WASHINGTON (AP) – Dejected Democrats and invigorated Republicans returned to the Capitol Monday to face a mountain of unfinished business and greet more than 100 mainly Republican freshmen-elect lawmakers determined to change how they do that business.

2. Congress to Tread Carefully in Run-Up to Election - Tuesday, September 14, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) – Congress returns this week with embattled Democrats torn between trying to show they have the economic answers and fearing the further wrath of voters over new government programs.

3. GOP Looks to Erase Democrats' Comfy House Majority - Tuesday, August 3, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) – No fewer than 65 House seats across the country – an overwhelming majority held by Democrats – are at risk of changing political hands this fall, enough to bolster Republican hopes of regaining power and stoke fears in President Barack Obama's party of losing it.

4. AP IMPACT: Some Lawmakers Send Few to Academies - Monday, November 23, 2009

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) - As the nation's military academies try to recruit more minorities, they aren't getting much help from members of Congress from big-city districts with large numbers of blacks, Hispanics and Asians.

5. Democrats Defeat GOP Attempt to Remove Rangel - Thursday, October 8, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans failed Wednesday for a third time to oust Rep. Charles Rangel as chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, but they kept the political spotlight on his ethical problems.

6. Obama May Have to Wait for Health Care Passage - Thursday, July 23, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Conservative House Democrats signaled on Wednesday that Congress is far from fulfilling President Barack Obama's goal of overhauling health care, just hours before the president planned another televised appeal to lawmakers to get the job done.

7. Obama Challenges on Health Care - Tuesday, July 14, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - A defiant President Barack Obama sought Monday to revive his faltering plan to overhaul health care, delivering a full-throated promise to get comprehensive legislation and summoning lawmakers crucial to his effort to the White House.

8. House Dems Look at Taxing the Rich for Health Care - Friday, July 10, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats at work on health legislation are narrowing in on an income tax surcharge on the highest-paid wage earners to help pay the cost of subsidizing insurance for the 50 million who lack it.

9. US Senate Dems to Start Work Next Week on Health Care - Wednesday, June 10, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Senate Democrats announced plans Tuesday to begin committee work next week on health care legislation designed to assure coverage for millions of Americans who now lack it, a key objective of the Obama administration.

10. Congress Has Little Appetite For Health Care Taxes - Tuesday, May 19, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) – It’s the toughest question of all in the debate over revamping the nation’s health care system – how to pay for expanding coverage to nearly 50 million uninsured people.

Ask lawmakers about raising taxes and the responses range from emphatic opposition to noncommittal statements about “putting everything on the table.”

11. House Debates Bill Taxing AIG and Other Bonuses - Friday, March 20, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats pressed for quick action Thursday on a bill to slap punishing taxes on big employee bonuses from firms bailed out by taxpayers. Republicans called it a legally questionable ploy to paper over Obama administration missteps.

12. IRS to Drop Private Debt Collection Program - Monday, March 9, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Internal Revenue Service is eliminating a program that uses private debt collectors to go after tax delinquents, the agency announced Thursday evening.

The decision came after the IRS reviewed the program and determined that IRS employees could better do the work. The decision, however, was quickly criticized by a key supporter of the program in Congress.

13. Bush Signs Jobless Benefits Extension - Monday, November 24, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) - With no end in sight to economic bad news, President George W. Bush on Friday ensured that millions of laid-off workers will keep getting their unemployment checks as the year-end holidays approach.

14. Banks, Homebuilders, Others Could Get Fattened Tax Refunds Under Stimulus-Plan Provision - Thursday, January 24, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. homebuilders, lenders and other struggling companies could receive hefty one-time tax refunds this year and next under a provision of the economic stimulus plan percolating in Washington.

15. Democrats, Republicans Promise Speedy Work on Economic Stimulus Legislation - Thursday, January 17, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) - Under pressure to act quickly on the sagging election-year economy, Democratic and GOP leaders held talks Wednesday amid increasing optimism that the warring factions might actually agree soon on an economic stimulus bill.

16. Bush Says Predicting Economy's Course Not Easy, Says Economy Resilient - Tuesday, January 8, 2008

CHICAGO (AP) - President Bush said Monday that economic indicators are "increasingly mixed," causing anxiety for many Americans. But he said the economy is resilient and the U.S. has dealt with anxiety before.

17. Republicans, Democrats at Odds Over Paying for Middle-Class Tax Relief - Thursday, December 13, 2007

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republicans say it's OK not to cover the $50 billion in revenue losses from Congress' annual alternative minimum tax fix to save millions of families from higher taxes - even as the GOP president counts on revenues from that higher levy to reduce the red ink in his budget.