Broker Regulation

Americans prefer letting tax cuts expire for the country's top earners, as President Barack Obama insists, while support has declined for cutting government services to curb budget deficits, an Associated Press-GfK poll shows. Fewer than half the Republicans polled favor continuing the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthy.

Tweaking the way the government measures inflation sounds like an obscure method to help reduce budget deficits, but over time it would lead to significantly lower Social Security benefits while increasing taxes, mainly on low- and middle-income families.

Republican opposition has led to Senate rejection of a United Nations treaty on the rights of the disabled that is modeled after the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act.

LHC Group Inc. said Tuesday that a federal investigation into its Medicare payments is complete and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not plan to take any action against the health care company.

A state senator voiced concern Monday about the Oklahoma Insurance Department's recent purchase of police vehicles, shotguns and other law enforcement equipment, and said he plans to introduce a bill to stop what he described as the agency's "police-like posture."

A new study says basic prescription drug coverage could vary dramatically from state to state under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.