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    <title>Tax Policy Center: Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center</title>
    <link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org</link>
    <description>Tax Policy Center reports on: Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center - The Tax Policy Center is a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution. The Center is comprised of nationally recognized experts in tax, budget, and social policy who have served at the highest levels of government.</description>
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    <copyright>Copyright 2007 Tax Policy Center</copyright>
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Real Tax Reform is Always Hard: Some Advice for the Task Force]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Political theater? Such is the label many have attached to the tax reform task force headed by Paul Volcker. But I heard the same claim made about President Reagan's State of the Union request for a tax reform study from the Treasury Department to be made only after the 1984 election was over. Congress literally burst out laughing.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001345&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Opacity of Marginal Tax Rates]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Suppose that a taxpayer earns an additional dollar of
income. How much tax would she owe on that dollar? A
natural way to answer this question would be to look up
the taxpayers statutory tax rate - the tax rate corresponding
to her tax bracket and filing status.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001336&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rosanne Altshuler, Jacob Goldin)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Credits and Exemptions for Children]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit (CTC), Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC), and the dependent exemption all provide benefits to families
with children. In 2009, a single mom (or dad) with two children can receive benefits ranging from $0 to about $7,500 - depending on her income, age of the children,
and where the children live. While this assistance is extremely important to many low-income families, they
must navigate a bewildering set of rules to take full advantage of the credits. Due to the piecewise implementation of these credits and exemptions, total benefits bounce around erratically as income grows.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001331&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Elaine Maag)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 14 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Age Rating Under Comprehensive Health Care Reform: : Implications for Coverage, Costs, and Household Financial Burdens]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Congressional proposals health care reform proposals have differed in the premium rating rules that would be applied to non-elderly adults. Some have proposed allowing premiums for the older adults to be as much as 5 times as high as those for younger adults (5:1 rating), while others would limit the highest premiums to be twice that of the lowest (2:1 rating). This analysis uses the Health Insurance Policy Simulation Model (HIPSM) to compare the financial implications of the premium rating choice (5:1, 2:1, and 1:1) for households of different ages, incomes, and sizes.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411970&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Linda J. Blumberg, Matthew Buettgens, Bowen Garrett)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Individual Alternative Minimum Tax: Historical Data and Projections, Updated October 2009]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The alternative minimum tax (AMT), which originally targeted high-income taxpayers, requires annual legislation to prevent it from affecting millions of middle-income individuals each year.  There are two primary reasons for the AMTs broadening impact; its parameters are not indexed for inflation and the 2001-2006 tax cuts reduced regular tax liability without changing AMT liability.  In 2009, four million taxpayers will pay $33.5 billion in AMT, but without congressional action that number will rise to 27 million owing $102 billion in 2010.  This paper describes the AMT and provides TPCs latest estimates of AMT coverage, revenue, and distribution.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411968&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Katherine Lim, Jeff Rohaly)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Are Families Prepared for Financial Emergencies?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Data from the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances show a disturbing reality. Even prior to the current recession, many families did not have enough assets to see them through a modest spell of unemployment or another financial emergency. In 2007, nearly one in three U.S. families were liquid asset poor. Low-income, young, and nonemployed families are more vulnerable to economic emergencies. For example, two-thirds (68 percent) of bottom income quintile families and 47 percent of second income quintile families are liquid asset poor, while such shortfalls affect only 1 percent of top income quintile families.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411959&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Caroline Ratcliffe, Katie  Vinopal)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Focus on the Tax 'Avoidance' Gap]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[President Obama's tax reform task force has been asked to propose ways to close the $300 billion tax gap, which is the estimated difference between taxes owed and taxes paid either voluntarily or through enforcement. But the amount of money lost to legal tax avoidance - the difference between an income tax without special tax preferences and taxes under current law - at least double that lost to outright evasion. The perpetrators of this second, "avoidance" tax gap are legislators, not taxpayers. The panel's main focus should be on finding appropriate ways to close this second tax gap.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001315&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001315_tax_avoidance.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="37048"/>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Pyrrhic victory on health reform?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Washington Times op-ed.  Leonard Burman discusses the politics of the health care reform debate.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901281&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Automatic Enrollment in IRAs: Costs and Benefits]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[To encourage better retirement saving, President Obama recently proposed policies that would require firms without retirement savings plans to automatically enroll their workers in IRAs. In addition, the president proposed an expansion of the Saver's Credit to be fully refundable and available to middle-income taxpayers. This report estimates the revenue costs and distributional effects of the president's proposals.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001312&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Benjamin H. Harris, Rachel M. Johnson)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Taxing Adjusted Gross Income Instead of Taxable Income]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The House leadership has proposed to finance health care reform with a surtax on adjusted gross income (AGI) of high-income individuals, while the president's budget would increase the two top marginal tax rates on taxable income.  Income taxed at statutory marginal rates is 58 percent of AGI for all taxpayers but only 46 percent of AGI for taxpayers with income over $1 million.  While personal exemptions and deductions account for most of the difference between the two tax bases for the population as a whole, capital gains and qualified dividends make up most of the difference for very high income taxpayers.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001298&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Jacob Goldin, Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001298_adjusted_gross.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="87030"/>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Effect of Alternative Savings Approaches on College Aid]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[To pay for college, many low- and moderate-income students and their families rely on financial aid and savings. But how students and families saveand in whose nameaffects both the tax consequences and the impact of savings on financial aid. Not saving in a tax-preferred account can raise the out-of-pocket costs of college by thousands of dollars. Alternately, saving for college can result in tax penalties if families do not use tax-preferred savings for education.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411944&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Elaine Maag)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411944_theeffectof.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="65354"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Activist Fiscal Policy to Stabilize Economic Activity]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Facing the most severe recession since the 1930s, and probably the longest as well, the
U.S. government has adopted an aggressive countercyclical fiscal policy stance, beginning with the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 in February of that year, shortly after the recessions designated starting date, and followed one year later by the much larger American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009. These two bills, adopted under different presidents, both contained temporary tax rebates for households and temporary investment incentives for firms, indicating at least limited bipartisan acceptance of these approaches to countercyclical stimulus.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001311&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Alan J. Auerbach, William G. Gale)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001311_activist_fiscal.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="168734"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Distribution of Federal Taxes, 2009-12]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Overall, the federal tax system is progressive. On average, households with higher incomes pay taxes that are a larger share of their income. But barring legislative action, the numerous sunsets and phase-ins that Congress has written into the tax code will result in a tax system that is in a state of flux over the next few years. As a result, current law dictates significant changes in the degree of progressivity in the federal tax system between now and 2012. This paper summarizes the Tax Policy Center's latest estimates of the distribution of federal taxes for 2009 through 2012.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411943&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rachel M. Johnson, Jeff Rohaly)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411943_distribution_federal.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="485932"/>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[AMT Coverage by State, 2007]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Many taxpayers must calculate their federal income tax liability under two sets of rules: those applying to the regular income tax and those of the alternative minimum tax. If a taxpayer owes more tax under the alternative rules, then the difference is paid as AMT. The AMT hits people in some states harder than it does in others because state and local income and property taxes are not allowed as itemized deductions against the AMT and because income varies across states. This column discusses AMT participation rates by state.