No cliff deal as final hour approaches  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell still haven't struck a deal to prevent taxes from rising on wage earners in the new year, sources say, as eleventh-hour negotiations to avert historic tax hikes approach a make-or-break moment Sunday.

GOP senators backing away from Social Security demand  —  GOP senators on Sunday backed away from demanding that cuts to Social Security benefits be included in any “fiscal cliff” deal.  —  The call to include a measure of inflation known as the chained consumer price index, or “chained CPI …

Fiscal Talks Resume With Deadline in Mind  —  WASHINGTON — Negotiations over a last-ditch agreement to head off large tax increases and sweeping spending cuts in the new year appeared to resume on Sunday afternoon after Republican senators withdrew a demand that any deal must include …

Fiscal Cliff Talks Resume After GOP Caves On Social Security Cut  —  If Senate leaders reach an agreement to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, they won't announce it today.  —  On the Senate floor Sunday evening, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that, after a brief run off the rails …

Meet the President: David Gregory's Low-Intensity Interview  —  Well, this time David Gregory didn't brandish any weapons or show much firepower.  —  He pressed Barack Obama on a few points in the president's appearance this morning, designed to seize control of the media narrative one day before the fiscal cliff deadline.

Newtown Task Force Returns Biden to Gun Control Arena  —  WASHINGTON — Never much known for restraint, Joseph R. Biden Jr. did not hold back during a presidential primary debate in 2007 when a voter asking about gun rights in a recorded video displayed a fearsome-looking semiautomatic rifle and declared, “This is my baby.”