Daily Policy Digest
| Effects of Marriage on Tax Burden Vary Greatly with Income Level, Equality For a low-income couple where each spouse earns $7,500, filing a joint return results in a $620 marriage penalty because the Earned Income Tax Credit decreases substantially as the total taxable income increases... |
| Economic Freedom Declines in America for Fifth Straight Year Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Canada, Mauritius, Denmark and the United States all lost ground in this year's index of economic freedom... |
| New Affordable Care Act Mandates Force Unnecessary Benefits Patients ages 18 through 24 can expect a 45 percent jump in their premiums because of new health insurance coverage mandates... |
| The Carbon Tax: A Devastating Proposition A 2012 analysis by the U.S. Energy Information Administration of a $25 carbon tax that rises 5 percent a year found that a family of four would incur $1,900 in additional expenses by 2016... |
| U.S. Health Care Spending Growth Continues at Slow Pace The year 2010 marked the lowest rate of annualized personal expenditures on health care since the National Health Expenditure Accounts statistics were first calculated in 1960... |
| Revenue-Based Financing for Our Crumbling Infrastructure System Federal grants bring stipulations that raise the costs of building projects substantially, like paying prevailing local wages... |
| A Health Scare for Small Businesses Even though the rule doesn't go into effect until early 2014, a business could be subject to the so-called employer health care mandate if, during 2013, it averages 50 or more full-time equivalent employees... |
| Gasoline Taxes and Tolls Pay for Only a Third of State & Local Road Spending Nationwide in 2010, state and local governments raised $37 billion in motor fuel taxes and $12 billion in tolls and non-fuel taxes, but spent $155 billion on highways... |
| Public-Private Partnerships Could Keep State Park Gates Open Arizona state park Red Rock, operated by a public agency, cost the state $234,000, while Crescent Moon, a U.S. Forest Service property operated through a public-private partnership, generated $44,873 in profit... |
| CEOs Call for Raising Retirement Age to 70 for Social Security, Medicare A group of CEOs is pushing a plan to gradually increase the full retirement age to 70 for both Social Security and Medicare, and to partially privatize Medicare... |
