The Senate's turn: Reid alters debt plan to attract GOP support  —  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has revised his plan to raise the debt limit in a last-ditch bid to attract Republican support.  —  The biggest change is that Reid would give the president almost unilateral power …

The no votes: 22 GOPers who balked Boehner  —  Speaker John Boehner pushed his debt-ceiling bill through the House Friday night with the support of 218 Republicans.  Here are the 22 no votes: Mick Mulvaney (S.C.)  —  CORRECTED: Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) voted YES on the Boehner bill.

Obama demands plan by Tuesday  —  Just days ahead of the Aug. 2 debt ceiling deadline and as partisan rankling continued on Capitol Hill, President Barack Obama urged Congress to show him a plan that would divert the country from national default by Tuesday.

Behind the D.C. Slugfest  —  About 50 percent of taxpayers don't pay federal income taxes.  Almost half of American adults receive either the majority of or all of their income in some form from government.  They are naturally desirous of even more entitlements, in the sense that even higher taxes …

President Barack Obama takes debt battle to Twitter, loses more than 40,000 followers in one day  —  President Obama brought his debt battle to Twitter and he lost - more than 40,000 Twitter followers.  —  Obama asked Americans Friday to call, email, and tweet Congressional leaders to …

The Corrosion of the Conservative Economic Mind  —  First Michael Boskin, now John Taylor: there seems be an epidemic of politically conservative economists who used to be technically competent repeating the obviously wrong falsehood that Reagan ushered in an era of “unprecedented” growth.

Charles Krauthammer Scolds Margaret Carlson for Saying Tea Party ‘Strapped Explosives to the Capitol’  —  Bloomberg's Margaret Carlson on Friday accused the Tea Party of wanting “to burn the place down” and having figuratively “strapped explosives to the Capitol” during debt ceiling negotiations.

After the Crash?  Or Before the Deluge?  —  I'm anchored for the day in calm waters off the southern Irish coast near Waterford, so the smoke-signal Internet system is working a little bit.  The debt ceiling controversy is on people's minds even over here, too.

Bill Maher on the Controversial Ground Zero Cross: Remember Norway?  —  A cross of steel beams that remained among the rubble of the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks, and which became a beacon of hope for Christian rescue workers and mourners, has now become a symbol of controversy …

The Truth About Federal Spending  —  Whenever someone like me or Bruce Bartlett points out how little Obama resembles the right's portrait of a raging leftist, someone is sure to come back with the assertion that Obama has presided over a vast expansion of federal spending.

Could a U.S. debt downgrade trigger a financial crisis?  —  As we approach Treasury's debt-ceiling deadline, attention has shifted from the risks of a default on Treasury debt to the risk of a downgrade of U.S. credit.  Many are asking whether a downgrade could itself lead to a financial crisis.