TPC Citations & Sources

2009 | 2008 | 2007 |2006 | 2005

TPC research and analysis appears in hundreds of news articles each year. Below is a partial list, including the sources used in selected articles. Please note, article links cited below were verified on the day of publication and may change.

January  |  February  |  March  |  April  |  May  |  June  |  July  |  August  |  September  |  October  |  November | December 

December

• Tax changes likely to be slow coming personal finance , Standard-Times (December 28, 2008) By Trish Choate.

  "The pressure will be on to not raise taxes on married couples making more than $250,000 and singles earning more than $200,000 a year, said Roberton Williams, an expert at the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute in Washington."

• Burdens That All Should Share , National Journal (December 27, 2008) By Ronald Brownstein.

  "Even so, Obama couldn't completely abandon his middle-class tax cut now. Politically, he saw the cost Bill Clinton paid for abandoning a similar proposal in 1993; substantively, short-term tax cuts could complement the public investments in his developing economic stimulus agenda. But given how much that massive stimulus plan already will swell the debt future generations must repay, it's difficult to justify an open-ended tax cut that will cost Washington yet another $710 billion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. In the spirit of shared sacrifice, Obama could argue that such long-term fiscal pressure on coming generations will require middle-class families to surrender their new tax break after, say, two years -- when they could be allowed to expire along with Bush's tax cuts for the highest earners."

• Nevadans get ghost-like reminders of lost opportunities , MSNBC.com and KRNV-TV web site (December 26, 2008) By John Barrette.

  "Both the 1988 Price Waterhouse/Urban Institute study and the early 21st century Governor's Tax Policy analysis determined Nevada's tax base was too narrow for modern needs in a growing state, according to the memo and attachments."

• Rep. Blackburn pursues new tax plan , The Jackson Sun (December 22, 2008) By Nicholas Beadle.

  "Bill Frenzel, a guest scholar at the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Policy Center, said Blackburn's idea likely will not pan out politically in the short run. "It's an interesting concept that I've not heard about before," said Frenzel, a former Republican congressman from Minnesota. But, "I think it's a long shot," he said. "It seems to me that the tax committees of the Congress are probably not going to be jumping through a lot of new tax legislation in the year 2009 unless it is suggested by (President-Elect Barack Obama)."

• Editorial: The big squeeze. Property owners increasingly bear the burden of government. They won't stand for it forever. , The Journal Sentinel  (December 22, 2008) By David D. Haynes and Ernst-Ulrich Franzen.

  "But throw in fees, and the picture changes markedly. Wisconsin has no toll roads. Our public universities are a bargain. Hunting licenses and license plates are relatively cheap. Thus, when the fees that state and local governments charge are added to the taxes they levy, Wisconsin's ranking falls to 23rd, according to the Tax Policy Center, a joint effort of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution."

• Killing off the 401(k), one CSPAN call-in program at a time. , Time magazine's "The Curious Capitalist" blog  (December 21, 2008) By Justin Fox.

  "Well, depends on how you define middle income. From a 2004 study by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center: We find that about 70 percent of tax benefits from new contributions to defined contribution (DC) plans accrue to the highest-income 20 percent of tax filing units in 2004, and more than half go to the top 10 percent."

• Tax Break May Have Helped Cause Housing Bubble , The New York Times (December 19, 2008) By Vikas Bijaj and David Leonhardt.

  "Today, it is the subject for considerably more debate. Ms. Gravelle and Mr. Samuels said they thought the law had done more good than ill. And William G. Gale, director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, said he did not think that the change in the law was central to the bubble. Low interest rates, he said, were far more important."

• Tax breaks , Times Record News (December 17, 2008) By Trish Choate.

  "The pressure will be on to not raise taxes on married couples making more than $250,000 and singles earning more than $200,000 a year, said Roberton Williams, an expert at the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute in Washington."

• The Ideal Stimulus Package , The New York Times, Economix blog (December 16, 2008) By Catherine Rampell.

  "Len Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution that focuses on tax policy and federal budget issues: "Here are three ideas. First, aid to state and local governments to offset the direct effect of the downturn."

• Treasury Benefits From ‘Paranoia’ as Rates Decline (Update2) , Bloomberg (December 15, 2008) By Matthew Benjamin and Liz Capo McCormick.

  "Obama plans an economic stimulus package that may approach $1 trillion, in addition to a middle-class tax cut and universal health care, which may add $4 trillion or more to the national debt over 10 years, according to the Tax Policy Center in Washington and health-care economists."

• 8th Annual Year in Ideas: The Rising-tide Tax System , The New York Times (December 14, 2008) By Stephen Mihm.

  "Yet a team of economists that includes Robert Shiller of Yale University and Leonard Burman of the Tax Policy Center recently released a paper in which they propose another way of “spreading the wealth” — one that, while less controversial in political terms, would still prevent income inequality from worsening in the coming years."

• Memo to Obama: Fixing the tax system , Tallahassee Democrat (December 8, 2008) By William Gale and Benjamin Harris.

  "William G. Gale is a vice present at the Brookings Institution and co-director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Benjamin Harris is a senior research associate at Brookings. This is part of a series of memos being released by the Presidential Transition Project at Brookings between now and Inauguration Day."

• Will Obama's tax plans bite small biz? , CNNMoney.com (December 8, 2008) By Neil deMause.

