President Barack Obama's approval ratings for handling foreign policy issues generally top his ratings for most domestic issues, including the economy and health care.

President Barack Obama still calls shoring up the middle class his "No. 1 priority," but recent events overseas and at home are overshadowing the U.S. economy as a political issue.

As the U.S. recovery slowly gathers steam, federal deficits are finally coming down from their nosebleed $1-trillion-plus heights. That will postpone until fall a new budget showdown between Congress and the White House and also will probably delay the days of reckoning, feared by millions of aging Americans, when...

Alleged misbehavior by the IRS gives the GOP something else to talk about and investigate as the economy clearly, if slowly, recovers.

Despite years of hand-wringing in both parties, little progress has been made toward changing congressional rules on filibusters, senatorial "holds" on presidential nominees and other stalling ploys.

For the third year in a row, the nation's economic recovery has hit a springtime soft spot. Reflecting that weakness, only 1 in 4 Americans now expects his or her own financial situation to improve over the next year, a new Associated Press-GfK poll shows.

America's lower-income workers have posted the biggest job gains since the deep 2007-09 recession but few are bragging.

Most Americans want government austerity, a survey shows, but they also want increased spending on a host of popular programs: education, crime fighting, health care, Social Security, the environment and more. Less for defense, space and foreign aid.