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Addressing Tax System Failings That Favor Billionaires and Corporations
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Addressing Tax System Failings That Favor Billionaires and Corporations

Biden’s Build Back Better plan addresses key failings of the U.S. tax system that let the wealthy and corporations avoid paying their fair share; Congress can and should do even more.

Seth Hanlon, Galen Hendricks

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Any Budget Deal Should Preserve Parity Article
The U.S. Capitol

Any Budget Deal Should Preserve Parity

As Congress renegotiates the budget levels for fiscal year 2025, it should match every additional dollar of defense investment with an equal amount of nondefense spending.

Bobby Kogan, Jessica Vela

What Would It Take To Stabilize the Debt-to-GDP Ratio? Report
Top of the Capitol building

What Would It Take To Stabilize the Debt-to-GDP Ratio?

Because most of the Bush-era tax cuts were permanently extended, the United States is projected to have the debt ratio rise indefinitely. Closing this fiscal gap would require decreasing primary deficits by 2.1 percentage points of GDP, on average.

Bobby Kogan, Jessica Vela

The Schumer-Johnson Budget Deal, Explained Article
Capitol building against overcast sky

The Schumer-Johnson Budget Deal, Explained

Under the tight caps in the budget agreement, Congress should be able to meet the nation’s highest priorities, but the federal government would provide a lower level of services and benefits than it did in fiscal year 2023.

Bobby Kogan, Jean Ross

Budget Caps Are Budget Cuts Article
Photo shows the Capitol building dome behind black fencing against a blue sky

Budget Caps Are Budget Cuts

The House Republican proposal to cap discretionary funding would lead to deep programmatic cuts, slashing funding by nearly 60 percent within a decade.

Bobby Kogan

Congress Must Raise the Debt Ceiling Article
Photo shows the inner dome of the U.S. Capitol building.

Congress Must Raise the Debt Ceiling

Failure to increase the debt ceiling would have a catastrophic impact on the economy and federal programs.

Jean Ross

The Case for Reducing Defense Spending In the News

The Case for Reducing Defense Spending

Larry Korb argues that the Biden administration must reduce the U.S. defense budget without jeopardizing national security by canceling tactical nuclear weapons; retiring irrelevant and old Navy ships; and slowing the production of F-35 fighter jets.

The National Interest

Lawrence J. Korb

A Trillion-Dollar Defense Budget? Report

A Trillion-Dollar Defense Budget?

The Biden administration and Congress face eight challenges in calculating the size and distribution of a defense budget that has reached a record size.

Lawrence J. Korb, Kaveh Toofan

The Biden Boom: Economic Recovery in 2021 Article
President Joe Biden gives remarks in Statuary Hall of the U.S Capitol.

The Biden Boom: Economic Recovery in 2021

President Joe Biden took office one year ago amid one of the worst economies in generations, but the U.S. economy has since made tremendous progress toward recovery, and workers are benefiting.

Seth Hanlon, Lily Roberts, Andres Vinelli, 2 More Rose Khattar, Nick Buffie

Addressing Tax System Failings That Favor Billionaires and Corporations Report

Addressing Tax System Failings That Favor Billionaires and Corporations

Biden’s Build Back Better plan addresses key failings of the U.S. tax system that let the wealthy and corporations avoid paying their fair share; Congress can and should do even more.

Seth Hanlon, Galen Hendricks

The American Families Plan Taxes Billionaires and Protects Family Farms and Businesses Report

The American Families Plan Taxes Billionaires and Protects Family Farms and Businesses

President Joe Biden’s American Families Plan closes tax loopholes favoring the superrich while protecting family farmers and small-business owners upon passing a farm or family business to the next generation.

Nick Buffie, Bob Lord

Building Infrastructure That Supports Opportunity, Equity, and Sustainability Report

Building Infrastructure That Supports Opportunity, Equity, and Sustainability

Generating a robust economic recovery that facilitates inclusive prosperity, redresses past harms, and advances national climate goals will require reforming federal infrastructure programs, which were not originally designed to meet these objectives.

Kevin DeGood

Reversing a Decade of Domestic Disinvestment Article
The U.S. Capitol is seen at sunrise in August 2020. (Getty/Bill Clark)

Reversing a Decade of Domestic Disinvestment

President Biden’s FY 2022 budget request must address years of cuts and underinvestment in critical government functions.

