Last week I argued that budgeting for Medicare’s hospital insurance program is flawed. Today, I offer two ways to fix it (and reject a third). Medicare Part A is one of several federal programs that control spending through a “belt and suspenders” combination of regular program rules (the belt) and an overall limit (the suspenders). [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Budget’
Fixing Medicare’s Double-Counting Problem
Posted in Budget, Politics, Taxes, tagged Budget, Budget Process, Health, Politics, Taxes on May 18, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The Fight over Medicare Double Counting
Posted in Budget, Politics, Taxes, tagged Budget, Budget Process, Health, Medicare, Taxes on May 9, 2012 | 6 Comments »
The recent double-counting dispute isn’t just about politics; it also reveals a flaw in budgeting for Medicare Part A. Budget experts are waging a spirited battle over the Medicare changes that helped pay for 2010’s health reform. In April, Chuck Blahous, one of two public trustees of the program, released a study arguing that the [...]
The Federal Budget in One Picture
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Budget, Taxes on April 18, 2012 | 3 Comments »
The Congressional Budget Office has assembled a great collection of infographics on the budget situation. Here’s an overview of the entire budget:
How Big Are Tax Preferences?
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Budget, Corporate Income Tax, Taxes on April 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The tax code is chock full of credits, deductions, deferrals, exclusions, exemptions, and preferential rates. Taken together, such tax preferences will total almost $1.3 trillion this year. That’s a lot of money. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that $1.3 trillion is there for the picking in any upcoming deficit reduction or tax reform. In fact, [...]
Canada Will Eliminate the Penny
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Budget, Penny on April 3, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Canada just announced that it will eliminate the penny. Noted penny opponent (yes, such a thing exists) C.G.P. Grey’s explains: The United States should follow suit. Why pay 2 cents to print an almost-useless coin worth only 1 cent? ht: Kottke
Public Service Announcement: There Is No Health Care Tax on Home Sales
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Budget, Capital Gains, Housing, Taxes on April 2, 2012 | 3 Comments »
The 2010 health reform legislation introduced a new 3.8% tax on the net investment income of high-income taxpayers. That tax, which I suspect you will hear more about in coming months, goes into effect on January 1, 2013. This tax raises important policy issues, not least of which is whether Congress should give the name [...]
How Big Is the Federal Government?
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Budget, Measurement, Taxes on March 28, 2012 | 6 Comments »
In a new paper, my Tax Policy Center colleague Eric Toder and I argue that the federal government is larger than conventional budget measures suggest. Why? Because many tax preferences are effectively spending programs. Adding these “spending-like tax preferences” back to federal spending and revenues gives a better picture, we think, of the federal government’s [...]
The Coming Budget Showdown of 2012
Posted in Budget, Politics, tagged Budget, Politics, Taxes on February 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
My latest column at the Christian Science Monitor discusses the many fiscal pressures that will come to a head at the end of the year. Here’s an excerpt: Start with our tattered tax code, which now contains a six-pack of temporary tax cuts. The largest are the Bush-era cuts originally enacted in 2001 and 2003 [...]
Five Principles for Fixing America’s Tax System
Posted in Budget, Taxes, tagged Budget, Politics, Taxes on February 17, 2012 | 8 Comments »
The International Economy recently invited me to contribute to a forum on how best to fix America’s tax system. Here’s my piece; for eleven other views, check out the complete forum. America’s tax system is a mess. It’s needlessly complicated, economically harmful, and often unfair. And it doesn’t raise enough money to pay our bills. That’s why almost everyone agrees [...]
Do Federal Workers Get Paid More Than Private Ones?
Posted in Budget, tagged Budget, CBO, Government, Labor on January 31, 2012 | 5 Comments »
Yes, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office. As always in such comparisons, however, there are some caveats. CBO summarizes its main results in this handy chart: Report author Justin Faulk summarizes the findings as follows: Differences in total compensation—the sum of wages and benefits—between federal and private-sector employees also varied according [...]
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Recent Posts
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- Fixing Medicare’s Double-Counting Problem
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- The Fight over Medicare Double Counting
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- The Federal Budget in One Picture
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- How Big Are Tax Preferences?
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