Policy Points Archive
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Policy Points: The Phantom Federal Revenue “Explosion”
Updated October 27, 2006
The final budget figures announced by the President on October 11 forecast higher revenues and a lower deficit for fiscal year 2006 than OMB and CBO had projected earlier in the year. The Administration has greeted this news as evidence that its tax cuts are “working,” by … -
Policy Points: The 109th Congress' Track Record on the Budget
Updated October 27, 2006
The 109th Congress took already large projected budget deficits and passed legislation that will make them larger. The legislation increased projected deficits from 2005 (the year the Congress convened) through 2011 (when the current five-year budget window ends) by a total of $535 billion. Moreover, the budget deterioration over the past six fiscal years — 2000 to … -
Policy Points: Whose Recovery? Labor Day 2006 Finds Many Americans Not Sharing in the Growing Economy
September 1, 2006
Government data issued this week — from the Census Bureau on poverty, incomes, and health coverage and from the Commerce Department on the shares of national income going to workers and corporations — provide fresh evidence that many middle- and lower-income Americans are not sharing … -
Policy Points: House Uses Sweeteners, Not Compromises, To Try To Persuade Senate To Gut Estate Tax
Revised August 3, 2006
Estimates from Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation show that the estate tax measure approved by the House on July 29 would cost essentially as much over the long run as the estate tax bill the House passed in June. Similarly, new estimates from the Urban Institute-Brookings … -
Policy Points: The Coming Estate-Tax Showdown
Revised June 5, 2006
Next week, the Senate plans to vote on what is probably the most important tax issue this year: whether to permanently repeal all, or nearly all, of the estate tax. The House already has voted for permanent repeal. The Senate was set to vote on the issue last fall, but backed … -
Policy Points: New Tax-Cut Legislation Means Windfall Benefits for the Few, Larger Deficits for the Nation
May 12, 2006
The tax-cut reconciliation agreement approved this week by Congress will provide windfall benefits to those at the top of the income scale but little for most other Americans. Although the agreement’s supporters claim that the 2003 cuts in capital gains and dividend taxes helped spark … -
Policy Points: Administration’s Budget Fails Tests of Fiscal Responsibility, Fairness, and Openness
February 17, 2006
The Test of Fiscal Responsibility: Does the Budget Reduce the Deficit? The budget would increase the deficit over both the short run and the long run. It proposes $191 billion in reductions in a broad array of domestic discretionary and entitlement programs, but those … -
Policy Points: Some Key Facts Concerning The President’s Budget Priorities For 2007
February 3, 2006
In this week’s State of the Union, President Bush outlined the priorities of the Administration’s forthcoming budget. Several key facts necessary to understanding the impact of the President’s proposals, however, were not mentioned in the speech. 1. While the … -
Policy Points: Do the Facts Support the President's Claims about the Economy?
January 6, 2006
In his speech in Chicago today, President Bush praised the economy’s recent performance and gave his policies a large amount of the credit. The fact that the economy is growing is not itself remarkable, since the American economy has always resumed growing after downturns. …
