This report presents updated figures in 2020 dollars for the lifetime benefits earned and the lifetime taxes paid by hypothetical workers participating in Social Security and Medicare. For a single male earning average wages every year and retiring in 2020 at age 65, lifetime Social Security and...
Every government health program should operate under the same budget constraint that applies to other government programs. Failure to do so represents bad budgeting and economic, social, and health policy; redistributes income in perverse ways; and makes health care...
Fiscal policy was of primary importance to the white supremacist governments that came to power on a wave of electoral fraud, intimidation, and violence at the end of the Reconstruction. By the end of the 19th Century, the fiscal system, like the larger legal framework of the Jim Crow South, had...
This paper examines the fiscal system put in place in the former Confederacy in the decades after Reconstruction. Overturning Reconstruction-era policies that taxed wealth and invested in public services, the white supremacist governments that came to power in the later 19th Century slashed...
Simplifying the student aid application process and making the system easier for students and families to understand and navigate has long been high on the agenda of policymakers and advocates for college access. Despite progress, the process for completing the Free Application for Federal...
Steven M Rosenthal, senior fellow, testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, Oversight Subcommittee at a hearing on “Tax Fairness.” In his testimony, he examines President’s Trump’s reported taxes as a case study. Mr. Rosenthal assesses tax fairness through...
The future fiscal and economic health of the United States depends on its ability to increase revenues. With high and rising public debt, an aging population that will place increasing demands on federal spending, and a need for new investments in infrastructure, research and development, and...
To raise revenue in a progressive, efficient, and administrable manner, this chapter proposes a new national consumption tax: a broad-based credit-invoice value-added tax (VAT). Th e proposal comes with several qualifications: the VAT should complement, not substitute for, new direct taxes on...
State government tax revenues showed year-over-year growth at 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2020. However, preliminary data indicate double-digit declines in state government tax revenues in the second quarter of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and...
Social Security & Medicare Lifetime Benefits & Taxes: 2020
This report presents updated figures in 2020 dollars for the lifetime benefits earned and the lifetime taxes paid by hypothetical workers participating in Social Security and Medicare. For a single male earning average wages every year and retiring in 2020 at age 65, lifetime Social Security and...
Sine Qua Non: A Healthy Nation Requires Real Budget Constraints in All Government Health Programs
Every government health program should operate under the same budget constraint that applies to other government programs. Failure to do so represents bad budgeting and economic, social, and health policy; redistributes income in perverse ways; and makes health care...
An Updated Analysis of Former Vice President Biden's Tax Proposals
NOTE: This is a corrected version of the analysis originally published October 15, 2020.
This brief updates estimates of the revenue and distributional effects of former vice president Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign tax...
The Long Shadow of White Supremacist Fiscal Policy
Fiscal policy was of primary importance to the white supremacist governments that came to power on a wave of electoral fraud, intimidation, and violence at the end of the Reconstruction. By the end of the 19th Century, the fiscal system, like the larger legal framework of the Jim Crow South, had...
The Long Shadow of White Supremacist Fiscal Policy
This paper examines the fiscal system put in place in the former Confederacy in the decades after Reconstruction. Overturning Reconstruction-era policies that taxed wealth and invested in public services, the white supremacist governments that came to power in the later 19th Century slashed...
Simplifying Student Aid
Simplifying the student aid application process and making the system easier for students and families to understand and navigate has long been high on the agenda of policymakers and advocates for college access. Despite progress, the process for completing the Free Application for Federal...
Tax Fairness: President Donald Trump, a Case Study
Steven M Rosenthal, senior fellow, testified before the US House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, Oversight Subcommittee at a hearing on “Tax Fairness.” In his testimony, he examines President’s Trump’s reported taxes as a case study. Mr. Rosenthal assesses tax fairness through...
A Progressive Consumption Tax: Pairing a VAT with a UBI
The future fiscal and economic health of the United States depends on its ability to increase revenues. With high and rising public debt, an aging population that will place increasing demands on federal spending, and a need for new investments in infrastructure, research and development, and...
Raising Revenue with a Progressive Value-Added Tax
To raise revenue in a progressive, efficient, and administrable manner, this chapter proposes a new national consumption tax: a broad-based credit-invoice value-added tax (VAT). Th e proposal comes with several qualifications: the VAT should complement, not substitute for, new direct taxes on...
State Tax and Economic Review, 2020 Quarter 1
State government tax revenues showed year-over-year growth at 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2020. However, preliminary data indicate double-digit declines in state government tax revenues in the second quarter of 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and...