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001299&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Carol Rosenberg)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001299_AMT_07.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="650707"/>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Tax subsidies for private health insurance: Who benefits and at what cost?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Policymakers are considering modifications to the tax treatment of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) as a way to raise revenue to help pay for health reform and provide incentives to reduce health care costs. Understanding how current subsidies work is important to assessing health reform proposals. This brief presents essential information about the structure and distribution of existing tax subsidies for ESI and the implications for policy options.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001297&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman, Sarah Goodell, Surachai Khitatrakun)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001297_tax_subsidies.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="335388"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Mitigating the Potential Inequity of Reducing Corporate Rates]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Some tax proposals would reduce the marginal corporate tax rate. Others would boost the top individual rate. Although a differential between corporate and individual rates could reduce the overall tax on distributed corporate income, it could also enable higher-income taxpayers to shelter income from taxation. This paper explains how denying the lower corporate rate to income from services and passive investments combined with provisions that prevent people from permanently escaping tax on retained earnings would mitigate this problem.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411931&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Dan Halperin)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411931_mitigating_corporate_rates.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="232723"/>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Conversations: Leonard Burman]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Tax Notes, July 27, 2009. Leonard E. Burman is a fellow at the Urban Institute and director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. He previously served as deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis at the Treasury Department from 1998 to 2000 and as senior analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. This fall, he will become the first Daniel Patrick Moynihan Chair in Public Policy at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. Burman recently sat down with Tax Analysts' Sam Young to discuss his future plans, the outlook for healthcare reform in Congress, and his proposal to create a VAT to pay for healthcare.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001294&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Sam  Young)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001294_burman_interview.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="556686"/>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Distributional Effects of Tax Expenditures]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The largest tax preferences for housing, health care, and retirement saving reduce federal revenues by about 3 percent of GDP.  They raise after-tax income proportionally more for higher income groups than lower income groups, but raise income proportionately less for those at the very top. The net distributional effects depend on how these tax preferences are financed. If paid for with higher marginal tax rates, they benefit upper-middle income taxpayers at the expense of both lower-income and the highest-income taxpayers, but if paid for by lower per-capita spending, all high-income groups gain and all low-income groups lose.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411922&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Benjamin H. Harris, Katherine Lim, Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411922_expenditures.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="1031658"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Catastrophic Budget Failure]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In a Washington Times op-ed, Len Burman explains why even this gloom-and-doom outlook is "wildly over-optimistic." The latest CBO budget outlook predicts a bleak scenario if we don't change our current policies.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901272&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Here Comes the Next Fiscal Crisis]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Los Angeles Times op-ed, July 8, 2009. In the immediate future, policymakers will face a delicate balancing act between encouraging economic recovery and establishing fiscal sustainability. Alan J. Auerbach and William G. Gale examine the economic challenges facing the U.S.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001291&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Alan J. Auerbach, William G. Gale)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Give Up A Benefit, Gain Jobs]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Washington Post op-ed, July 9, 2009. Employer-paid health insurance is entirely tax-free  a break that will cost the Treasury about $250 billion this year. Len Burman looks at tax-free health insurance provided by employers.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901269&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Who Pays No Income Tax?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Nearly half of all tax units will pay no income tax in 2009. The fraction of non-taxpayers differs widely, depending on income, tax filing status, and whether the unit is elderly or contains children.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001289&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Changes to the Tax Exclusion of Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Premiums: A Potential Source of Financing for Health Reform]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Many have suggested that reducing or eliminating the tax exclusion of employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) could generate significant additional tax revenue to fund expansions in health insurance coverage.  In this paper, we focus on two specific policy design elements: (1) a cap, or dollar limit, on the amount of employer-sponsored health insurance premiums excluded from taxable income; and (2) an index that determines how this cap might grow over time.  Our analysis shows that limiting the tax exclusion would provide substantial funding for health reform and mitigate the huge inequities built into the current treatment of employer premiums.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411916&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Lisa Clemans-Cope, Stephen Zuckerman, Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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	<title><![CDATA[An Update on the Economic Crisis and the Fiscal Crisis: 2009 and Beyond]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[his paper reviews recent economic events and their impact on U.S. fiscal performance and prospects. We highlight the historic nature of the 2009 budget outcomes, the unsustainability of plausible ten-year budget projections, and the increasingly dire long-term fiscal problem. These conditions leave federal policy makers with difficult choices. Over the next several years, as the recession ends and the economy recovers, policy makers will face a delicate balancing act between encouraging economic recovery and establishing fiscal sustainability. Even if a successful recovery ensues, however, medium-term and long-term fiscal problems have become increasingly urgent.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001284&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Alan J. Auerbach, William G. Gale)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[How Will the Stock Market Collapse Affect Retirement Incomes? : Older Americans' Economic Security No. 20]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Urban Institute projections suggest the stock market collapse will have small effects on most Americans' retirement incomes. It's estimated that 37 percent of Americans born between 1941 and 1965 owned no stocks when the market crashed in 2008 and that income from assets will account for a small share of retirement income, even for those with stocks. For most retirees, Social Security provides the majority of income. Had Social Security been invested in private accounts with equities, the impact of the crash would have been much largerpositive or negative, depending on one's birth cohort and on future market performance.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411914&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Barbara Butrica, Karen E. Smith, Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Do We Need a Value-Added Tax to Solve Our Long-Run Budget Problems?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The U.S. budget is on an unsustainable path. That is because Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, which together constituted almost one half of noninterest spending before the recent stimulus plan, are all growing faster than tax revenues. If these programs are not reformed, tax burdens raised, or other spending decimated, deficits and the national debt will explode. It is difficult to imagine solving the entire budget problem by slowing spending growth, because benefits would then be far below those previously promised. It is equally unlikely that tax increases could solve the whole problem because the tax burden would then be so far above any ever experienced by Americans. To the extent that tax burdens are to be increased, there are three options. Tax rates could be raised in the existing system, but that would be extremely inefficient. Tax reform might raise revenues more efficiently, but that is excruciatingly difficult politically. That leaves the possibility of a brand new tax and a VAT is a very likely candidate.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411912&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rudolph G. Penner)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
