Conservatives like to say that President Obama has been responsible for massive tax increases.  It is wonderful rhetoric that plays to the big tax image Democrats have been saddled with for decades—sometimes with good reason. But for most households, this claim is the economic equivalent of the birther movement: It is as credible to call [...]

President Obama didn’t quite get around to saying so when he rolled out his latest deficit reduction plan on Monday, but his Buffett Rule—that no one making more than $1 million should pay a lower tax rate than those in the middle-class—is mostly about investment income. On average, high income people do pay significantly higher tax rates than [...]

On Monday, the Administration released its deficit reduction blueprint.   One part of the Administration’s proposal, which has received enormous attention, is that the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction should observe the “Buffett Rule” if it attempts tax reform.  The furor over this proposal is surprising and the debate about it seems to have largely [...]

Today, President Obama outlined proposals to reduce the medium-term federal budget deficit.  His proposal would pay for the $447 billion stimulus package he proposed last week and reduce the 10-year federal budget deficit by an additional $3.2 trillion, according to OMB estimates.  The $3.7 trillion ($3.2 trillion + $447 billion) in budget savings is categorized [...]

It turns out that President Obama’s plan to limit the benefit of itemized deductions is much more than that. Not only would it reduce tax savings for mortgages, charitable gifts, high medical costs, and the like, it would also curb tax breaks for owners of municipal bonds, workers who buy health insurance, and those who earn [...]

When you get right down to it, the jobs plan President Obama proposed before a joint session of Congress last night was built on three elements:  A large payroll tax cut, lots of new spending on public infrastructure, and a promise that its $447 billion cost would be paid for with yet-to-be disclosed tax hikes and [...]

The other day, I spent a few hours with some of Washington’s most experienced budget experts. The session was off-the-record, so I can’t tell you who they were but I can tell you what they said. In short, don’t count on much real deficit reduction any time soon, despite this summer’s debt limit deal that, [...]

In a couple of weeks, President Obama will ask Congress to extend this year’s payroll tax cut. It will surely become a classic Washington double-reverse rhetorical moment. I can’t wait to hear Obama lift some of House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) best lines about the folly of raising taxes in the midst of an economic [...]

Congress headed off for its summer vacation yesterday, exhausted after the protracted wrangling over the debt limit that ended with a whimper when President Obama signed the bill that lets the government continue to pay its bills. Few people were happy with the result—the best you can say for it is that we won’t have [...]

The Senate’s bipartisan on again/off again Gang of Six has proposed an ambitious tax and spending package that closely follows the plan offered six months ago by the chairs of President Obama’s fiscal commission, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson. Their plan is not so much a budget as a framework. In some cases it is quite [...]