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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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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Preliminary Revenue Estimate and Distributional Analysis of the Tax Provisions in A Roadmap for America's Future Act 2010]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2010 is a detailed reform package that overhauls Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the U.S. federal tax system. In a January 27, 2010, report, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analyzed the spending provisions of the plan. This paper presents the Tax Policy Center's estimates of the revenue and distributional impact of the Roadmap's tax provisions.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=412046&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Joseph Rosenberg)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/412046_ryan_taxplan.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="62016"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[A New April 15: Make It a Day of Giving (Efficiently)]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[President Barack Obama on January 22 signed into law a provision allowing charitable gifts made for Haiti relief during February and most of January 2010 to be deducted on 2009 federal tax returns. This noble sentiment would work a lot better if deductions were allowed for all giving made to qualified charities by April 15.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901325&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Held Harmless by Higher Income Tax Rates?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In 2010, 45 percent of tax returns will either remit no federal income tax or receive a net tax refund.  But this figure overstates the share of taxpayers who would be unaffected by higher income tax rates.  Raising all rates by 1 percent would hold only 34 percent of tax returns harmless; others would either pay higher taxes or receive smaller net rebates.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001359&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rachel M. Johnson, Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 04 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001359_harmless_income.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="485402"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Tax Issues Related to Small Business Job Creation]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Eric Toder testified before the Senate Committee on Finance on how recently proposed incentives for small business may help economic recovery. These incentives are only a small component of broader policies to accelerate recovery from the deep recession we have experienced in the past two years and reduce unemployment.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901323&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901323_Toder_testimony.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="42355"/>
		
