Tag: federal budget
November 27, 2012 at 8:48 amCategory:Uncategorized
The federal debt is an issue that needs to be addressed. Virtually everyone agrees on this.
But how big of an issue? And how should it be addressed? These are questions that deserve more robust debate than they’re receiving. As evidence of this fact, check out these recent articles by two of the nation’s most astute economic observers in which debt worries are put in their rightful place. Read More…
November 26, 2012 at 9:28 amCategory:Uncategorized
First the good: Conservative members of Congress are talking back to one of the capital’s biggest bullies. Think Progress reports that Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee joined a growing chorus of GOP lawmakers publicly distancing themselves from Grover “Dr. Evil” Norquist’s no tax pledge.
Now the bad: The “compromises” being advanced by the backtalkers are a long way from acceptable. As Steve Benen notes, Lindsay Graham deserves credit for rebuking Norquist, but his alternative fiscal solution is really just a warmed over version of Mitt Romney’s plan.
November 20, 2012 at 8:26 amCategory:Uncategorized
The good people at Next New Deal are releasing a series of articles that explain in easy-to-understand terms the kinds of policies the Obama administration ought to pursue in its second term in order to restore prosperity and shrink the gap between haves and have nots.
Yesterday, in one of the better ones, Mark Schmitt spells out three principles for restoring progressive taxation that are worth your time to consider.
“Our current tax system is a toxic legacy of the George W. Bush years. It loomed over Obama’s first four years, Read More…
November 14, 2012 at 4:23 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center
On Tuesday, Congress returned for its long anticipated lame duck session, and first up on its agenda is addressing the looming “fiscal slope”—the expiration of $5 trillion in tax cuts signed under Presidents Obama and Bush, coupled with the phase-in of $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts to federal defense and non-defense programs known as sequestration.
As Congress engages this debate, here are the Four Key Facts you need to know:
#1. It’s a “fiscal slope,” not a “fiscal cliff.” Although the tax cut expirations and spending cuts are scheduled to begin taking effect in January 2013 (leading to overheated rhetoric about a “fiscal cliff”), they will only have a gradual impact on the state’s economy. Both sequestration and the tax cut expirations phase-in over months and years and can be replaced by Congress at any time. This is why we call it a “fiscal slope”—because it will only affect the economy gradually.
October 15, 2012 at 4:59 pmCategory:NC Budget and Tax Center
Over the last three months of this year, Congress faces the critical challenge of addressing the scheduled expiration of $5 trillion in tax cuts passed under Presidents Obama and Bush, currently slated for January 2013. In addressing this challenge, Congress will have to decide who needs the most help. So the real question is: Who will have a better 2013, moms or millionaires?
A study released today from the Center on Budget & Policy Priorities lays out the perils of helping millionaires at the expense of helping moms. Eliminating the expansion of middle-class tax credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Credit will increase the burden for half a million families and over 1 million children. Moms rely on these credits to meet the needs of their families.
Congressional proposals geared towards helping millionaires instead would increase the deficit by over $1 trillion while providing enormous benefits for just a handful of the state’s residents. Only 1.4% of the state’s families and 2.5% of the state’s small businesses will benefit from the extension of the Bush-era tax breaks. Only 140 families—less than 0.2% of the state’s population—would benefit from the proposed inheritance tax cut. Their average tax cut would exceed $1 million, in contrast to the $2,000 in tax credits a poverty-line family of three would receive under the Senate plan.
Given the state’s rising unemployment and a stagnating economic recovery, eliminating these credit expansions and increasing the burden on working moms and families would be the worst possible policy to pursue. Let’s help moms instead of millionaires.