TaxVox: Federal Budget and Economy

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The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff

Individual Taxes

Do Higher Education Tax Credits Make Sense?

July 27, 2012 –
Higher education is a good investment, even though some new grads currently struggling to get jobs don’t think so. But does it make sense for...
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

What the Dueling Senate Bills on Expiring Tax Cuts Would Mean for Taxpayers

July 25, 2012 –
As early as today, the Senate is likely to vote on the first of two competing efforts to temporarily extend tax cuts passed between 2001...
Federal Budget and Economy

How Government Limits Upward Mobility

July 19, 2012 –
Upward mobility has been a foundation of America’s self-image since the 18 th century. If you work hard enough, nothing can stop you from getting...
Individual Taxes

How Washington Can Turn a Tax Increase into a Tax Cut by Leaping Off the Fiscal Cliff

July 17, 2012 –
In the strange alchemy of Washington, Congress can magically turn a tax increase into a tax cut. And to make it happen, all it has...
Federal Budget and Economy

Taxes Don’t Always Drive the Economy--Sometimes the Economy Drives Taxes

July 12, 2012 –
Don’t tell my Tax Policy Center colleagues I said this, but it isn’t always about taxes. If you listened to the presidential campaign this week,...
Individual Taxes

Trimming Tax Breaks to Cut Rates is a Lot Harder Than It Looks

July 10, 2012 –
It won’t be impossible for pay for substantial individual tax rate reductions by cutting tax expenditures. But it will be very, very hard. The challenges...
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

Obama Proposes Nothing Radical on Taxes. Too Bad.

July 9, 2012 –
President Obama today urged Congress to extend the 2001/2003 tax cuts for households making $250,000 or less and insisted lawmakers let those provisions expire for...
Federal Budget and Economy

Bowles-Simpson Budget Reform and Ecstatic Memory

June 26, 2012 –
Have you noticed that as the details of the tough budget reform proposed by Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles fade into memory, more politicians are...
Federal Budget and Economy

Romney and Obama: Big Speeches, Little Vision

June 14, 2012 –
Yesterday, Mitt Romney laid out what his campaign said was his vision for health reform . Today, he followed that up with a talk on...
Federal Budget and Economy

The “Tax Expirers”

June 8, 2012 –
Today I had the chance to testify before the Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee about a perennial challenge, the...