxes in the sluggish economy, but Medicare's solvency could be extended by years thanks to the new health care law, according to two reports on the government's big entitlement programs released Thursday.
All eyes over the past week have once again turned toward the job picture.
Initial requests for jobless benefits rose last week to their highest level since April, a sign that hiring remains weak and some companies are still cutting workers.
Legislation long sought by Democrats to save the jobs of 300,000 teachers, police and other public workers passed the Senate on Thursday.
A recent survey of leading economists paints a bleak picture for the American economy in the months ahead. The survey compiles predictions and forecasts of leading economists in the academic, private and corporate sectors. Here's what they think:
Summer jobs programs for youths. Are they a good idea? Maybe in your state. But the D.C. program should be under investigation.
Trying to recharge unions key to his 2008 victory, President Obama on Wednesday implored members of the AFL-CIO to be patient with the pace of the recovery and warned them they and the economy would suffer far worse under Republican rule.
President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner have made it clear they want big tax hikes on job creators - successful investors and entrepreneurs - by letting the Bush tax cuts expire in 2011. This is despite the troubling persistence of unemployment greater than 9 percent.
Sharron Angle, the Republican Senate nominee for Nevada, is a proverbial "comeback kid." Liberals like her opponent, Democrat Harry Reid, brand Mrs. Angle as a quirky extremist. Mrs. Angle, on the other hand, boldly brands herself a "conservative Republican."