  "What you pass through is your net profit - the receipts less all the expenses, labor costs, and so forth," says Eric Toder of the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the centrist Brookings Institution and the liberal Urban Institute. A business with enough expenses to keep its profits low, then, would not see an increased tax bill."

• Obama Tax Policy Means Wait And See , CNBC.com (December 8, 2008) By Shelly K. Schwartz.

  "Those proposals [to raise taxes on the wealthy] were put together more than a year ago and we live in a different world right now," says Gale. "We can’t do everything all at once so the president will have to decide what his priorities are and initially at least that has to be the economy and the financial problems we’re facing."

• Group says estate tax affects few, should be kept , The Guardian  (December 6, 2008) By Jim Abrams.

  "The Tax Policy Center estimated in August that Obama's proposal would result in $284 billion in lost revenues over the next decade. It said GOP presidential nominee John McCain's plan to cut the rate to 15 percent with a $5 million exemption would be twice as expensive."

• Raise My Taxes , The Huffington Post (December 5, 2008) By Edgar M. Bronfman.

  "The added tax revenue from the rich will help the economy more than it will hurt it. An analysis by the Tax Policy Center based on January 2008 income projects that repealing the Bush tax cuts on the rich would generate $43 billion in 2009 and $45 billion in 2010. These numbers will undoubtedly be lower than projected as a result of the economic crisis. But they will still be of sufficient magnitude to give Mr. Obama a greater shot at success in his plans to allay the economic crisis by creating "green jobs," rebuilding our infrastructure, and lowering taxes for lower and middle-income workers."

• Group says estate tax affects few, should be kept , The Associated Press (December 4, 2008) By Jim Abrams.

  "Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, a division of the non-partisan Urban Institute, said of the projected cost of Obama’s campaign promises: "The Tax Policy Center estimated in August that Obama's proposal would result in $284 billion in lost revenues over the next decade. It said GOP presidential nominee John McCain's plan to cut the rate to 15 percent with a $5 million exemption would be twice as expensive."

• Experts Say Obama Needs to Dial Back Expensive Campaign Promises , CQ Politics (December 3, 2008) By Adriel Bettelheim.

  "Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, a division of the non-partisan Urban Institute, said of the projected cost of Obama’s campaign promises: "Though Obama’s short-term focus can still revolve around jump-starting the economy and fulfilling some of his trillions of dollars worth of campaign promises, current circumstances make it virtually impossible to follow through on a campaign agenda that has largely revolved around increased spending and middle-class tax cuts, the group of experts from the Urban Institute said at a policy forum."

• Obama’s Multi-Trillion Dollar Campaign Promises Unrealistic, Tax Expert Says , CNS News (December 3, 2008) By Josiah Ryan.

  "Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, a division of the non-partisan Urban Institute, said of the projected cost of Obama’s campaign promises: "I don’t think we would have been able to afford it in the first place. The Obama plan would have added at least three-and-a-half trillion dollars to the national debt over the next several years, and that’s just the tax part. The health [insurance] part is another $1.6 trillion."

• Will Obama Be Able to Keep His Promises? , WebCPA.com (December 3, 2008) By Michael Cohn.

  "At a webcast on Tuesday sponsored by the think tank, the Urban Institute, a panel of tax experts debated the topic, “The Audacity of Campaign Promises: The Obama Agenda Meets Fiscal Reality.” They seemed generally skeptical about the incoming administration’s ability to cope with the soaring deficit while trying to revive the economy."

• It's official: U.S. in recession all of 2008 , San Francisco Chronicle (December 2, 2008) By Tom Abate.

  "Economist Rudolph Penner with the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., said the bureau's declarations do not make a good basis for policy decisions because they come after the fact. Even before Monday's edict, he said, policymakers had acted to lessen the impact of a recession that had been widely acknowledged by crafting bailouts and stimulus packages, and nothing in Monday's announcement should change any plans."

• Taxes: Going Up? , Financial Planning (December 1, 2008) By Jeanne Lee.

  "Advisors can start the discussion with clients by putting the tax picture in perspective, noting that over the past few decades, the nation has been spoiled by historically low rates. "You have to look at history-back in 1981, the top federal tax rate was 70%," twice as high as today's 35%, notes Ed Slott, a CPA and an expert on taxes and IRAs in Rockville Centre, N.Y. from 1950 to 1963, the highest individual income tax rate was a whopping 91%, according to the urban- brookings tax policy center in Washington, D.C."

• Economy, Presidential Race Left A Mark , The NonProfit Times (December 1, 2008) By Mark Hrywna.

  "Roberton Williams, principal research associate at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, estimated that the federal government collected $55 billion less last year as a result of tax deductions related to the $306 billion in charitable giving. Of that total, $42 billion was in individual income taxes, $10 billion from estates, and the remaining $3 billion from corporations."

• November

• Is Lobster on the Menu for Obama and His Budget Team? , Fox Business (November 28, 2008) By Peter Barnes.

  "But Mr. Obama also proposed some significant savings in government spending that the Tax Policy Center’s analysis doesn’t take into account, as they do not involve tax proposals. Among other things, Mr. Obama wants to end the war in Iraq. It currently costs taxpayers about $10 billion a month. Most of the president-elect’s proposals can be found at his campaign website, at http://origin.barackobama.com/issues."

• Obama's Tax Choices , Forbes.com (November 28, 2008) By Janet Novack.