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    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Variation in Effective Tax Rates]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The expansion of refundable tax credits and the proliferation
of specialized tax breaks means that households
with similar incomes can face wildly different
effective federal tax rates. For example, among middle-income
households, the median effective income tax rate
is 3 percent, but 10 percent of those households face
effective rates exceeding 9 percent and another 10 percent
receive a net government subsidy greater than 4 percent
of their cash income.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=412032&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Katherine Lim, Jeff Rohaly)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/412032_effective_tax_rates.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="481562"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Tax Proposals in the 2011 Budget]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The Tax Policy Center has examined the key tax proposals in President Obama's 2011 budget. Separate discussions below describe each of the proposals including current law, proposed changes, and, when appropriate, the distributional effects. The budget as presented by the president lacks complete details on many of the tax proposals. Some provisions had virtually no detail and our discussion of them is necessarily limited.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=412029&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rosanne Altshuler, Dan Halperin, Benjamin H. Harris, Joseph Rosenberg, Eric Toder, Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/412029_2011_budget.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="571542"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Choosing the Nation's Fiscal Future : Hearing before the Senate Budget Committee U.S. Congress]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Today's federal budget policies are unsustainable. Three programs - Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid - constitute more than 40 percent of spending other than interest in a normal year and all are growing faster than the economy and tax revenues. At the same time, Congress has kept the overall tax burden remarkably constant as a share of gross domestic product for most of the past 50 years. The combination of these factors leads to a growing deficit. This testimony, by a former Congressional Budget Office director, discusses four policy packages that would return the United States to a sustainable budget.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901321&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rudolph G. Penner)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901321_nationsfiscalfuture.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="81455"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Let's freeze more than chump change]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[President Obama has proposed to freeze most domestic discretionary spending -- a step in the right direction, but not enough. The $250 billion in expected savings over the next decade is chump change compared with deficits that could top $10 trillion if policy doesn't change.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901319&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 02 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Budgeting in the Ideal and in the United States]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Institute Fellow Rudy Penner describes how the U.S. budget is prepared by the executive branch and Congress, and how it then is implemented by the executive branch.  The budget preparation process could be improved, Penner asserts, but budget implementation works smoothly and efficiently. The severe long-run budget problem the country faces is caused by only three spending programs: Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. All are growing faster than the economy, and there is strong opposition against raising tax burdens. Changes are suggested for the budget process so that it is better suited for dealing with this long-run problem.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901317&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rudolph G. Penner)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901317_budgeting_us.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="48664"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Desperately Seeking Revenue]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In August 2009, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO, 2009) projected that the federal budget deficit would total $7.1 trillion over the 2010-2019 decade-under current law. That outcome would require the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts to sunset as scheduled in 2011 and Congress to stop "patching" the alternative minimum tax (AMT) to minimize its bite. If neither of those things happens, CBO says the cumulative deficit over the decade would jump to $11.1 trillion, more than doubling the national debt. CBO characterizes that situation as being unsustainable and it is hard to find anyone who would disagree.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=412018&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Rosanne Altshuler, Katherine Lim, Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/412018_seeking_revenue.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="147739"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The U.S. Is Broke. Here's Why.]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In his State of the Union address, President Obama no doubt will promise to attack the deficit.  Trouble is, the deficit is only a symptom of a chronic disease that strikes at the very heart of democratic government. The disease? Fiscal sclerosis  setting future national priorities in stone long before the future has arrived. Our fiscal arteries are so clogged and hardened that to do anything new, meet any emergency, or engage any new opportunity, the president must renege on past legislators' promises. If he doesn't address unsustainable promises head on, government will be tied up with yesterday's problems and the demands of yesterday's voters.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901316&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 27 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[An Analysis of Potential Tax Incentives to Increase Charitable Giving in Puerto Rico : In Brief]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[This policy brief summarizes the findings of a larger report on potential tax incentives to increase charitable giving in Puerto Rico. Improved incentives for private charitable giving would strengthen nonprofit organizations in Puerto Rico. Taxpayers may choose between a 100 percent deduction for contributions over 3 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI) or a 33 percent deduction for contributions with no floor. Deductions may not exceed 15 percent of AGI. Removing the 15 percent ceiling would be a relatively cost effective way of encouraging more giving.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=412013&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Elizabeth T. Boris, Joseph J. Cordes, Mauricio Soto, Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/412013_PRBrief_Analysis.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="162307"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[An Analysis of Potential Tax Incentives to Increase Charitable Giving in Puerto Rico : Final Report]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Improved incentives for private charitable giving would strengthen nonprofit organizations in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico's income tax allows itemizers to deduct charitable contributions, but with limits. Taxpayers may choose between a 100 percent deduction for contributions over 3 percent of adjusted gross income (AGI) or a 33 percent deduction for contributions with no floor. Deductions may not exceed 15 percent of AGI. Removing the 15 percent ceiling would be a relatively cost effective way of encouraging more giving. Reducing the 3 percent floor, though generating less additional giving per dollar of revenue loss, would encourage broader participation.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=412014&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Elizabeth T. Boris, Joseph J. Cordes, Mauricio Soto, Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/412014_PRReport_PuertoRico.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="374379"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Status Report: Obama and the Tax System]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[illiam Gale and Benjamin Harris give the president a B, noting their approval of the administration's aggressive use of tax and fiscal policy in pursuing the paramount goal of saving the economy-but also concern about the resulting lack of progress in efforts to reform the tax and fiscal system.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001357&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( William G. Gale, Benjamin H. Harris)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 20 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[We need to ban the evil Santas]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The two Santas came to Washington in 2000 and threaten to never leave. If we don't send them packing, Christmas Future could be very bleak indeed.