Democrats

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  Mississippi Dems back letting poor buy private insurance

  By Emily Wagster Pettus  |  June 6, 2013

  Democrats in the Mississippi Legislature said Wednesday they've come up with a way to provide health coverage to about 300,000 people without expanding Medicaid.

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  Senators unveil sweeping immigration bill

  By Erica Werner  |  April 18, 2013

  Four Democratic and four Republican senators formally unveiled a sweeping immigration bill Thursday at a news conference attended by traditional opponents from big business and labor, conservative groups and liberal ones.

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  Bipartisan bill would remake immigration system

  By Erica Werner  |  April 16, 2013

  The U.S. immigration system would undergo dramatic changes under a bipartisan Senate bill that puts a new focus on prospective immigrants' merit and employment potential, while seeking to end illegal immigration once and for all by creating legal avenues for workers to come here.

• Hospital debt debate heats up in Maine

  By Glenn Adams  |  March 12, 2013

  As a legislative committee took up competing plans to pay Maine's $484 million debt to the state's hospitals for past Medicaid debts, Gov. Paul LePage on Monday signaled for the first time a willingness to discuss expansion of Medicaid under the national health care law.

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  Last ditch effort to avoid fiscal cliff under way

  By David Espo, Jim Kuhnhenn  |  December 28, 2012

  The end game at hand, the White House and Senate leaders launched a final attempt at compromise Friday night in hopes of preventing a toxic blend of middle-class tax increases and spending cuts from taking effect at the turn of the new year.

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  Boehner has a backup plan

  By Jim Kuhnhenn, Julie Pace  |  December 18, 2012

  House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that he is readying a backup bill aimed at averting the “fiscal cliff” because President Barack Obama has yet to offer a balanced package of revenues and spending savings that would cut burgeoning federal deficits.

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  Poll shows support for raising taxes on the rich

  By Alan Fram, Jennifer Agiesta  |  December 5, 2012

  Americans prefer letting tax cuts expire for the country's top earners, as President Barack Obama insists, while support has declined for cutting government services to curb budget deficits, an Associated Press-GfK poll shows. Fewer than half the Republicans polled favor continuing the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.

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  Brinksmanship on Obama Medicaid expansion for poor

  By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar  |  December 3, 2012

  President Barack Obama's health care law expands Medicaid, the federal-state health program for low-income people, but cost-wary states must decide whether to take the deal. Turn it down, and governors risk coming off as callous toward their neediest residents.

• Illinois governor wants pension reform by Jan. 9

  By The Associated Press  |  November 12, 2012

  Gov. Pat Quinn says he hopes to fix the state's $85 billion pension mess through bipartisan cooperation, before a new Legislature is sworn in.

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  Americans face prospect of status quo Congress

  By Alan Fram, Donna Cassata  |  November 5, 2012

  A barrage of negative ads, more than $2 billion in spending and endless campaign stops all come down to this: Americans likely will elect a Congress as divided as the one they've been ranting about for two years.