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	<title><![CDATA[The Future of Long-Term Care: What Is Its Place in the Health Reform Debate?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[More than 10 million Americans require long-term care supports and services. Yet the system for delivering and paying for this assistance is deeply flawed. While most of the frail elderly and those with disabilities prefer assistance at home, many must live in nursing homes to receive Medicaid benefits, care coordination for those with multiple chronic illnesses is poor, and the system for financing care impoverishes many middle-income families. The national health reform debate allows policymakers to reconsider long-term care as well. This paper assesses proposals to restructure the delivery and financing of long-term care services.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411908&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Howard Gleckman)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411908_longterm_care.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="350526"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Extending the EITC to Noncustodial Parents:  Potential Impacts and Design Considerations]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[This paper examines the noncustodial parent earned income tax credit (NCP EITC), a new type of credit recently enacted in New York and Washington, D.C. and proposed by Senator Bayh and then-Senator Obama in 2007. The NCP EITC offers an earned income tax credit to low-income noncustodial parents who work and pay their full child support. This paper describes the rationale for this policy and provides national estimates of the benefits and costs of an NCP EITC under three alternative policy scenarios. It also discusses several key design and implementation issues.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411906&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Laura Wheaton, Elaine Sorensen)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411906_noncustodial_parents.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="153581"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Beyond the Storm: New Reforms for 401(k) Plans]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The financial crisis has provoked calls for a fundamental reform of the nation's retirement saving structure. This article argues that rather than dismantle the existing system, policymakers should build on existing reforms and expand the automatic 401(k) to help eligible workers save more and make better investment decisions. In addition, retirees should be given the opportunity to test-drive annuity products to realize the benefits of receiving stable retirement income, and near-retirees should be provided the option of incrementally purchasing annuity units over time to help mitigate the risk associated with varying interest rates.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001279&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Benjamin H. Harris, Lina Walker)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001279_beyond_storm.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="494749"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Different Way to Pay for Health Reform]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Washington Times op-ed, May 19, 2009. Expanding health-care access is a top priority for the Obama administration, and leaders in Congress are on board. Political leaders also agree that any health insurance expansion must not increase the deficit. So how do we pay for health care without sinking the economy? The best option would be to phase in a value-added tax (VAT) dedicated to paying for health care. Packaged with the right bells and whistles, the VAT would help revive the economy, offset the burden on low-income families, and help slow health-care costs.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901254&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901254_burman_health_editorial.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="42418"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Financing Health Care Reform : Before the Senate Committee on Finance]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The latest statistics show that 46 million Americans were uninsured in 2007. Health care costs threaten to bankrupt the nation if we can't figure out a way to slow their growth and pay for the government's growing share. Adding to the government's unfunded health care obligations would be reckless and irresponsible. In this statement, I will discuss some issues involved in measuring the impact of health care financing options, discuss an option to pay for universal health care coverage with a value added tax (VAT), and examine several incremental options to pay for all or part of health care coverage expansions.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901252&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901252_Burman.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="95166"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Federal Expenditures on Infants and Toddlers in 2007]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[This report examines more than 100 programs through which the federal government spends money on children and calculates the amount spent on children under three. These first time expenditure estimates provide a place to start in gauging the priority the nation places on investing in very young children and in comparing expenditure patterns to researchers findings about investments that work. For example, despite extensive child development research underscoring the importance of quality early care and education programs for infants and toddlers, especially those in poverty, just 7 percent of federal funding for children between birth and age 2 went toward these efforts in 2007.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411875&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Jennifer Ehrle Macomber, Julia Isaacs, Tracy Vericker, Adam Kent, Paul Johnson)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411875_federal_expenditures.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="570144"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Stimulus Package (HR1) and Low-Income Families]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[This speech, given at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration, discusses how the stimulus package addresses the policy needs of low-income working families. It focuses on three questions: how it might reduce poverty in the short term; how it might help position service providers for addressing poverty in the long term; and what researchers can do to inform future policies in this area. Efforts are compared to the following goals: increasing wages, promoting job stability and upward mobility, and providing income supports when needed.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411867&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Margaret Simms)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411867_low-income_families.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="43287"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[A Blueprint for Tax Reform and Health Reform]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[This paper outlines a plan for a VAT dedicated to paying for a new universal health insurance voucher combined with a vastly simplified and much flatter income tax. Top income tax rates could be cut to 25% or less and most taxpayers would not have to file returns. The health care voucher would offset the inherent regressivity of a VAT, since the voucher would be worth more than the VAT tax paid by most households. Moreover, with the VAT rate tied to health spending, the public would have a vested interest in reining in the growth of health care costs.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001262&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001262_blueprint_reform.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="224545"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Taxation of Saving for Retirement: Current Rules and Alternative Reform Approaches]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Most advanced countries exempt returns to retirement saving from income tax, but private saving rates are falling and many people are saving too little for retirement.  There is a trade-off between the goals of promoting wide participation in retirement saving plans and allowing more choice to employees.  In the United States, purely employer funded plans have been replaced by plans that rely more on voluntary employee contributions, while private saving has declined.  Two approaches that may promote more retirement saving are refundable tax credits for low-income workers and rules that encourage or require automatic enrollment in retirement saving plans.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411865&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411865_toder_australia.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="212238"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Economic Minefields]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Institute Fellow Rudy Penner questions the costs and after-effects of heavy economic stimulus.  There is a path out of our misery, he says, but it is surrounded by big and little mines, some of which have been planted by public policy.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901245&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rudolph G. Penner)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Taxing Capital Gains in Australia: Assessment and Recommendations]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[One of the most vexing and contentious issues in taxation is the proper treatment of capital gains-the increase in value of an asset such as shares of company stock or a business. In principle, under an income tax, capital gains should be included in the tax base as they accrue. In practice, if they are taxed at all, capital gains are almost always taxed only when an asset is sold (or "realized") and generally at lower rates than other income.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411857&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411857_capgains_australia.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="124572"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Tax Proposals in the 2010 Budget]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[President Obama's 2010 Budget contains a number of tax provisions that would cut taxes for low- and middle-income households and raise taxes on wealthier taxpayers. This resource guide describes the tax proposals, offers more detailed commentary on key provisions, and links to tables showing the distributional effects of the overall proposal and various elements of the plan.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411849&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rosanne Altshuler, Leonard E. Burman, Howard Gleckman, Dan Halperin, Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411849_2010_budget.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="410067"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Economic Crisis and the Fiscal Crisis: 2009 and Beyond]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In 2009, the federal deficit will be larger as a share of the economy than at any time since the 1940s.   After 2009, we project an average deficit of $1 trillion per year for the next 10 years, under optimistic assumptions.  The longer-run picture is even bleaker, with a fiscal gap of 7-9 percent of GDP -- between $1 trillion and $1.3 trillion annually in current dollars.  Recent trends in credit default swap markets suggest that although fiscal policy problems are usually described as medium- and long-term issues, these problems may be upon us much sooner than previously expected.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411843&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Alan J. Auerbach, William G. Gale)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411843_economic_crisis.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="126716"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Tax Stimulus Report Card: Conference Bill]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[This report card evaluates the provisions of the Finance and Ways & Means Committees' conference tax stimulus bill (the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Act of 2009"). The evaluation is preliminary and does not include all of the provisions in the bill most notably we omit provisions related to state and local debt and recovery zone credits. TPC will update the report card if significant changes occur before Congress passes the bill.