Nationwide confidence in our lawmakers is at an all time low. And this news isn't like to change that. More than 30 members of Congress have used over $ 300 million in earmarks and other spending to fund many public projects close to their own properties. That's the finding of an extensive investigation published in today's Washington Post. The Post also found 16 lawmakers who had sent tax dollars to places where members of their families work or serve on boards.

The National Defense Authorization Act for next year has been met with criticism by civil liberties organizations for provisions that they say would allow American citizens suspected of terrorist activities to be detained indefinitely. As the House and Senate work on versions of the bill, President Obama has quietly withdrawn a veto threat for the legislation — something he campaigned on as a presidential candidate in 2008. A Gallup from August shows that 71 percent of Americans believe basic civil liberties should not be violated, even if doing so would prevent terrorist attacks. 

The city of Detroit has begun suspending payments to some of its vendors in order to be able to cover basic services and make payroll.  If the city is not able to resolve its budget crisis on its own, the state is likely to appoint an emergency manager to restructure the city and rescue it from bankruptcy. Moody's has put some of the city's municipal bonds on review for a downgrade.

If you haven't sent out your Christmas cards yet, you might want to get on it, quick. Snail mail just got slower. The cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service announced Monday that it's going to end next-day delivery of letters, postcards and other First Class mail. The agency is looking to find $20 billion in annual savings by 2015, about $3 billion of which could come from various plans to shrink the network. But what will become of the letter?

The Congressional "super committee" failed to reach a consensus about deficit reduction. But given a chance to tinker with the budget, ordinary Americans playing an online computer game called Budget Hero have made some big decisions. Users make decisions about spending in areas like defense, health care, Social Security, education and infrastructure and can see the effects. 

After months of budget negotiations, tensions between Congressional "super committee" members have reached what seems to be a breaking point. With only three days left before their deadline to cut 1.2 trillion dollars from the federal debt, 12 super committee members made the rounds to the Sunday political news outlets and publicly aired their grievances. Republican Jeb Hensarling told "Fox News Sunday," the following: "Unfortunately, what we haven't seen in these talks from the other side is any Democrats willing to put a proposal on the table that actually solves the problems." 

Earlier this week, the City Council of Topeka, Kan. voted to decriminalize domestic violence. That surprising decision came as part of a budget stand-off between the city and the county: After the county cut the District Attorney’s budget, the DA stopped prosecuting misdemeanor domestic violence cases from Topeka. To send a message, the city voted to take the local law against domestic violence off the books — forcing the county to handle all domestic violence cases.

Faced with an uphill reelection battle and a disenfranchised base, President Obama indicated on Monday that he plans on taking a harder line against an anti-tax GOP. In a speech introducing his debt reduction plan yesterday, Obama vowed to veto any plan Congress sends him that does not raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations while cutting Medicare benefits. "I will not support any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Americans," Obama said. Obama's plan, which will reduce annual deficits up to $4 trillion over 10 years, has been assailed as "class warfare" by Republicans.

Before President Obama had even made his deficit speech, Congressman Paul Ryan spelled out his concerns over its impact. On Sunday, he accused Obama on Fox News of launching "class warfare" by introducing the so-called Buffett Rule. The president rebuffed the remarks saying "This is not class warfare. It's math." 

Six weeks after the Congressional showdown over raising the debt ceiling came to resolution, the 12 member Congressional deficit reduction committee, sometimes referred to as the "super committee" or "super Congress," will have its first meeting today. Federal spending, taxes, and deficit reduction are all on the super committee's agenda as it tries to cut nearly $1.2 trillion from the nation's debt over the next decade. 

Last week, we discussed the state of the nation’s job market, and the news was not good. No new jobs were created in August, meaning unemployment is stuck at 9.1 percent. How to get the job market moving will be the subject of intense debate this week, as Congress returns from its summer recess and the President outlines his strategy. We’ll also see the first meeting of the deficit reduction committee responsible for cutting $1.5 trillion from the budget. So it’s a big week for Congressmen and women, who recently haven’t shown a fondness for compromise.

As students across the nation head back to school, The Takeaway presents a special report on education this week. Today, we focus on budget cuts. As states continue to take in less revenue, public schools around the country are seeing their budgets slashed. It's the principal's job to examine a budget, and distribute available funding in a way that's in the best interest for the students.

August 2 is one week away, and Congress still has yet to make a deal to raise the debt ceiling. Both sides of the debt debate are reluctant to compromise — both the Democrats and Republicans have now put forth plans to avoid a default on U.S. loans. The Republican plan includes immediate cuts and caps in discretionary spending, and raising the debt ceiling by less than $1 trillion. The Democratic plan includes a $1.2 trillion reduction in both defense and non-defense discretionary spending.

As the president and lawmakers battle over raising the deb limit and the federal government's current budget crisis, many voters feel frustrated and powerless. But what if you were offered an opportunity to find your own fix? A new online game challenges users to come up with their own compromises and solutions to the current problems facing the country's coffers. Want to play? Can you win?

As the August 2 deadline to raise the debt ceiling draws closer, there's more talk about the dire economic consequences that will ensue if policy makers in Washington fail to reach an agreement on a budget plan. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell says that a bipartisan agreement is not likely to happen, and has proposed a plan in which the president could increase the federal debt limit without Congressional approval.

As President Obama announced the draw-down of 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by September 2012, he said it was time for our country to focus on nation-building here at home. The troop reduction could save $10 billion next year, so we asked our listeners: what should we do with that windfall? Many of you told us to invest in education.

California legislators passed a budget Wednesday, just hours before a midnight deadline. This year, lawmakers risked losing their paychecks if they did not produce a budget on time. Only a simple majority was needed to pass the budget, but state Democrats say it is not ideal. Gov. Jerry Brown must now face the budget and decide whether to keep it as it is or confront the issues and send the budget back for more work.

The GOP House, fueled by the Tea Party, banned earmarks at the beginning of this year. However, there's a new Defense Authorization bill on the Hill that cut money from defense, but used that money to pay for special projects. Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich says a lot people are concerned that this is "earmarks by another name." Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz), an earmark opponent, says "It's like squeezing a balloon, it's gonna come out somewhere else and all we can do is try to plug every whole that we can."

They represent what may be the last great hope for a grand compromise on the budget crisis facing America. Their success or failure could mean either a new tone in Washington or a long fight to the finish of the 2012 elections. The fight also includes everything from raised retirement age and Medicare changes to higher taxes. But who are the Gang of Six? With the help of Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway's Washington correspondent, we take a closer look at six men in whose hands the fate of a giant policy resolution may rest.

The House passed a yearlong spending bill on Thursday that would cut $39 billion from national spending. 179 Republicans and 81 Democrats voted for the measure, which will keep the government running until September. But the vote did a lot more than avert a shutdown. It laid bare, for the first time, a new dynamic at work in Congress. Takeaway Washington correspondent Todd Zwillich explains how the vote showed that sometimes all politics is not always local.