Seth Hanlon, Lorena Roque

4 Ways Trump’s Tax Bill Left Behind the Latino Community Article
People wait in line to fill out unemployment forms near the U.S.-Mexico border in Calexico, California, which has been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, on July 24, 2020. (Getty/Mario Tama)

4 Ways Trump’s Tax Bill Left Behind the Latino Community

The Trump administration’s tax bill increased inequality and cut taxes for the wealthy, while leaving Latinos, regardless of income, behind.

Galen Hendricks, Ryan Zamarripa

Capital Gains Tax Preference Should Be Ended, Not Expanded Report

Capital Gains Tax Preference Should Be Ended, Not Expanded

Congress should close—not expand—capital gains loopholes and tax income from wealth the same as income from work.

Galen Hendricks, Seth Hanlon

Foreign Investors Were Big Winners From Trump’s Tax Law Article
President Donald Trump talks to the press on the South Lawn of the White House, Washington, D.C., July 2020. (Getty/Brendan Smialowski)

Foreign Investors Were Big Winners From Trump’s Tax Law

The 2017 tax law gave bigger tax cuts to foreign investors than middle- and working-class Americans in all of the states Trump carried in 2016.

Seth Hanlon

White Elephant Watch: Vol. 7 Report

White Elephant Watch: Vol. 7

The Portsmouth Bypass represents a broken and deeply cost-ineffective theory of economic development that assumes reducing vehicle travel time—rather than investing in people and places facing economic distress—will unlock economic development.

Kevin DeGood

Flying Cars Will Undermine Democracy and the Environment Report

Flying Cars Will Undermine Democracy and the Environment

Flying cars will turbocharge sprawl and weaken the social cohesion that comes from shared experiences and geographic proximity that is essential to building consensus in a democracy.

Kevin DeGood

Business Tax Principles for Economic Recovery in the Time of Coronavirus Article
People walk through a shuttered business district in New York on May 12, 2020. (Getty/Spencer Platt)

Business Tax Principles for Economic Recovery in the Time of Coronavirus

Assisting business liquidity is a crucial part of the policy response to today’s economic crisis. While some business tax measures can be helpful, policymakers must ensure that such measures are well-targeted, temporary, and effective, setting the stage for strengthening the corporate tax in the years ahead.

Kimberly Clausing

Public Health Requires an Extraordinarily Aggressive Economic Response to Coronavirus Immediately—One That’s Larger Than What Many Imagine Article
The U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C., March 2020. (Getty/Ting Shen)

Public Health Requires an Extraordinarily Aggressive Economic Response to Coronavirus Immediately—One That’s Larger Than What Many Imagine

The column recommends an immediate package at least the size of the Recovery Act in 2009—around $1 trillion in today’s dollars.

Neera Tanden, Andres Vinelli, Andy Green, 5 More Maura Calsyn, Danyelle Solomon, Alexandra Cawthorne Gaines, Marc Jarsulic, Olugbenga Ajilore

Trump’s K-12 Education Budget Article
Children at an elementary school in Pacoima, California, walk across the schoolyard, February 2019. (Getty/Frederic J. Brown/AFP)

Trump’s K-12 Education Budget

The Trump administration’s K-12 education budget eliminates important programs and cuts billions from public schools.

Neil Campbell, Abby Quirk

Trump’s Newest Budget Would Take Food Away From Working Families Article
Copies of U.S. President Donald Trump's proposed fiscal year 2021 budget are printed at the Government Publishing Office in Washington, D.C., on February 6, 2020. (Getty/Samuel Corum)

Trump’s Newest Budget Would Take Food Away From Working Families

President Trump’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposes large cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), placing additional burdens on families already struggling to make ends meet.

Lily Roberts, Galen Hendricks

Why All Workers Should Be Able To Deduct Union Dues Report
Leadership shake hands during union contract negotiations in Detroit, July 2015. (Leadership shake hands during union contract negotiations in Detroit, July 2015.)

Why All Workers Should Be Able To Deduct Union Dues

In order to increase tax fairness for workers, the federal government should immediately restore the tax deduction for union dues and make it available for all workers who support their unions, not just those who itemize.

