Recent large federal budget surpluses have spurred debate on how best to use the money. Some see surpluses as an opportunity to pay down the federal debt, to expand programs to meet such social needs as health care and education, or to secure the future of Social Security. Others propose...
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is the largest cash transfer program for low-income parents in the United States. The refundable tax credit supplements wages and offsets taxes paid by low-income workers. Research suggests that the EITC has not only been effective in moving families over the...
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle describes some concerns with social tax expenditures: they almost always violate principles of budget and tax policy; they lack transparency; the IRS lacks the infrastructure to monitor such expenditures, and they often result in unnecessary complication and...
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle makes the case for addressing the retirement of the baby boomers in economic policy sooner, rather than later. Delay, he argues, reduces the chances of long-term structural reform, makes large tax increases almost unavoidable, puts the oldest and most vulnerable of...
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle offers retiring Senator Moynihan a suggestion for one last bill to propose: a simple requirement that the poor and middle class should pay no higher tax rate on their next dollar of income earned than do the rich. If they do, then tax and expenditure authorities...
In this essay, Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle argues that it is in developing--or failing to develop--tax, accounting, and legal institutions that a significant part of the economic and democratic fate of Russia, China, and much of the rest of the second and third world rests. The corollary is...
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle offers his take on upcoming challenges facing the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees after the 2000 election.
Federal Income Tax Cuts and Low-Income Families
Recent large federal budget surpluses have spurred debate on how best to use the money. Some see surpluses as an opportunity to pay down the federal debt, to expand programs to meet such social needs as health care and education, or to secure the future of Social Security. Others propose...
Who Knows about the Earned Income Tax Credit?
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is the largest cash transfer program for low-income parents in the United States. The refundable tax credit supplements wages and offsets taxes paid by low-income workers. Research suggests that the EITC has not only been effective in moving families over the...
Social Security and the Poor
This article offers an assessment of how well Social Security takes care of the poor.
Summers on Social Tax Expenditures (Part 2 of 2)
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle describes some concerns with social tax expenditures: they almost always violate principles of budget and tax policy; they lack transparency; the IRS lacks the infrastructure to monitor such expenditures, and they often result in unnecessary complication and...
Summers on Social Tax Expenditures (Part 1 of 2)
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle examines whats right about using the tax code for expenditure, social, and budget policies.
Dominant Budget Issue Facing the New President, The
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle makes the case for addressing the retirement of the baby boomers in economic policy sooner, rather than later. Delay, he argues, reduces the chances of long-term structural reform, makes large tax increases almost unavoidable, puts the oldest and most vulnerable of...
Private Pension Reform
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle describes the forces for private pension reform.
Moynihan's Last Senatorial Hurray?
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle offers retiring Senator Moynihan a suggestion for one last bill to propose: a simple requirement that the poor and middle class should pay no higher tax rate on their next dollar of income earned than do the rich. If they do, then tax and expenditure authorities...
On the Institutions of Taxation, Accounting, and the Law
In this essay, Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle argues that it is in developing--or failing to develop--tax, accounting, and legal institutions that a significant part of the economic and democratic fate of Russia, China, and much of the rest of the second and third world rests. The corollary is...
The Once & Future Roles of Taxwriting Committees
Senior Fellow Eugene Steuerle offers his take on upcoming challenges facing the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance Committees after the 2000 election.