As the Senate weighs changes to the spending and tax portions of the Build Back Better Act, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and Tax Foundation find the bill would increase the cumulative budget deficit over the next 10 years—contrary to claims the legislation is “fully paid for.”
4 min read
Federal policy is hard. Federal health care policy during reconciliation while governing with razor-thin margins is really, really hard. We break down the debate on Capitol Hill over drug pricing and what the tradeoffs would be of having the federal government set prescription drug prices.
We discuss where the reconciliation package on Capitol Hill stands and talk through recent Tax Foundation modeling, which found that the plan may not have the economic boost its proponents have claimed.
Reconciliation. One word that drives D.C. crazy, yet has been the way some of Congress’s most monumental bills have become law. We discuss why this complex budget process is back in the mix as Congress gears up to advance President Biden’s multi-trillion-dollar tax agenda.
Learn about the tax gap, what it is, how the U.S. compares to other countries, and recent proposals aimed at closing it. We also explore how much revenue could actually be raised through increased tax enforcement, the current challenges the IRS faces, and how stronger enforcement could impact taxpayers at large.
Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge interviews Ken Kies, former Chief of Staff for the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) from 1995 to 1998.
Rohit Kumar, principal and leader of PwC’s Washington National Tax Services Tax Policy Services group in Washington, D.C., joins Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge to discuss the congressional budget reconciliation process: what it is, how it works, and the role that politics will play in it for the 117th Congress as well as President Biden’s policy agenda.
What do election results mean for the future of the federal tax code? What role will tax policy play in curbing the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic? How should policymakers address the federal deficit and could a carbon tax be part of that solution? How much of President-elect Joe Biden’s pre-election tax plan will actually come to pass?
If we consider Biden’s tax plan over the entire budget window (2021 to 2030) as a percentage of GDP—1.30 percent—it would rank as the 6th largest tax increase since the 1940s and and one of the largest tax increases not associated with wartime funding.
6 min read
What can the U.S. do to raise the revenue needed for infrastructure upkeep and accurately internalize the costs associated with road usage?
The pandemic precipitated the steepest decline in economic output and employment in recent history, which is leading to a drop in tax revenue. At the same time, the federal response to the crisis is producing a large increase in spending. This combination will cause the federal budget deficit to spike.
5 min read
This paper evaluates the arguments for and against “crowding out” and compares these arguments to empirical studies. It discusses the impact of tax changes on the allocation of national income between consumption and saving, and the allocation of saving between private investment and government deficits. It finds that the crowding out argument is largely based on a mistaken assumption about the flexibility and availability of saving and credit for the financing of government deficits and private investment.
31 min read
Some federal lawmakers want a longer budget window to keep temporary tax cuts in place longer. However, temporary tax cuts would still have drawbacks and won’t provide the benefits of permanent tax reform.
5 min read