Alexandra Thornton

White Elephant Watch: Vol. 6 Report

White Elephant Watch: Vol. 6

The High Desert Corridor would promote low-density land use and single-occupant vehicle trips, running counter to the state’s climate and sustainable communities goals.

Kevin DeGood

White Elephant Watch: Vol. 5 Report
Motor vehicles are seen on Interstate Highway 10 near Benson, Arizona, March 2019. (Getty/Paul Harris)

White Elephant Watch: Vol. 5

Interstate 11 would lead to more low-density, auto-dependent development, produce significant environmental harms, and fail to address metropolitan area congestion in Phoenix and Tucson.

Kevin DeGood

Taking Stock of Spending Through the Tax Code Report
 (President Donald Trump looks at portraits on the wall as he walks down a corridor with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin at the Treasury Building on April 21, 2017, in Washington, D.C.)

Taking Stock of Spending Through the Tax Code

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which gave the largest tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, also failed to address the inefficiency, lack of fairness, and cost of many spending programs administered through the tax code.

What We Could Have Had for $1.9 Trillion Article
President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans celebrate the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act at the White House in Washington, D.C., December 2017. (Getty/Alex Wong)

What We Could Have Had for $1.9 Trillion

The tax law is draining revenue—and has little to show for it.

Galen Hendricks, Daniella Zessoules

What the FY 2020 Defense Budget Gets Wrong Report
President Trump gestures during a meeting about border security in the Cabinet Room of the White House on January 11, 2019, in Washington, D.C. (Getty/AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

What the FY 2020 Defense Budget Gets Wrong

To successfully promote U.S. national security, the Trump administration’s fiscal year 2020 defense budget needs to consider myriad factors—and set necessary, realistic funding levels.

Lawrence J. Korb

Trump’s FY 2020 Budget Exposes His False Promises and Misplaced Priorities Article
President Donald Trump arrives before delivering the State of the Union address in the chamber of the U.S. House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol Building on February 5, 2019, in Washington. (Getty/Zach Gibson)

Trump’s FY 2020 Budget Exposes His False Promises and Misplaced Priorities

Trump’s morally bankrupt budget betrays the “forgotten men and women” he pledged to fight for, seeking to pay for his $2 trillion tax giveaway with massive cuts to programs on which everyday Americans rely.

Seth Hanlon, Lily Roberts, Rachel West

5 Regulatory Questions for Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell Article
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell arrives for a news conference in Washington, D.C., September 2018. (Getty/Mark Wilson)

5 Regulatory Questions for Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell

This week’s hearings in the House and Senate provide an opportunity for lawmakers to scrutinize the Fed’s recent deregulatory initiatives.

Gregg Gelzinis

Rising Deficits, Falling Revenues Report

Rising Deficits, Falling Revenues

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act increases federal deficits while failing to address the nation’s most pressing challenges and making inequality worse.

Seth Hanlon, Alan Cohen, Sara Estep

The Realities of Economic Development Subsidies Report
U.S. President Donald Trump participates in a groundbreaking ceremony for a Foxconn facility at the Wisconn Valley Science and Technology Park in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, on June 28, 2018. (Getty/AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

The Realities of Economic Development Subsidies

Providing incentives to companies to create jobs has become a false panacea in the economic development world, and proponents often fail to acknowledge the strategy’s downsides.

Andrew Schwartz

Reflections on the Congressional Budget Act Report
At a table surrounded by reporters, then-Congressional Budget Office Director Douglas Elmendorf holds a news conference for the release of the annual Budget and Economic Outlook report, at the Ford House Office Building, February 5, 2013, in Washington, D.C. (Getty/Chip Somodevilla)

Reflections on the Congressional Budget Act

In reforming the congressional budget process, Congress should strengthen nonpartisan institutions such as the CBO, put taxes and spending on a level playing field, and eliminate brinkmanship over the debt ceiling.

Sam Berger, Seth Hanlon, Galen Hendricks

Will the Fed’s Rate Hikes Show Up in Tomorrow’s GDP Release? Article
As a result of rising interest rates on auto loans, many car owners find themselves underwater. (Getty/Spencer Platt)

Will the Fed’s Rate Hikes Show Up in Tomorrow’s GDP Release?