  "A terrible idea,'' opined Len Burman, director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. "Most of the money would be a pure windfall to car buyers."

• US economy faces heavy blow from stocks funk , The Guardian (November 26, 2008) By Burton Frierson.

  "Maybe in two or three years it will rebound and people will be OK," said Eric Toder, senior fellow at the Urban Institute and Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center."

• A vow to jolt the economy , The Boston Globe (November 25, 2008) By Michael Kranish.

  "Roberton Williams, the Tax Policy Center's principal research associate, said that Obama seems likely to trade a much deeper deficit for the hope that a stimulus plan will boost the economy in the long term. "In the very short run, all fiscal discipline is off the table," he said."

• Obama promotes fiscal restraint, big spending , The Associated Press (November 25, 2008) By Jim Kuhnhenn.

  "Leonard Burman, director of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, said Geithner and Summers reflect both the need for a large-scale stimulus to the economy and for fiscal restraint once the economy shows signs of improvement."

• Obama, Democrats plan $500B economic package , The Associated Press (November 25, 2008) By Julie Hirschfeld Davis.

  "Democrats also plan to include tax cuts for low- and middle-class workers, along the lines of what Obama proposed on the campaign trail. One likely component is Obama's proposal to send tax credits of $500 to individuals and $1,000 to couples, including payments for people who make too little to owe any taxes. Those credits are estimated to cost about $115 billion in their first two years, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center."

• Obama's tax hike for the rich may be delayed , The Associated Press (November 24, 2008) By Jim Kuhnhenn.

  "If repealed early, Obama's tax increase on the rich would have generated significant revenue, but not enough to compensate for the cost of his tax cuts. An analysis by the Tax Policy Center, based on January 2008 income projections, estimated that the increases would result in about $43 billion in revenue in 2009 and $45 billion in 2010. Those numbers would be smaller now, as the economy has lowered expected incomes."

• An Upside to the Down Market: A Lower Tax Bill , ConsumerAffairs.com (November 23, 2008) By Fred Yager.

  "Under current tax law, the maximum tax rate for long-term capital gains is 15 percent, and the maximum tax rate on income for individuals is 35 percent. According to the Tax Policy Center, these rates are expected to move higher under the new Obama administration. For those in the top two income brackets, a new maximum capital gains rate of 20 percent may be created. For ordinary income, the top two income brackets may return to their 1990's levels of 36 percent and 39.6 percent."

• Deficit pressure on promises , The Washington Times (November 20, 2008) By Donald Lambro.

  ""To the old saying that presidents propose, and Congresses dispose, you can add that all candidates suppose. Any serious person would say he has substantially underestimated the cost of his health program and exaggerated how much revenue his tax proposals will raise. The Brookings/Urban Institute Tax Center said that he had close to a trillion dollars of tax revenues in his estimates that could not be verified," he said."

• Peter Orszag on OMB Short List , The Washington Post, The Obama Presidency: A Transition to Power blog (November 19, 2008) By Michael A. Fletcher.

  "At the Brookings Institution, he was also director of the Retirement Security Project and co-director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture with the Urban Institute."

• Source: Orszag tapped for Office of Management and Budget , CNN.com, Politics blog (November 18, 2008) By Jessica Yellin.

  "While at Brookings, Orszag also served as director of the Retirement Security Project and co-director of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture with the Urban Institute."

• Lipman: More charitable giving in forecast , The Record (November 18, 2008) By Harvy Lipman.

  "There's no question that raising taxes on the rich spurs more giving, said Roberton Williams, principal research associate at the Tax Policy Institute in Washington, a think tank operated jointly by the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. Years of research suggest that a tax plan like Obama's would encourage a 4- to 8-percent bump in charitable giving by the wealthy, he said."

• County residents may get a break on income taxes , Indiannapolis Star (November 15, 2008) By Brendan O'Shaughnessy.

  "Kim Rueben, a public finance economist at the Washington-based Tax Policy Center, said lowering taxes during an economic downturn is "surprising" and that the proposal appears to be an effort to show taxpayers that the city will make a good-faith effort to take only what it needs."

• On Main Street, Buckling Up for a Bumpy Ride , The New York Times (November 13, 2008) By Lynnley Browning.

  "Small businesses are particularly fragile, and they fail at a pretty high rate," said Leonard Burman, director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a think tank in Washington. "Even if they get credit, they may not have time" to build themselves into sustainable businesses if consumer spending remains weak, he said."

• Raggio at work , Reno News & Review (November 13, 2008) By Dennis Myers.

  "What guarantee is there that it wouldn’t meet the same fate as the Urban Institute study? [In 1987, the Nevada Legislature commissioned a major study of the state tax system by the Urban Institute and Price Waterhouse at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars. It was ignored by the 1988 legislature."

• 'President Obama' Will Be Greeted By A Stack Of Problems , The Seattle Medium (November 12 2008) By Richard Prince.

  "Roberton Williams, principal research associate with the non-partisan Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute who analyzed the candidates’ tax plans, said Obama’s plan basically extends Bush’s tax cuts to low- and middle-income citizens and adds others and pays for the lost revenue by increasing taxes on the wealthy, defined as those making more than $250,000 annually."

• Local Businesses React To Obama , Daily News-Record  (November 11, 2008) By Kate Prahlad.

