Given the season, it is not unreasonable to ask: Why is this state different from all other states? People often want to know if we have state estimates to correspond to our national estimates of particular policies. The answer is always no, and that is what I told someone who asked how many farms and small businesses would owe estate tax in his state under President Obama's proposal. However, I found a very nice table on the IRS website showing number of estate taxpayers and amount owed by state for estate tax returns filed in 2007, so I used those numbers to allocate our national estimates of the number of taxable estates by state. Since the exemption level will be higher in 2011 if Obama's proposal is enacted ($3.5 million in 2011 versus $2 million in 2007), this isn't entirely kosher, but it gives a rough gauge of differences among states.

As taxvox blogmeister, Howard Gleckman, noted last week, the estate tax is once again in play in Congress. TPC has updated our estate tax estimates to reflect the latest CBO projections and IRS data. The main factor driving the revisions is that there's a lot less wealth to tax now than there was a year ago. The new tables show the distribution of returns, value of estate, and estate tax by size of estate for 4 policy options in 2011.

If there are any ranches in Detroit, President Obama has just bet one on his yet-unborn plan to cap greenhouse gasses. Obama has effectively ordered GM and Chrysler to build more fuel-efficient cars in return for billions more in federal bailout money. But will enough people buy those cars with gas at $2-a-gallon to make this a successful strategy?

On March 24, Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, said this about the President’s budget: “Not only are we mortgaging our children's future; we are mortgaging our current prosperity. The President is proposing a gusher of new debt, new taxes, and more spending.” We are, he concluded, “on a massive borrowing, taxing, and spending spree.” The only problem is that Ryan and other Republicans are perfectly happy to propose spending increases of their own, as long as they are masked as tax cuts. The House GOP leadership is proposing a package of massive new housing subsidies, including a $5,000 credit for those who refinance their homes and a $15,000 credit for buyers. I hate to break the news, but these tax credits are spending.