Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| How Corporate Tax Credits Got in the "Cliff" Deal The fiscal cliff legislation included $76 billion in special interest tax credits for several companies... |
| America's Massive Debt Has Come Back to Bite Us The current debt ceiling is at about $16.4 trillion -- about $52,000 per person in the United States... |
| A Winning Plan for Entitlement Reform In President Obama's first year, spending increased to 25 percent of the gross domestic product, after being stabilized at 20 percent since World War II, says Peter Ferrara, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
| The Hated Property Tax: Salience, Tax Rates and Tax Revolts In 1970, property taxes comprised 3.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP); by 2000, they comprised only 2.5 percent of GDP... |
| A Bipartisan Nation of Beneficiaries Nearly 55 percent of Americans have received government benefits from a major entitlement program... |
| Trillion-Dollar Deficits Are Sustainable for Now, Unfortunately Even with a trillion-dollar budget deficit, it is unlikely that the United States will experience a debt crisis similar to what other countries like Greece and Spain did... |
| Who Benefits from the Mortgage Interest Deduction? Nearly 55 percent of those claiming the mortgage interest deduction are households making $100,000 or more a year; these households receive 78 percent of the deduction's total benefits... |
| California Leads U.S. Pay Giveaway One California state psychiatrist received wages and benefits of $822,000, whereas the top earner for the same position in a state like New Jersey is $327,000... |
| Payroll Tax Holiday Since its inception, the payroll tax cut has reduced Social Security payroll revenues by 16 percent, says Lewis Warne, a research associate with the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
| High-Speed Rail's Fiscal Cliff The California High Speed Rail Authority has spent about $600 million without laying a single railroad tie or buying any property, says Wendell Cox, an adjunct scholar with the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
