On Feb. 14, congressional Democrats unveiled legislation that would cancel across-the-board spending cuts, called sequestration, which are currently scheduled to begin on March 1. The two bills include $120 billion in alternative spending cuts and revenue increases to offset the cost of canceling sequestration.

The fact that public protections can increase productivity, spur innovation, and encourage creation of new markets is not news to us – or, apparently, to business leaders. New standards can create incentives to improve technologies and manufacturing processes

A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) says that the CEOs backing the "Fix the Debt" campaign could see their companies' bottom lines boosted by $134 billion if they get their way on corporate tax reform.

The report, The CEO Campaign to 'Fix' the Debt, examines one particular element of the Fix the Debt campaign that is a favorite of corporate tax cutters – a move toward a "territorial" tax system.

As Congress considers options to halt a slide down the fiscal slope, it should look to the financial transactions tax (FTT). The FTT can raise large sums of revenue with small rates while tamping down on the excesses of an industry that most Americans feel hurts the economy more than it helps, according to a poll from the Pew Research Center. American lawmakers are wrestling with how to handle the expiration of the Bush tax cuts while closing the federal budget deficit, but finance ministers in the European Union (EU) who are also facing budget shortfalls have advanced the FTT closer to European law.