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Rep. Michael Arcuri, D-Utica, said he has not decided how he'll vote on a health care bill likely to come before the House of Representatives in the next three weeks. ``I won't know until I see what kind of guarantees there are that this is going to be a good bill,'' he said. In November, Arcuri voted "yes" as House Democrats passed a comprehensive health-insurance reform bill that included a public option _ a government-sponsored insurance plan to compete with corporate insurers.

This time, though, don't expect that to be the end of the story -- because the coming recession will not be normal, and our economy is not fundamentally sound. This time around, the nation will have to craft new versions of some of the reforms that Franklin Roosevelt created to steer the nation out of the Great Depression -- not because anything like a major depression looms but because we face an economy that's been warped by two developments we've not seen since FDR's time. The first of these is the stagnation of ordinary Americans' incomes, a phenomenon that began...

A recession and a bear market in asset prices are inevitable for the US economy. Recent economic data leave no doubt that both are on their way.

If there is anyone out there who has been following my economics-minded journals, please seriously consider signing this petition hosted by Karl Denninger. Once you sign and confirm, copies are faxed to your state and federal representatives on his dime. This is legitimate. Don't be apathetic! Don't say that you did nothing! At least take the time to read it.

A Wall Street superstar this year who runs Balestra Capital Partners, Jim Melcher, says he's "worried about a recession. Not a normal one, but a very bad one. The worst since the 1930s. I expect we'll see clear signs of it in six months with a dramatic slowdown in the gross domestic product."

Many American software engineers and IT professionals have been forced by jobs offshoring to abandon their professions.

WASHINGTON — George W. Bush, despite all his recent bravado about being an apostle of small government and budget-slashing, is the biggest spending president since Lyndon B. Johnson. In fact, he's arguably an even bigger spender than LBJ.

A stark assessment released Thursday by the nation’s intelligence agencies depicts a paralyzed Iraqi government unable to take advantage of the security gains achieved by the thousands of extra American troops dispatched to the country this year.

The US government is on a ‘burning platform’ of unsustainable policies and practices with fiscal deficits, chronic healthcare underfunding, immigration and overseas military commitments threatening a crisis if action is not taken soon, the country’s top government inspector has warned. David Walker, comptroller general of the US, issued the unusually downbeat assessment of his country’s future in a report that lays out what he called “chilling long-term simulations”. These include “dramatic” tax rises, slashed government services and the large-scale dumping by foreign governments of holdings of US debt.

The Iraqi government is failing and the U.S. must plan cautiously for a withdrawal, Navy Admiral Michael Mullen, President George W. Bush's nominee to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said today.

Senate Democrats and Republicans came together today to devote an additional $3 billion to gaining control over the U.S.-Mexico border, putting Congress on a path to override President Bush's promised veto of a $38 billion homeland security funding bill. The deal resurrects a GOP plan launched Wednesday to pass some of the most popular elements of Bush's failed immigration bill, including money for additional Border Patrol agents and fencing along the southern border.

Critics of the plan proposed by the American Enterprise Institute's Iraq Planning Group (IPG) have been pointing to supposed discrepancies in the numbers of troops required to secure Baghdad in my writings, the IPG, and the Bush administration's statements. I noted before the IPG met that it would require a surge of 80,000 additional troops to clear the entire Baghdad capital area, according to traditional counter-insurgency norms and under a variety of other unlikely conditions. I did not advocate such an operation. I noted consistently, again before the IPG met, that I thought it would take about 50,000 additional U.S....

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Mahdi Army militia members have stopped wearing their black uniforms, hidden their weapons and abandoned their checkpoints in an apparent effort to lower their profile in Baghdad in advance of the arrival of U.S. reinforcements. "We have explicit directions to keep a low profile . . . not to confront, not to be dragged into a fight and to calm things down," said one official who received the orders from the anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Sadr heads the Mahdi Army, Iraq's largest Shiite militia, headquartered in Najaf. The official asked not to be named because he...

A leading conservative proponent of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq now says dysfunction within the Bush administration has turned U.S. policy there into a disaster. Richard Perle, who chaired a committee of Pentagon policy advisers early in the Bush administration, said had he seen at the start of the war in 2003 where it would go, he probably would not have advocated an invasion to depose Saddam Hussein.

WASHINGTON - When he was asked recently why Americans aren't delighted by their strong economy, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called that the $64,000 question.

Washington — It couldn't have come at a worse time for U.S. Republicans trying to get re-elected in mid-term elections in November on the strength of their national security efforts. Part of a comprehensive spy report finished in April and leaked last weekend said the U.S. invasion of Iraq helped create a new generation of Islamic radicals and increased the global terrorism threat. That's the opposite of what President George W. Bush has been telling Americans for weeks in pre-election speeches and it could have a significant impact on whether the party retains control of Congress this fall.

The fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was marked with the sadness and solemnity appropriate to the day, with President Bush sharing the rituals of public mourning at ground zero, at the farmer's field in Shanksville, Pa., and at the Pentagon. But it was clearly another troubled place that weighed on him, as he capped the commemoration with a prime-time TV address that drew on 9/11 emotions to appeal for greater public support on Iraq. "The safety of America," the president declared, "depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad." Most Americans, though, don't seem to...

TIKRIT, Iraq - As security conditions continue to deteriorate in Iraq, many Iraqi politicians are challenging the optimistic forecasts of governments in Baghdad and Washington, with some worrying that the rosy views are preventing the creation of effective strategies against the escalating violence. Their worst fear, one that some American soldiers share, is that top officials don't really understand what's happening. Those concerns seem to be supported by statistics that show Iraq's violence has increased steadily during the past three years. "The American policy has failed both in terms of politics and security, but the big problem is that they...

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Attackers have launched three new strikes on U.S. targets in Baghdad, killing a U.S. soldier and an Iraqi driver in sharply escalating resistance to occupation nearly three months after Saddam Hussein's fall.Thursday's ambushes came as former Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, dubbed "Comical Ali" because of his insistence of Iraqi military success even as Baghdad fell, said he had surrendered to U.S. troops only to be freed. Ten U.S. servicemen were wounded in the attacks and a defence official said two more were believed to have been kidnapped from the town of Balad, northeast of the capital.The...