This week, in the midst of revelations that the NSA has been secretly collecting vast amounts of information on us, and just before yet another middling jobs report was released, President Obama visited North Carolina as part of a "Middle Class Jobs and Opportunities Tour." Though the middle class continues to get pummeled -- with family wealth declining almost 30 percent in the last decade -- the White House brings up the issue only sporadically. It pops up, gets a few lines in a speech, then disappears again. The administration's meandering approach is like when an old person wanders into the kitchen and can't remember why: "Now what did I come in here for? Oh yeah, that's right -- some yogurt... and the middle class!" Maybe the president would be motivated to bring some sustained urgency to this crisis if the conversations the NSA is busy collecting were between America's 22 million unemployed and underemployed.

Protesters reportedly with the Occupy Wall Street movement delayed the start of President Obama's speech in Manchester, New Hampshire Tuesday, chantin...

Of course we can afford the current debt, and we probably could handle another $10 trillion, but who wants to go deeper in debt when we have so much to do to revive the economy and to put people back to work?

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Still searching for mechanisms to pass pieces of the president's jobs bill, senior administration officials returned on Thursday t...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama pushed Congress again on Monday to bring his American Jobs Act to a vote, promising to "put as much pressure" as ...

DENVER — Capping a campaign trip for his economic plan and his re-election, President Barack Obama on Tuesday tried to keep pressure on Congress...

When the Wednesday morning of Nov. 7, 2012 begins, we may look back on the week of Sept. 19, 2011 as a turning point in the presidency of Barack Obama and his candidacy for re-election.

CINCINNATI — Needling his top Republican adversaries on their own turf, President Barack Obama stood in the shadow of an outdated and heavily us...

The president has vowed to veto any plan to tame the debt that doesn't increase taxes on the rich. The Republicans have vowed to oppose any tax increases on the rich. It's a good fight to have.

President Obama can win the election in 2012 by losing the fight to Republicans for his jobs bill and related tax measures.

Obama has staked out a strong position but Republicans will do everything they can to deny him a win. That's the nature of politics in 2011.

WASHINGTON (AP/The Huffington Post) -- House Speaker John Boehner describes himself as "a pretty simple guy" who sleeps well and doesn't get angry des...

Are there some good things in the American Jobs Act? To be sure. But, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., the bill "is like a check that comes back marked insufficient funds."

The president and all in Congress agree on creating jobs -- in China. They get money for that.

The groups suffering the worst of the economic crisis -- the poor, people of color, single women -- may be hurt more by the careful omissions from Obama's jobs speech than they'd be helped by his proposals.

WASHINGTON — In a sharp challenge to the GOP, President Barack Obama proposed paying for his costly new jobs plan Monday with tax hikes that Rep...

WASHINGTON (AP/The Huffington Post) -- The Democratic National Committee is launching an ad campaign in politically key states to try and rally the pu...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- President Barack Obama's latest jobs plan calls for $130 billion in aid to state and local governments, providing either a welc...

Suppose President Obama's jobs speech marks a turning point. He gets energized by being a little more partisan. He finds that putting Republicans on the defensive is good politics. His poll numbers improve. He wins some of his proposed jobs bill, and fights hard for the rest of it.