Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| Is It Too Late to Fix Social Security's Finances? If a financing solution cannot be reached, then Social Security's self-financing construct would need to be abandoned... |
| Total State Debt over $4 Trillion The aggregate debt across all 50 states totals $4.17 trillion this year; this is an improvement over last year's $4.24 trillion total debt... |
| Social Security's Woes Are Worse than You Think By 2035, Social Security will cost 6.4 percent of the economy while Medicare will cost 5.7 percent... |
| The Grim Reapers of Crop Insurance Subsidies for crop insurance do nothing more than allow farmers to adopt risky production practices because they are insulated from the consequences of their own bad decisions... |
| The U.S. Tax System: Who Really Pays? The top 10 percent of tax filers make up 45 percent of the total federal taxes paid... |
| The State Gambling Addiction Oklahoma predicted their lottery would raise $150 million; the actual revenue raised was $70 million... |
| How the States Would Be Affected by Extension of the Bush Tax Cuts and Other Provisions The Alternative Minimum Tax patch would save middle- and high-income taxpayers $193 billion; extending the Bush tax cuts would save all taxpayers $179 billion... |
| A Global Perspective on Territorial Taxation Territorial tax reform would reduce compliance costs for both companies and the government, which would save $40 billion per year... |
| Proposed High-Speed Rail to Las Vegas Likely to Fail Taxpayers could be on the hook for up to $6.5 billion for a high-speed train from Victorville, Calif., to Las Vegas, Nev.... |
| How Did Federal Surpluses Become Huge Deficits? The tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 are not the reason for current budget deficit... |
