Inflation
California
Sacramento’s Next Battle – How To Spend A $6.1 Billion Budget Surplus
Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed the biggest state budget in history. He wants to spend $131.7 billion from the general fund, about 5 percent more than is being spent from the $125 billion 2016-17 budget he signed last year. His 16th and final budget also includes a surplus, which some ...
California
Split Roll Would Hit Working Californians Hard
If any state could use inspiration from the recent federal tax cuts, it’s California, which has one of the country’s heaviest overall tax burdens. But there’s no pressure building to cut state and local taxes, or to reform California’s broken income tax system. Instead, the noisiest tax proposal in the ...
Blog
Social Security Beneficiaries Reach an All-Time High
An oft-cited survey from 1994 found that one out of every three respondents age 18 and 34 said they were more likely to see a UFO than receive a Social Security check. Fast forward 23 years later — last November, the U.S. reached a record number of Social Security beneficiaries ...
Business & Economics
Tax Win Will Be Huge for Trump, But Don’t Bank on Political Windfall
By Stephen Collinson In decades to come, people will talk about the Trump tax cuts as they now reminisce over the Reagan, Bush and Kennedy giveaways. Barring a last-minute cataclysm on Capitol Hill, President Donald Trump is set to savor a major tax reform package before Christmas and finally secure ...
Business & Economics
Foreign Experiments With Trickle-Down Tax Cuts: A Rare Proposition For A Robust Economy
By Jason Margolis “The Word”/Public Radio International In the late 1970s, Ireland’s economy was struggling. So they decided to cut business taxes dramatically while also increasing individual taxes including on the middle class. The idea was that stronger businesses would benefit everyone. It worked. “For the following 25 years, they had really rapid ...
Commentary
GOP Can Improve Health Care And Lower Taxes
Congressional Republicans are gearing up for a battle over tax reform. Nearly everyone in the caucus would like to slash corporate and individual taxes. But they will need to close some loopholes in the tax code if they hope to offset the revenue they will lose by lowering rates. One ...
Commentary
The Tragic Demise Of Repeal And Replace
Anyone committed to repealing and replacing ObamaCare will not mourn the death of the Senate’s “skinny repeal” bill this past Friday morning. It retreated from nearly every health policy goal — from rolling back premium-inflating insurance regulations to modernizing Medicaid — that conservatives have championed since ObamaCare became law over ...
Commentary
Yes, We Should Block-Grant Medicaid
The Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act is effectively dead following the 57–43 no vote on July 25. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also did not have the votes to pass the Obamacare-repeal bill that Congress passed in 2015 but President Obama vetoed; it was rejected the next day, 55–45. That’s mainly ...
Commentary
Declaring Independence From Obamacare
Republican senators are hashing out their health reform bill over the July 4 recess. When they return on July 10, let’s hope they’ve written a bill that looks less like Obamacare Lite and more like a genuine market-based alternative to repeal and replace the failing health law. Anyone who believes ...
Commentary
The Senate Health Care Bill Is Just Obamacare Lite
After weeks of closed-door negotiations, the Senate Republican leadership on Thursday released its bid to repeal and replace Obamacare. It’s the product of a 13-member Senate working group. The bill is a disappointment. It’s little more than repeal in name only. And its ideas for replacement are almost indistinguishable from ...
Sacramento’s Next Battle – How To Spend A $6.1 Billion Budget Surplus
Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed the biggest state budget in history. He wants to spend $131.7 billion from the general fund, about 5 percent more than is being spent from the $125 billion 2016-17 budget he signed last year. His 16th and final budget also includes a surplus, which some ...
Split Roll Would Hit Working Californians Hard
If any state could use inspiration from the recent federal tax cuts, it’s California, which has one of the country’s heaviest overall tax burdens. But there’s no pressure building to cut state and local taxes, or to reform California’s broken income tax system. Instead, the noisiest tax proposal in the ...
Social Security Beneficiaries Reach an All-Time High
An oft-cited survey from 1994 found that one out of every three respondents age 18 and 34 said they were more likely to see a UFO than receive a Social Security check. Fast forward 23 years later — last November, the U.S. reached a record number of Social Security beneficiaries ...
Tax Win Will Be Huge for Trump, But Don’t Bank on Political Windfall
By Stephen Collinson In decades to come, people will talk about the Trump tax cuts as they now reminisce over the Reagan, Bush and Kennedy giveaways. Barring a last-minute cataclysm on Capitol Hill, President Donald Trump is set to savor a major tax reform package before Christmas and finally secure ...
Foreign Experiments With Trickle-Down Tax Cuts: A Rare Proposition For A Robust Economy
By Jason Margolis “The Word”/Public Radio International In the late 1970s, Ireland’s economy was struggling. So they decided to cut business taxes dramatically while also increasing individual taxes including on the middle class. The idea was that stronger businesses would benefit everyone. It worked. “For the following 25 years, they had really rapid ...
GOP Can Improve Health Care And Lower Taxes
Congressional Republicans are gearing up for a battle over tax reform. Nearly everyone in the caucus would like to slash corporate and individual taxes. But they will need to close some loopholes in the tax code if they hope to offset the revenue they will lose by lowering rates. One ...
The Tragic Demise Of Repeal And Replace
Anyone committed to repealing and replacing ObamaCare will not mourn the death of the Senate’s “skinny repeal” bill this past Friday morning. It retreated from nearly every health policy goal — from rolling back premium-inflating insurance regulations to modernizing Medicaid — that conservatives have championed since ObamaCare became law over ...
Yes, We Should Block-Grant Medicaid
The Senate’s Better Care Reconciliation Act is effectively dead following the 57–43 no vote on July 25. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also did not have the votes to pass the Obamacare-repeal bill that Congress passed in 2015 but President Obama vetoed; it was rejected the next day, 55–45. That’s mainly ...
Declaring Independence From Obamacare
Republican senators are hashing out their health reform bill over the July 4 recess. When they return on July 10, let’s hope they’ve written a bill that looks less like Obamacare Lite and more like a genuine market-based alternative to repeal and replace the failing health law. Anyone who believes ...
The Senate Health Care Bill Is Just Obamacare Lite
After weeks of closed-door negotiations, the Senate Republican leadership on Thursday released its bid to repeal and replace Obamacare. It’s the product of a 13-member Senate working group. The bill is a disappointment. It’s little more than repeal in name only. And its ideas for replacement are almost indistinguishable from ...
