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Not so long ago debt "was a four-letter word when spoken in the same breath as "retirement." Before waltzing into their golden years, older Americans paid off their loans, then celebrated by burning the mortgage.

Last week, the House Agriculture Committee voted to drastically cut spending on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by over $33 billion. It's an extreme, absurd, dangerous thing to do, cutting an already underfunded program that is, as Feeding America put it, "one of the nation's most critical, remaining safety net."

The most recent hunger statistics in the U.S. are startling: In 2010, 32.6 million adults and 16.2 million children lived in food insecure households. 

If Congressman Denny Rehberg has his way, child labor rules will be relaxed in the name of the "family farm." He is the leading proponent of the Preserving America’s Family Farm Act, arguing that the "urban" Department of Labor is out to get "rural" America. 

Colleges are one of a select number of institutions in America whose price is impervious to gravity.

Last summer, on her final day as the Chairman of the FDIC, Shelia Bair decried the short-termism that has overtaken both Wall Street and Washington, where “[o]ur financial markets remain too focused on quick profits, and our political process is driven by a two-year election cycle and its relentless demands for fundraising.” This short-termism has taken hold of the reins of our larger political system and increasingly characterizes policy initiatives at every level of government.

Source: Flickr/paulaloe

Tuition at public four-year colleges and universities rose 112.5 percent between 1990-1991 and 2010-2011. Here's a big part of the explanation:

A coalition of national voting rights groups have secured a landmark settlement with the State of Georgia to ensure that voter registration is offered to all public assistance applicants.