Issue Brief posted February 29, 2012 by Curtis S. Dubay
Obama’s Budget Badly Undercounts Tax Hikes
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 improperly claims credit for reducing tax receipts from tax cuts that are not…
Backgrounder posted November 2, 2011 by J.D. Foster, Ph.D.
True Tax Reform: Improves the Economy, Does Not Raise Taxes
Abstract: There is little dispute that the current federal income tax is in real need of an overhaul. The heart of tax reform 2011 is to achieve a stronger economy through the adoption of a more economically neutral tax system featuring much lower marginal tax rates. But current discussions of tax reform have been mistakenly caught in the debate over how to cut current…
White Paper posted November 1, 2011 by Patrick Louis Knudsen, Emily Goff
Appropriations Tracker: FY 2012
The FY 2013 version of the Appropriations Tracker is available here.
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 Appropriations Tracker: FY 2012 monitors the progress of appropriations bills as they move through the…
WebMemo posted April 26, 2010 by David C. John
Dodd Bill Fails to Fix “Too Big to Fail”
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 includes a faulty mechanism for closing financial institutions whose failure could damage the entire…
WebMemo posted April 22, 2010 by James L. Gattuso
Senator Dodd’s Regulation Plan: 14 Fatal Flaws
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 one. Unfortunately, the 1,408-page bill includes numerous provisions that would hurt—not…
WebMemo posted December 12, 2008 by Andrew M. Grossman, James L. Gattuso
TARP: Now a Slush Fund for Detroit?
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 to turning around…
WebMemo posted November 14, 2008 by James L. Gattuso, David C. John, J.D. Foster, Ph.D.
TARP and the Treasury: Time to Allow Markets to Work
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…
Backgrounder posted December 7, 2006 by Tracy Foertsch, Ph.D.
Dynamic Analysis at Treasury: What Are the Next Steps?
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 and incomes induced by changes…