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411839&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rosanne Altshuler, Leonard E. Burman, Howard Gleckman, Dan Halperin, Benjamin H. Harris, Elaine Maag, Kim Rueben, Eric Toder, Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411839_conference_reportcard.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="283816"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Health Savings Accounts and High-Deductible Health Insurance Plans : Implications for Those with High Medical Costs, Low Incomes, and the Uninsured]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and high-deductible health plans are prominently featured in many discussions of health reform.The hope of supporters is that they will make individuals more prudent purchasers of medical care. However, the tax structure and incentives built into HSAs make them most attractive to the high-income and the healthy, populations already advantaged by the current system. HSA/high deductible plans shift more of the health financing burden onto those using significant amounts of care, with negative ramifications for the low-income and high-need. Nor is it clear that cost-containment, higher value shopping, or reductions in the uninsured will follow.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411833&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Linda J. Blumberg, Lisa Clemans-Cope)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411833_health_saving_account.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="210294"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Tax Stimulus Report Card: Comparing the House and Senate Bills]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[This report card compares the provisions of the House and Senate tax stimulus bills (the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Plan of 2009"). The combined evaluation is preliminary and does not include all of the provisions in the bill - most notably we omit provisions related to state and local debt and recovery zone credits. TPC will update the report card as we learn more about specific provisions and as the stimulus bills move through Congress.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411834&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rosanne Altshuler, Howard Gleckman, Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411834_comparison_reportcard.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="43188"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Federal Taxes and the Elderly]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The article considers special federal tax provisions affecting the elderly.  It examines the taxation of Social Security, private retirement accounts, estate taxation and other provisions of the law that mention age.  It also analyzes how the elderly might be affected by tax increases necessitated by the dismal long-run budget outlook.  In particular, it looks at the possibility that we shall become more reliant on consumption taxes.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001246&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rudolph G. Penner)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001246_federaltaxes.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="307853"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Disappearing Defined Benefit Pension and Its Potential Impact on the Retirement Incomes of Boomers]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Over the last three decades there has been a steady shift from DB to DC pensions. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 may accelerate this trend. This paper examines the impact of an accelerated freeze on the retirement income of boomers. Simulations suggest that such a scenario would produce more losers than winners and reduce average retirement incomes. Income changes will be substantial among high-income workers, who have the highest DB coverage and pension incomes. Late boomers will experience the largest impacts, as they lose their high DB accrual years and have inadequate time to accumulate DC wealth before retirement.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411831&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Barbara Butrica, Howard Iams, Karen E. Smith, Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Tax Stimulus Report Card: Senate Finance Committee]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The Tax Policy Center has graded the key tax provisions of the pending Senate stimulus bill (the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Plan of 2009"). Our grades, which rely on the bill's legislative language, focus on how well these measures would boost the economy in the short run. Accompanying write-ups describe current law, the proposed change, and the short- and long-term effects on the budget, the economy, fairness and tax complexity.  We will update the report card as we learn more about the provisions and as the stimulus bill moves through Congress.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411830&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rosanne Altshuler, Leonard E. Burman, Howard Gleckman, Dan Halperin, Benjamin H. Harris, Elaine Maag, Kim Rueben, Eric Toder, Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411830_senate_stimulus_reportcard.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="259957"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Tax Stimulus Report Card: House Bill]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The Tax Policy Center has graded the key tax provisions of the pending House stimulus bill (the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Tax Plan of 2009"). Our grades, which rely on the bill's legislative language, focus on how well these measures would boost the economy in the short run. Accompanying write-ups describe current law, the proposed change, and the short- and long-term effects on the budget, the economy, fairness and tax complexity.  We will update the report card as we learn more about the provisions and as the stimulus bill moves through Congress.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411827&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rosanne Altshuler, Leonard E. Burman, Howard Gleckman, Elaine Maag, Eric Toder, Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411827_stimulus_reportcard.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="145366"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Experiment to Get Best Stimulus Results]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[What will work best to stimulate the nation out of recession? Look to the states, saysLen Burmanin a commentary for public radio's Marketplace program.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901213&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Addressing Short- and Long-Term Fiscal Challenges : Testimony before the Senate Budget Committee]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The prevalent theme in recent discussions of stimulus is that the risk of doing too little exceeds the risk that we shall do too much.  But we must ask how much of too much we can tolerate. The risks of overdoing it are severe and are not emphasized enough in the current discussion. The main worries are that the speed with which the national debt is being increased could eventually cause a very rapid rise in interest rates on Treasuries and that federal, state and local bureaucracies may not be able to manage the proposed huge increase in spending.  Turning to the long run, the testimony discusses the need to address short- and long-term budget problems simultaneously and the prospects for using the Conrad-Gregg commission to do so.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901214&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rudolph G. Penner)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901214_Penner_fiscalchallenges.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="115456"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Addressing the Nation's Contradictory Fiscal Challenges : Statement before Committee on the Budget, United States Senate]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In testimony before the Senate Budget Committee, UI's president and former director of the Congressional Budget Office, discusses remedies for the nation's two serious --and diametrically opposed --fiscal challenges:  the immediate, short-run problems of economic recession, and the issue of long-term fiscal sustainability.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901215&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Robert D. Reischauer)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901215_fiscalchallenges.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="41988"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[President-Elect Obama's Tax and Stimulus Plans]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama proposed a comprehensive tax plan that would raise taxes on high-income taxpayers, cut taxes for low- and middle-income households, and lose $2.9 trillion dollars of revenue over ten years. Obama will take office with the economy in sharp recession and a deteriorating fiscal situation, made worse by new spending on a bailout plan. Faced with those crises, Obama says he will pursue both his campaign tax plan and additional tax-related proposals addressing problems created by the downturn. This paper examines revenue and distributional effects of the tax plan and describes some stimulus proposals.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411816&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411816_obamas_tax.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="781582"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[How Big Are Total Individual Income Tax Expenditures, and Who Benefits from Them?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Analysts often add up tax expenditures to estimate an aggregate cost, but those tallies are inaccurate because they ignore interactions among provisions. We estimate that interactions raise the cost of nonbusiness tax expenditures by 5 to 8 percent, depending on whether an AMT patch is in effect. In 2007, these tax expenditures totaled about $750 billion5.5 percent of GDP. While tax expenditures benefit taxpayers in all income groups, high-income households gain more relative to income than low-income ones. Although the AMT eliminates some tax preferences, it increases overall tax expenditures because most AMT taxpayers face higher marginal tax rates.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001234&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Eric Toder, Leonard E. Burman, Christopher Geissler)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001234_tax_expenditures.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="154654"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Trends in Income Inequality, Volatility, and Mobility Risk]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[A unified measure of inequality, volatility, and mobility risk is developed from well-known decompositions of a generalized entropy inequality measure using panel data. Variation across individuals in mean family income is termed inequality, and the variability of income over time is decomposed into volatility and mobility risk. I apply the decompositions to several decades of U.S. data and find every component increasing over time, and a large impact of taxes. I further find large swings in the progressivity of income growth after taxes that are not observed in pretax income, consistent with the known tax regimes in recent U.S. history.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411799&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Austin Nichols)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411799_income_trends.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="269701"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Are There Opportunities to Increase Social Security Progressivity despite Underfunding?