TaxVox: Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

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The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff

Federal Budget and Economy

Rep. Ryan’s Tax Roadmap Falls Short of His Revenue Goals

March 9, 2010 –
In his provocative Roadmap for America’s Future, Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) figures that his broad tax code overhaul would eventually generate about 19 percent of Gross Domestic Product in revenues. But the Ryan plan would produce hundreds of billions of dollars-a-year less than that—about 16.8 percent of GDP—a decade from now, according to new Tax Policy Center estimates. Moreover, the plan would give a huge tax cut to the wealthy, while cutting taxes by little or nothing (and in some cases even raising taxes) for low- and middle-income people.
Federal Budget and Economy

Desperately Seeking Revenue: The Panel

March 2, 2010 –
This was my day: I went to the dentist. I spent an hour being interviewed on end-of-life issues. And I listened to four tax experts commiserate about the massive fiscal hole we have dug for ourselves and how we can shovel our way out. I’ve had better. Yet, the Tax Policy Center panel, called Desperately Seeking Revenue, generated more than the usual budget gloom and doom. True, TPC co-director Rosanne Altshuler presented some truly hair-raising projections of the depth of the problem: In sum, she made two points: 1) Unless we act, we will add $11 trillion over the next decade to the national debt, roughly doubling what we already owe. 2) It is not possible, in any reasonable world, to close that gap by hiking income tax rates alone. Thus, the title of both her paper on the subject (written with colleagues Bob Williams and Katherine Lim) and the panel: Desperately Seeking Revenue.
Individual Taxes

Senators Wyden and Gregg Climb Aboard the Tax Reform Bandwagon

February 23, 2010 –
Tax reform proposals are busting out all over. Today, senators Ron Wyden (D-OR.) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) rolled out their version of a simplified, relatively low-rate individual and business tax system. The plan retains the basic structure of the income tax and has the feel of the landmark 1986 tax reform. Yet, it tilts towards a consumption tax for businesses. As in ‘86, the goal seems to be revenue-neutral reform, rather than an attempt to raise more revenue by restructuring the Tax Code. Depending on your point of view, this could be either a missed opportunity or a sensible idea.
Individual Taxes

Obama Would Hit Investments With Medicare Tax, Water Down Insurance Levy

February 22, 2010 –
President Obama’s new $950 billion health plan would impose a new “payroll” tax on investment income, and keep a watered-down version of the Senate proposal to tax high-cost health plans.
Federal Budget and Economy

Assume a Can Opener

February 4, 2010 –
Word is getting around that CBO has blessed a major budget reform plan proposed by Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) as, in the words of National Review Online, “a roadmap to solvency.” It isn’t true.
Individual Taxes

The Obama Tax Reform Panel May Still Issue Its Own Report

February 4, 2010 –
An OMB spokesman tells TaxVox that President Obama’s tax reform panel still plans to report its findings to the president. The spokesman clarified comments on Monday by Budget Director Peter Orszag that suggested the panel’s report would be rolled into the White House’s recently-announced deficit reduction panel, rather than released separately.
Individual Taxes

Obama’s Tax Reform Commission: RIP

February 2, 2010 –
It appears that Budget Director Peter Orszag has signaled the end of President Obama’s ill-fated Tax Reform Commission. In his budget briefing yesterday, Peter had this to say:
Federal Budget and Economy

Obama’s Mind-numbing Budget

February 1, 2010 –
Very little in President Obama’s 2011 budget, released this morning, is new. But the numbers…. Even in Washington, where we throw around trillions of dollars as if they were Hershey’s Kisses at Halloween, these numbers take your breath away. This year, the federal government will spend $3.7 trillion, but will collect only $2.2 trillion. That gap of $1.5 trillion would be equal to more than ten percent of the national’s total economic output.
Federal Budget and Economy

Obama After a Year: Reality Bites

January 28, 2010 –
The delivery was quintessential Barack Obama, which is to say brilliant, but the words could have been Bill Clinton’s. The lofty principles remain, but the agenda has become pedestrian—constrained by a $1.4 trillion budget deficit and partisan trench warfare where progress is measured in inches and not miles.
Federal Budget and Economy

2010: Get Ready for a Tax-a-palooza

December 29, 2009 –
Let’s face it, from a tax policy perspective, 2009 was a bust. Except for creating a bunch of new credits in the name of economic stimulus, Washington pretty much ignored the revenue code. 2010 will be very different. Facing trillions of dollars of expiring Bush-era tax cuts, President Obama and Congress will be forced to make some critical decisions in the new year.