  "Obama has proposed extending tax cuts to people with incomes under $250,000. But his plan would repeal cuts for the top two marginal income tax rates earlier than scheduled, according to a report from the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, two Washington, D.C., think tanks."

• Economy is likely to force Democrats to adjust priorities , The Tennessean  (November 10, 2008) By Naomi Snyder.

  "The idea of raising taxes for the wealthy probably is going to drift into the future,'' said Roberton Williams, principal research associate with the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center in Washington. "From a fiscal perspective, you don't want to do a tightening up on the economy."

• Obama says he'll tax the rich, roll back Bush cuts and aid middle class , New York Daily News  (November 9, 2008) By Kenneth R. Bazinet.

  "Obama plans to raise taxes on the wealthy by asking the Democratic-controlled Congress to allow President Bush's tax cuts to expire at the end of 2010. When they expire, it could pump in about $72 billion a year toward balancing the budget, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center."

• The affluent are divided over Obama's tax hikes , The Star-Ledger  (November 9, 2008) By George E. Jordan.

  "Obama has floated more than a dozen tax changes, which the independent Tax Policy Center has said could bring in an additional $700 billion in taxes over the next 10 years."

• Can He Do It? , The Washington Post  (November 9, 2008) By Annys Shin.

  "That has to just take precedence over the other stuff," said William Gale, director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution. "Remember, the plans were created at a time when we weren't in this situation. Something has to give. Significant flexibility is required."

• The Real Mandate Is to Bridge the Wealth Gap , The New York Times  (November 9, 2008) By Robert J. Shiller.

  "A fourth and more radical step would be to index the tax system to income inequality. The system would automatically become more progressive if inequality became more acute. Changes in tax rates would be made in the future, not now, easing the transition’s shock to the public. Leonard Burman, a former Treasury official for President Bill Clinton and now head of the Tax Policy Center in Washington, has been working with me to transform this idea into a sketch of a program we call the Rising Tide Tax System. We found that if such a program had been instituted 30 years ago, even in a partial form, we could have lessened economic inequality."

• Obama's promised tax cuts , The Boston Globe  (November 8, 2008) By Kimberly Blanton.

  "But raising their income taxes and capital gains taxes will generate $780 billion over 10 years - short of the $835 billion needed to fund income tax cuts and mortgage credits for the middle class, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonprofit Washington organization."

• What an Obama Presidency Means for Your Money , The Wall Street Journal  (November 7, 2008) By Brett Arends.

  "The biggest proposed credit, Making Work Pay, will be worth 6.2% of the first $8,100 earned -- or up to about $500 per person. Roberton Williams, analyst at the Tax Policy Center think tank, estimates this alone will cost taxpayers about $71 billion a year. Sen. Obama also proposed credits of up to $800 for mortgage interest for those who don't itemize deductions, up to $4,000 for college, and a 50% match up to $500 for those who save up to $1,000. He's also looking to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child and Dependent Care Credits."

• Democrats Craft Economic Plan , The Washington Post  (November 7, 2008) By Lori Montgomery and Kendra Marr.

  "That approach may run into trouble, however, among fiscal conservatives in the Democratic Party, who want Congress to cover the cost of any permanent programs -- whether spending on health care or tax cuts for the middle class -- by raising taxes elsewhere or cutting spending. And the Obama tax agenda is not cheap. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that it would add nearly $3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade."

• Is an Obama Tax Storm Looming? , The Motley Fool website  (November 7, 2008) By Dan Caplinger.

  "According to the Tax Policy Center, these changes would result in most taxpayers seeing modest tax cuts -- but those in the top 1% of all income-earners would see their taxes rise substantially."

• McCain's Tax Plan , The Corner (National Review Online political blog)  (November 7, 2008) By Ramesh Ponnuru.

  "He points to a much-cited report by the Tax Policy Center about the distributional effects of each campaign's proposals. I'm not sure, though, that TPC counted McCain's refundable health-care tax credit, which was pretty progressive, for the purpose of that computation. Based on the discussion in that section of the report, it sounds as though it didn't."

• After victory, a reality check for Obama , Reuters blog  (November 7, 2008) By Diana Furchtgott-Roth.

  "But, according to the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, Obama’s tax package would cost $2.9 trillion over the decade from 2009 to 2018. That includes increasing the tax rate on capital gains from 15 percent to 20 percent, and raising the top two tax rates, 33-36 percent and 35-39.6 percent, on singles with taxable income exceeding $165,000 and married couples earning over $201,000."

• Tax changes coming, but when?: Crisis will crimp Obama's tax plans, but your bill will change eventually , MarketWatch  (November 6, 2008) By Andrea Coombes.

  "The first thing on Obama's plate will be jump-starting the ailing U.S. economy, economists and tax experts say. "Most bets are out the window until we get the economy and the financial markets straightened out," said William Gale, an economist and senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution."

• Wolves at the door , The Economist  (November 6, 2008).

  "The Tax Policy Centre, a research group, puts the cost of his health-care plan alone at $1.6 trillion over ten years. His more liberal supporters will expect him to keep those promises. But with a deficit threatening to exceed the post-war record of 6% of GDP (set in 1983), such largesse risks revolt by the financial markets, a point that Mr Obama’s more conservative advisers will doubtless make."

