Articles & Op-Eds

Faced with rising costs, General Electric is moving production of its new energy-efficient water heater halfway around the world. The country it's leaving? China. The one it's bringing 400 jobs and a newly renovated factory? The United States.

Many of us have nearly forgotten an era in which it was commonplace for a person to be denied employment because she was blind, or unable to attend a university because he was in a wheelchair—an era in which people with disabilities were second-class citizens.

For a couple of years, it was the love that dared not speak his name. In 2008, Republican candidates hardly ever mentioned the president still sitting in the White House.

David S. Broder's explanation of the House's one-year budget enforcement resolution, and of our nation's fiscal challenge, was at best superficial and at worst misleading ["A dereliction of fiscal duty," op-ed, July 8].

Recently an acquaintance at the next table in a Palo Alto (Calif.) restaurant introduced me to his companions, three young venture capitalists from China. They explained, with visible excitement, that they were touring promising companies in Silicon Valley. I've lived in the Valley a long time, and usually when I see how the region has become such a draw for global investments, I feel a little proud.

In the longer term, they should heed the example of House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.), who gave a brave speech this week not only setting out the fiscal challenge but offering specific, credible suggestions for savings.

Tax cuts that benefit the middle class should not be "totally sacrosanct" as policymakers try to plug the nation's yawning budget gap, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Monday, acknowledging that it would be difficult to reduce long-term deficits without breaking President Obama's pledge to protect families earning less than $250,000 a year.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said Tuesday that Democrats would pursue a slimmed-down budget resolution before the July Fourth recess.

Let's start with two indisputable facts. First, both the financial system and the economy are in far better shape today than they were in the dark days of January or February 2009.

A little House parliamentary history: The motion to recommit goes back at least to the British Parliament and has existed in some form since the 1st Congress.

A top Senate Democrat is fashioning a nearly $60 billion measure mixing war funding with U.S. disaster funds and aid for Haiti in hopes of jump-starting the long-delayed measure and clearing it through a nasty legislative thicket by Memorial Day.