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[This paper reviews why Social Security fails to lift more aged low-wage workers and people of color out of poverty. It examines the payroll tax and benefit formula and reviews literature about OASDI outcomes by race, gender, and earnings level. It describes how mortality, earnings, disability, childbearing, immigration and emigration, and marriage patterns all differ across U.S. racial/ethnic groups, and highlights the importance of these differences for program outcomes. The paper then uses the DYNASIM model to examine lifetime OASDI redistribution under current law and a trust fund-neutral reform package that would enhance system progressivity and improve outcomes for some vulnerable to retirement poverty.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001231&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Melissa Favreault, Gordon Mermin)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001231_social_security.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="114126"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[When Marginal and Statutory Tax Rates Differ]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[From an economic perspective, marginal tax rates play a critical role in determining the consequences of a change in tax policy. In an uncomplicated tax system the marginal rate is simply equal to the statutory rate. For millions of taxpayers, however, marginal tax rates differ markedly from statutory rates. Because of the tax code's wide array of phase-ins and phaseouts the majority of taxpayers face a different marginal rate than their statutory rate. Marginal and statutory rates differ for about two-thirds of married filers and heads of households and for about one-third of single filers.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001230&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Benjamin H. Harris, Ruth  Levine)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001230_marginal_rates.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="486379"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Racial Disparities in Education Finance: Going Beyond Equal Revenues]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Education is a key pathway out of poverty, yet schools that primarily serve minority students often fail to provide the educational opportunities available in predominantly white schools. A series of state court cases has addressed one cause of that disparity, the dramatic funding differences that result from reliance on local property taxes to fund schools. This paper examines the success of court-mandated solutions in equalizing spending per pupil across districts serving minority and white students.  However, we show that there remains much disparity in other measures of educational quality and outcomes.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411785&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Sheila Murray, Kim Rueben)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411785_equal_revenues.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="240005"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Taxes under Obama and McCain]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Tax policy has been a major issue in the Presidential election campaign, with both candidates proposing extensive changes. The candidates take very different approaches to tax policy. The main differences are two: first, McCains plans would reduce revenues by significantly more than Obamas; and second, McCains would be substantially less progressive, especially among very high income taxpayers. From the standpoint of growth or simplicity, both plans disappoint. It is hard to believe that either set of changes would have significant growth effects on the economy.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001223&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( William G. Gale, Benjamin H. Harris)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001223_taxes.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="176897"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Automatic 401(k): Revenue &amp; Distributional Estimates]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[One promising aspect of retirement saving policy in recent years is the "automatic" or opt-out features in 401(k) plans. Automatic 401(k)s enable saving even if the worker makes no effort to participate in their 401(k) plan. Prior research has shown that automatic enrollment increased participation in 401(k) from 75 percent to as high as 90 percent of newly eligible employees; with the highest change among lower-income and minority workers. This paper provides estimates of the effects - on federal revenue and the distribution of after-tax income - of a policy under which all 401(k) plans are converted to automatic 401(k)s.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001221&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Christopher Geissler, Benjamin H. Harris)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001221_automatic_401.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="229445"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Presidential Candidates' New Tax Proposals - October 27, 2008]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In response to the deterioration of the economy and the decline in asset values, Senators McCain and Obama have offered new proposals related to unemployment compensation, retirement savings, taxation of capital gains, and job creation. Although the proposals would provide some benefit, they have significant shortcomings.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411781&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411781_candidates_october.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="50149"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Next Stage for Social Policy: : Encouraging Work and Family Formation among Low-Income Men]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The Earned Income Tax Credit enjoyed marked success bringing low-income women into the labor force in recent years. At the same time, labor force participation by low-income or less-education men stagnated, and declined among young black men. In response to these labor market conditions, this paper analyzes several EITC reform options directed at increasing the EITC for low-income workers, in the hopes of drawing these men into the labor force. We estimate the cost of various proposals and put forth an additional proposal that breaks the EITC into two components  one focused on individual workers and one focused on supporting children.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411774&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Adam Carasso, Harry Holzer, Elaine Maag, C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411774_encouragingwork.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="189031"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Back from the Grave : Revenue and Distributional Effects of Reforming the Federal Estate Tax]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In this paper we review the current wealth transfer tax rules and the changes introduced in 2001. We offer an overview of the methodology underlying the TPC's estate tax model and then use the model to estimate the number of estate tax filers, taxable returns, and the distribution of burden under current law. Finally, we investigate the revenue and distributional effects of several proposals to reform the estate tax, including those put forth by the presidential candidates.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411777&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman, Katherine Lim, Jeff Rohaly)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411777_back_grave.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="655716"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Sales Tax Holidays]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[For the past 11 years, a growing number of states have held sales tax holidays, during which they exempt certain items from state - and often local - sales tax for a few days. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have scheduled 25 tax holidays in 2008, most of which occurred in August. Holidays most frequently exempt clothing and school supplies, but some exempt computers, energy-efficient appliances, or hurricane preparedness items..]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411772&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Carol Rosenberg, Kim Rueben)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411772_sales_tax_holiday.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="517115"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Impact of the Presidential Candidates' Tax Proposals on Effective Marginal Tax Rates]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[A taxpayer's effective marginal tax rate (EMTR) is the percentage of an additional dollar of income that would be paid in federal income tax. An individual's EMTR could affect the decision to work or save more, or avoid income tax. We use the TPC's microsimulation model of the federal tax system to calculate EMTRs under current law and under the presidential candidates' proposals. The Obama plan would lower EMTRs for the majority of households in 2009. Close to 80 percent of the population would see no change in their EMTR under Senator McCain's plan; most others would face lower rates.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411759&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Katherine Lim, Jeff Rohaly)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 30 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411759_candidates_tax_proposals.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="180377"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Sunday Forum: The Debt Bomb]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette op-ed, September 28, 2008. The current financial crisis poses a severe threat to the economy, but it also creates a tremendous opportunity, writes Rudolph Penner in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It gives politicians cover for undertaking painful actions to get the long-run deficit under control-actions that should have been taken long ago.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901194&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rudolph G. Penner)</author>