• New Debt Could Hamstring Obama: Sharp Rise in Treasury Borrowing Seen Pressuring New Programs, Tax-Cut Agenda , The Wall Street Journal  (November 6, 2008) By John Hilsenrath.

  "We're really expecting private, foreign, domestic investors and foreign government investors to increase their Treasury debt holdings by a huge proportion," said Rudolph Penner, an Urban Institute budget expert."

• How health coverage may change under Obama , Marketwatch.com  (November 6, 2008) By Kristen Gerencher.

  "Still, analysts project the cost of the Obama plan would exceed his campaign estimates. Obama's plan will run $1.3 trillion in the next decade, according to estimates from the Tax Policy Center, a nonprofit joint venture between the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution."

• A Towering Economic To-Do List for Obama , The New York Times  (November 6, 2008) By Louis Uchitelle and Jackie Calmes.

  "The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimated that the Obama plans would reduce revenues by as much as $2.9 trillion over a decade. The center said Mr. Obama’s incentives could strengthen the labor market, while giving further breaks to "an already favored group — seniors."

• Tax-Code Changes Will Face Resistance From Business , The Wall Street Journal  (November 6, 2008) By Martin Vaughan.

  "Taken together, Mr. Obama's individual tax proposals aim to reverse policies that many Democrats say have widened the gap between working-class Americans and the wealthy. What they don't do is generate more revenue. The Tax Policy Center found that Mr. Obama's tax proposals would widen the deficit by a total of $2.9 trillion over 10 years."

• For Obama, White House Keys Could Come With License to Spend , The Washington Post  (November 6, 2008) By Lori Montgomery.

  "So far, he has provided little information about how he would do that. An analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, found that Obama's tax proposals would increase the deficit by nearly $3 trillion over the next decade. He has until spring, when he offers a budget request that must lay out his spending plans through his first term, to come up with some answers."

• Barack Obama won't raise your taxes. At least not in 2009 , Time.com  (November 6, 2008) By Justin Fox.

  "But it wouldn't produce that much more revenue--the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center puts the figure at about $72 billion a year. With massive, possibly trillion-dollar deficits likely this year and next, it's going to take much more than to begin to return the country to a sustainable fiscal trajectory."

• How will Obama tax plans work in this economy? , The San Francisco Chronicle  (November 6, 2008) By Kathleen Pender.

  "Most of his tax proposals will be deferred because they don't have a stimulus effect and some of them will make the economy worse," says Roberton Williams, principal research associate with the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center."

• Obama lacks magic wand for Sacramento-area economy , The Sacramento Bee  (November 6, 2008) By Dale Kasler.

  "In his campaign, Obama promised a middle-class tax cut. For instance, those earning $40,000 to $70,000 a year – a group including 2.9 million Californians – would save $2,200, according to an estimate by the Tax Policy Center. He also wants to raise taxes on those making more than $250,000 a year."

• Utah County businesses weigh in on Obama win , Daily Herald  (November 6, 2008) By Grace Leong.

  "The Tax Foundation contends that Obama's tax increases could amount to a $30 billion annual tax increase on 1.3 million small businesses in higher income brackets. Another analysis by the Tax Policy Center says 663,000 of the 34 million personal income tax filers who claim business income are in the top two federal tax rates eyed by Obama."

• Businesses wait for change Obama promises , The Sun News  (November 6, 2008) By Lisa Fleisher.

  "An analysis by the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan Washington D.C. group, said Obama's tax plan will increase the national debt and cut taxes by $2.9 trillion through 2018, with larger tax cuts going to the low- and middle-income sectors while raising taxes on the upper class."

• Small Business Owners Worry About Potential Tax Hike , WJLA  (November 5, 2008).

  "According to the Tax Policy Center, under Obama's plan, a working couple with two children making $200,000 a year would get a $5,800 tax cut. But if that same couple earned $500,000 a year, its tax burden would increase by about $10,000."

• President Obama’ Will be Greeted by a Stack of Problems , Afro  (November 5, 2008) By Zenitha Prince.

  "Roberton Williams, principal research associate with the non-partisan Tax Policy Center at the Urban Institute who analyzed the candidates’ tax plans, said Obama’s plan basically extends Bush’s tax cuts to low- and middle-income citizens and adds others and pays for the lost revenue by increasing taxes on the wealthy, defined as those making more than $250,000 annually."

• A new study of Nevada taxation? , Pahrump Valley Times  (November 5, 2008) By Dennis Myers.

  "An attempt to come to grips with the tax shift and its consequences came when the 1987 legislature commissioned a new study, performed by Price Waterhouse and the Urban Institute. It cost almost a half million dollars and, incredibly, the next legislature, in 1989, essentially ignored it and its recommendations. (The University of Nevada Press published the study, "A Fiscal Agenda for Nevada," as a 720-page book."

• Why I voted for Obama and Biden , New West  (November 5, 2008) By Nick Gier.

  "The worst result of McCain's Bush-Reagan mantra "no new taxes" is that the non-partisan Tax Policy Center estimates that a McCain/Palin administration would add another $8.5 trillion to the national debt, twice as much as Obama would."

• What Obama Win Means For Health Care , CBSnews.com/Web MD  (November 5, 2008) By Salynn Boyles.

  "According to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan tax analysis group, the president-elect's plan, if fully implemented, would reduce the number of uninsured Americans from a projected 67 million to 33 million over the next decade at a cost of $1.6 trillion."

