Daily Policy Digest
Tax and Spending Issues
| Who Benefits from the Mortgage Interest Deduction? Nearly 55 percent of those claiming the mortgage interest deduction are households making $100,000 or more a year; these households receive 78 percent of the deduction's total benefits... |
| California Leads U.S. Pay Giveaway One California state psychiatrist received wages and benefits of $822,000, whereas the top earner for the same position in a state like New Jersey is $327,000... |
| Payroll Tax Holiday Since its inception, the payroll tax cut has reduced Social Security payroll revenues by 16 percent, says Lewis Warne, a research associate with the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
| High-Speed Rail's Fiscal Cliff The California High Speed Rail Authority has spent about $600 million without laying a single railroad tie or buying any property, says Wendell Cox, an adjunct scholar with the National Center for Policy Analysis... |
| Higher Taxes Mean Slower Economic Growth U.S. growth is currently weak, with an overall output of 13.5 percent lower than what it would be had we continued on the pre-2008 trend... |
| The Economic Costs of Tax Policy Uncertainty: Implications for Fundamental Tax Reform The budget process encourages lawmakers to game the system by creating phase-ins, phase-outs and expiration dates... |
| Benefits at What Age? Over the past 20 years, life expectancy at age 65 has risen five years for men with above average income but only one year for men with below average income.. |
| Deposit Insurance Is Not Free Total expenses for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation's Deposit Insurance Fund have averaged $2.67 billion each year... |
| Senator Slams Homeland Security Program for Wasteful, Frivolous Spending The Department of Homeland Security's Urban Area Security Initiative grant program has cost $7.1 billion over the last decade... |
| Raising Revenue: The Least Worst Options As of 2008, the Office of Management and Budget reported public lands worth $833 billion and loans worth $209 billion... |
