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Articles written by Andrew Taylor Associated Press


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  • Senate leaders offer dour take on 'cliff' talks

    ALAN FRAM, ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — The top Senate negotiators on the effort to prevent the government from going over the "fiscal cliff" offered a pessimistic assessment Sunday barely 24 hours before a deadline to avert tax hikes on virtually every worker. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he's yet to receive a response to an offer he made on Saturday evening to Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the top Democratic negotiator. The Kentucky Republican said he's reached out to Vice President Joe Biden in hopes of breaking the impasse a...

  • Deficit panel leaders' plan curbs on Social Security

    ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press

    Deficit panel leaders' plan curbs Social Security WASHINGTON (AP) — The leaders of President Barack Obama's bipartisan deficit commission launched a daring assault on mushrooming federal deficits on Wednesday, proposing reducing annual cost-of-living increases for Social Security, gradually raising the retirement age to 69 and taking aim at popular tax breaks such as the mortgage interest deduction. As part of a proposal to wrestle $1-trillion-plus deficits under control, their plan would also curb the growth of Medicare. I...

  • Lone holdout gives in, Senate Oks jobless benefits

    ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON

    Putting a lone senator's cantankerous challenge behind it, the Senate is back to work on a $100 billionplus bill reviving popular tax breaks and extending longer and more generous jobless benefits through the end of the year. Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning relented Tuesday evening, freeing the Senate to approve stopgap legislation extending for another month a host of programs, including highway funding, health insurance subsidies for the unemployed and benefits for the longterm jobles s. That gives Congress time to...