• Charities Can Expect New Regulations and Increased Giving in an Obama Administration , The Chronicle of Philanthropy  (November 5, 2008) By Peter Panepento.

  "It would make it cheaper for them to give money to charities and, therefore, if all things are the same, they will give more money away," Mr. Williams says. "You’re essentially lowering the cost to "taxpayers of giving money away."

• PROMISES, PROMISES: Vision to collide with reality , The Associated Press  (November 5, 2008) By Jim Drinkard.

  "The problem: Obama's spending plans and middle-class tax relief will confront exploding budget deficits — $438 billion this year, and growing as the down economy reduces tax revenues and increases spending on bailouts and anti-recessionary programs. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates Obama's proposals would reduce projected tax revenue by $2.95 trillion over the next decade, compared to what would happen if Bush's tax cuts were to expire as scheduled at the end of 2010."

• Economists React: Obama Election Makes ‘08 Reverse of ‘80 , The Wall Street Journal, Real Times Economics blog  (November 5, 2008) By Phil Izzo.

  "Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States and will govern with huge Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. What will he do? … In many ways, the bad economy will allow Obama to duck critical long-term issues, such as entitlements, trade, and tax reform. But sooner or later, he will have to decide: Will he run a Bob Rubin economic policy or follow a Bob Reich agenda? Neither man is likely to serve in his administration, but the echoes of their differences remain, still unresolved eight years after the end of the Clinton presidency. –Howard Gleckman, Tax Policy Center."

• U.S. Debt Could Tie Obama's Hands , The Wall Street Journal  (November 5, 2008) By John Hilsenrath.

  "We're really expecting private, foreign, domestic investors and foreign government investors to increase their Treasury debt holdings by a huge proportion," said Rudy Penner, a budget expert at the Urban Institute."

• Note to Obama, here's a to-do list for the economy , Scripps Howard News Service  (November 5, 2008) By Kathleen Pender.

  "Len Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, hopes any fiscal stimulus "will be temporary and targeted at people who will spend the money and won't add to our long-term deficit." He prefers "giving the money to states that would otherwise have to cut back on public services" or using it to extend unemployment benefits."

• Night Of Drama In Senate Races , CNBC.com  (November 5, 2008) By Albert Bozzo.

  "The economy may have been a big issue on a national level, but it's not a major factor on state ballots this year. "It's a light year," says Kim Reuben, public finance economist at the Urban Institute, who adds, most initiatives have little chance of passing in the current environment. "If people had known what was going on with the bond and stock markets some of these of these things wouldn’t have gotten on the ballot."

• Obama May Not Wait for Inauguration to Put His Stamp on Economy , Bloomberg  (November 5, 2008) By Matthew Benjamin and Rich Miller.

  "The overall result, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, would be lower taxes for low and middle-income taxpayers while "taxpayers with the highest income would see their taxes rise significantly."

• Where President-elect Barack Obama stands on issues from abortion to trade , Chicago Tribune  (November 5, 2008) By Calvin Woodward.

  "Mandatory coverage for children, no mandate for adults. Aim for universal coverage by requiring larger employers to share costs of insuring workers and by offering coverage similar to that in plan for federal employees. Proposes spending $50 billion on information technology over five years to reduce health care costs over time. Tax Policy Center estimates overall plan's cost at $1.6 trillion over 10 years."

• A Clear Mandate For Obama , Forbes.com  (November 5, 2008) By Brian Wingfield.

  "Voters seemed to think that Obama would be more capable of handling the economic situation than John McCain. But it's not yet clear if either had the right policy ideas in mind to steer the economy back on course. According to an analysis released Monday by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, Obama's tax plan would add $3.6 trillion to the national debt by 2018--and that's in addition to the $2.3 trillion increase already projected by the Congressional Budget Office. McCain's would have added more than $5 trillion."

• Joe the Plumber: Not So Good For Small Business After All? , The Wall Street Journal, Independent Street blog  (November 4, 2008) by Kelly Spors.

  "Others pointed out that even if Joe the Plumber owned a plumbing business and made more than $250,000 annually, he’s still unrepresentative of the vast majority of small businesses – less than 5% of owners earn that much, according to the Tax Policy Center."

• CEOs have fewer options to deflect the expected tax hit after Obama victory , Crain’s Detroit Business  (November 4, 2008) by Tom Henderson.

  "According to the independent Tax Policy Center, McCain’s tax plan would have resulted in federal revenue equal to 17.6 percent of gross domestic product. Obama’s would result in federal revenue equal to 18.2 percent of GDP."

• Where McCain, Obama stand on selected key issues in U.S. election , The Canadian Press  (November 4, 2008).

  "McCain: $2,500 refundable tax credit for individuals, $5,000 for families, to make health insurance more affordable. No mandate for universal coverage. Would no longer shield from income taxes those payments that businesses and their workers make toward employer-sponsored health insurance. Tax Policy Center estimates overall plan's cost at $1.3 trillion over 10 years."

• The bell tolls for Reaganism , Business Spectator  (November 4, 2008) By Alan Kohler.

  "Based on the policies released during the campaign, Obama would cut taxes less than McCain: $US2.9 trillion over the 2009-18 period, versus $US4.1 trillion, according to the Tax Policy Center."

• Would Obama's plan raise or lower taxes? It's complicated , Idaho Statesman  (November 4, 2008) By Ed Lotterman.

