I love working on public finance issues and seeing their endless application to so many budget, tax, spending, and charitable issues that go well beyond what can be found in any textbook. I am drawn to Urban because in my view, it leads the nation in so many areas of research—combining its talents for evaluating a broad spectrum of public policy issues, gathering and using related data from a range of sources, and integrating research across disparate program areas; and all the while maintaining a truly nonpartisan approach to analysis, a deep culture of respect for each member of the organization, and a strong commitment to serve the public through its work.
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle examines the implications of a Clinton Administration proposal to pay tax filers to file electronically, demonstrating how the proposal could save money and improve efficiency.
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle examines the implications of a Clinton Administration proposal to add a charitable tax deduction for non-itemizers, revealing how the proposal adds an unnecessary complications to the tax code.
In this column Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle examines in more detail the Clinton Administration's proposal to set a separate floor for the nonitemizer deduction, and tries to explain why certain choices were made either for political or technical reasons.
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle discuss how the extension of a charitable deduction to nonitemizers, if designed carefully, can increase giving moderately, while avoiding losses in revenues, increases in administrative burdens for taxpayers, and compliance problems for the IRS.
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle explains his biggest concern with federal budgets of late -- their ugliness: they contain policy suggestions that, from the starting gate, almost everyone agrees could be better designed, won't work, or should be avoided in favor of higher priorities. Steuerle...
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle assesses President Clinton's 2001 budget proposal, and concludes that it primarily supports a sound short- and intermediate-run fiscal or macro policy, continues currently and into the future the abandonment of most functions for nonelderly, and remains on an...
In the first in a series of essay, Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle reviews tax justice by beginning with a strong endorsement of equity principles and their powerful influence on the development of policy.
The Congressional Budget Office and government actuaries for decades have shown that Social Security and Medicare remain on unsustainable tracks, but it is often hard...
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and President Biden recently agreed to cut back on some of the increased IRS funding enacted through last year’s Inflation...
The recent compromise between Republicans and Democrats on extending the federal debt limit was hailed for avoiding the disaster of a default, demonstrating that both...
Like all presidential budgets, President Biden’s fiscal year 2024 proposals reflect the priorities he would set for the nation. As in prior years, Biden would...
While Congress talks about the federal debt, it’s still hesitating to deal with one major source of rising deficits—Medicare—that it can’t avoid much longer. Medicare’s...
During the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, Congress substantially increased benefits for children, including big boosts in the Child Tax Credit...
In just 13 years, Social Security trust funds will be unable to pay full promised benefits. Unfortunately, a House bill with broad bipartisan support could...
It’s always tempting to exaggerate the importance of the latest big fight in Congress. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) made some major policy...
The new minimum tax on the income that very large corporations report to their shareholders is the revenue centerpiece of the recently enacted Inflation Reduction...
President Trump was afraid to tackle the dominant set of spending and tax issues facing the federal government. Ditto, so far, for President Biden. Under...
Among its many changes, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act substantially increased the share of federal income taxpayers taking the standard deduction, leaving fewer...
Policymakers and even policy analysts often consider the progressivity of specific proposals independently from the broader systems in which they operate. Consequently, they often leave...
When Congress increases spending and cuts taxes then fails to extend the nation’s debt limit, it effectively orders the president to run deficits while prohibiting...
Buried in today’s partisan squabbles over President Biden’s ambitious domestic agenda is a fundamental question: How can government best increase the nation’s wealth? Does it...
A key feature of President Biden’s effort to expand government support for low-income families is its increase in the earned income tax credit (EITC) for...
Most Social Security reform proposals have focused on one goal: restoring the program’s long-run fiscal balance. Yet under all recent proposed restructurings we have examined—whether...
The COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying recession laid bare many of the needs of working families and children, as well as federal, state, and local governments’...
When Congress enacted the American Rescue Plan (ARP), it included an implicit deal: It agreed to reduce the level of additional future weekly federal unemployment...
In 2017 and again in 2020, Congress made deficient—but temporary—changes to the federal income tax deduction for charitable giving. By significantly increasing the standard deduction,...