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901315&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Lessons Unlearned? Who Pays for the Next Financial Collapse?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[It's an old story. Come a financial collapse, somebody's got to pay to get the nation's financial house back in order. While many on Wall Street made millions losing money for their companies, every young American is now saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of additional government debt. While buyers walked away from homes when they went underwater, others who had mustered large down payments simply absorbed their lossesin some cases, wiping out years of saving. While speculators who borrowed to buy stock or real estate shrugged off debt by declaring personal or corporate bankruptcy, those who invested in their 401(k)s helplessly watched their retirement savings erode.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901313&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901313_lessonsunlearned.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="54528"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Bernanke's Double Bubble Bind]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In a speech to the American Economic Association on January 3, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve System, took on the question of whether easy monetary policy led to the recent bubble in housing prices.  I dont disagree with his broad conclusions about the importance of regulatory policy. But it wasn't until the end of his speech that he dabbled briefly with the far more important question: whether new types of monetary, fiscal, and regulatory actions are required to contain bubbles in all major assets, not just housing.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901312&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901312_doublebubble_01042010.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="27432"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Where, Oh Where, Has the Estate Tax Gone?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Unless Congress changes the law, the federal estate tax
will disappear on January 1, 2010. For the first time since
the 1916 inception of the tax, the estate of anyone dying
in 2010 will go to heirs tax free, a result of the 2001 tax
law that phased out the estate tax over 10 years. But that
law itself expires in 2011 and the estate tax will revert to
pre-2001 law.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001354&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Roberton Williams)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001353_estate_tax.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="487018"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Retirement Security and the Stock Market Crash: What Are the Possible Outcomes?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[This paper simulates the impact of the 2008 stock market crash on future retirement savings under alternative scenarios. If stocks remain depressed as after the 1974 crash, 20 percent of preboomers born 1941-45 and 22 percent of late boomers born 1961-65 would see their retirement incomes drop 10 percent or more. Working another year would reduce the share of these big losers to 14 percent for late boomers. Because most pre-boomers were already retired, their share of big losers would decline slightly to 19 percent. Delaying retirement would disproportionately benefit low-income people because their additional earnings exceed their stock market losses.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411998&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Barbara Butrica, Karen E. Smith, Eric Toder)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411998_retirement_security.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="370637"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Comparing Subsidies for the House and Senate Health Care Bills]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Consider an employer who bears an equal cost for their employees and must choose between the proposed subsidy for those on the exchange and the current subsidy for those who get employer-provided health insurance.  What are the consequences for the employee? This article discusses the results for the employee under the current health care bills in the House and the Senate.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001352&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Stephanie Rennane, C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001352_comparing_subsidies.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="479143"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[What Would Health Care Reform Mean for Small Employers and Their Workers?]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Small employers face significant challenges in providing health insurance to their employees.  This paper reviews these barriers to purchasing coverage and examines the implications of the House of Representatives' and the Senate leadership's health care reform bills for small firms and their workers. Health insurance exchanges, insurance market reforms, and subsidies for the low-income can be expected to produce substantial improvements in the ability of small employers and their workers to obtain affordable coverage. In addition, the authors demonstrate that neither bill imposes substantial new financial burdens on small businesses.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=411997&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Linda J. Blumberg, Stacey McMorrow)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411997_health_reform_smallbusiness.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="245861"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Taxation of Credit Derivatives]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[One arguably good thing about the current financial crisis is that it has broadened public understanding of the global financial system. Few people had heard of credit default swaps two years ago, but these instruments have, since then, forced themselves on the attention the most casual reader of financial news. Credit default swaps brought insurance giant AIG to its knees, and precipitated a $100 billion U.S. government bailout of the company. More recently, it has been reported that hedge fund manager John Paulson made more than $3 billion during 2008 using credit default swaps to bet against subprime mortgages.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001350&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Lawrence Lokken)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001350_credit_derivatives.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="176051"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Personal savings need a boost]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The Washington Times.  America's days of economic  dominance are numbered because we don't save. The government is borrowing like  crazy, and households aren't doing much better. The personal savings rate --  the share of after-tax income that people set aside for a rainy day -- has been  falling like a stone since the early 1980s.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901298&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Leonard E. Burman)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Considerations in Efforts to Restructure Work-Based Credits]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The Internal Revenue Code has replaced traditional means-tested programs as the principal means for transferring income to low earners. The largest vehicle is the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), now supplemented by both the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and the Making Work Pay tax credit (MWP).
This paper looks at the system's evolution, the important role played by the tax system in assisting low earners, and the complexities presented by the current approach. It offers principles to guide the design of a worker credit and child benefit that would replace the EITC, CTC, and MWP, along with a specific proposal.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001347&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Steve Holt, Elaine Maag)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001347_refundable_work.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="187878"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[How Democrats and Republicans Unite Behind Unsustainable Medicare Cost Growth : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Should Medicare set prices for what it covers? Should it determine what services it will cover? During the health reform debate, these questions have dogged attempts to reduce unsustainable Medicare cost growth. At the most basic level, the questions are silly. Of course Medicare sets prices. Of course it determines what services it will cover. It just doesn't do it very wellfor reasons ranging from limited administrative power to constant political interference.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901309&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901309_howdemocrats_12092009.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="48571"/>
		
