President Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal explicitly claims a $1.561 trillion tax hike over 10 years, as reported by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).[1] This is a vast understatement, because that figure fails to account for all of the President’s tax increases and…
Abstract: There is little dispute that the current federal income tax is in real need of an overhaul. The heart of tax reform is to achieve a stronger economy through the adoption of a more economically neutral tax system featuring much lower marginal…
Revised and Updated on January 12, 2012 Download a PDF version with hyperlinks to House and Senate Appropriations Committee documents: Appropriations Tracker: FY 2012 Designed to inform American policymakers and citizens, the…
Supporters of the Dodd financial regulatory bill list as one of its key virtues that it “solves” the problem of financial institutions that are seen as being “too big to fail.” Unfortunately, this is not the case. While the bill passed by the Senate Banking Committee…
The Senate is expected to take up a proposal, originally authored by Senator Chris Dodd (D–CT), to reform the financial regulatory system in the U.S. The goal is clear: to minimize the chances that another financial crisis—and bailouts—will arise again. The objective is a good…
JD Foster discussing the staffing problems the U.S Treasury Department is having. …
Mike Franc commenting on Tim Geither as Secretary of Treasury. …
With the Senate's rejection of a bailout for Detroit's ailing automakers, there comes word that President Bush is actively considering using funds allocated by Congress for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to prop up the automakers for the time being.[1] Such action would be legally wrong, economically wrong, and counterproductive…
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson recently announced yet another change in direction of the "Troubled Asset Relief Program" (TARP), sowing more uncertainty and confusion in the very financial markets the program is supposed to stabilize. Instead of buying mortgage-backed assets as originally intended, Paulson says he is now considering three alternative initiatives: Stock purchases in non-bank…
U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson discusses the benefits of a rapid move toward a free market economy in China from the Heritage Foundation. …
The President's fiscal year (FY) 2007 budget submission to Congress includes a number of important initiatives. Among them is a plan to create a Dynamic Analysis Division within the Office of Tax Analysis (OTA) in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Dynamic analysis gauges the impact on federal tax revenues of the changes in output…
The recent publication of "A Dynamic Analysis of Permanent Extension of the President's Tax Relief"[1] marks an important and informative departure for the Office of Tax Analysis (OTA) in the U.S. Department of the Treasury. It is the OTA's first public attempt to do a dynamic analysis of a major…
Do bank robbers stimulate economic growth? If you employ the logic used by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory...…
Energy Secretary Steven Chu may want the country to stop discussing the Solyndra scandal, but information continues to...…
U.S. taxpayers were reminded on Friday (and again this morning) that our long national Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac...…
Unable to secure the votes needed to pass Speaker John Boehner's (R-OH) debt plan, House GOP leaders first delayed...…
Today at noon, the National Treasury Employees Union plans to rally at the U.S. Capitol in support of public-sector...…
The Department of the Treasury today updated its figures on foreign holders of Treasury bonds. The update appears to...…
China’s reported holdings of U.S. Treasury bonds fell sharply again in June and are now almost $100 billion lower than...…
Growing Chinese investment around the world is a major international economic development. In the U.S., the story is...…
Do the nation’s trial lawyers deserve a taxpayer bailout? That’s what they’re after: a special-interest tax break of...…
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appeared in an interview on The Today Show this morning and decried the...…