Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| How Taxing the Rich Harms the Middle Class With such a relatively high corporate tax rate, American businesses struggle to attract investment and are implicitly encouraged to move activities offshore... |
| The Obama Budget The Obama administration predicts that the current fiscal year will see spending rise by $193 billion to $3.8 trillion -- the equivalent to 24.3 percent of gross domestic product... |
| Understanding the True Cost of State and Local Pensions According to standard actuarial accounting, the average public pension was 76 percent funded in 2009, down from 95 percent in 2001... |
| Still a Better Deal: Private Investment vs. Social Security If workers who retired in 2011 had been allowed to invest the employee half of the Social Security payroll tax over their working lifetime, they would retire with more income than if they relied on Social Security... |
| Increasing America's Competitiveness U.S. firms compete at a disadvantage to foreign competitors and the pervasive tax code incentivizes ends that are not optimal or efficient... |
| Global Evidence on Taxes and Economic Growth: Payroll Taxes Have No Effect There is no significant relationship between payroll taxes and long-term economic growth, based on OECD data on 34 member countries between 2000 and 2010... |
| Momentum Growing for Sales Taxes on Online Purchases The National Conference of State Legislatures estimates that uncollected state sales taxes will cost states $23 billion this year... |
| "Buffett Rule" Will Make Top Dividend Rate Highest in OECD The Buffet Rule would raise the highest dividend income tax rate from the current level of 52.1 percent to 62.1 percent; this would give the United States the highest rate among all OECD countries... |
| Britain's High Taxes An increased tax rate on airline travel in Britain would push the cost of a single ticket up by at least $95... |
| Congressional Earmarks Used to Fund Projects Near Lawmakers' Properties Thirty-three members of Congress have directed more than $300 million in earmarks and other spending provisions to dozens of public projects that are next to or within about two miles of the lawmakers' own property... |