        <pubDate>Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Are Low-Wage Workers Destined for Low Income at Retirement?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Low-wage workers find it difficult to save for retirement. Without savings, they will have to rely on Social Security and pensions. Yet these income sources are based on earnings, which means that low-wage workers will have lower Social Security and pension benefits than higher-wage workers. This brief assesses whether boomers with low earnings between ages 22 and 62 are destined for low income at age 67. We find that nearly two-thirds of this group will end up with low income at retirement, but more than one-third will manage to defy the odds and escape being among the lowest-income older Americans.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411756&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Barbara Butrica, Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411756_low-wage_workers.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="44541"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[International-Taxation Scholar Rosanne Altshuler to Become Co-Director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Rosanne Altshuler, a Rutgers University economist specializing in international taxation and the former senior staff economist for President George W. Bush's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, will become codirector of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center in January and a principal research associate at the Urban Institute.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901191&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( The Urban Institute)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[An Updated Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans: Executive Summary - Revised September 15, 2008]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next ten years, according to a newly updated analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. Compared to current law, TPC estimates the Obama plan would cut taxes by $2.9 trillion from 2009-2018. McCain would reduce taxes by nearly $4.2 trillion. Obama would give larger tax cuts to low- and moderate-income households and pay some of the cost by raising taxes on high-income taxpayers.  In contrast, McCain would cut taxes across the board and give the biggest cuts to the highest-income households.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411750&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Roberton Williams, Howard Gleckman)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411750_updated_candidates_summary.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="67994"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Refundable Credits Have Cut Taxes for Low-Income Households]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In 1979, federal taxes claimed 8 percent of the income of households in the lowest quintile of the income distribution.1 Over the following three decades, the average
effective tax rate (ETR)  taxes as a percentage of income  fell by nearly half to 4.3 percent in 2005. Most of the decline resulted from a sharp drop in the individual income tax, primarily due to expansion of the earned income tax credit and the child tax credit (CTC). Because the EITC is refundable and the CTC is partially refundable, they can reduce a households tax liability below zero and generate a net payment.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001208&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001208_refundable_credits.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="1505688"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Case for Evidence-Based Policy: Beyond Ideology, Politics, and Guesswork : (revised 2008)]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[U.S. public policy has increasingly been conceived, debated, and evaluated through the lenses of politics and ideology. The fundamental question--Will the policy work?--too often gets short shrift or even ignored. A remedy is evidence-based policy -- a rigorous approach that draws on careful data collection, experimentation, and both quantitative and qualitative analysis to determine what the problem is, which ways it can be addressed, and the probable impacts of each of these ways. Examples of how evidence informs good policy and lack of evidence can invite bad include health insurance coverage, welfare reform, sentencing policy, and redress for housing discrimination.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901189&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Terry Dunworth, Jane Hannaway, John Holahan, Margery Austin Turner)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901189_evidencebased.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="58562"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Who Pays Capital Gains Tax?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Fewer than one in seven individual income taxpayers reported taxable capital gains in 2006. Over half of taxpayers with gains had incomes below $75,000, but most capital gains were reported by very high income taxpayers. The 3 percent of returns with AGI over $200,000 reported 31 percent of AGI and 83 percent of capital gains; the 0.3 percent with AGI over $1,000,000 reported 15 percent of AGI and 61 percent of capital gains. Many more Americans accrue capital gains on corporate shares they hold within tax-deferred employer-sponsored retirement plans, but they do not pay capital gains tax on these gains.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001201&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001201_Capital_gains_tax.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="477120"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Deficit: What Caused It, Why It Matters]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[CNNMoney.com op-ed, July 30, 2009. William Gale and Alan Auerbach explain that the government is spending more than it's bringing in, resulting in a deficit. They explain why that gap must be brought under control.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001295&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Alan J. Auerbach, William G. Gale)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Solvency Recommendations for Ohio]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[This report examines the funding of unemployment insurance (UI) in Ohio. It proposes seven recommendations to improve program solvency, both in the short run and in the long run. The two main recommendations to improve short-run solvency are to: 1) implement a substantial increase in the taxable wage base and 2) institute a temporary freeze in weekly benefits, both recommendations to be effective in 2009. Indexation of the taxable wage base is a principal recommendation to improve solvency in the long-run.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411743&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Wayne Vroman)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411743_ohio_solvency.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="61448"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Are Independents Accruing Political Power?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In the run-up to the presidential election, the number of voters who call themselves independent is swelling. Both Barack Obama and John McCain can trace their primary victories largely to independents. At the same time, millions of Republicans and Democrats crossed over to vote in the other party's primary. Doubtless, the presidential election will swing on these voters.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901188&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901188_gwd_political_power.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="24325"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[An Updated Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Tax and fiscal policy will loom large in the next president's domestic policy agenda. Nearly all of the tax cuts enacted since 2001 expire at the end of 2010 and the individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) threatens to ensnare tens of millions of Americans. While a permanent fix palatable to both political parties has proven elusive, both candidates have proposed major tax changes. This report describes how we performed our modeling and analysis, outlines the major tax proposals, and discusses the implications of their policies for the revenue raised, taxpayer economic activity, and the distribution of the tax burden.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411741&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman, Surachai Khitatrakun, Greg Leiserson, Jeff Rohaly, Eric Toder, Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411741_updated_candidates.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="310886"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[An Updated Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans: Executive Summary]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next ten years, according to an updated analysis by the non-partisan Tax Policy Center. Compared to current law, TPC estimates the Obama plan would cut taxes by $2.8 trillion from 2009-2018. McCain would reduce taxes by nearly $4.2 trillion. Under current law, the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts would expire in 2010 and the Alternative Minimum Tax would remain in full force.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411742&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Roberton Williams, Howard Gleckman)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 23 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411742_updated_candidates_summary.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="59390"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Distribution of the 2001-2006 Tax Cuts : Updated Projections, July 2008]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Since 2001, Congress has passed a major tax bill almost every year. Most have reduced taxes significantly and, since they were not accompanied by spending cuts, the resulting deficits have increased the national debt. The tax cuts total almost $2.2 trillion over ten years, and that total may be vastly understated if some or all of the cuts are extended beyond their scheduled expiration date of 2010. In addition, the cuts exacerbated the growing problem of the alternative minimum tax (AMT). Barring legislative action, more than 33 million taxpayers will fall prey to the AMT in 2010.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411739&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Greg Leiserson, Jeff Rohaly)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411739_tax_cuts.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="189430"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Weathering Job Loss : Unemployment Insurance]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Low-wage jobs are often characterized by uncertainty and unpredictable gaps in employment. A majority of workers in these jobs do not have access to the temporary income of unemployment insurance to tide them over when they suffer a job loss. This summary outlines recommendations for updating the program by extending benefits to more workers through changes in eligibility rules and establishing more uniform periods of benefit receipt.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411730&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Margaret Simms)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411730_job_loss.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="210573"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Making Work Pay Enough : A Decent Standard of Living for Working Families]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[One-third of America's families with children are low income, meaning their incomes fall below twice the federal poverty level. Although four in five of these families work, many don't bring home enough to cover the everyday costs of living. In this essay, Acs and Turner outline their proposals to enhance low-income families' purchasing power and reduce unusually high housing costs through a package of reforms and policy initiatives that tackle both the income side and expenditure side of family budgets.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411710&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Gregory Acs, Margery Austin Turner)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411710_work_pay.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="261016"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Dealing with the Original Sin Driving Health Costs]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In budget policy, myths are progress's number one enemy. One silly fiction now making the rounds is that
we don't know how to judge the relative value of different types of health care, so we can't control health care
costs-at least not for now. Like many myths, this one contains an element of truth-there is a lot we don't
