Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| Taxing Rich Ignores Underlying Problems Increasing tax rates may raise short-term revenue, but in the long-term it will keep people from entering the top earning brackets by disincentivizing hard work... |
| Taxpayers Pay for Employees to Engage in Union Activities Paying government employees to perform union activities unrelated to their government responsibilities has cost the federal government an estimated $1 billion since 1998... |
| The Wages of Sin Taxes Many sin taxes are on goods with inelastic prices, meaning that as the price goes up, demand does not change, disproportionately affecting low-income consumers... |
| Public Expenditure Fails to Improve Labor Productivity Higher levels of productive public expenditure by city governments have no statistically significant impact on labor productivity in the manufacturing sector... |
| The Pitfalls of Internet Sales Tax Collection A consumption tax, such as a flat-rate income tax, would reach all consumption spending, whereas sales taxes reach only half of all consumption, says Irene Switzer, a legislative assistant with the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
| Congressional Budget Office Report Paints Overly Rosy Picture The new economic projections by the Congressional Budget Office do not account for lower revenue under a higher capital gains tax... |
| Fixing the Public Sector Pension Problem States have unfunded liabilities totaling almost $1.4 trillion, stemming from obligations to pay for public employees' pensions, retiree medical insurance and other retirement benefits... |
| The Incentive to Work Past the Full Retirement Age Working later in life, assuming a higher yearly income than in younger years, will allow individuals to raise their Primary Insurance Amount and receive larger Social Security checks, says National Center for Policy Analysis Senior Fellow Laurence Kotlikoff... |
| Long-Term Care System in Crisis Sixty-three percent of long-term care funding originates from government programs... |
| High-Speed Rail: A Track to Nowhere It makes little sense for a passenger to opt for an estimated 18 hour train ride from Los Angeles to New York when a plane can make the same trip in roughly six hours for less cost... |
