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President Barack Obama plans to ask Congress in early March, as part of his fiscal 2015 budget, to reduce some of the tax advantages for employer-sponsored retirement plans for higher-income earners, according to published reports. Plus, the president wants to limit the value of all tax deductions, defined contribution exclusions and IRA deductions to 28% of income — and include an overall cap on all retirement accounts, including pensions, that could bring in $1 billion a year in new tax revenue, according to a Pensions & Investments report. Read Companies bracing for 1-2 retirement punch . According to the report,...

Las Vegas will essentially be closed to general aviation pilots trying to fly into the area for parts of July 8 and 9. A 19-hour presidential temporary flight restriction will shut down all three major GA airports in the area: McCarran International, Henderson Executive, and North Las Vegas. AOPA President Craig Fuller has reached out to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano once again to reiterate the negative economic impact these TFRs have on the local economies and the need for GA to be represented in the TFR planning process. Reminding Napolitano of the negative economic and public...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Thursday approved a Democratic climate change bill that would require industry to cut emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases 20 percent by 2020 from 2005 levels. With Republicans boycotting the committee's work saying more analysis of the legislation was needed, 10 Democrats voted to approve the legislation and one Democrat, Senator Max Baucus, voted against it. The bill will now become one of several initiatives aimed at attacking global warming. Senator John Kerry is leading an effort with some Republicans and the White House to craft...

Environmentalists hope the push in Congress for climate change legislation is not overwhelmed by the debate dominating Capitol Hill over changing the U.S. healthcare system. But it might be. Already two months behind schedule and unsure whether enough Democrats will play along, Senate leaders still aim to pass a bill by December when a United Nations summit convenes in Copenhagen to set worldwide goals for reducing carbon dioxide and other pollutants. But as the debate over healthcare legislation rages and with President Barack Obama due to address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday to try to rescue the faltering...

Counting on Failure, Energy Chairman Floats Carbon Tax WASHINGTON, July 6 — A powerful House Democrat said on Friday that he planned to propose a steep new “carbon tax” that would raise the cost of burning oil, gas and coal, in a move that could shake up the political debate on global warming. The proposal came from Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and it runs directly counter to the view of most Democrats that any tax on energy would be a politically disastrous approach to slowing global warming. But Mr. Dingell,...

Linda McQuaig argues that proposed $7 billion in tax cuts would be better spent on 250,000 homeless LINDA MCQUAIG An amazing thing happened last spring. Fearing it was about to be toppled, the minority Liberal government of Paul Martin gave in to NDP leader Jack Layton's demand that almost $5 billion in corporate tax cuts be cancelled and the money spent instead on things Canadians desperately want — including housing, public transit and the environment. And the country didn't collapse. Economist Mike McCracken notes that the $5 billion in corporate tax cuts would have mainly ended up in the coffers...