Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| No Sidestepping Agriculture Reform Net farm income hit a record $98.1 billion last year and is forecast by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reach $91.7 billion in 2012 -- the second highest level on record... |
| Reforming the Food Stamp Program Congress should return food stamp spending to prerecession levels and cap future spending so that states are no longer implicitly encouraged to milk the program for local residents... |
| Do the Rich Pay Their Fair Share in Taxes? The top 20 percent of income earners -- those earning more than $74,000 -- paid 94 percent of federal individual income taxes, 85 percent more than the share of national income they earned, says Peter Ferrara, a senior fellow with the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
| United States to Lose $25 Billion on Auto Bailout The federal government expects to lose more than $25 billion on the $85 billion auto bailout -- 15 percent higher than its previous forecast... |
| The United States of Dependency? In the second quarter of 2011, 107 million Americans were receiving some kind of government welfare -- not including Medicare or Social Security; that's up from 97 million just over two years ago... |
| How New Pension Standards Could Make Things Worse Recent changes to public pension accounting requirements by the Government Accounting Standards Board may actually make things worse by omitting essential changes... |
| Illinois to Spend More on Pensions than on Education The state of Illinois faces at least $83 billion in unfunded liability between its five pension systems, and is on track to spend more on its government pensions than on education by 2016... |
| U.S. Debt Continues to Grow The U.S. fiscal gap, calculated using the Congressional Budget Office's realistic long-term budget forecast -- the Alternative Fiscal Scenario -- is now $222 trillion; last year it was $211 trillion... |
| What Some Investors Are Doing to Anticipate a Tax Increase Tax changes brought about by the expiration of the Bush tax codes, along with new taxes from President Obama's health care law, will heavily alter behavior in America's financial markets and will alter decision making on the part of investors at every level... |
| Social Security Not the Deal It Once Was for Workers People retiring today are part of the first generation of workers who have paid more in Social Security taxes during their careers than they will receive in benefits after they retire... |
