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The coming middle-class tax hit

Cliff Asness makes several excellent points on taxation and the middle class in his piece for The American. Two in particular I want to highlight: 1. With a European-sized Welfare State comes European...

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The case for corporate tax reform in 1 chart

Through 2011, the United States had the second-highest combined corporate tax rate among advanced economies, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office. Actually, it’s worse than...

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Debt-ceiling gimmicks shouldn’t distract from confronting America’s fiscal...

The approach of the debt ceiling by late February, when the US supposedly can’t pay its bills, has brought the “man bites dog” attention seekers out of the woodwork. Former government lawyers write in...

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Hostage-taker in chief

At his press conference yesterday, Barack Obama declared that he will not agree to  spending cuts in exchange for raising the federal debt limit, accusing Republicans of taking the economy hostage....

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Jon Stewart vs. Paul Krugman on the $1 trillion coin

In the Washington Post this week, I noted that if the president could really create a trillion dollars out of thin air simply by minting a magic coin, why would he stop at one? He could mint 17 and...

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On taxes, European Left should point to US as a redistributive paradise

Just how progressive is the US income tax code compared to those of other advanced economies? AEI’s Kevin Hassett: 1. This year (see the chart above) the highest earners will face a marginal tax rate...

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Cantos on the Debt Ceiling

There is an empty soda can lying on the street at the beginning of the road. Annoying. Will it be kicked all the way down the road? There are two people standing next to the can. One of them, Barry,...

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Phil Mickelson, taxes, and the Laffer Curve

At what point does raising top marginal tax rates lose more tax revenue than it takes in? Where is the peak of the Laffer curve? Pro golfer Phil Mickelson thinks he has a pretty good idea: “I’m not...

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House GOP makes the debt limit magically ‘disappear’

On Monday, I wrote that House Republicans were planning to violate the Boehner Rule and raise the debt limit without matching the increase dollar for dollar with spending cuts, as they had promised. It...

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Some House GOPers want to scrap the US tax code by 2017. Is that a good idea?

I am generally skeptical of policy ideas predicated upon “scrapping” some existing system — particularly if it’s been around for awhile and is deeply enmeshed in people’s lives. But some House GOPers...

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The US government: A weaponized entitlement machine

The WSJ’s Jerry Seib offers a helpful reminder of what’s really happening with federal government spending. While some folks like to focus on wasteful spending on, say, clean energy boondoggles like...

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The CBO, the national debt, and Edmund Burke

Looking at the new 10-year budget forecast from the Congressional Budget Office brought to mind this quote from Edmund Burke: “Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a...

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Spending at 18% of GDP? Is the GOP’s Balanced Budget Amendment realistic?

National Review’s Robert Costa says a Republican BBA is on its way: Frustrated by the months of non-stop budget fights, Senate Republicans are set to mount a fiscal counteroffensive this week with the...

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State taxes and the Great Income Migration

Correlation doesn’t prove causality, but it is certainly worth noting the correlation between state income taxes and the flow of income. And thus it is worth reading How Money Walks by Travis Brown,...

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What the Earth-2 Obama said in his State of the Union speech

In some alternate reality, President Obama’s State of the Union speech argued for cutting the corporate tax rate to the 25% OECD average, phasing out capital gains taxes on long-term investments,...

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What’s wrong with the Senate GOP’s Balanced Budget Amendment?

Senate Republicans have introduced a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. The balanced budget part is great; it’s the rest that will sink the idea. The Senate GOP proposal would do two...

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Senate GOP’s Balanced Budget Amendment actually caps spending at 16.7%, not 18%

James and Andrew, your recent posts offer some apt criticisms of S.J. Res. 7, the proposed balanced-budget amendment co-sponsored by all 45 Senate Republicans. You persuasively argue that it is...

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The tax that is hurting workers and business investment

Bruce Bartlett in The New York Times investigates who really pays the corporate income tax, workers or investors. He outlines the views of four sets of researchers whose papers appear in a new issue of...

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A quick reminder of the Democrats’ endgame on taxes

Former US Deputy Treasury Secretary Roger Altman offers a sequester escape route (via the FT): Unblocking the impasse should follow three principles. First, further deficit reductions are necessary....

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The New York Times just wrote one abysmal editorial on raising taxes

What a misguided yet clarifying editorial on taxes from The New York Times. I think we are going to have to take this one apart sentence by sentence: 1. “To reduce the deficit in a weak economy, new...

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