The co-chairmen of two past deficit reduction panels warned the congressional supercommittee on Tuesday that the nation could face economic turmoil unless it went “big” and more than tripled its minimum goal of finding $1.2 trillion in government savings.

Yet despite the stern words from the authors of the Simpson-Bowles and Rivlin-Domenici proposals, the 12 members of the bipartisan supercommittee seem far from reaching a deal as the clock ticks down toward a critical Thanksgiving deadline.

“I have great respect for each of you individually, but collectively I’m worried you’re going to fail - fail the country,” Erskine Bowles, a chief of staff for President Clinton, said during a hearing of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reductions at the Capitol.

Mr. Bowles and former Sen.

(CNSNews.com) – House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated at a press briefing Thursday that the House Republican leadership is not ruling out the possibility that it will support a balanced budget amendment that does not cap federal spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product or require a supermajority in Congress to increase taxes.

The legislation to increase the federal debt limit--that Boehner negotiated with President Barack Obama in August--requires both houses of Congress to vote on a balanced budget amendment before the end of the year. However, the legislation does not specify what type of balanced budget amendment must be considered in that vote.

Conservative analysts have argued that an amendment to the Constitution that requires Congress to balance the federal budget but does not require Congress to limit federal spending to a set percentage of GDP or to muster supermajorities to raise taxes would be a formula for bigger government and higher taxes...

Republicans are stepping up their criticism of Vice President Biden for his claim that rapes and murders will climb if Congress does not approve proposed aid for police and first responders.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said the vice president is using "fear tactics." Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Biden's remarks were "over the top."

And as the Senate Thursday night turned down a pared-back jobs bill to send $35 billion to the states for teachers and first responders, the Republican National Committee threw up a web video accusing Biden of using "scare tactics" to try to push it through. The video excerpted several remarks, including Biden's claim to a reporter this week that "murder will continue to rise, rape will continue to rise" without more aid.

Republicans and Democrats in Congress are preparing for what may be a massive battle on taxpayer funding of abortion, abortion promotion and the Planned Parenthood abortion business.

Yesterday, the House passed H.R. 2608, a continuing resolution to fund the federal government at current levels and under current conditions until November 18. The Senate passed its version of the continuing resolution last week and the final bill to fund the federal government will go to President Barack Obama for his signature.

Now, Congress has less than two months to put together another spending bill to send to Obama to keep the federal government running beyond that.

More members of Congress — all Democrats — have come out in strong opposition to the impending investigation a House committee launched this week, when the head of an oversight committee requested numerous documents from the abortion business.

In a September 15 letter LifeNews.com obtained, Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican who is the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Investigations, writes to Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood.

The letter requests any information related to improper billing related to federally-funded programs, proof that federal funds are not being improperly used to pay for abortions by PPFA or its affiliates, audits by state agencies of any Planned Parenthood affiliate, and documentation of how many affiliates currently receive Title X family planning funding.

A Congressional committee has taken the first steps in investigating the Planned Parenthood abortion business over abuses ranging from financial disparities to its compliance with federal regulations on taxpayer funding to concerns that it is covering up cases of sex trafficking.

In a September 15 letter LifeNews.com obtained, Rep. Cliff Stearns, a Florida Republican who is the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Investigations, writes to Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood.

“Pursuant to Rules X and XI of the United States House of Representatives, the Committee on Energy and Commerce is examining the institutional practices and policies of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and its affiliates, and its handing of federal funding,” Stearns writes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he wants to make sure millionaires are taxed at higher rates than their secretaries. The data say they already are.

"Warren Buffett's secretary shouldn't pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett. There is no justification for it," Obama said as he announced his deficit-reduction plan this week. "It is wrong that in the United States of America, a teacher or a nurse or a construction worker who earns $50,000 should pay higher tax rates than somebody pulling in $50 million."

On average, the wealthiest people in America pay a lot more taxes than the middle class or the poor, according to private and government data. They pay at a higher rate, and as a group, they contribute a much larger share of the overall taxes collected by the federal government.

The 10 percent of households with the highest incomes pay more than half of all federal taxes.

People flocked to theatres in the 1940s to catch serials like the Perils of Pauline, Blazing the Overland Trail, Brenda Starr and Captain Marvel. The drama was unmatched as moviegoers always found their hero facing certain death each week in classical, cliffhanger fashion.

And then the hero would escape and return for another cliffhanger the next week.

These days, those cliffhanger serials seem to run on C-SPAN, with the 112th Congress narrowly averting disaster at every turn.

In March and April, the federal government came within a whisker of closing because Congress and President Obama waged an epic fight over spending priorities. The country nearly defaulted on its debt last month. And now in late September, lawmakers are like Indiana Jones, dashing out of the cave with a gigantic boulder bearing down on them.

The government starts a new fiscal year in a week-and-a-half. And there is again the chance for a government shutdown...

A "glitch" has been found in Barack Obama's healthcare plan that one health policy expert says could "unravel" the law.

Beginning in 2014, the federal government will impose price controls on health insurance, while requiring that virtually every American purchase health coverage. As part of an effort to help Americans afford more costly premiums, Congress will offer assistance through health insurance exchanges that are supposed to be set up by the states. Should a state decide not to create an exchange, the federal government will create one. That, according to the Cato Institute's Michael Cannon, is where the glitch is found.

"[ObamaCare] only authorizes premium assistance in state-run exchanges. It does not offer premium assistance in federal exchanges," the health policy expert explained in a recent podcast.

But this problem, he believes, gives states that are fighting ObamaCare a much stronger hand...

A majority of Americans don’t believe President Barack Obama’s $447 billion jobs plan will help lower the unemployment rate, skepticism he must overcome as he presses Congress for action and positions himself for re-election.

The downbeat assessment of the American Jobs Act reflects a growing and broad sense of dissatisfaction with the president. Americans disapprove of his handling of the economy by 62 percent to 33 percent, a Bloomberg National Poll conducted Sept. 9-12 shows. The disapproval number represents a nine point increase from six months ago.

The president’s job approval rating also stands at the lowest of his presidency — 45 percent. That rating is driven down in part by a majority of independents, 53 percent, who disapprove of his performance...