As the Federal Reserve continues to raise rates, it’s time to pay more attention to the economy-wide risks from the changing landscape of household debt.

Michael Madowitz

Americans Have Rejected the Tax Scam—Congress Should Too Article
A view of the U.S. Capitol dome, January 2018. (Getty/Drew Angerer)

Americans Have Rejected the Tax Scam—Congress Should Too

The House plan for a second round of top-heavy tax cuts stack the deck even further against working families.

Seth Hanlon, Galen Hendricks

Indexing Capital Gains to Inflation Will Only Further Rig the Economy Against Workers Article
A street vendor sells replicas of the Wall Street Bull statue outside the New York Stock Exchange, March 2018. (Getty/Drew Angerer)

Indexing Capital Gains to Inflation Will Only Further Rig the Economy Against Workers

The Trump administration’s plan to allow capital holders to index their assets to inflation is the latest attempt to benefit the wealthy as it takes steps to cut workers’ pay and retirement savings.

Andrew Schwartz, Galen Hendricks

How to Give Teachers a $10,000 Raise Report
Teachers don red and march around the capitol grounds en masse during a teachers rally for more educational funding at the Colorado State Capitol, April 27, 2018. (Getty/The Denver Post/AAron Ontiveroz)

How to Give Teachers a $10,000 Raise

Because teachers’ compensation should reflect the importance of their work, CAP proposes a $10,000 federal Teacher Tax Credit that would increase pay for eligible teachers in high-poverty schools.

Meg Benner, Erin Roth, Stephenie Johnson, 1 More Kate Bahn

Congress Should Not Give a Second Helping of Tax Cuts to the Rich Article
The U.S. Capitol is seen on a cloudy day in Washington, D.C., on June 6, 2018. (Getty/George Rose)

Congress Should Not Give a Second Helping of Tax Cuts to the Rich

Permanently extending provisions of the 2017 tax law would give more wasteful tax cuts to high-income Americans and cause lasting fiscal damage.

Seth Hanlon, Galen Hendricks

Tax Cuts for the Top 1 Percent Cost More Than SNAP Article
Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX) leaves a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the Capitol, on July 28, 2017. (Tom Williams/Getty)

Tax Cuts for the Top 1 Percent Cost More Than SNAP

This table presents a state-by-state comparison of TCJA tax cuts for the top 1 percent and SNAP spending.

Galen Hendricks, Alex Rowell

Tax Cut Bill Will Lead to Trillion Dollar Deficits Article
The U.S. Capitol casts early morning reflections on the day that the House and Senate voted on President Donald Trump's tax cut bill, December 19, 2017. (Getty/Mark Wilson)

Tax Cut Bill Will Lead to Trillion Dollar Deficits

Despite claims that the recently passed tax cut bill will lead to a reduction in deficits and debt, CBO projections indicate that the opposite will be true.

Alan Cohen

The Balanced-Budget Amendment Threatens Americans’ Health Care, Social Security, and Jobs Article
The U.S. Capitol Building dome is seen as the sun sets after a ppring snow fall, March 2018. (Getty/Jabin Botsford)

The Balanced-Budget Amendment Threatens Americans’ Health Care, Social Security, and Jobs

In addition to worsening economic downturns, this amendment would increase the chances that congressional dysfunction could cause the United States to default on its obligations and plunge world financial markets into crisis.

Seth Hanlon, Alex Rowell

The Trump Plan to Cut Benefit Programs Threatens Children Report
A physician assistant examines a patient as her mother holds her hand, January 2018. (Getty/The Denver Post/Andy Cross)

The Trump Plan to Cut Benefit Programs Threatens Children

Cuts to programs that provide children with health care, nutritious food, and stable housing will compromise their development during a critically important time.

Katie Hamm, Leila Schochet, Cristina Novoa

Trump’s Defense Budget Article
President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and Vice President Mike Pence walk into the Pentagon for a meeting on January 18, 2018. (Getty/AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

Trump’s Defense Budget

President Trump has proposed an unnecessarily large increase in the defense budget that will actually weaken national security.

Lawrence J. Korb

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Advancing Racial Equity and Justice
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Advancing Racial Equity and Justice

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