June 13 - 17; This Week: GOP Debate, Greek Respite, RIM Trouble
U.S.</br></br>AARP, the powerful lobbying group for older Americans, is dropping its longstanding opposition to cutting Social Security benefits. Given the group's immense clout, the shift could dramatically affect the debate over the future of the federal safety net, from pensions to health care. Separately, a House subcommittee that oversees Social Security called for an investigation into how judges approve disability benefits. Over at Biden's bipartisan debt-reduction talks, officials familiar with the talks said they expected Medicaid to be the biggest source of cuts in federal entitlement programs in whatever compromise emerges. And White House officials this week told lawmakers in the Biden group that Obama would be open to payroll tax breaks for employers and employees, as fresh concerns over slowing job growth spill into the talks.</br></br>The potential for a persistent slowdown in hiring is the biggest threat to the U.S. recovery, according to economists in a Wall Street Journal survey who now expect the economy to add about 2.2 million jobs over the next 12 months, down from last month's forecast of 2.5 million jobs. Good employees are still prized: Many U.S. companies that cut 401(k) matching contributions during the recession are starting to restore them, or a slimmed-down version of them, to reward and retain staff amid the decline of traditional pension plans and mounting concern over the long-term viability of Social Security.</br></br>The head of the ATF is expected to be ousted over the anti-gun-trafficking operation that has grown into the agency's biggest scandal in decades.</br></br>Only 35% of fourth-graders knew the purpose of the Declaration of Independence in taking the latest national history test.