Good news came at the end of last week, and it's something that will affect you and your neighborhood. Speaker of the House John Boehner said the House would vote on a three-month increase to the debt ceiling in order to give lawmakers time to pass a more comprehensive budget deal.

This country is desperately in need of facts. That was the overwhelming message I took away from two exciting things that happened last week. First, there was a national conference for No Labels. The second event was at the New York Public Library, where I spoke about A People's Guide to the Federal Budget.

On January 23 the Housed passed legislation to deal with the debt ceiling – the legal limit Congress places on its own borrowing. If the federal debt reaches the debt ceiling, the government is unable to borrow additional funds to support continued operations, triggering a government shutdown and default on ...

When lawmakers struck a fiscal-cliff deal on New Year's Day, they did not make any changes to Medicare or Social Security. But the debate over if and how to reform entitlement programs has only just begun.

One of the major issues not addressed as part of the recent deal on the fiscal cliff is the future of the major entitlement programs – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.Entitlements are programs that pay benefits to anyone who applies for them and meets the eligibility requirements for that specific ...

Last week’s fiscal cliff deal left much unresolved – no agreement on raising the debt ceiling, the fiscal year 2013 budget is still incomplete, and there was no more than a delay in dealing with one of the major components of the cliff: sequestration.

A number of our Facebook fans expressed concern last week when they discovered that payroll taxes would be increasing in the wake of fiscal cliff negotiations. One person wrote in dismay, "What about all the months of discussion that increasing taxes on the middle class would hurt the economy?"

Here are the top 5 things you need to know  about the fiscal cliff deal enacted by Congress this week: 1)  Extends the Bush-Era Tax Cuts: The Bush-era tax cuts were scheduled to expire on Dec. 31. The tax cuts benefited nearly every American taxpayer, though they offered the most ...

At the last possible moment, Congress came to an agreement to avoid the fiscal cliff. The deal affects tax rates, unemployment benefits, and even the price of milk. Read the details.

2013 and the fiscal cliff will arrive in a few hours, though today's most popular Google search is about Kim Kardashian's pregnancy. After all, we can only take so much news about something called the "fiscal cliff." But it actually makes a difference whether we're paying attention to Kim Kardashian or to what's happening in Washington.