  "A paper by the American Enterprise Institute based on research at the Tax Policy Center, a joint effort of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, argues that couples with two children in the $31,000 to $45,000 income range would pay income taxes equaling 34 cents to 39 cents out of each additional dollar earned, versus 21 cents now."

• Charities Urged to Move Quickly to Influence Next President , The Chronicle of Philanthropy  (November 4, 2008) By Suzanne Perry.

  "The panel, sponsored by the Urban Institute, discussed the post-election pressures that will face nonprofit groups as the country’s economic crisis threatens to eat into their revenues while increasing demand for their services."

• President-elect Obama inherits a world of troubles , Miami Herald  (November 4, 2008) By David Lightman.

  "He faces at least two hurdles: Most Republicans are dead set against his plan, and his proposed tax changes would cost the Treasury $2.95 trillion over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. That may be unaffordable."

• Closing Arguments: Obama , Newsweek.com  (November 3, 2008) By Brooks Jackson, Lori Robertson, Joe Miller and Viveca Novak.

  "The TPC analysis does not include either candidate's proposed spending cuts. But the report notes that bringing the budget into balance would "require unprecedented spending cuts under either candidate's tax plan." Fiscal reality dictates that neither candidate can deliver on all of his promises without incurring tremendous new debt."

• Obama Calls Higher Income Taxes the Wealthy Will Pay Under His Plan ‘Chump Change’ , ABCNews.com, Political Punch blog  (November 3, 2008).

  "The Tax Policy Center says a person or family making $500,000 a year would pay $3,363 in additional income tax under the Obama plan."

• How Will The Elections Change The Debate? , National Journal, Health Care blog  (November 3, 2008).

  "In the Clinton administration, increasing funding for the EITC quickly made a difference in lifting people out of poverty. The new Urban Institute analyses of welfare reform makes it clear that EITC was the most powerful tool to lift people out of poverty."

• Where McCain, Obama stand on the issues , The Washington Post  (November 3, 2008) By Calvin Woodward.

  "$2,500 refundable tax credit for individuals, $5,000 for families, to make health insurance more affordable. No mandate for universal coverage. Would no longer shield from income taxes those payments that businesses and their workers make toward employer-sponsored health insurance. Tax Policy Center estimates overall plan's cost at $1.3 trillion over 10 years."

• Fact Check: The myths that wouldn't go away , The Associated Press  (November 3, 2008) By Calvin Woodward.

  "McCain's health care plan alone is estimated to cost $1.3 trillion over 10 years by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, which also estimates that McCain's tax cuts and spending programs would drive up the national debt by $5 trillion in a decade."

• Truth Teller Will Win U.S. Presidential Election , Bloomberg News  (November 3, 2008) By John F. Wasik.

  "McCain would keep the top Bush-era rate at 35 percent for individuals and cut the corporate levy to 25 percent. While that will favor the richest Americans and corporations, it will cost the U.S. Treasury $7 trillion over the next decade, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. Obama's plan will cost about $2.6 trillion."

• Editorial: It's your money; remember to vote , Charleston Daily Mail  (November 3, 2008).

  "According to the Tax Policy Center, each year Obama will take $70 billion from the 2 percent of small businesses and individuals who create more than 16 million jobs and will send checks for almost $100 billion to more than 40 percent, or approximately 60 million Americans, who pay no taxes at all," she wrote."

• Weekley may join European Tour , Pensacola News Journal  (November 3, 2008) By D.C. Reeves.

  "Obama's tax plan is expected to raise the taxes of families making $2.87 million or more by an average of 11.7 percent according to a study by the Tax Policy Center. If in place in this season, that increase would have cost Weekley an additional $280,000 in earnings alone, not counting endorsements or appearance fees."

• Truth-Squadding Obama’s and McCain’s Last Minute Attacks , CQ Politics  (November 3, 2008) By Angie Drobnic Holan.

  "This is very likely true. McCain plans to keep the Bush tax cuts in place, and offers additional tax exemptions for children and dependents. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that between 66 million and 69 million tax filers won’t see a reduction in taxes under the McCain plan. When you factor in family members, that likely comes to just over 100 million people. We looked into this matter when Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware said McCain would not give tax relief to 100 million families, and rated it Half True. We dinged Biden for saying it was 100 million families, but 101 million Americans is correct."

• Reducing uninsured tops local health care issues , Citizen-Times  (November 3, 2008) By Nanci Bompey.

  "Obama's plan would reduce the number of uninsured by 26.6 million, according to an analysis of the candidates' plans by The Lewin Group. The Tax Policy Center estimates the plan's cost at $1.6 trillion over 10 years."

• A tough tax row to hoe , MarketWatch  (November 3, 2008) By Andrea Coombes.

  "That is, Sen. Barack Obama is ahead in the polls and has said he'll raise the tax rate on capital gains and qualified dividends to 20% for taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $250,000 or more ($200,000 for single filers), according to an analysis of the candidates' plans by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Taxpayers below those income thresholds would continue to enjoy the zero and 15% rates in effect now. See the TPC analysis."

• Analysts debate consequences of a $1 trillion deficit , Government Executive  (November 3, 2008) By John Maggs.

