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John Sutter says studies show kids who had preschool fare better on many fronts than kids who did not. Congress should support Obama's push for preschool for all kids.

Across-the-board spending cuts all but certain, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate are staging a politically charged showdown designed to avoid public blame for any resulting inconvenience or disruption in government services.

The Senate has confirmed Jack Lew, a former budget director and chief of staff to the president, as the next Secretary of the Treasury. The vote was 71 to 26.

While White House strategists believe that Republicans will be blamed as the cuts’ effects slowly emerge, President Obama risks political damage if Americans end up just shrugging at the reductions.

...Unlike their predecessors, today’s leaders have models on how to revive depressed economies. The example of Franklin Roosevelt, whose public investments in jobs and defense turned the U.S. economy around, and the writings of John Maynard Keynes, who demonstrated that the solution to depression is boosting demand, are plain for all to see. Seeing isn’t believing, however, when ideology dims the eye.

A proposed ban on military-style assault weapons faces a key test vote as early as Thursday when the committee considering gun control legislation is scheduled to decide whether to refer the proposal to the full Senate.

Decorated Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel was sworn in as U.S. defense secretary on Wednesday after a bruising Senate confirmation battle, and promised to renew old U.S. alliances and forge new ones without attempting to "dictate" to the world.

With a 71-to-27 vote, the Senate has cleared the way for Chuck Hagel’s confirmation as defense secretary, despite complaints from Republicans about his readiness for the job.

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., suggested to a libertarian group that former Vice President Dick Cheney will likely end up in a fiery place for his role in the Iraq War.

The nation’s capital was enveloped in a familiar kind of gridlock late Monday, as Republicans again demanded that President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats act first to put off $85 billion in automatic cuts slated to take effect on Friday.