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A bipartisan group of lawmakers from both houses urged the deficit-reduction supercommittee Wednesday to “go big” as it nears a deadline to avoid mandatory across-the-board cuts, telling the panel it has significant congressional support for a deal that would cut the deficit by about $4 trillion. But Democrats and Republicans on the supercommittee later held separate meetings amid mounting pessimism that the 12-member panel would be able to reach an agreement.

US President Barack Obama will ask government agencies on Wednesday to find cost savings by cutting back in areas ranging from travel and vehicles to purchases of promotional coffee mugs and gadgets.

It's an outrageous tale: The federal government spends one out of every $10 in transportation aid on wasteful projects such as refurbishing a giant roadside coffee pot and constructing turtle tunnels.

A proposal to phase out the $1 bill and replace it with a $1 coin could be gaining currency as the "supercommittee" looks to find ways to save the government money... The move to a coin would cost money in the short term, but eventually save money because paper currency lasts about 42 months — while coins theoretically last forever. Moving to a coin could save $5.6 billion over 30 years, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The federal government recorded a $1.3 trillion budget deficit in fiscal 2011, the same as the previous fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office said.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill that puts the government on stable financial footing for six weeks but does nothing to resolve a battle over spending that is likely to flare again.

The legislation will finance the government for the first four days of October, until lawmakers return and can vote on a more ambitious seven-week spending bill.

On Washington state's remote and wooded Olympic Peninsula, major commotion is usually limited to a log tumbling off an overloaded lumber truck. But lately the peninsula has been roiled by a noisy debate over the expansion of a Border Patrol station in Port Angeles, a three-hour car and ferry ride away from the U.S.-Canadian land border.

The federal deficit will hit $1.3 trillion for fiscal 2011, the third consecutive year of record shortfalls and an emerging campaign theme for GOP attacks on President Obama and congressional Democrats. The deficits of the last three years are at levels unseen since World War II and stem from the "long shadow" cast on the economy by the financial crisis and recession, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

President Obama's plan to roll back costly regulations that are no longer needed could save more than $14 billion over five years, the White ...