This paper examines the economic impacts of the Bush Administration's proposal to make its recent tax cuts permanent. Making the tax cuts permanent would be regressive and would dig a fiscal hole over the next 75 years that is as big as the combined social security and medicare trust fund...

Congress continues to let the cost of a tax subsidy grow without bound. Perhaps one day Congress will take on the broader issue of entitlement reform, forcing all entitlement programs to go through some of the hurdles required of discretionary programs. Then those programs would be allowed to...

Because of the strikingly large long-term fiscal gaps being projected recently for the United States, researchers have searched for hidden assumptions underlying revenue projections that might be biasing the results. This paper addresses the extent to which alternative projections of tax-...

For the last several years, Congress has been on a spending spree unlike any in the nation’s history — a turnaround of about 7 percent of gross domestic product in going from surplus to deficit. In addition to size, what made this spree unique was that tax cuts, defense increases, large...

Tax programs that provide deductions to homeowners or credits to both builders and owners, greatly exceed direct federal outlays on housing. The beneficiaries of these tax programs tend to be middle-to-upper income families who own their homes while the recipients of outlays tend to be lower...

Despite substantial attention given to fiscal policy concerns in recent years, the federal government's fiscal status has continued to deteriorate, with the enactment of tax cuts, a massive new Medicare entitlement, increased spending on defense and homeland security, and related economic...

The Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 will extend the low tax rates on capital gains and dividends through 2010, grant temporary relief from the individual alternative minimum tax through 2006, and extend several expiring business tax breaks. To prevent Senators from raising...

In a tax code with no shortage of ironies, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) stands out. Created by Congress in 1969, it was aimed at millionaires, but relatively few millionaires pay it. It is billed as a low-rate levy, but most of its victims face higher taxes because of it. It undermines two...

In this article, C. Eugene Steuerle explores the political and budgetary pressures facing Charles Rangel, the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, with regard to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). He further analyzes various options to fix the AMT, the ramifications for Rangel, and the path...

Much of the state tax policy discussion during the past decade has centered on the performance of corporate income taxes and ways to restructure them. This report focuses on state responses to the weak corporate tax collections during the 2000-2003 period as well as to the revenue performance...