In a Friday press conference on the debt ceiling, his third in three weeks, President Obama continued to push for a “big deal” that includes both cuts in domestic spending and tax-revenue increases. With Republican leaders refusing to make concessions on ending tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, desiring spending cuts alone, talks had appeared…

This week marks the first anniversary of the release of the White House’s National HIV/AIDS Strategy, and the Obama administration is eager to talk about how they’ve spent that time. “Our mission is for the United States to become a place where new HIV infections are rare,” Jeffrey Crowley, director of the White House Office…

Think back to when President Obama was just getting started in the White House, riding a wave of optimism and primed to advance a broad domestic agenda. Mortgage assistance for underwater homeowners! The world’s highest proportion of college graduates by 2020! Healthcare for everybody! In his first 18 months, the president enacted several policies designed…

President Obama and congressional leaders met again on Sunday, trying to hash out an agreement on deficit reduction and raising the debt ceiling before the Aug. 2 deadline. They parted ways, again, with no deal. In a Monday press conference, the president outlined the deal he’d like to see: a reduction in the federal deficit…

These days President Obama is focused on getting Congress to agree to a deficit-reduction deal in order to raise the debt ceiling, but not so long ago he’d asked lawmakers, again, to reform No Child Left Behind. He recently used one of his weekly addresses to call for changing the controversial Bush-era law, which mandates…

After reports surfaced that President Obama is willing to cut tens of billions of dollars from Medicare and Social Security, as part of a grand bargain in debt-ceiling talks with Republicans, Democratic leaders swiftly sounded off against the idea. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday that she will oppose cuts to entitlements…

In the few days since the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to make changes in federal sentencing guidelines for crack-cocaine offenders retroactive, the decision has drawn both grumbling and applause from folks on either side of the issue — as is par for the course whenever things change in Washington. Crack sentencing had already undergone changes…

In not-so-coincidental timing, President Obama held a press conference on Wednesday morning, hours before meeting with Senate Democratic leaders on the status of debt ceiling negotiations. With the August 2 deadline to raise the debt limit looming, and the parties seemingly at an impasse, Obama used much of his hour with the press to shame…