TaxVox: Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

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The voices of Tax Policy Center's researchers and staff

Individual Taxes

The Wrong Time for Tax Credits

December 9, 2008 –
Just as demand for both alternative energy and low-income housing is growing, is the market drying up for the tax credits that drive much of the investment in both? Evidence is that the answer is “yes.” The culprits: the crumbling economy, paralyzed bond markets, and the government itself. This may be yet another example of the always-deadly law of unintended consequences.
Federal Budget and Economy

Deficits and The Future: Other Views

December 2, 2008 –
I just finished moderating an Urban Institute panel discussion featuring three confirmed deficit hawks—former CBO directors Bob Reischauer and Rudy Penner, and TPC’s Len Burman. The question on the table: What will the now-official recession and the federal government’s massive deficits mean for Barack Obama’s hugely ambitious domestic agenda?
Federal Budget and Economy

What Should Obama’s Stimulus Look Like?

November 25, 2008 –
Barack Obama has set quite a goal for himself: He wants a fiscal stimulus that will both boost today's economy and lay the groundwork for "long-term sustained… growth." Doing both will not be easy. In fact, it may not be possible. So which is more important?
Individual Taxes

Will Recession Make Health Reform Easier for Obama?

November 24, 2008 –
It seems paradoxical, but some well-connected health reformers are arguing that a costly remake of U.S. insurance may be more likely in the wake of the economic slump. Their theory: Since we are already spending hundreds of billions to bail out the financial system and since the Obama Administration is likely to pump out a similar amount in fiscal stimulus early next year, the time may be right to spend a few hundred billion more on health coverage for the uninsured.
Individual Taxes

Data Matter

November 20, 2008 –
Last night, at one of those ubiquitous Washington cocktail receptions, I ran into an old friend who, for more than two decades, has been a policy analyst at a federal agency. Her hair-raising story, familiar to many inside the Beltway, is worth retelling as a new president prepares to take office. My friend runs a modest research shop within the bowels of a huge agency. Her job, to oversimplify a bit, is to take a hard look at billions of dollars of federal programs to determine what works and what doesn't.
Federal Budget and Economy

A Commissar of Cars

November 18, 2008 –
The debate over bailing out the auto industry is producing a veritable fleet of Pinto-like policy prescriptions. And they get worse by the day. First, an aide to Barack Obama hints the President-elect is considering an auto czar who'd have the authority to force the industry to retool in return for billions in taxpayer assistance. The Russian image is a good start, but the czar thing may be historically premature. Maybe better to call him the Commissar of Cars.
Federal Budget and Economy

Bailing Out Detroit: Just Say No

November 11, 2008 –
Note to President-Elect Obama: Don't do it. I understand the politics. I even get the symbolism—iconic industry and all that. But the economics is really bad. Here are five reasons why:
Federal Budget and Economy

The Last Bubble

November 7, 2008 –
In a remarkable year, we have seen financial bubbles burst throughout the world. It is, say the market gurus, a deleveraging of historic proportions, unwinding decades of overreliance on easy money. But one bubble remains. It is the U.S. fiscal bubble. While other borrowers around the world are getting crushed by the sudden disappearance of credit, the U.S. Treasury is tapping bond markets at a once-unimaginable pace. On Nov. 3, Treasury announced it would have to raise $550 billion in the quarter ending Dec. 31. That is on top of the $530 billion it raised from July to September. More than $1 trillion in new debt. In six months.
Individual Taxes

What Will President Obama Do?

November 5, 2008 –
Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States and will govern with huge Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. What will he do? In his two-year campaign for president, Obama made many promises he cannot keep, and was exceedingly vague when it came to what he would do about critical issues such as the nation’s ongoing financial crisis. However, it is possible to make some educated guesses about where he’d try to take the country in the face of some major challenges.
Campaigns, Proposals, and Reforms

Campaign 2008: Taking Stock

November 4, 2008 –
After two years, endless charges and countercharges, the 2008 campaign is down to its final day. It seems like a good time to take stock of what I liked about this race and what I did not. I liked fact checking. Never before in a political campaign have so many done so much to call out candidates who fudge, exaggerate, manipulate data, and outright lie. I don’t know that all of this fact checking slowed the growth in irresponsible rhetoric, but it made us far more aware of each bit of blarney. I like that TPC did its part on taxes and health, and props to others out there doing similar work.