Tax Policy Center

Social Security

Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

A Two-Month Payroll Tax Cut is Dumb, So Is How Congress Got There

House Republicans are right about one thing at least: Extending this year’s payroll tax cut for two months is ridiculous. The trouble is they are...
December 20, 2011Howard Gleckman
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

The 16-Percent Solution—Hard on the Rich

The fate of The Temporary Payroll Tax Cut Continuation Act of 2011 remains uncertain. But thanks to a carefully crafted technical change to the current...
December 19, 2011Roberton C. Williams
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

How a Payroll Tax Cut Boosts the Chances for Tax Reform

When Congress finally extends the payroll tax cut that is due to expire in a few weeks, it may also be taking another step down...
December 8, 2011Howard Gleckman
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Should Congress Extend the Payroll Tax Holiday?

Should Congress extend and expand the payroll tax cut it first passed a year ago? In a bizarre but not unexpected role reversal, Democrats insist...
November 29, 2011Howard Gleckman
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

What the Great Budget Debate Is Really About

Want to know what the Great Budget Debate of 2011 is really about? Ask Congressional Budget Office director Doug Elmendorf (who was a Tax Policy...
September 15, 2011Howard Gleckman
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms: TaxVox

Rick Perry’s Social Security Myth

Texas Governor Rick Perry is being rightly criticized for his loony claims about Social Security in last night’s GOP presidential debate. But what troubles me...
September 8, 2011Howard Gleckman
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

Ten Things You Should Know About the Debt Limit Deal

Now that we’ve had a few days to absorb the debt limit agreement signed by President Obama on Aug. 2, it might be useful to...
August 4, 2011Howard Gleckman
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

Should Congress Cut the Deficit By Changing the Way it Indexes Taxes for Inflation?

Should Congress use a new measure of inflation to index the tax code? It sounds awfully technical—and it is—but shifting to what most economists believe...
July 7, 2011Howard Gleckman
Individual Taxes: TaxVox

Fixing Social Security Isn't Hard

Social Security has two obvious problems. While the system is not “broke,” as some insist, it will have only enough money to provide future retirees...
June 21, 2011Howard Gleckman
Federal Budget and Economy: TaxVox

Do We Need an Election to Fix the Deficit?

I spent this morning at one of those Washington institutions: the budget roundtable. Today’s (at the Aspen Institute) gave me a chance to pose a...
May 17, 2011Howard Gleckman