Here are fourteen implications of the revenue shortfall.

Systematic tax reform, that ever-elusive but ever-desirable elf, has made some appearances recently before quickly ducking out of sight. Although many tax enactments involve changing the boundaries of the tax system - say, tax rates or deductions or limits - history warns us that seldom has...

The effect of fiscal policy on economic growth is a controversial and long-standing topic in economic theory, empirical research, and economic policymaking. It is at the heart of the policy debate surrounding the sharp increases in official federal budget surpluses in the 1990s, the equally...

The release of the Congressional Budget Office's new baseline budget projections on January 29, 2003 offers the opportunity to reassess the fiscal status of the federal government as Congress and the administration consider a new set of budget proposals. This article examines the current budget...

State tax revenues were $32 billion lower in 2002 than in 2001, the first year over year revenue decline in recent history.1 Since then, budget conditions have deteriorated further, with an aggregate budget gap of $49 billion in 2003, according to the National Conference of State Legislators....

This note considers four options to raise approximately enough revenue to finance the additional $87 billion that the President has requested to finance the war and reconstruction costs in Iraq. Commentators and some members of Congress have expressed an interest in options to offset these...

Over a permanent horizon, the fiscal gap now exceeds 7 percent of GDP under the CBO baseline and 10 percent of GDP under an adjusted baseline, substantially higher than a year ago. Allocating the fiscal gap to different programs is not straightforward, though. Most government programs are...

In the heady days after his re-election, President Bush promised to replace the current tax system with something better. Politicians often delude themselves that reform can be summoned by proclamation. But, a wholesale transformation of the income tax system isn't about to happen quickly or...

Proposals to replace part of Social Security with individual accounts are now a focus of attention, with the President expressing a strong desire to push forward on creating individual accounts within Social Security. This paper considers the appropriate budgetary treatment of proposals to...

The new budget projections released by the Congressional Budget Office (2005) provide an opportunity to assess fiscal policy in the first four years of the Bush administration and to discuss prospects for the next four years and beyond. This report examines the baseline CBO projections, adjusts...