WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The government would spend less on law enforcement, housing, scientific research and a range of other activities under a trio of bills approved on Tuesday by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Tuesday’s 69-30 vote was a rare moment of progress after months of partisan budget battles that brought the government to the edge of a shutdown and the brink of default.

WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) – The Republican-led U.S.
House of Representatives on Thursday passed a minor element of
President Barack Obama’s jobs bill as consensus remained
elusive on other efforts to boost the struggling economy.

With the unemployment rate stuck at 9 percent, Republicans
and Democrats have lined up behind sharply different
job-creation agendas.

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) – The slot machines jangle away with the promise of sudden riches, but many visitors to a job fair at a second-tier casino here are hoping merely for a minimum-wage job to snap their losing streak.

The grim economy hasn’t been the only disappointment of the past several years for those hoping to find work with the limousine companies, insurance agencies and home healthcare providers that have set up shop at this career fair.

LAS VEGAS, Oct 25 (Reuters) – The slot machines jangle away
with the promise of sudden riches, but many visitors to a job
fair at a second-tier casino here are hoping merely for a
minimum-wage job to snap their losing streak.

The grim economy hasn’t been the only disappointment of the
past several years for those hoping to find work with the
limousine companies, insurance agencies and home healthcare
providers that have set up shop at this career fair.

LAS VEGAS, Oct 18 (Reuters) – A Republican debate will play
out in one of this city’s glittering casinos, but the real
battleground for next year’s U.S. presidential election lies in
the foreclosure-racked neighborhoods that sprawl beyond the Las
Vegas Strip’s bright lights.

Few U.S. cities have been hit harder by the recession than
Las Vegas, which is likely to be one of the most hotly
contested prizes in an election dominated by economic
concerns.

WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) – With one eye on the 2012
elections, President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats said
on Wednesday that they will force votes on individual pieces of
their job-creation package in Congress to convince voters they
are a better choice than Republicans to boost the economy.

“We will keep organizing and we will keep voting until this
Congress finally meets its responsibilities,” Obama said, a day
after Republicans blocked the $447 billion plan in the Senate.

WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Fresh from a defeat at the
hands of Republicans, President Barack Obama and his fellow
Democrats said on Wednesday they will move their jobs bill in
pieces to convince voters that they are a better choice to spur
the sluggish economy.

One day after Republicans blocked the $447 billion
job-creation package in the Senate, Obama said he was not
giving up.

WASHINGTON, Oct 11 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate defeated
President Barack Obama’s job-creation package on Tuesday in a
sign that Washington is likely too paralyzed to take major
steps to spur hiring before the 2012 elections.

The $447 billion package of tax cuts and new spending
failed by a vote of 50 to 48, short of the 60 votes it needed
to advance in the 100-member Senate. Voting was expected to
continue for several hours but would not affect the outcome.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – It increasingly appears that the debate over job creation in the United States will be resolved by voters, not lawmakers.

With Democrats and Republicans lining up behind contrasting visions to boost the economy and spur hiring, Washington is essentially in a holding pattern until the November 2012 congressional and presidential elections.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. bill to pressure China into letting its currency rise in value, which has drawn warnings from Beijing of a possible trade war, ran into opposition from the top Republican in Congress on Tuesday.

The strong misgivings of House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner were the first clear sign the currency legislation might fizzle out, as similar bills have done since lawmakers began targeting China’s yuan policy in 2005.