  "William Gale, director of economic studies at the Brookings Institution, agrees that the deficit could reach $1 trillion. "I think hardly anyone is worrying about that right now," he said. The reasons for this lack of concern go beyond the distractions of a historic election and the depth of the economic emergency, he said. After a generation in which the budget deficit has steadily diminished as a worry for the public and its elected representatives in Washington, Gale said, "there are some lessons that have been forgotten." One of those forgotten lessons is that it is easier to build the tower of debt than it is to dismantle it. Another is that even "temporary" deficits become permanent unless they become the focus of the political system -- a focus that is entirely lacking these days."

• Trade The Vote: Your Taxes , CNBC.com  (November 3, 2008) By Lee Brodie.

  "If McCain wins the White House how will it impact you? The Nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates a tax break of $325 for the middle 20 percent of taxpayers -- those making $37,600 to $66,400."

• Are tax credits welfare? , CNNMoney.com  (November 3, 2008) By Tami Luhby.

  "That number would grow by 16 million under the Obama plan, so 44% of filers would have no liability, the group said. Enacting the credits would cost the government more than $1.2 trillion in revenue over 10 years, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center."

• PA Gov. Rendell Goes On Offensive For Obama Against McCain-Palin Attacks , The Huffington Post  (November 2, 2008) By Denise Dennis.

  "He began by debunking the GOP claim that Obama's will raise taxes. "It is not true that Obama will raise taxes for middle class Americans," he said. Rendell went on to explain that according to a nonpartisan think tank [The Tax Policy Center], Barack Obama and Joe Biden will cut taxes for middle class families at least three times as much as McCain would."

• Any way you work it, a big shift for insurance , The Philadelphia Inquirer  (November 2, 2008) By Chris Satullo.

  "According to a Tax Policy Center analysis, McCain's plan would enable many to buy coverage initially, but the offsetting impact of companies' dropping coverage would mean his net increase in covered Americans would top out at five million."

• Is healthcare reform still possible? , BBC News  (November 2, 2008) By Steve Schifferes.

  "However, the Tax Policy Center estimates that after 10 years, the Obama plan would lead to a much bigger reduction in the number of uninsured, cutting it by 34 million in 10 years, while the McCain plan would only cut it only by 5 million."

• McCain, Obama economic policies appear to be politics as usual , Los Angeles Times  (November 2, 2008) By Ralph Vartabedian.

  "The independent Tax Policy Center has examined both candidates' proposals and concluded that McCain would cut taxes $4.2 trillion by 2018 and Obama $2.9 trillion. Neither side could stimulate enough growth to offset those cuts, leaving a widening deficit, according to the analysis."

• Net Worth: 10 economic challenges for new president , San Francisco Chronicle  (November 2, 2008) By Kathleen Pender.

  "Len Burman, director of the Tax Policy Center, hopes any fiscal stimulus "will be temporary, targeted at people who will spend the money and won't add to our long-term deficit." He prefers "giving the money to states that would otherwise have to cut back on public services" or using it to extend unemployment benefits."

• 5 ways it'll be OK if your guy loses the White House race , Orlando Sentinel  (November 2, 2008) By Scott Maxwell.

  "Less debt. Yep, according to analysis by the Tax Policy Center, the country would rack up more debt under McCain — more than a trillion dollars' worth. That's partly because, when candidates pledge to cut taxes — without cutting the same amount in spending — all they're really doing is billing generations of tomorrow to placate voters of today."

• Can States Change Color With Two Days To Go? , NPR.org  (November 2, 2008) By Don Gonyea and Scott Horsley.

  "For months now, McCain has been touting tax cuts as the key to reviving the nation's sagging economy. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says the biggest beneficiaries of McCain's plan would be the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans. But by repeatedly invoking "Joe the Plumber" in recent weeks, McCain has managed to repackage his proposal as a boon to small business. And that made an impression on Pennsylvania voter Louise Kennedy."

• Obama's Economic Plan , The Huffington Post  (November 1, 2008) By Lynn Forester de Rothschild.

  "It is dishonest for Senator Obama to claim he will fix this economy by taxing the top 5%. His spending increases on programs alone amount to $300 billion per year. The dishonesty is to say that this will be paid by his tax on the top 5%. It is simply not possible. As the Obama plan makes clear, the additional taxes of the "rich" have already been committed to his "refundable tax credits". According to the Tax Policy Center, the Obama tax plan will take $70 billion from the top 5% of earners in the country and redistribute it to the 60 million Americans who pay no tax."

• Solutions to the health care problem , Bankrate.com  (November 1, 2008) By Barbara Mlotek Whelehan.

  "Of Obama's plan, an analysis by Urban Institute says: "The Obama plan would greatly increase health insurance coverage, but would still leave about 6 percent of the nonelderly population uninsured, compared to 17 percent today."

• Ad for Barack Obama returns to 'more of the same' theme - Eye on Ohio , Cleveland Plain Dealer  (November 1, 2008) By Jessica Wehrman.

  "According to the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, Obama's plans would give tax cuts to the families that make the least, while McCain's largest cuts would be reserved for the very wealthy."

• Obama's '$4 Billion for Exxon' Myth , The Wall Street Journal  (November 1, 2008) By Alan Reynolds.

  "When fact checkers do look into campaign claims on taxes, they invariably cite estimates from the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution's Tax Policy Center (TPC). The TPC estimates that the McCain corporate tax cuts would lose $734.7 billion of revenue over 10 years (2009-2018)."