Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| Growth of Social Security Benefits Should Be Slowed By limiting the growth of Social Security benefits, policymakers can ensure that benefits are adequate while at the same time addressing cost-containment concerns... |
| Many 2011 Federal Budget Cuts Had Little Real World Effect An examination of 12 of the largest cuts under Congress' April 2011 budget deal shows that federal agencies absorbed $23 billion in reductions without losing a single employee... |
| Assets Available to Prevent Federal Default It is irresponsible to signal to the international community that the United States would default on its debt obligations while it struggles through another debt ceiling debate... |
| Study Shows Tax Breaks Are Inefficient The property, sales and use, corporate and fuel tax breaks in California totaled an estimated $2.51 billion dollars in lost general fund revenue... |
| Cell Phone Customers Taxed Heavily U.S. wireless consumers pay an average of 17.18 percent in taxes and fees on their cell phone bills, including 11.36 percent in state and local charges... |
| Increased Government Spending Has Negligible Effects on Poverty There are 46 million Americans living in poverty, a number that has grown by nearly 9 million since the beginning of the recession... |
| The Sources of State and Local Tax Revenues In 2010, property taxes, including commercial and residential real estate taxes and personal property tax revenues, accounted for 35 percent of state and local government tax revenues... |
| The Financial Burden of Compliance and Paperwork The Government Accountability Office says that compliance costs for federal paperwork and taxes are at a minimum $300 billion per year... |
| Social Security Could Be Made Solvent through Payroll Tax Increase, but Not Without Consequences The payroll tax rate would have to immediately jump from 12.3 percent to 16.3 percent in order to make Social Security sustainable... |
| Public-Private Partnerships: A Solution for Infrastructure In 2011, private investment accounted for $1.818 trillion in infrastructure spending compared with the government's expenditure of $480 billion... |