    </item>


    <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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001345_task_advice.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="100374"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Expanding the EITC to Help More Low-Wage Workers]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The case for expanding the EITC for workers without qualifying children is compelling, as the current EITC provides little help to this group. We argue that the EITC for these workers should:

- provide these workers with a strong incentive to increase work effort;

- provide a significant subsidy to low-earning workers working near a full-time work level;

- begin phasing out only after an individual is working at a level at least equivalent to full-time minimum wage work;

- apply to both prime-age and younger workers; and

- be effectively coordinated with the Making Work Pay Credit.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001341&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( Harry Holzer, Additional Authors)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001341_eitc.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="103407"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[Can the New Health Subsidies Be Administered? : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[An old congressional hand once confided that tax legislation usually looks like sausage making, but, compared to health legislation, it starts to look like French cooking. His main boeuf? The extraordinary amount of hand waving in health bills due to the questionable assumption that administrators can solve problems the legislation can't.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901303&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901303_governmentwedeserve_11202009.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="24022"/>
		
    </item>


    <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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001336_opacity.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="477887"/>
		
    </item>


    <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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001331_credits_children.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="486003"/>
		
    </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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411970_age_rating.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="326735"/>
		
    </item>


    <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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411968_AMT_update.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="127057"/>
		
    </item>


    <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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411959_OandOfact16_final.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="68486"/>
		
    </item>


    <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"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[When Health Reform Violates Standards of Equal Justice : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Many families with moderate earnings pay 20 percent or more of their income for health insurance. By Congressional Budget Office estimates, a family making $54,000 a year can expect a moderate-cost insurance policy to cost about $14,700 in 2016. True, employers often contribute a big chunk of the total. But most economists believe that the family really pays by accepting lower cash wages.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=901297&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/901297_whenhealthreform.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="25273"/>
		
    </item>


    <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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001312_auto_enroll.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="518451"/>
		
    </item>


    <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"/>
		
    </item>


    <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"/>
		
    </item>


    <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"/>
		
    </item>


    <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"/>
		
    </item>


    <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"/>
		
    </item>


    <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="987886"/>
		
    </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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001289_who_pays.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="497881"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA["Sticks" or Mandates to Buy Health Insurance: Is Health Reform Possible Without Them? : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In a letter to top Senate Democrats, President Obama recently stated that he was open to the "principle of shared responsibilitymaking every American responsible for having health insurance coverage, and asking that employers share in the costs." This sounds very much like support for what are sometimes labeled individual and employer "mandates," though in the Presidential campaign he opposed requiring adults to buy insurance, except for their children. Done the right way, "mandates" could increase dramatically the numbers of those insured, while helping drive down the rate of increase in health care costs. Done the wrong way, they can be unenforceable or drive up the number of unemployed. The Senate Finance Committee increasingly has been turning to mandates as part of a package of health reform.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001325&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001325_SticksorMandates7109.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="30930"/>
		
    </item>


    <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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411916_tax_exclusion_insurance.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="292635"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001284_economic_crisis.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="222069"/>
		
    </item>


    <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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411914_retirement_incomes.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="61117"/>
		
    </item>


    <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>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/411912_vat_budget_speech.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="41922"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<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[Why CBO Won't Credit Congress for Reducing Health Costs : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Again and again, health reformers believe they have identified ways to save money through more efficient delivery of care. So why can't we count on those savings to budget the coming expansion of health care for Americans or lower cost growth?]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001324&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001324_WhyCBOWontCreditCongress6309.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="31213"/>
		
    </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[The Psychology of Health Reform : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[If we are to achieve health reformthat is, affordable, sustainable, and constantly improving health care available to allwe need to start looking as much to the psychology of the issue as to the economics and politics.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001323&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001323_PsychologyofHealthReform52609.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="28431"/>
		
    </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[Transformational? Not Yet. : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Pundits and press alike are declaring President Obama's budget "transformational." ... Administration insiders are more careful with their claims, knowing that the hard work remains to be done.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001330&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 06 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001330_Transformational4609.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="35081"/>
		