know. So what? It's still a myth that we know too little to act.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901183&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901183_gwd_health_cost.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="20241"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Individual Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT): 12 Facts and Projections]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Congress originally enacted a minimum tax in 1969 to guarantee that high-income individuals paid at least a minimal amount of tax. Under todays alternative minimum tax (AMT), middle- and upper-income taxpayers must add a number of "preference items" to their taxable income, subtract a special AMT exemption, and calculate their tax according to the AMT rules.  If the tax under those rules turns out to be higher than their regular income tax, taxpayers pay the difference as AMT.  Unless Congress acts, 26.8 million taxpayers will be affected by the AMT in 2008.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411707&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman, Julianna Koch, Greg Leiserson, Jeff Rohaly)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411707_12AMTFacts.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="223459"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Individual Alternative Minimum Tax: Historical Data and Projections : Updated June 2008]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Congress enacted a minimum tax in 1969 to guarantee that high-income individuals paid at least some tax. The AMT now threatens to grow from a footnote in the tax code to a major component affecting tens of millions of taxpayers. Although most lower- and middle-income taxpayers will remain unaffected by it, policymakers need to deal with the explosive growth of the AMT from an obscure tax affecting only 20,000 filers in 1970 to one affecting more than 33 million-a third of all taxpayers-by 2010. This document provides updated estimates of AMT participation, revenue, and distribution.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411703&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Greg Leiserson, Jeff Rohaly)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411703_individual_amt.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="89231"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[A Preliminary Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans (Summary)]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Tax and fiscal policy will loom large in the next president's domestic policy agenda. Nearly all of the tax cuts enacted since 2001 expire at the end of 2010 and the individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) threatens to ensnare tens of millions of Americans. While a permanent fix palatable to both political parties has proven elusive, both candidates have proposed major tax changes. This summary outlines our analysis of the 2008 presidential candidates' tax plans. The full length report is also available.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411702&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( The Tax Policy Center)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 24 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411702_CandidateTaxPlans_summary.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="50542"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[A Preliminary Analysis of the 2008 Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans (Full Report)]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Tax and fiscal policy will loom large in the next president's domestic policy agenda. Nearly all of the tax cuts enacted since 2001 expire at the end of 2010 and the individual alternative minimum tax (AMT) threatens to ensnare tens of millions of Americans. While a permanent fix palatable to both political parties has proven elusive, both candidates have proposed major tax changes. This report describes how we performed our modeling and analysis, outlines the major tax proposals, and discusses the implications of their policies for the revenue raised, taxpayer economic activity, and the distribution of the tax burden.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411693&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( The Tax Policy Center)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411693_CandidateTaxPlans.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="282024"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Tax Policy Center Establishes "Opportunity Fund" to Support Tax System Research and Analysis]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center launches a new intellectual venture capital fund to help policymakers, the public and the media better understand the U.S. tax system and the policy challenges facing the nation over the next decade. The $10 millionOpportunity Fund will includea $2.5 million challenge grant from the Gates Foundation.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901180&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( The Urban Institute)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Budgeting for Capital Investment : Testimony Before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The unified budget of the U. S. government is, in most respects, a cash budget. It is somewhat biased against public investment, because the benefits of such investments accrue over a period of time whereas the cash outlay is immediate. This testimony looks at options for directing more funds to highways, mass transit, and other public investments. It examines higher fuel taxes, tolls and congestion fees; capital budgeting; infrastructure banks; a capital revolving fund; public-private partnerships; and approaches to improving the efficiency of current grants and subsidies. It concludes that tolls and congestion fees are very promising as are public-private partnerships. A capital revolving fund would be useful for agencies that only invest occasionally. A capital budget and infrastructure banks are less desirable.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901178&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rudolph G. Penner)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901178_Penner_capital_investment.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="36058"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Distribution of Federal Taxes, 2008-11]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Overall, the federal tax system is highly progressive. On average, households with higher incomes pay taxes that are a larger share of their income. The tax cuts passed since 2001 have reduced progressivity with the notable exception of the 2008 stimulus package. Almost all provisions of the tax cuts are set to expire by the end of 2010. Barring legislative action, effective tax rates will rise across the income spectrum in 2011 with the largest increases in the upper income classes. This paper summarizes the Tax Policy Center's latest estimates of the distribution of federal taxes for 2008 through 2011.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001189&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Jeff Rohaly)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001189_federal_taxes.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="98905"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Tax Reform and Taxation of Small Business : Before the Senate Committee on Finance]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[A tax code that is fair, simple, and conducive to economic growth is in the interest of all Americans and of all businesses, large and small. In this testimony, Toder addresses the ways in which the tax system affects companies organized as small businesses, compared with larger enterprises. He discusses provisions of the current tax law that affect the relative incentive to organize economic activity within smaller or larger business enterprises and between different forms of enterprises and outlines how selected tax reform proposals would affect those choices.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901176&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901176_Toder_tax_reform.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="62003"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Measuring Trends in Income Variability]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Using PSID data from 1968 to 2005, we find that the volatility of family income has increased over time (a trend that is robust to a large variety of modeling choices) but the trend in individual income volatility is less clear. Measurement error cannot fully account for these facts, but the increasing covariance of individual incomes within the family (driven by increases in the correlation of head and spouse earnings, due largely to the increased proportion of families with two earners) can.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411688&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Austin Nichols, Seth Zimmerman)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411688_income_variability.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="369253"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Individual Taxpayers and Federal Tax Reform : Testimony before the United States Senate Committee on Finance]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In the next few years, several factors will push tax issues to the forefront of policy discussions. First, under current law, almost all of the Bush Administration's tax cuts will expire at the end of 2010. A second factor is the rapid growth in the alternative minimum tax (AMT), which will increase the inequity and complexity of the tax system. A third issue is the expected increase in government spending over the next several decades. Despite these pressures on the system, tax changes are not inevitable, and achieving meaningful reformthat is, with substantial design improvementswill require strong political leadership. Gale's testimony focuses on some overarching principles that should guide tax reform efforts.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001178&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( William G. Gale)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 14 May 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001178_Gale_tax_reform.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="58480"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[A Blueprint for Tax Reform and Health Reform : Before the Senate Committee on Finance]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In this testimony Burman outlines a plan for tax reform that would maintain progressivity, raise enough revenues to finance the government, and dovetail with plans to provide universal access to health insurance. It would combine a value-added tax (VAT) dedicated to pay for a new universal health insurance voucher with a vastly simplified and much flatter income tax. With a new financing source for health care, income tax rates could be cut sharply-the top rates could be cut to 25 percent or less. The health care voucher would also offset the inherent regressivity of a VAT. And, under the simplified system, most Americans would not have to file income tax returns.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901167&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901167_Burman_reform.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="238247"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[McCain's Gas-Tax Plan is On Empty]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain wants to suspend the federal gas tax for the summer travel season. Truckers say they like the idea. In this Marketplace commentary, Len Burman, Director of the Tax Policy Center explains why Senator McCains proposal wont get us where he wants to go.

