TaxVox: Individual Taxes

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The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff

Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

What Were They Thinking???

April 15, 2008 –
Senator McCain proposed today to suspend the 18.4 cents per gallon federal excise tax on gasoline between Memorial Day and Labor Day this year. For a moment, forget about whether encouraging fossil fuel burning makes sense during a time of global warming, whether we should raid the highway trust fund when bridges are collapsing for lack of maintenance, or the disconnect between the proposal to cut gasoline taxes and the candidates’ endorsement of “cap-and-trade” limits that would raise gasoline prices.
Individual Taxes

One Cheer for the Income Tax

April 15, 2008 –
To celebrate April 15, TPC director Len Burman argued yesterday on TaxVox that today’s income tax “is not all bad” and that “we could do a lot worse.” Well, it may not be all bad, but it is pretty awful. And while we could do worse, we could also do a lot better.
Individual Taxes

Two Cheers for the Income Tax

April 14, 2008 –
Like most Americans, I hate preparing my income tax return. And, as a tax policy expert, I know that our current tax system is deeply...
Individual Taxes

Why Congress' Housing Fix Won't Help Steve and Laura

April 10, 2008 –
The Washington pols who are pushing housing legislation should meet my friends Steve and Laura. They are a 30-something couple with a two-year old daughter, and they have been waiting for years to buy a house.
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

McCain: Grasping for the Mantle of Change

April 7, 2008 –
I spent about 90 minutes this afternoon interviewing John McCain's chief economic adviser, Doug Holtz-Eakin. He laid out what would be a powerfully ambitious domestic agenda for a President McCain, including big upfront initiatives on climate change and Social Security reform. But he also set the stage for what would be an existential battle between the parties over taxes and spending.
Federal Budget and Economy

The Senate Defaults on a Foreclosure Bill

April 3, 2008 –
Why is it that the biggest problems always seem to encourage the worst possible solutions? The latest case in point: The Senate's housing bill, grandly titled "The Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008."
Individual Taxes

The Paulson Plan: Lots of Details, but Little Focus

April 1, 2008 –
What to make of Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's plan to rewrite regulation of the financial services industry?
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

A Choice, Not an Echo

March 27, 2008 –
If we can get past all the noise about Barack Obama’s minister, Hillary Clinton’s 11-year-old recollection of an airport tarmac, and John McCain’s stumble over which Iraqi gunmen are backed by the Iranians, voters will actually have real choices this November. If you don’t believe it, think about how they’d manage today’s economy.
Individual Taxes

Carbon Taxes: Do you want to cut consumption or raise money?

March 25, 2008 –
Don’t expect carbon taxes to both dramatically reduce greenhouse gasses and serve as a cash cow for government. They might succeed at one or the other, but not both. That’s the argument Monica Prasad makes in a provocative article in today’s New York Times.
Individual Taxes

"A Game With Which I am Not Familiar"

March 20, 2008 –
When a young Jack Nicklaus won the 1965 Master's, golf legend Bobby Jones said he "was playing a game with which I am not familiar." I have the same feeling about the financial markets today.