    </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[Is a "C" Grade Good Enough for Government? : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA["If you're depressed when Congress fails to get an 'A' on legislation, you should never work for government. Getting from an 'F' to a 'C' must be fulfillment enough." That's the advice I got many years ago at the Treasury Department from Jim Wetzler, who worked for the tax-writing committees of Congress, later became Commissioner of Taxation and Finance for the State of New York, and most recently was on an Obama transition team that reviewed the Treasury Department.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001329&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 25 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001329_IsaCGrade22509.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="28925"/>
		
    </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[Big, Small or Working Government : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[In his inaugural speech, President Obama attempted to move beyond the partisan divide over size of government, claiming that his tenure would be mainly devoted to making government work. Some might view this statement simply as a political appeal to moderates in both partiesechoing President Clinton's 1996 election year claim that "the era of big government is over." Others more cynically might view it as a ploy to get around the dilemma that plagues almost every winning candidate when campaign promises for both tax cuts and spending increases face the reality of governing.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001328&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001328_BigSmallorWorking21109.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="50634"/>
		
    </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[Unwinding the Stimulus Package : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Now that the United States has discovered that it was easier to fall into a recession than to climb out of one, the Obama administration needs to learn an equally urgent lesson. Timeliness is important not just for getting into, but also backing out of, an economic stimulus package.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001327&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001327_UnwindingtheStimulus12809.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="32476"/>
		
    </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["Investment" and Obama's First Budget : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[President-elect Obama's chief in-house economic advisor Larry Summers suggests in a recent Washington Post piece that the new Administration will put a lot of effort into addressing long-term growth challenges, not just short-term policies that generate consumer spending. How? Through "investments." To make sure we get the point, Summers uses that word or some variation 12 times.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001326&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001326_InvestmentandObama1609.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="56991"/>
		
    </item>


    <item>
	<title><![CDATA[The Breadth of Brokenness : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The breakdown in the financial markets, our huge budgetary mess, and multiple government scandals have only highlighted the depth of our government's problems.  Recently, I noted that the required governmental reforms are so extensive that President Obama will find it difficult to succeed by taking one-off approaches to each of the nation's problems rather than addressing them in a more unified way. Here I strengthen my case by turning from the depth to the breadth of brokenness of government.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001317&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001317_BreadthofBrokenness121808.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="26830"/>
		
    </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[Broken Government : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[The Obama Administration faces not one but several dilemmas. First is the huge issue of preventing the current downturn from turning into a very deep and long-lasting worldwide recession. State governors are running to Washington for help with their own budget crises, while Democratic supporters are clamoring for the spending increases and tax cuts they were promised during the campaign. Unfortunately, the long-term federal budget is so unbalanced that even if the nation were experiencing good times, able to avoid more tax cuts or spending increases, and in a position to enact the types of budget reforms that President Clinton did in 1993, it would still be way behind the fiscal eight-ball.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001322&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001322_BrokenGovernment112408.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="23019"/>
		
    </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[The President's First Step : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[At last the election is over. Yet there is no rest for the weary. Not two hours passed before President-elect Obama was being called upon to act. Many demand that he immediately propose reforms to their favorite programs, especially those he supported during the campaign. Yet the most dangerous thing he can do at this point is to jump into making individual, one-off policy decisions, especially before hes got a full budget picture of how everything adds togethernot just for this year, but for the eight years he hopes to be President.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001321&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001321_PresidentsFirstStep111308.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="21081"/>
		
    </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[Joe Plumbs Press Predilections : The Government We Deserve]]></title>
	<description><![CDATA[Poor Joe the Plumber. His fame has been established, but at what cost? Steve Weisman, a former New York Times reporter and colleague of mine, predicted that within an hour of that fateful presidential debate, Joe would find hundreds of press people camped on his lawn.]]></description>
	<link>http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?id=1001320&amp;RSSFeed=Urban-Brookings_Tax_Policy_Center.xml</link>
		<author>info@taxpolicycenter.org ( C. Eugene Steuerle)</author>
        <pubDate>Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:00 EST</pubDate>
		
		<enclosure url="http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/UploadedPDF/1001320_JoePlumbsPress103108.pdf" type="application/pdf" length="20576"/>
		
    </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>
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