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/04/17/burman_commentary/]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411652&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411652_mccain_gas-tax.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="42422"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[State and Local Revenues]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[State and local revenues have been relatively stable over the last 30 years, growing from 13.5 percent of GDP in 1972 to 16.3 percent in 2005. However, as shown in the table, the composition of revenues has changed, with property taxes declining from 25.6 percent of revenues to only 16.6 percent. Much of this decline occurred in the 1970s.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001173&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Kim Rueben, Carol Rosenberg)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001173_state_local.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="491372"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Empowering the Next President]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[What if President William Howard Taft and his Congress had written laws that specified how all the governments revenues at the beginning of the 21st century were to be spent? Preposterous? Well, the laws on the books today not only dictate how all revenues collected in 2030 and beyond will be spent, they also predetermine most of the next presidents spending. No wonder the campaign promises of the presidential candidates sound hollow.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901158&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901158_empowering_president.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="20673"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Taking Back Our Fiscal Future]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The authors of this paperlongtime federal budget and policy  expertswere drawn together by a deep concern about the nation's long-term  fiscal outlook. Despite diverse  philosophies and political leanings, they found solid common ground and agree  that unsustainable deficits in the federal budget threaten the health and vigor  of the American economy and the first step toward establishing budget  responsibility is to reform the budget decision process so that the major  drivers of escalating deficitsSocial Security, Medicare, and Medicaidare no  longer on autopilot. The paper provides  specific policy recommendations and outlines the reasons action is critical.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001155&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Joseph Antos, Robert Bixby, Stuart Butler, Paul Cullinan, Alison Fraser, William Galston, Ron Haskins, Julia Isaacs, Maya MacGuineas, Will Marshall, Pietro Nivola, Rudolph G. Penner, Robert D. Reischauer, Alice M. Rivlin, Isabel V. Sawhill, C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001155_fiscal_future.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="122254"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[How the Income Tax Treatment of Saving and Social Security Benefits May Affect Boomers' Retirement Incomes]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Income tax provisions affect the buildup of retirement assets during workers' careers and after-tax income following retirement. This paper uses the Urban Institute's DYNASIM model to simulate how potential changes in the tax treatment of retirement saving, Social Security benefits, and income from assets outside retirement accounts may affect boomers' retirement incomes. Changes in the income thresholds for taxing Social Security benefits have the largest impact on middle-income boomers, while changes in contribution limits for retirement saving plans and tax rates on capital gains and dividends have the largest impact on the highest-income boomers.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411629&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Barbara Butrica, Karen E. Smith, Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411629_retirement_income.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="391425"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Taxpayer Eligibility for IRAs]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The tax code limits the extent to which individuals may take advantage of the tax benefits associated with traditional and Roth IRAs. The only eligibility criteria for contributing to a Roth IRA are income and filing status. In contrast, eligibility for deducting contributions to a traditional IRA depends on those factors as well as on whether the taxpayer and the taxpayers spouse participate in an employer-provided pension. Taxpayers are subject to an assortment of phaseout ranges based on those criteria.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001147&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Benjamin H. Harris, Christopher Geissler)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001147_taxpayer_eligibility.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="498101"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Financing Health Insurance Coverage: California's Revenue Structure and Options]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[California's health care reform effort may have been one of the first casualties of the national economic downturn. Yet the conditions that gave rise to the initiative did not disappear when the plan failed, and other states are pushing ahead with proposals to expand health coverage. So it remains useful to reflect on the California experience. In particular, it will be helpful to understand the proposed funding sources, how they would have interacted with California's revenue system, and what alternative funding streams might have withstood the politics of reform. In this policy brief, we analyze the options for financing expanded health insurance coverage in California and offer our own preferred solution in light of the state's fiscal and political constraints.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001149&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Tracy Gordon, Kim Rueben)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001149_california_revenue.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="126136"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Accounting Better for the Federal Budget : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Almost nothing better reflects our federal government priorities than the budget. The arcane rules governing how budget numbers are presented, however, totally obscure what's really happening. Turning out even more lights, every modern president and Congress play an accounting game that makes it seem like they aren't accountable for how spending changes over time.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901152&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901152_accountingbetter.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="23345"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Tax Rates on Capital Gains and Dividends Under the AMT]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Recent tax acts sharply lowered tax rates on long-term capital gains and dividend income. For millions of taxpayers, however, the alternative minimum tax limits the benefits from these cuts by increasing the effective marginal tax rates on capital gains and dividend income. The culprit is the phaseout of the AMT exemption.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001148&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Benjamin H. Harris, Christopher Geissler)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001148_amt_tax_rates.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="499390"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Some Ignored Costs of Bonus Depreciation]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[As part of the recent stimulus bill, Congress and President Bush decided to try to grant businesses bonus depreciation allowances for new purchases of equipment. For each $100 spent in 2008 on equipment expected to last at least five years, businesses would be able to deduct the vast majority of costs in the first year  $600, versus $240 under the old law. At a 35 percent corporate tax rate, for instance, corporations can get checks from the IRS for $210 instead of $84 in the first year for each $1,000 invested. There is one catch: They must have $210 of taxes already due to get $210 back, or $600 of profit against which to take a $600 deduction. Otherwise they will have to delay taking the deduction  which is the world they were already in.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001150&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001150_bonus_depreciation.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="447563"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Understanding States' Fiscal Health During and After the 2001 Recession]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Every state except Vermont operates under some sort of balanced budget requirement. That means that to serve the increased need of distressed populations during recessions, states must either increase revenue or reallocate resources dedicated to other programs. Similarly, when revenue declines, states must raise taxes or reallocate resources. This report examines the extent to which rainy day and general fund savings were a significant factor in helping states cope with fiscal stress during and after the 2001 recession, a possible explanation for the lower than expected legislated tax increases and social welfare cuts.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001135&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Elaine Maag, David Merriman)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 30 Jan 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001135_states_fiscal_health.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="736639"/>
		
    </item>
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